69.  An Athenian’s Will.—­All Menon’s patient’s are to-day set out upon the road to recovery.  Hipponax, his rival, has been less fortunate.  A wealthy and elderly patient, Lycophron, died the day before yesterday.  As the latter felt his end approaching, he did what most Athenians may put off until close to the inevitable hour—­he made his will, and called in his friends to witness it; and one must hope there can be no doubt about the validity, the signets attached, etc., for otherwise the heirs may find themselves in a pretty lawsuit.

The will begins in this fashion:  “The Testament of Lyophron the Marathonian.[*] May all be well:—­but if I do not recover from this sickness, thus do I bestow my estate.”  Then in perfectly cold-blooded fashion he proceeds to give his young wife and the guardianship of his infant daughter to Stobiades, a bachelor friend who will probably marry the widow within two months or less of the funeral.  Lycophron gives also specific directions about his tomb; he gives legacies of money or jewelry to various old associates; he mentions certain favorite slaves to receive freedom, and as specifically orders certain others (victims of his displeasure) to be kept in bondage.  Lastly three reliable friends are names as executors.

[*]In all Athenian legal documents, it was necessary to give the deme of the interested party or parties.

70.  The Preliminaries of a Funeral.—­An elaborate funeral is the last perquisite of every Athenian.  Even if Lycophron had been a poor man he would now receive obsequies seemingly far out of proportion to his estate and income.  It is even usual in Greek states to have laws restraining the amount which may be spent upon funerals,—­otherwise great sums may be literally “burned up” upon the funeral pyres.  When now the tidings go out that Lycophron’s nearest relative has “closed his mouth,” after he has breathed his last, all his male kinsfolk and all other persons who hope to be remembered in the will promptly appear in the Agora in black himatia[*] and hasten to the barber shops to have their heads shaved.  The widow might shave her hair likewise, with all her slave maids, did not her husband, just ere his death, positively forbid such disfigurements.  The women of the family take the body in charge the minute the physician has declared that all is over.  The customary obol is put in the mouth of the corpse,[+] and the body is carefully washed in perfumed water, clothed in festal white; then woolen fillets are wound around the head, and over these a crown of vine leaves.  So arrayed, the body is ready to be laid out on a couch in the front courtyard of the house, with the face turned toward the door so as to seem to greet everybody who enters.  In front of the house there stands a tall earthen vase of water, wherewith the visitors may give themselves a purifying sprinkling, after quitting the polluting presence of a dead body.