144
Lattimore (1942)
Ogilvie (1969)
Rel. & Rit.
Toynbee (1971)
Wolf (1974)
Wolf (1976)
Wolf and Huang (1980)
Yang (1945)
JOHN KARL EVANS
R. Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana, Ill., 1942)
= R.M. Ogilvie, The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus (London, 1969)
A.P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1974)
=
J.M.C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (London, 1971)
=
A.P. Wolf, “Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors”, in A.P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1974), pp. 131-182
=
A.P. Wolf, "Aspects of Ancestor Worship in Northern Taiwan", in W.H. Newell (ed.), Ancestors (The Hague and Paris, 1976), pp. 339-364
- A.P. Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford, 1980)
=
M.C. Yang, A Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province (New York, 1945)
Translations have been provided by the author for those passages quoted from the Greek and Latin.
2 Cf. CIL 5.1813 (Gemona), where the formula has been shortened to N.F.N.S.N.C; Lattimore (1942), 84 n. 473 plausibly suggests that the second F has been carelessly omitted.
3 The formula appears in slightly modified forms in such disparate communities as Lambaesis in Africa (CIL 8.3463 = ILS 8162), and Lactora in Aquitania (CIL 13.530 = ILS 8163).
4 Epigr. Gr. 595 – IG Rom. 1.313. Cf. Epigr. Gr. 1117 (Bologna), and IG 14.2190 (Rome), where the translation of the Latin formula is still more precise. All of these despairing epitaphs are reminiscent of the teachings of Lucretius, and will remind students of Chinese philosophy of the views on life and death espoused by Wang Ch'ung (A.D. 27 - 97?). He also scoffed at the notion of consciousness after death: "if we suppose that after death a man becomes a ghost, there would be a ghost on every road, and at every step. Should men appear as ghosts after death, then tens of thousands of ghosts ought to be seen. They would fill the halls, throng the courts, and block the streets and alleys, instead of the one or two which are occasionally met with." See A. Forke, Lun-Heng 1. Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung, 2nd ed. rep. (New York, 1962), 193. It therefore follows that sacrifices are useless: "ghosts and spirits are insensible of joy and anger. People may go on sacrificing to them for ever, or completely disregard and forget them, it makes no difference." (Forke 1.524). One Greek inscription, from Astypalaea, requests that food and drink not be brought to the grave, for "corpses have no need for the things of the living:" see J. Geffcken, Griechische Epigramma (Heidelberg, 1916), no. 209. Forke discusses the similarities between Wang Ch'ung and Lucretius at length (supra, 1.13-29); readers unfamiliar with Han philosophy will profit from the brief discussion of Wang Ch'ung in M. Loewe, Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (202 B.C. — A.D. 220) (London, 1982), 12-14, 35-36, 68-70, and 89-90.
144
Lattimore (1942)
Ogilvie (1969)
Rel. & Rit.
Toynbee (1971)
Wolf (1974)
Wolf (1976)
Wolf and Huang (1980)
Yang (1945)
JOHN KARL EVANS
R. Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana, III., 1942)
= R.M. Ogilvie, The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus (London, 1969)
A.P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1974)
=
J.M.C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (London, 1971)
=
A.P. Wolf, “Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors”, in A.P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, 1974), pp. 131-182
=
A.P. Wolf, "Aspects of Ancestor Worship in Northern Taiwan", in W.H. Newell (ed.), Ancestors (The Hague and Paris, 1976), pp. 339-364
- A.P. Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945 (Stanford, 1980)
=
M.C. Yang, A Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province (New York, 1945)
Translations have been provided by the author for those passages quoted from the Greek and Latin.
2 Cf. CIL 5.1813 (Gemona), where the formula has been shortened to N.F.N.S.N.C; Lattimore (1942), 84 n. 473 plausibly suggests that the second F has been carelessly omitted.
3 The formula appears in slightly modified forms in such disparate communities as Lambaesis in Africa (CIL 8.3463 = ILS 8162), and Lactora in Aquitania (CII. 13.530 = ILS 8163).
4 Epigr. Gr. 595 – IG Rom. 1.313. Cf. Epigr. Gr. 1117 (Bologna), and IG 14.2190 (Rome), where the translation of the Latin formula is still more precise. All of these despairing epitaphs are reminiscent of the teachings of Lucretius, and will remind students of Chinese philosophy of the views on life and death espoused by Wang Ch'ung (A.D. 27 - 97?). He also scoffed at the notion of consciousness after death: "if we suppose that after death a man becomes a ghost, there would be a ghost on every road, and at every step. Should men appear as ghosts after death, then tens of thousands of ghosts ought to be seen. They would fill the halls, throng the courts, and block the streets and alleys, instead of the one or two which are occasionally met with." See A. Forke, Lun-Heng 1. Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung, 2nd ed. rep. (New York, 1962), 193. It therefore follows that sacrifices are useless: "ghosts and spirits are insensible of joy and anger. People may go on sacrificing to them for ever, or completely disregard and forget them, it makes no difference ." (Forke 1.524). One Greek inscription, from Astypalaea, requests that food and drink not be brought to the grave, for "corpses have no need for the things of the living:" see J. Geffcken, Griechische Epigramma (Heidelberg, 1916), no. 209. Forke discusses the similarities between Wang Ch'ung and Lucretius at length (supra, 1.13-29); readers unfamiliar with Han philosophy will profit from the brief discussion of Wang Ch'ung in M. Loewe, Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (202 B.C. — A.D. 220) (London, 1982), 12-14, 35-36, 68-70, and 89-90.
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