the Salii or dancing priests of Mars are among the best-known examples of religious dancing.

In private life dancing was regarded by the Greeks rather as an entertainment to be provided by hired performers than as a recreation in which guests could take their part.1 Hence with them men and women did not dance together as in the modern fashion. The demand for dancing girls to entertain the guests at banquets led to the training of large numbers of this class. Two vases (Nos. 534 and 535), placed in the upper part of Case 55 and the lower part of Case 56 respectively, show dancing girls being instructed in their art. They repeatedly appear on Greek vases dancing before the feasting guests (e.g. on E 68 in Case E in the Third Vase Room, the interior of cup in the style of Brygos). These girls often carried castanets when dancing, as may be seen on the lekythos (No. 536) and in the relief from Melos (No. 537).

Greek women sometimes danced in private among themselves, especially on the occasion of some domestic festival. It is with this kind of dancing that we should probably associate the terracotta figurines (fig. 231). They illustrate the important part played by the arms and the drapery in ancient dancing, which was largely mimetic. Ovid notes that supple arms are one of the principal qualifications for a good dancer.3 This tradition was undoubtedly inherited from Greek dancing, for (religious rites apart) the Romans regarded the art as an unseemly one, so much so that Cicero remarked "that practically no one danced when sober." 4

(534) and (535) Cat. of Vases, III., E 203 and 185; (536) Ibid., E642; (537) Cat. of Terracottas, B 370. For Greek dancing in general, cf. Emmanuel, La danse grecque.

XXIII.-METHODS OF BURIAL.

(Wall-Cases 58-64.)

Greece. In the prehistoric period known as "Mycenaean," the inhabitants of Greek lands probably buried their dead and did 1 Cf. the famous story of Hippokleides (Herodot., vi. 129), whose dancing lost him a bride.

si vox est, canta; si mollia bracchia, salta.

Pro Mur. 6; cf. Nepos, Epam. 1.

not cremate them. It is possible, however, that a partial burning was in vogue in this and the succeeding periods in Greece. In the case of the more wealthy Mycenaean dead, the bodies were elaborately decked with gold ornaments. Three oval plates of gold (No. 538) from tombs of Mycenaean date in Cyprus are seen in Case 59. These were probably tied over the forehead and mouth of the corpse, in the latter case (where the impression of the lips can be seen) perhaps with the idea of keeping out evil spirits. The window-cases in the Gold Ornament Room contain

FIG. 232.-PREPARATION FOR BURIAL.

many other examples of these funeral diadems and mouthpieces from Cyprus. In the Homeric poems we find the bodies of the dead burnt upon a pyre and the ashes buried beneath a mound.

Scenes representing the preparation of the body for cremation or burial are frequently depicted on Greek vases. They occur on the large "Dipylon" vases, made specially for standing outside the tomb, and on black-figure vases, where the body is seen lying on the bier surrounded by mourners. The illustration (fig. 232) is

1

from a red-figure vase of the fifth century B.C., and shows the laying out of the body of a youth. Notice the gold crown and the chin-band upon the head, intended to keep the under-jaw from dropping. It is, however, upon the white lekythi of the fifth century (No. 539; figs. 233, 234), two of which are here illustrated, that funeral scenes are most commonly found. We know from Greek literature that these vases were expressly made for putting

in tombs. A speaker in the Ekklesiazusae of Aristophanes talks of "the man who paints the lekythi for the dead." 2 On one of these vases here figured the dead body is being lowered into the tomb by the winged figures Sleep and Death, on the other a woman is making offerings at the tombstone. These offerings were made by the relatives from time to time, and consisted mainly of sashes, wreaths, and vases, as may be seen from the vases placed

1 See Mon. Piot, I., pl. 7.

2 Aristoph., Ekkl. 996:

ὃς τοῖς νεκροῖσι ζωγραφεῖ τὰς ληκύθους.

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in the Case. The Greek funeral monuments of the best period are characterised by their restrained beauty. Examples of their sculptured pillars and funeral urns will be found in the Phigaleian Room downstairs, where it will be noted that the deceased person is usually represented in some simple act of everyday life. The stele of Hegeso, daughter of Proxenos, is here illustrated (fig. 235) as typical of these tombstones. On this stone the lady is repre

sented in the act of taking jewellery from a casket, held for her by a servant. The original is at Athens, in the ancient cemetery of the Kerameikos. In the Cases (59-60) the only tombstones are the archaic one of Idagygos of Halikarnassos (No. 540; fig. 236) found in Cyprus, inscribed with an elegiac couplet in which he is called. "the squire of Ares," and a round stone (No. 541) with a late inscription showing that the tomb was that of Menestratos, · ἐνθάδε μοῖραν ἔχων ̔Αλικαρνησσεὺς Ἰδάγυγος κεῖται, ̓Αριστοκλέος παῖς, "Αρεος θεράπων.

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a Corinthian buried in Attic soil. The Greek tombs were generally ranged on either side of the main roads leading from the city gates.

A terracotta urn of about the third century B.C. (No. 542) in Case 60 serves as an example of the vases used to contain the calcined remains of the dead. It holds a number of burnt bones, among them part of a jaw-bone, with a silver obol adhering to it. The coin was placed in the mouth of the corpse as the fee of the ferryman Charon for piloting the dead across Acheron. The gilded figure of a Siren found in this vase is emblematic of the spirit world.

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Two later monuments with Greek inscriptions are the marble chests in Cases 61-62. Each has a lockplate (cf. those in Case G), carved in front in low relief. No. 543 is the cinerary chest of Metras Tryphon, who had had been publicly crowned by the people of Ephesus, and has this crown represented on his urn. The second chest (No. 544), from the temple of Kybele at Sardes, is inscribed with the name of Metrodoros, who is called a "sprinkler" (περιράντης), no doubt with reference to an office held by him in the temple service. Rhodes (No. 545), bearing the inscription: of those who have lost their ancestral tomb." ornamented above with flying birds and has attachment, seems to have been set on a column as a boundary mark.

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FIG. 236. INSCRIBED TOMBSTONE OF
IDAGYGOS (No. 540). Ht. 5 ft. 8 in.

Below this chest is a cup from "The burying-place This cup, which is holes for a metal

Italy. In the earliest period inhumation was the custom in Italy, but cremation gradually became more and more common. The Twelve Tables (450 B.C.) show both practices prevailing side by side. The hut-urns (Nos. 546 and 547; fig. 237) found at