Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings

Use in the book

The companion uses funerary practice to close off an easy response to his foreign examples (315c–d). If different laws belonged only to non-Greeks, Socrates might be thought able to appeal to a shared Greek practice. The companion has already named Greek sacrifices; he now narrows the comparison still further to “ourselves.” Earlier Athenians had practices present Athenians no longer observe. Difference exists within one community across time.

His report distinguishes two earlier stages. In the more recent past, victims were slaughtered before the carrying out of the corpse and the specialized women were summoned. People earlier still buried their dead in the house itself. He concludes that “we” do none of these things. The vocabulary of prior times is part of the proof: the example is not a claim that all those practices were simultaneous, or that domestic burial is the current Athenian norm.

The word hiereia identifies sacrificial victims but does not here identify them as human beings. The transition from the preceding human sacrifices does not authorize translating the Athenian funerary clause as human sacrifice. This distinction preserves the argument's actual breadth: the companion does not need every difference of custom to be equally horrifying. Ordinary changes in ritual suffice to challenge a definition that seems to require always using the same laws.

His evidence is presented as something heard and already known to both speakers, rather than an eyewitness account or an antiquarian demonstration. The edition's notes provide assistance, but the dialogue does not supply dates, name particular lawgivers responsible for the changes, or distinguish statutory repeal from abandonment of a custom. Those gaps limit historical reconstruction, not the clarity of the argumentative function.

Socrates never returns to determine which Athenian funeral practice was correct. His response turns first to shared inquiry and universal judgments, then to expertise. This example consequently remains a useful test of whether a reader thinks the later distinction between genuine law and apparent law answers the companion's historical concern.

Places to read

1. 315cπερὶ τοὺς ἀποθανόντας — The subject is former practice concerning the dead
2. 315cἱερεῖά τε προσφάττοντες πρὸ τῆς ἐκφορᾶς τοῦ νεκροῦ — Slaughtered victims before the corpse is carried out
3. 315cἐγχυτιστρίας μεταπεμπόμενοι — Sending for the specialist women
4. 315dἔθαπτον ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοὺς ἀποθανόντας — The still earlier practice of burial within the house
5. 315dἡμεῖς δὲ τούτων οὐδὲν ποιοῦμεν — The companion distinguishes present practice from both earlier stages

Translation in this edition

Burnet prints ἐγχυτιστρίας, supported by the two manuscripts reported in his apparatus. The edition's note explains “women who pour offerings” by ancient lexical testimony and records the different vulgate spelling ἐγχυτριστρίας, associated with a pot and an interpretation involving bones placed in an urn. The latter is an apparatus reading, not the spoken form adopted here. Neither sense should be presented as beyond doubt.

Buried — θάπτειν (thaptein)

θάπτειν (thaptein)

Buried. The still earlier practice of burying the dead inside the house itself. Attested: ἔθαπτον (315d). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Carrying out — ἐκφορά (ekphora)

ἐκφορά (ekphora)

Carrying out. The funeral's carrying out of the corpse, before which victims were slaughtered. Attested: ἐκφορᾶς (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Corpse — νεκρός (nekros)

νεκρός (nekros)

Corpse. The dead body carried out in the Athenian funeral example. Attested: νεκροῦ (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Do or practice — ποιεῖν (poiein)

ποιεῖν (poiein)

Do or practice. The companion says present Athenians do none of the earlier funerary things just listed. Attested: ποιοῦμεν (315d). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Earlier people — πρότερος (proteros)

πρότερος (proteros)

Earlier people. The generation earlier still than those who used the sacrificial and specialist-women practices. Attested: πρότεροι (315d). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

House — οἰκία (oikia)

οἰκία (oikia)

House. The domestic location of burial attributed to an earlier generation. Attested: οἰκίᾳ (315d). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Sacrificial victims — ἱερεῖον (hiereion)

ἱερεῖον (hiereion)

Sacrificial victims. Victims slaughtered before a funeral; this clause does not identify them as human beings. Attested: ἱερεῖά (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Sending for — μεταπέμπεσθαι (metapempesthai)

μεταπέμπεσθαι (metapempesthai)

Sending for. Summoning the specialist women as part of the older Athenian funerary practice. Attested: μεταπεμπόμενοι (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Slaughtering victims before — προσφάττειν (prosphattein)

προσφάττειν (prosphattein)

Slaughtering victims before. The former Athenian action preceding the carrying out of the corpse. Attested: προσφάττοντες (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Those who have died — ἀποθνῄσκειν (apothnēiskein)

ἀποθνῄσκειν (apothnēiskein)

Those who have died. The dead whose earlier Athenian funerary treatment the companion describes. Attested: ἀποθανόντας (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.

Women who pour offerings — ἐγχυτίστρια (enchytistria)

ἐγχυτίστρια (enchytistria)

Women who pour offerings. Rare, uncertain designation for the summoned funerary women; the supplied translation follows a libation interpretation and retains Burnet's spelling. Attested: ἐγχυτιστρίας (315c). Funerary customs and the women who pour offerings.