278 The Honey-Makers 



called, being, as we know, a fermented drink made from 

 honey and frequently used in libations. 



" Charon. Why, then, crown they 



These stones, and why with unguent rich anoint them ? 

 And why do some, heaping a funeral pile 

 Before the mounds, and digging out a trench. 

 Burn sumptuous viands there, and in the ditches 

 Pour, if I right conjecture, mead and wine ? 



"Mercury. I know not, ferryman, what use it can be 

 To those in Hades; but it is believed 

 That souls returning from the world below 

 Will come to supper — very probable ! 

 Hovering above the savor and the smoke, 

 And from the trench will drink up the metheglin." 



Needless to say, Lucian was more faithful as a chronicler 

 of ancient customs than as a believer in them. 



In the " Odyssey " Circe directs Ulysses on his way to 

 Pluto's realm, there to consult the mighty seer, Tiresias. 

 At the entrance to the abode of the dead two streams 

 meet, and Circe says : — 



" At the place where meet 

 The ever-roaring waters stands a rock ; 

 Draw near to that, and there I bid thee scoop 

 In earth a trench, a cubit long and wide. 

 And round about it pour to all the dead 

 Libations, — milk and honey first, and next 

 Rich wine, and lastly water, scattering 

 White meal upon them." 



Honey cakes were offered as a parting gift to the dead, 

 with which to appease Cerberus, and Virgil, in the "^neid," 

 tells us how the hero ^neas descended into Hades, con- 

 ducted by the Sibyl of Cums to consult with his father 

 Anchises. With much difficulty Charon, the ferryman 

 conveys his living freight across the river Styx, to where 

 frightful Cerberus lay barking from his triple jaws. 



