92 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



der the necessity of transmitting it to his father Licymnius, as 

 the only way in which he could fulfil the promise he had made 

 to restore his son. 



3. Before cremation was generally adopted by any nation, it 

 might be found necessary during the prevalence of any pesti- 

 lential disease. In the passage in which Homer first mentions 

 this mode as observed by the Greeks, although he does not di- 

 rectly assign the pestilence as the reason of its being used, he 

 ascribes the frequency of the kindling of the funeral pile to the 

 prevalence of that contagion which was viewed as the effect of 

 the wrath of Apollo : 



Avra^ emir avrolffi {ozKog l^s-iVKig ityiiig, 



BaXX' ecu) h\ vvgcci vskvuv xdliovto @a,fjt,eia,i. 



Iliad. A. 51. 



From a comparison of this passage, indeed, with what the 

 poet has said in his introduction, it may be inferred, that cre- 

 mation was supposed to be more peculiarly necessary in this 

 ease; as he there speaks of the multitude of heroes that fell in 

 battle, who were left a prey to dogs and to all the fowls of 

 heaven : 



'Avrag t\ khwoicc Ttvff xvv&<r<riv, 



O 



iwoiiri rs nccvi. 



It appears that the Hebrews, though they adhered to the 

 more ancient mode, had no objection to burn the dead in a 

 time of contagion. In this sense are we to understand the 

 language of the prophet Amos, when foretelling the conse- 

 quences of a continued famine : " A man's uncle," or near re- 

 lation, " shall take him up, and he that burnetii him, to bring 



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