[Footnote 20: Petr., _Sat._, 34.]

[Footnote 21: [Greek: thhyraze, kêres, oukhet Anthestêria.] 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