90 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



a more general ground. Hence a poet, cited by Eustathius, 

 introduces a person as exclaiming against it, and as invoking 

 Prometheus to hasten to his assistance, and snatch, if possible, 

 from mortals, the fire with which he had supplied them *. 



As Jews and Christians, in every age, preferred inhumation, 

 because it bore a more direct anaiogy to the origin of man, it 

 is remarkable, that even Lucretius virtually assigns the same 

 reason for the practice : 



Cedit enim retro, de terra quod fuit ante 

 In terram. 



A variety of reasons may be supposed, either separately or 

 in connection with each other, according to the prejudices and 

 habits of particular tribes or families, to have induced the in- 

 troduction of this mode. The influence of such reasons may 

 also be supposed to have been greater or less, in proportion to 

 their relative probability, as they appeared to the minds of 

 those who contemplated them ; or according to peculiar cir- 

 cumstances, as existing in different ages, or among different 

 nations. There are other reasons, which have a superior claim 

 to our attention, as being expressly mentioned by ancient wri- 

 ters. 



1. The mode of cremation may have been preferred, in some 

 instances, as a means of guarding the living against the fatal 

 effects of putridity from the dead. The Romans, we know, 

 originally used their dwelling-houses as tombs for their decea- 

 sed relations. The same practice prevailed among the more 

 early Greeks f . The Thebans, in one period of their history, 



had 



* Eustath. in Iliad. A. p. 32. 

 *»uvpsv. Plat. Minoe, Oper. ii. p. 315. edit. Paris. 1578. 



