Greek and Roman Ghost Stories | Page 4

the principate of Augustus. The name of the
festival Ovid derives from Remus, as the ghost of his murdered brother
was said to have appeared to Romulus in his sleep and to have
demanded burial. Hence the institution of the Lemuria.
The head of the family walked through the house with bare 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.
Lamiæ 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: aôroi], 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, kêres, oukhet Anthestêria.] 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