we see that from ancient times down to the present day a ceremony of ablution has held a place in the preliminaries alike of a marriage and of a funeral.
Again in this matter of washing there is one detail of special interest. The water for the bridal bath was in old times fetched by a boy or girl[1] closely related to the bride or the bridegroom, and the [Greek: loutrophoros], as the bearer was called, is still an important figure in the wedding ceremonial of the present day. Nowadays, so far as I know, the bearer is always a boy, and further it is essential that both his parents be still living. The [Greek: loutrophoros] therefore has always been closely associated with the marriage-rite. But in antiquity the same water-bearer appears in another connexion. 'It was customary,' we hear, 'to fetch water ([Greek: loutrophorein]) also for those who died unmarried, and that the figure of a water-bearer ([Greek: loutrophoron]) should be set up over their tomb. The figure was that of a boy with a pitcher[2].' Here we have a clear case of the importation of a ceremony closely connected with marriage into the funeral-rites of the unmarried. How are we to explain this custom? On what religious conception was it based? Clearly, it seems,—in view of that constant association of death and marriage which we have observed in ancient literature and modern folk-song—no other interpretation can well be maintained than that, for those who died unwed, death itself was the first and only marriage which they experienced, and that to such, ere they were laid in Hades' nuptial-chamber, there ought to be given those same rites which were held to be a fitting preparation for entrance into the estate of wedlock in this world[3].
The ceremonial ablutions being concluded, there came next the. [Greek: ethos de ên kai tois agamois apothanousi loutrophorein, kai epi to mnêma ephistasthai. touto de ên pais hydrian echôn.] The same words are repeated by Photius and Suidas. With [Greek: ephistasthai] it appears necessary to supply [Greek: loutrophoron]. Cf. Pollux VIII. 66 [Greek: tôn d' agamôn loutrophoros tô mnêmati ephistato, korê angeion echousa hydrophoron]. . . . For other references see Becker, Charicles p. 484. This information, as regards the emblem used, is held to be incorrect. The [Greek: loutrophoros] was not a boy bearing a pitcher, but the pitcher itself. See Frazer, Pausanias, vol. v. p. 388.]
- ↑ For a discussion of this point see Becker, Charicles pp. 483-4.
- ↑ Harpocrat. s.v. [Greek: loutrophoros
- ↑ For this view see Frazer, Pausanias, vol. v. p. 389. 'It may be suggested that originally the custom of placing a water-pitcher on the grave of unmarried persons . . . may have been meant to help them to obtain in another world the happiness they had missed in this. In fact it may have been part of a ceremony designed to provide the dead maiden or bachelor with a spouse in the spirit land. Such ceremonies have been observed in various parts of the world by peoples, who, like the Greeks, esteemed it a great misfortune to die unmarried.'
