The Ancient City. Book III Chapter 7. THE RELIGION OF THE CITY.
1. The Public Repasts We have already seen that the principal ceremony
of the domestic worship was a repast, which they called
a sacrifice. To eat food prepared upon an altar was,
to all appearance, the first form which men gave to
the religious act. The need of putting themselves in
communion with the divinity was satisfied by this repast, to which they invited him,
and of which they gave him his part.
The principal ceremony of the city worship was also
a repast of this nature; it was partaken of in common
by all the citizens, in honor of the protecting divinities.
The celebrating of these public repasts was universal
in Greece; and men believed that the safety of the city depended upon their accomplishment.
The Odyssey gives us a description of one of these sacred feasts: Nine long tables are spread
for the people of Pylos; at each one of them five hundred citizens
are seated, and each group has immolated nine bulls in
honor of the gods. This repast, which was called the
feast of the gods, begins and ends with libations and
prayers. The ancient custom of repasts in common is
also mentioned in the oldest Athenian traditions. It
is related that Orestes, the murderer of his mother,
arrived at Athens at the very moment when the city,
assembled about its king, was performing the sacred act.
The public meals of Sparta are well known, but the
idea which men ordinarily entertain of them is very far
from the truth. They imagine the Spartans living and
eating always in common, as if private life had not been
known among them. We know, on the contrary, from ancient authors, that the Spartans often
took their meals in their own houses,
in the midst of their families. The public meals took place twice a month,
without reckoning holidays. These were religious acts of the same
nature as those which were practised at Athens, in Argos, and throughout Greece.
Besides these immense banquets, where all the citizens were assembled,
and which could take place only on solemn festivals,
religion prescribed that every day there should be a sacred meal.
For this purpose, men chosen by the city,
were required to eat together, in its name, within the enclosure
of the prytaneum, in the presence of the sacred fire
and the protecting gods. The Greeks were convinced that,
if this repast was interrupted but for a single day,
the state was menaced with the loss of the favor of its gods.
At Athens, the men who took part in the common meal were selected by lot,
and the law severely punished those who refused to perform this duty. The
citizens who sat at the sacred table were clothed, for
the time, with a sacerdotal character; they were called
parasites. This word which, at a later period, became
a term of contempt, was in the beginning a sacred title. In the time of Demosthenes the
parasites had disappeared;
but the prytanes were still required to eat together in the prytaneum.
In all the cities there were halls destined for the common meals.
If we observe how matters passed at this meal, we shall easily recognize the religious
ceremony. Every guest had a crown upon his head;
it was a custom of the ancients to wear
a crown of leaves or flowers when one performed a solemn religious act.
“The more one is adorned with flowers,” they said,
“the surer one is of pleasing the gods;
but if you sacrifice without wearing a crown, they will turn from you.”
“A crown,” they also said, “is a herald
of good omen, which prayer sends before it towards the gods.”
For the same reason the banqueters were clothed
in robes of white; white was the sacred color among the ancients,
that which pleased the gods.
The meal invariably commenced wit a prayer and libations, and hymns were sung. The nature of the
dishes and the kind of wine that was to be served were regulated by the rules of each city.
To deviate in the least from the usage followed in primitive times,
to present a new dish or alter the rhythm of the sacred hymns,
was a grave impiety, for which the whole city was responsible to the gods.
Religion even went so far as to fix the nature of the
vessels that ought to be employed both for the cooking
of the food and for the service of the table. In one city
the bread must be served in copper baskets; in another
earthen dishes had to be employed. Even the form of
the loaves was immutably fixed. These rules of the old religion continued to be observed,
and the sacred meals always preserved their primitive simplicity.
Creeds, manners, social condition, all changed; but these
meals remained unchangeable; for the Greeks were
very scrupulous observers of their national religion.
It is but just to add, that when the guests had
satisfied the requirements of religion by eating the
prescribed food, they might immediately afterwards commence another meal, more expensive and better
suited to their taste. This was quite a common practice at Sparta.
The custom of religious meals was common in Italy
as well as in Greece. It existed anciently, Aristotle
tells us, among the peoples known as Oenotrians, Oscans,
and Ausonians. Virgil has mentioned it twice in the Aeneid. Old Latinus receives the envoys of
Aeneas, not in his home, but in a temple, "consecrated
by the religion of his ancestors; there took place the
sacred feasts after the immolation of the victims; there
all the family chiefs sat together at long tables." Farther along,
when Aeneas arrives at the home of Evander, he finds him celebrating a sacrifice.
The king is in the midst of his people;
all are crowned with flowers; all, seated at the same table,
sing a hymn in praise of the god of the city.
This custom was perpetuated at Rome. There was always a hall where the representatives
of the curies ate together.
The senate, on certain days, held a sacred repast in the Capitol.
At the solemn festivals, tables were spread in the streets,
and the whole people ate at them. Originally
the pontiffs presided at these repasts; later, this care was
delegated to special priests, who were called epulones.
These old customs give us an idea of the close tie which united the members of a city.
Human association was a religion ; its symbol was a meal, of which
they partook together. We must picture to ourselves
one of these little primitive societies, all assembled, or
the heads of families at least, at the same table, each
clothed in white, with a crown upon his head; all make
the libation together, recite the same prayer, sing the
same hymns, and eat the same food, prepared upon the
same altar; in their midst their ancestors are present,
and the protecting gods share the meal. Neither interest, nor agreement,
nor habit creates the social bond; it is this holy communion
piously accomplished in the presence of the gods of the city.