are skilfully walled up in the barrow together with rings, jewels, and gold
(3160–8). Harald’s horse and arms are buried with him. Achilles’ tumulus is
situated on a headland by the sea so that it will be visible to mariners from
afar, and almost exactly the same is said of Beowulf ’s (2802–8).
The funeral process extends over many days. Achilles is lamented for seven-
teen days before the pyre is lit (Od. 24. 63–5). For Hector it is agreed that
there will be nine days of lamentation; the cremation will take place on the
tenth day and the tumulus be built on the eleventh (Il. 24. 664–6, cf. 784–
804). Pa ̄n
̇
d
̇u’s mourners spend twelve nights lying on the ground in a state of
impurity (MBh. 1. 118. 30). Das ́aratha is mourned for ten days (Rm. 2. 70.
23). Ten days are spent on the construction of Beowulf ’s tumulus (3159).
We have the impression that we are dealing with variants of a common
tradition, the source of which was not poetic fantasy but actual practice.
As for the long duration of the ceremonial, we may note that the Hittite
royal funeral ritual occupied fourteen days. It began with lamentation and
sacrifices; the body was cremated on the third day, the remains transported to
the grave chamber on the sixth.^146 In Vedic ritual the bones are gathered some
days after the cremation, placed in a jar or other receptacle, and buried.
Sometimes a tumulus was raised at a later date.^147 A ‘Russian’ (probably
Viking) noble, whose funeral by the lower Volga in 922 was attended and
described in great detail by the Arab writer Ibn Fad
̇
la ̄n, was laid in a covered
grave for ten days until the funeral garments were ready. He was then finely
dressed and taken to be propped up on the decking of his beached ship with
all his weapons beside him. A dog, two horses, and other creatures were
sacrificed and the carcasses put on the ship. One of the man’s maids was laid
beside him and put to death. Finally the ship with its cargo of death was
burned. A tumulus was built over the spot and a wooden pillar set up on it
with the names of the deceased and the king.^148
The Scythian royal funerals as described by Herodotus (4. 71 f.) do not
involve cremation, but they are long drawn out. The body is fenced round
with spears, there are offerings of gold vessels and sacrifices of a concubine,
various servants, and horses, and a great tumulus is built over them all. Caesar
writes that at Gaulish funerals they put on the pyre whatever the deceased
had valued, including animals,^149 and that it had earlier been the custom to
burn with them their favourite slaves and dependants (Bell. Gall. 6. 19. 4 f.).
Distinguished Germans, according to Tacitus (Germ. 27. 1), were cremated
(^146) For the detail see L. Christmann-Franck, Revue hittite et asianique 29 (1971), 61–84; V.
Haas in J. M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (New York 1995), iii. 2024–7.
(^147) Oldenberg (1917), 579–81.
(^148) C. H. Meyer (1931), 88–92.
(^149) Horses are specified by Comm. Bern. in Luc. 1. 451.
- Arms and the Man 497