23
Some people, moreover, even hold competitions and deliver funeral orations at the monuments, as if they were pleading or testifying on behalf of the dead man before the judges down below!
24
As the finishing touch to all this, there is the funeral feast, and the relatives come in, consoling the parents of the departed, and inducing them to taste something. The parents themselves, I must say, do not find it disagreeable to be constrained, but are already done up with three days of continuous fasting. It is: “Man dear, how long are we to lament? Let the spiritsThe “Di Manes”? of the departed rest! But if you have absolutely decided to keep on weeping, for that very reason you must not abstain from food, in order that you may prove equal to the magnitude of your sorrow.” Then, ah! then, two lines of Homer are recited by everyone: Verily Niobe also, the fair-tressed, thought of her dinner, Iliad, 24, 602. and Mourning the dead by fasting is not to be done by Achaeans,It is impossible, argues Odysseus, for the Greek army to fast (for Patroclus) and fight at the same time. Iliad, 19, 225. So they break bread, of course, but do it at first in shame, and in fear that they will disclose themselves to be still subject to human appetites after the death of their dearest. You will find, if you take note, that these things and others still more ridiculous are done at funerals, for the reason that people think death the greatest of misfortunes.The first words of Sacrifices seem to take up this sentence. They may be translated: "And as to sacrifices, what the dolts do”—ἃ μὲν γὰρ ἐν ταῖς θυσίαις οἱ μάταιοι πράττουσι.
