OR THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. 101 



as one reason for the general reception of this custom in 

 Greece. " There was," he says, " a certain purification by the 

 " consumption of fire, because fire is a purificator ; wherefore 

 " purifications were made by fire." And Euripides gives a si- 

 milar statement, when he says, " that the body of Clytemnes- 

 " tra was purified," literally, " sanctified by fire *." The idea 

 of pollution by the dead seems to have been early diffused : 

 and this idea presupposes that of the body, as separated from 

 the soul, being itself unclean. 



" Not the Jews only," says the accurate and learned Pot- 

 ter, " but the greatest part of the heathen world, thought 

 " themselves polluted by the contact of a dead body ; death 

 " being contrary to nature, and therefore abhorr'd by every 

 " thing endued with life f ." Among the Greeks, as long as 

 there was a corpse in any house, a vessel of water was placed 

 before the door, that those who had had any communication 

 with the dead body, might, before their departure, purify them- 

 selves by washing. Hence Euripides makes the chorus call in 

 question the death of Alcestes, because this customary signal 

 was not exhibited. 



TlriyoLiov, &>g vo\/A^zrai 



Alcestid, vers. 69. 



They supposed that even the house in which the corpse lay 

 was not free from pollution. The same poet therefore intro- 

 duces 



* Ayno-jitos Ss t<5 sjv vi 3«i ;rtig«; ixTrdrn rou nx.^a6ivT0$. an km,} to 7tv% ayvtftKof 5<a km it x#- 

 6x£[Mi oiu Trugo; lyoonTe. km,} JLvgiirlovs oi toiovtov t< IkQxvm, art ov <p»i«v «T» to t«}5 KhvTXtttvrtfpscs 



hpxs, Ttvy. Kxhynrxi. Eustath. in Iliad, A. ver. 52. 

 f Archseolog. ii. p. 188. 



