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Ancient Italian Beliefs concerning the Soul1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Extract

No one has as yet done for Italy what Rohde's Psyche did for Greece, and the reason is not far to seek. Rohde had at his disposal a large amount of literary material, of which no one could doubt that it represented Greek feeling and practice of various ages; but the investigator of the corresponding Italian field is met with a twofold difficulty. He must in the first place discard a great deal of the written records, because they clearly reflect, not native ideas, but those which were common to the ancient world in Hellenistic times. He is then left with a very few scanty documents, which refer, not to Italy as a whole, but practically without exception to Rome, or, at any rate, to districts strongly Romanized. To add to his perplexities, he has a great mass of archaeological evidence for all ages, from the palaeolithic onwards, which, as it is unwritten, he must interpret as best he may, bearing in mind the very wide margin of error in all such attempts, and reconcile, if he can, with what the classical authors tell him.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1930

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References

page 129 note 2 The excellent work of Cumont, F., Aftet Life in Roman Paganism (New Haven and London, 1922)Google Scholar, appears to me to lack what is most urgently needed, namely an account of customs and beliefs purely Italian.

page 129 note 3 The chief sources, for one who is not himself an expert, are Peet, T. E., Stone and Brome Ages in Italy (Oxford, 1909)Google Scholar, Duhn, F. von, Italische Gräberkunde (Heidelberg, 1924)Google Scholar, and Randall-Maclver, D., Villanovans and Early Etrusans (Oxford, 1924)Google Scholarand Iron Age in Italy (Oxford, 1927)Google Scholar. See also Munro, R., Palaeolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe (Edin. burgh, 1912), p. 291 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 129 note 4 I have treated this matter briefly in Primitive Culture in Italy (London, 1926)Google Scholar.

page 130 note 1 See von Duhn, pp. 6–7, cf. Peet, chap. ii., for some similar burials of doubtful or neolithic date. Orientation sometimes at least signifies that a journey of the dead is believed in, see J.R.A.I., LII., p. 127 sqq.

page 130 note 2 Iron Age, p. 197. The tombs in this particular locality are commonly family vaults, which seem to contain husband, wife, and children.

page 130 note 3 Abundant examples in von Duhn, see his index under Spinngerat.

page 130 note 4 Von Duhn, p. 36.

page 131 note 1 Servius on Am. V. 64, sciendum quia etiam domi suae sepeliebantur: VI. 152, apud maiores, ut supra diximus, omnes in suis domibus sepeliebantur. This seems pure assumption to support a false theory of the nature of the Lares and the di Penates.

page 131 note 2 Dig. XI. 7, 4.

page 131 note 3 Iron Age, p. 106.

page 131 note 4 Receptacles; for example, Maclver, , Villanovans, p. 7Google Scholar (small pits, some with linings more or less elaborate); contrast ibid., p. 108, the Tomba del Cono, 6·60x3·90 metres. Food-vessels; abundant instances in von Duhn, see his index under Speisenmitgabe. Weapons, etc., see the works quoted, passim; often broken, which probably, in some cases at least, is a ritual ‘killing’ of them; good instance in Maclver, , Iron Age, p. 79Google Scholar. Urn treated as if it were a body, von Duhn, index under Anthropomor-phisierung; hut-urns, ibid., under Hausurnen, add Bryan, W. R., Italic Hut-Urns, Rome (Amer. Acad.), 1925Google Scholar; Sundwall, J., Italischen Hutten urnen, Abo, 1925Google Scholar.

page 132 note 1 Von Duhn, p. 349 sqq. (Chiusi).

page 132 note 2 Ibid., p. 379.

page 132 note 3 See ibid., p. 210.

page 132 note 4 Ibid., p. 216.

page 133 note 1 For instance, at Casinalbo only 200 metres separate the two (Peet, p. 366).

page 133 note 2 Von Dunn, pp. 151–2 (Grotta del Farneto, near Bologna).

page 133 note 3 Ibid., pp. 105–6; this is, however, Sar-dinian and not true Italian.

page 133 note 4 Pliny, , N. H., praef. 31Google Scholar; Petroniussat. 34, 8; cf. Otto, W. F., Die Manen, p. 57Google Scholar.

page 133 note 5 Religious Experience of the Roman People, p. 33.

page 133 note 6 The nearest approach is Cicero, in Pisonem 16, quibus coniuratorum manis mortuomm expiaretis, see Marbach, in Pauly-Wissowa, , s.u. Manes, 1053, 61Google Scholar; 1056, 44.

page 133 note 7 See his article in Rivista di Filologia, XVII. (1889), p. 1 sq.Google Scholar, the first critical collection and examination of the material collected in the C.I.L. Add Schwarzlose, W., De titulis sepul-cralibus Latinis (dissert, Halis Saxonum, 1913), p. 1 sqqGoogle Scholar. The literary evidence has been assembled by a multitude of authors, from Iacobus Gutherius in the twelfth vol. of Graevius' Thesaurus (still interesting and valuable) to the article Manes in Pauly-Wissowa.

page 134 note l As Amph. 105, where see Ussing's note.

page 134 note 2 See Wissowa, in Pauly-Wissowa, , art. Lemuria, 1932Google Scholar.

page 134 note 3 Frag. 2, Winstedt.

page 134 note 4 Fast. II. 545 sqq.; like all stories in Ovid, this must be used with caution by those studying popular Italian belief.

page 134 note 5 Dig. XLVII. 12, 4.

page 134 note 6 Pomponius, in Dig. XII. 7, 36Google Scholar.

page 135 note 1 Good examples in Belger, C., Die Myhenische Lokalsage (Berlin, 1893), p. 5Google Scholar

page 135 note 2 Servius on Aen. XII. 603.

page 135 note 3 Dig. III. 2, 25; the whole ceremonial of we know of those falsely supposed dead (see Plutarch, , quaest. Rom., 5Google Scholar) proves as much.

page 135 note 4 Cicero, , de legg. II. 58Google Scholar.

page 135 note 5 It is well not to found anything on the obscure expression prope faciunt diis manibus seruilibus sacerdotes in Varro, , L. L. VI. 24Google Scholar until we know how to construe i and especially whether manibus or mdnibus is meant.

page 135 note 6 Class. Quart. XVII. (1923), pp. 57 sqq., 197 sqqGoogle Scholar.