[Footnote 8:  Tusc. Disp., i. 12, 27.]

[Footnote 9:  Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 259 ff.]

[Footnote 10:  De Luctu, 9.]

[Footnote 11:  Carducci, “Rimembranze di Scuola,” in Rime Nuove.]

[Footnote 12:  Il., 23. 64.]

[Footnote 13:  “Turpia ossa,” 4. 5. 4.]

[Footnote 14:  Paus., 9. 32.]

[Footnote 15:  81 D.]

[Footnote 16:  De Genio Socratis, 15.]

[Footnote 17:  Cp.  Plautus, Cas., iii. 4. 2; Amphitr., ii. 2. 145; Rudens, v. 3. 67, etc.; and the use of the word “larvatus.”]

[Footnote 18:  Pliny, N.H., 1, Proef. 31:  “Cum mortuis non nisi Larvas luctari.”]

[Footnote 19:  Seneca, Apocol., 9.  At the risk of irrelevance, I cannot refrain from pointing out the enduring nature of proverbs as exemplified in this section.  Hercules grows more and more anxious at the turn the debate is taking, and hastens from one god to another, saying:  “Don’t grudge me this favour; the case concerns me closely.  I shan’t forget you when the time comes.  One good turn deserves another” (Manus manum lavat).  This is exactly the Neapolitan proverb, “One hand washes the other, and both together wash the face.”  “Una mano lava l’altra e tutt’e due si lavano la faccia,” is more or less the modern version.  In chapter vii. we have also “gallum in suo sterquilino plurimum posse,” which corresponds to our own, “Every cock crows best on its own dunghill.”]

[Footnote 20:  Petr., Sat., 34.]

[Footnote 21:  [Greek:  thhyraze, keres, oukhet Anthesteria.] Cp.  Rohde, Psyche, 217.]

[Footnote 22:  Fast., v. 419 ff.]

[Footnote 23:  Tertull., De An., 56.]

[Footnote 24:  N.H., 28. 2. 19.]

II

THE BELIEF IN GHOSTS IN GREECE AND ROME

Ghost stories play a very subordinate part in classical literature, as is only to be expected.  The religion of the hard-headed, practical Roman was essentially formal, and consisted largely in the exact performance of an elaborate ritual.  His relations with the dead were regulated with a care that might satisfy the most litigious of ghosts, and once a man had carried out his part of the bargain, he did not trouble his head further about his deceased ancestors, so long as he felt that they, in their turn, were not neglecting his interests.  Yet the average man in Rome was glad to free himself from burdensome and expensive duties towards the dead that had come down to him from past generations, and the ingenuity of the lawyers soon devised a system of sham sales by which this could be successfully and honourably accomplished.[25]

Greek religion, it is true, found expression to a large extent in mythology; but the sanity of the Greek genius in its best days kept it free from excessive superstition.  Not till the invasion of the West by the cults of the East do we find ghosts and spirits at all common in literature.