The offerings, however, were gradually made more and more expensive until, on some occasions, a regular feast was laid out and consumed by fire. In a Greek dialogue that has come down to us, the old ferryman, Charon, who had come to the upper world to view the customs of men, expresses his surprise at these sepulchral propitiations. “Why then,” says he, “do they crown these stones and perfume them with unguents? Why do they heap up funeral pyres before the graves and burn these expensive feasts and pour wine and a mixture of honey and water into this trench[281]?”
The sacrifices at the sepulchre took place on stated days. At the first of these ceremonies, called the _trita_, from the fact of its falling on the third day[282] after the interment, a lunch was brought out for the corpse[283]. Following that tertial offering, came another, the _ennata_, on the ninth day. This ninth day sacrifice, since Aeschines speaks of it as if it were the only one to be considered[284], and since Isaeus mentions the great expense connected with it[285], was very probably of more importance than the others. It is uncertain of what it consisted, since it is not specified in any of the Grecian authorities; but, if any reliance can be placed on the description of a Roman author, it was a regular banquet prepared for the deceased[286]. The _ennata_ among the Athenians, inasmuch as we find no mention of anything farther in our ancient writers, probably concluded the customary ceremonies. The Argives, varied these rites by omitting the _trita_ and _ennata_, and substituted a sacrifice on the first and on the thirtieth day. It was their custom upon losing one of their kindred or friends to sacrifice immediately to Apollo and thirty days after to Hermes[287]. The Spartans, on the other hand, always moderate in all their passions, limited their sacrifices to one on the twelfth day to Ceres, after which they ceased to mourn outwardly[288]. But, with the Athenians, the completion of the obsequies by no means ended all the customary observances of a mourner. The thirtieth day, however, seems to have been the limit set at Athens for the public manifestation[289]. Any semblance of happiness on the part of the mourner before that time was strongly disapproved. Aeschines makes a serious accusation against Demosthenes when he denounces him for having offered sacrifices of thanksgiving for the death of Philip when his daughter had been dead only seven days[290]. Euphiletus, an every-day citizen of Athens, has his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity intensified and corroborated, because one day, before her brother had been dead thirty days, he discovered her with her cheeks painted[291].