a 



OR THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. Ill 



" We were prepared to grasp the burning irons in our hands, 

 and to pass through the fire, and to adjure the gods." Pa- 

 chymeres has remarked, that pvdgog, or the burning share, was 

 said to be *y<o?, or holy, because it had been blessed by the 

 priest *. 



8. It was believed by some, that by the action of fire, the 

 soul was completely loosed from all its corporeal bonds. Ter- 

 tullian charges some philosophers with holding, that even af- 

 ter death, certain souls continued in a state of connection with 

 the bodies which they had formerly animated : " Ita argumenta- 

 " tiones emendicant, ut velint credi etiam post mortem quasdam 

 " animas adhaerere corporibus f." He asserts, that Plato was of 

 this opinion. But the passage to which he refers, can only be 

 viewed as a proof that Plato believed the immortality of the 

 soul. It is the apologue introduced by him in his Republic, 

 concerning Herus the Armenian, who is said to have revived, 

 when he was laid on the funeral-pile, twelve days after he fell 

 in battle £. Macrobius, however, gives the same account of 

 the doctrine of this philosopher. For, according to him, Plato 

 asserts that the souls of those who die by violence wander long 



around 



• Ap. Du Canoe, voc. Ferrum Candens. 



As the Greek word m^ has been deduced from the Hebrew -^f tf, ur, pro- 

 perly denoting light, but, as some explain it, including the idea of fire, we might 

 perhaps, with as much reason, suppose that ^ was the origin of Latin pur-us. 

 On account of the natural subserviency of fire to purification, as well as the ri- 

 tual use of it with this view, it is possible that the verb purgo may have been 

 formed quasi nig *yo t as originally signifying to lead, or make to pass through 

 the fire. Perhaps the language of the ancient Latin poet N/evius, in the use 

 of the phrase puriter facere, may be considered as favourable to this etymon of pu- 

 rus ; Sequere me, puriter volo facias, igne atque aqua volo hunc accipere. 

 Ap. Non. Marcell. Gothofred. 775. 



f De Anima, p. 501. edit. Paris. 1616. 



t Plat. Republic, lib. x. vol. ii. p. 614. 



