CHAPTER III. 



THE ROSE, IN CEREMONIES AND FESTIVALS, AND IN THE ADORN* 

 MENT OF BURIAL PLACES. 



MONG the ancients, the Rose was con- 

 spicuous in all the sacred ceremonies, 

 and in public and private fetes. The 

 Greeks and the Romans surrounded the 

 statues of Venus, of Hebe, and of Flora, 

 with garlands of roses. They were lavish 

 of these flowers at the festivals of Flora ; 

 in those of Juno, at Argos, the statue of the Olympian Queen 

 was crowned with lilies and roses. In the festivals of Hymen, 

 at Athens, the youth of both sexes, crowned with roses and 

 adorned with flowers, mingled in dances which were intended to 

 represent the innocence of primeval times. At Rome, in the public 

 rejoicings, they sometimes strewed the streets with roses and other 

 flowers. It is thus that Lucretius gives a description of the man 

 ner in which was celebrated the festivals of Cybele. 1 



To scatter flowers on the passage of the funeral procession 

 of a private citizen, was an honor not common at Rome. Pliny 

 informs us, however, that a Scipio, belonging to the illus- 

 trious family of that name, who while he was tribune, fulfilled 



i " Ergo cum primum, magnas invecta per urbes 

 Munificat tacita mortales muta salute ; 

 JEre atque argento, sternunt iter omne viarum. 

 Largifica stipe dilantes, ninguntque Rosarum 

 Floribus, umbrantes matrem comitumque catervas." 



LUCRETIUS, lib. ii., ver. 625. 



:TIUS, 1] 





