Funeral rites

[dean]

Hello,I was just curious, after reading about the homage Alexander paid to Hephaestion- regarding the fact that all the horses in the kingdom had their manes cut.Was this a tradition from Thessaly???-(I don't know why I should think of Thessaly but I just got a feeling it might be)?Can anyone let me know where this tradition began?Muchas gracias,
Dean.

[Taphoi]

Hi Dean,It's a kind of exaggeration of a traditional Greek practice of cutting a lock of your hair to lay on the grave of the deceased. I don't know of any specific connection with Thessaly.Best wishes,Andrew

[smittysmitty]

Hi Dean,The Thessalians had sheared their horse's manes as well as cut of their own hair after the death of the Theban general Pelopidas. Although I think youGÇÖll find this practice was not unique to the Greeks GÇô it was a common practice in the East also - more likely thats where the practice originates from.

[dean]

Hello,Cheers for the replies.I was looking also in the Iliad- and also there was a reference to the death of Patroclus.
"When they had thrown down their great logs of wood over the whole ground, they stayed all of them where they were, but Achilles ordered his brave Myrmidons to gird on their armour, and to yoke each man his horses; they therefore rose, girded on their armour and mounted each his chariot- they and their charioteers with them. The chariots went before, and they that were on foot followed as a cloud in their tens of thousands after. In the midst of them his comrades bore Patroclus and covered him with the locks of their hair which they cut off and threw upon his body. Last came Achilles with his head bowed for sorrow, so noble a comrade was he taking to the house of Hades. When they came to the place of which Achilles had told them they laid the body down and built up the wood. Achilles then bethought him of another matter. He went a space away from the pyre, and cut off the yellow lock which he had let grow for the river Spercheius. He looked all sorrowfully out upon the dark sea, and said, "Spercheius, in vain did my father Peleus vow to you that when I returned home to my loved native land I should cut off this lock and offer you a holy hecatomb; fifty she-goats was I to sacrifice to you there at your springs, where is your grove and your altar fragrant with burnt-offerings. Thus did my father vow, but you have not fulfilled his prayer; now, therefore, that I shall see my home no more, I give this lock as a keepsake to the hero Patroclus." Although no mention is made of cutting the manes of the horses.All the best ,
Dean.

[amyntoros]

Hi Dean,Here's another Thessalian reference, this time from Euripides' Alcestis.http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10523/10523.txt
ADMETUS: I know. It came not without doubts and fears,
This thing. The thought hath poisoned all my years.
Howbeit, I now will make the burial due
To this dead Queen. Be assembled, all of you;
And, after, raise your triumph-song to greet
This pitiless Power that yawns beneath our feet.
Meantime let all in Thessaly who dread
My sceptre join in mourning for the dead
With temples sorrow-shorn and sable weed.
Ye chariot-lords, ye spurrers of the steed,
Shear close your horses' manes! Let there be found
Through all my realm no lute, nor lyre, nor sound
Of piping, till twelve moons are at an end.
For never shall I lose a closer friend,
Nor braver in my need. And worthy is she
Of honour, who alone hath died for me.Interesting about the banning of music and the "sorrow-shorn" temples, isn't it? Alexander certainly knew his Euripides. :-)Best regards,Amyntoros

[dean]

Hi,thanks for the quote- it just goes to show that the "hair cutting" business was a widespread practise in those days andas Andrew commented, the horse idea was probably just a stronger exaggeration of the same idea.I believe Alexander himself cut his hair on the death of Hephaestion,Best regards
Dean.

[amyntoros]

Hi Dean,When Arrian lists from his sources various descriptions of Alexander's behavior after Hephaistion's death he weighs the accuracy of them (in his own opinion, of course) and says: 7.14.4. I regard it as not unlikely that Alexander cut off his hair over the corpse, especially considering his emulation of Achilles, with whom he had a rivalry from boyhood. The only other ref I know if is from Aelian who probably used the same source as Arrian for this quote. Aelian 7.8. "When Hephaestion died Alexander threw armour on to his pyre, and melted down with the corpse gold, silver, and clothing much prized by the Persians. He cut off his own hair, a gesture in the Homeric manner, in imitation of the poet's Achilles. But Alexander was more violent and hotheaded than Achilles: he destroyed the acropolis at Ecbatana and knocked down its walls. As far as his hair is concerned, I think he acted in accordance with Greek custom; but when he pulled down the walls, that was a barbaric expression of grief by Alexander. He changed his dress and allowed himself to be completely controlled by anger, love, and tears.Best regards,Amyntoros