For the Monthly Magazine. 
#PIGRAMS, FRAGMENTS, aad FUGI- 
TIVE PiECES, from the GREEK. 
[Coatinued from ps 22 of our lafi Number. | 
FUNERALS, 
os wenn wens Bd AdwENTOS PIAQY 
Egat tees avocave Hee. Evrip. 
OTWITHSTANDING the me- 
lanchsly gloom which the ancients 
caft over all their ideas of death and the - 
grave, both in their moral and poetical 
writings, they appear in reality to have 
endeavoured as much as poffible to lighten 
thofe impreffions, and piace at a diftance 
thofe dark phantoms of the imagination. 
Accordingly, thedeep and folemn fadnefs 
attending our Gothic burials, the black 
fhades of yews and cyprefles, the dreary 
charnel-heufe and vaulted fepulchre, the 
terrific appendages of mouldering bones 
and winding- fheets, 
«* The knell, the fhroud, the mattock, and 
the grave, 
The deep damp vault, the darknefs, and the 
: worm,”’ 
which from cuftom form fo steat a part of 
the horror we feel at the thoughts of death, 
were to them unknown, ‘The corpfe con- 
fumed by funeral fires, and the athes in- 
clofed in urns and depofited in the earth, 
prefented no.offenfive objet or idea. Be- 
fides, to diffipate the forrow of the living, 
or perhaps witha defire to gratify the {pi- 
rit of the dead, wines were poured and 
flowers fcattered over the grave. Tisefe 
Jaf pious offices were called “Epwrec, the 
geateful tributes of love and veneration. 
The manes of the deceafed,: ftill wander- 
ing about the place of interment, might 
perhaps partake of the lihation or enjoy 
the odour : at leatt his.memory would be 
honoured, and his ghoft delighted. 
Whatever may have been the orig:al 
purpofe of thefe ceremonies, we find re- 
peated allufions to them in the poets. 
Anacreon mentions the rofe as being par- 
ticularly grateful :— 
Tode war voraoiv apner 
Tode nat vexpors apevves,™ 
The tomb of Achilles was adorned with 
the amaranth.¢ Eleétra complains that 
her father’s grave had never been decked 
with myrtle boughs.— Anacreon, in an- 
other paffage,|| alludes fill more forcibly 
and b autifully to the fame cuitom ; 
= 
* Ode 53. 
+ Philoftr. Heroic. 
rs Eur. Eleét., Ve 336. 
|| Ode s. 
Montuty Mac., No. 140, 
LEpigrams, Fragments, &c., fromthe Greek, 
Why do we precious ointments fhow’r, 
Nobler wines why do we pour, 
Beauteous flow’rs why do we fhed 
Upon the mon’ments of the dead ? 
Nothing they but duft can thew, 
Or bones that haften to be fo. 
Crown me with-rofes whilft I live ; 
Now your wines and ointments give. 
After death I nothing crave— 
Let me alive my pleafures havew= 
All are Stoics in the grave. 
CowLEY. 
We have an epigram by Leonidas ex- 
actly to the fame purpofe :-— 
Mn peupa gan gepaves AiGivare cnrasos yapice. 
Seek not to glad thefe fenfelefs tones 
With fragrant ointments, rofy wreathes 2 
No warmth canreach my mouldering bones 
From luftral fire that vainly breathes. 
Now let me revel while J may— 
The wine that o’er my tomb is fhed 
Mixes with earth and turns to clay—= 
_ No honours can delight the dead. 
Hence we may collect, that offerings of 
this nature were made with a view of pra- 
tifying the deceafed; and it feems ‘to 
have been a very prevailing notion among 
many. nations befides the Greeks, that 
men after death retain the fame paffions 
and appetites that diftinguifhed them when 
living. 7 
Que gratia currém 
Armorumgue fuit vivis, qu@ cura nitentes 
Pafcere equos, eadem fequitur tellure re- 
pottos. sy 
In Lycophron, 2 mountain is placed be» 
tween thetombs of two enemies, leit their 
manes may be offended at {eeing the fune- 
ral honours paid to each other. An epi- 
gram of Bianor’s contay a fimilar idea, 
attended with acircum# ice of fingular 
horror, e 
Odsrodee waidwy Onbn rapes. 
In Thebes the fons of Gidipus are laideos 
But not the tomb’s all-defolating thade, 
The deep forgetfulnefs of Pluto’s gate, 
Nor Acheron, can quench their deathlefs 
hate. 
Even hoftile madnefs fhakes the funeral 
pyres— 
Againft each other blaze their pointed fires. 
Unhappy boys ! for whom high fove ordains 
Eternal hatred’s never-fleeping pains, 
I recolle& fomewhere to have met with 
a ftory of two Scandinavian heroes, who, 
having (like thele Grecian brothers) fal- 
len by mutual wounds, were buried toge- 
ther, while yet living, oh the field of 
battle, and fome centuries after (as the 
legend relates) were difcovered fiill fight- 
ing ca unabated rage, with the addition 
(1 think 
