BURNING, in antiquity, a way of disposing of the dead, much practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and still retained by several nations in both the East and West Indies.
Eustathius assigns two reasons why burning came to be of so general use in Greece; the first is, because bodies were thought to be unclean after the soul's departure,
parture, and therefore were purified with fire. The second reason is, that the soul, being separated from the gross and unactive matter, might be at liberty to take its flight into heaven. The body was rarely burnt without company, for besides the various animals they threw upon the pile, we seldom find a man of quality consumed without a number of slaves and captives, which, in barbarous times, they used to murder for that purpose: and in some parts of the East Indies it is customary, at this day, for wives to throw themselves into the funeral pile with their deceased husbands. At the funerals of emperors, generals, &c. who had their arms burnt with them, the soldiers made procession three times round the funeral pile with shouts and trumpets, to express their respect to the dead. During the burning also, the dead person's friends stood by, called on the deceased, and poured out libations of wine, with which, when the pile was burnt down, they extinguished the remains of the fire; and having collected the bones of the deceased, washed them with wine, and anointed them with oil. When the bones were discovered, they gathered the ashes that lay close to them, and both were reposed in urns, either of wood, stone, earth, silver, or gold, according to the quality of the deceased. See URN.