110 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



sought to rival him in the affections of Penelope, to purify his 

 house from blood by the use of fire and sulphur : 



0/V« hstov yg?}u kcixuv axog, bt<n i\ pot nvo 

 O<pgot, hetaxra piya^ov* 



Odyss. lib. xxii. v. 491. 



As we certainly know, that the ordeal by fire was used in 

 the times of heathenism, there is no reason to doubt that it 

 originated from the same persuasion as to the purifying virtue 

 of fire. The person who passed without injury, bare-footed 

 and blind-fold, over nine glowing ploughshares, was said to be 

 'purged from the crime of which he had been accused. The 

 names given, in various instances, to this species of trial, ex- 

 pressed the same idea. In the language of Iceland it was de- 

 nominated skirsla, from skir-a purgare. The learned Lund 

 traces the Gothic term ordel, urdel, perhaps rather fanci- 

 fully, to Heb. ur ignis, as denoting judgment by fire *. In 

 the Latin of the dark ages, the act was designed purgatio vul- 

 garis; and the person was said, per calidum ferrum se purgare y 

 or ferro candenti se purificare. It may be added, that, as the 

 other mode of ordeal was by water, whether cold or hot, it ap- 

 pears that the principal tests of imputed criminality bore a 

 strict analogy to the two great means of purification acknow- 

 ledged by the ancients, — fire and water. 



As a proof that the ordeal by fire was a remnant of pagan 

 worship, the justly celebrated Du Cange refers to the testimo- 

 nony of Sophocles. 



'HfASV $ troiftoi tea) fAvdgag agav %igoiv, 

 Kcu wu£ tiiigveiv, kcc) hag o^kujJjOtuv. 

 Antigon. ver. 270. 



« We 



* Ihre Glossar. voc. Ordela. 



