Greek and Roman Ghost Stories | Page 4

feet at dead of night, making the mystic sign with his first and fourth fingers extended, the other fingers being turned inwards and the thumb crossed over them, in case he might run against an unsubstantial spirit as he moved noiselessly along. This is the sign of "le corna," held to be infallible against the Evil Eye in modern Italy. After solemnly washing his hands, he places black beans in his mouth, and throws others over his shoulders, saying, "With these beans do I redeem me and mine." He repeats this ceremony nine times without looking round, and the spirits are thought to follow unseen and pick up the beans. Then he purifies himself once more and clashes brass, and bids the demons leave his house. When he has repeated nine times "Manes exite paterni," he looks round, and the ceremony is over, and the restless ghosts have been duly laid for a year.
Lami? haunted rooms, which had to be fumigated with sulphur, while some mystic rites were performed with eggs before they could be expelled.
The dead not yet at rest were divided into three classes--those who had died before their time, the [Greek: a?roi], who had to wander till the span of their natural life was completed;[23] those who had met with violent deaths, the [Greek: biaiothanatoi]; and the unburied, the [Greek: ataphoi]. In the Hymn to Hecate, to whom they were especially attached, they are represented as following in her train and taking part in her nightly revels in human shape. The lot of the murdered is no better, and executed criminals belong to the same class.
Spirits of this kind were supposed to haunt the place where their bodies lay. Hence they were regarded as demons, and were frequently entrusted with the carrying out of the strange curses, which have been found in their tombs, or in wells where a man had been drowned, or even in the sea, written on leaden tablets, often from right to left, or in queer characters, so as to be illegible, with another tablet fastened over them by means of a nail, symbolizing the binding effect it was hoped they would have--the "Defixiones," to give them their Latin name, which are very numerous among the inscriptions. So real was the belief in these curses that the elder Pliny says that everyone is afraid of being placed under evil spells;[24] and they are frequently referred to in antiquity.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Tusc. Disp._, i. 16.]
[Footnote 2: Ov., _Fast._, iv. 821; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 211.]
[Footnote 3: Macrob., _Sat._, i. 16.]
[Footnote 4: Cic., _De Leg._, ii. 22.]
[Footnote 5: "Deum parentem" (Corn. Nep., _Fragm._, 12).]
[Footnote 6: Cp. Fowler, _Rom._ _Fest._]
[Footnote 7: Rohde, Psyche, p. 216. Cp. Herod., iv. 26.]
[Footnote 8: _Tusc._ _Disp._, i. 12, 27.]
[Footnote 9: Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 259 _ff._]
[Footnote 10: De Luctu, 9.]
[Footnote 11: Carducci, "Rimembranze di Scuola," in Rime Nuove.]
[Footnote 12: _Il._, 23. 64.]
[Footnote 13: "Turpia ossa," 4. 5. 4.]
[Footnote 14: Paus., 9. 32.]
[Footnote 15: 81 D.]
[Footnote 16: De Genio Socratis, 15.]
[Footnote 17: Cp. Plautus, _Cas._, iii. 4. 2; _Amphitr._, ii. 2. 145; Rudens, v. 3. 67, etc.; and the use of the word "larvatus."]
[Footnote 18: Pliny, _N.H._, 1, Proef. 31: "Cum mortuis non nisi Larvas luctari."]
[Footnote 19: Seneca, _Apocol._, 9. At the risk of irrelevance, I cannot refrain from pointing out the enduring nature of proverbs as exemplified in this section. Hercules grows more and more anxious at the turn the debate is taking, and hastens from one god to another, saying: "Don't grudge me this favour; the case concerns me closely. I shan't forget you when the time comes. One good turn deserves another" (Manus manum lavat). This is exactly the Neapolitan proverb, "One hand washes the other, and both together wash the face." "Una mano lava l'altra e tutt'e due si lavano la faccia," is more or less the modern version. In chapter vii. we have also "gallum in suo sterquilino plurimum posse," which corresponds to our own, "Every cock crows best on its own dunghill."]
[Footnote 20: Petr., _Sat._, 34.]
[Footnote 21: [Greek: thhyraze, k��res, oukhet Anthest��ria.] Cp. Rohde, Psyche, 217.]
[Footnote 22: _Fast._, v. 419 _ff._]
[Footnote 23: Tertull., _De An._, 56.]
[Footnote 24: _N.H._, 28. 2. 19.]

II
THE BELIEF IN GHOSTS IN GREECE AND ROME
Ghost stories play a very subordinate part in classical literature, as is only to be expected. The religion of the hard-headed, practical Roman was essentially formal, and consisted largely in the exact performance of an elaborate ritual. His relations with the dead were regulated with a care that might satisfy the most litigious of ghosts, and once a man had carried out his part of the bargain, he did not trouble his head further about his deceased ancestors, so long as he felt that they, in their turn, were not neglecting his interests. Yet