Prayer to the ancestors

A modern text from the same LABRYS manual as greek-agathodaimon-001.

The day is correctly given: the triakas, the thirtieth of the lunar month, was the day of the dead — offerings were made to them, and on the same day food was left for Hekate at the crossroads.

The content of the prayer, though, is worth setting beside the ancient ones. The ancient addresses to the dead in this collection ask for little, and for something quite definite: that the earth not lie heavy (terra-funerary-001), that a mother's offering please her son (terra-funerary-002), that the shades leave the house and not come back (lares-006). The dead were propitiated, and at the Lemuria simply shown out.

Here something else is asked: that "we may be worthy of the glory of your generations", that memory be unfading, that the ancestors be "a support and a firm foundation". The dead are called founding fathers and adduced as a moral example. This is not the language of ancient ancestor cult but of the modern age, with its notions of heritage and continuity.

This is worth noting, but not as a reproach. Every reconstruction speaks the language of its own century, and by what it asks for one sees what the living lack. The ancients feared the dead; here they are looked to for support.