a classical simplicity in the turf-clad heap of mould which covers the
poor man's grave, though it has nothing to defend it from the insults of
the proud but a bramble. The primrose that grows upon it is a better
ornament than the gilded lies on the oppressor's tombstone."

The Greeks had a custom of bedecking tombs with herbs and flowers, among
which parsley was chiefly in use, as appears from Plutarch's story of
Timoleon, who, marching up an ascent, from the top of which he might
take a view of the army and strength of the Carthaginians, was met by a
company of mules laden with parsley, which his soldiers conceived to be
a very ill boding and fatal occurrence, that being the very herb
wherewith they adorned the sepulchres of the dead. This custom gave
birth to that despairing proverb, when we pronounce of one dangerously
sick, that he has need of nothing but parsley; which is in effect to
say, he's a dead man, and ready for the grave. All sorts of purple and
white flowers were acceptable to the dead; as the amaranthus, which was
first used by the Thessalians to adorn Achilles's grave. The rose, too,
was very grateful; nor was the use of myrtle less common. In short,
graves were bedecked with garlands of all sorts of flowers, as appears
from Agamemnon's daughter in Sophocles:--


"No sooner came I to my father's tomb,
But milk fresh pour'd in copious streams did flow,
And _flowers_ of ev'ry sort around were strow'd."


Several other tributes were frequently laid upon graves, as ribands;
whence it is said that Epaminondas's soldiers being disanimated at
seeing the riband that hung upon his spear carried by the wind to a