CHAPTER XII.

Eschatologic Ideas of East and West.

General resemblances between Mesopotamian and early Hellenic rites of tendance of dead--Mesopotamian theory of the lower world gloomier--The terror of the spectre stronger in the East than in the West; yet both fear the miasma of the dead--In both, the literary evidence clashes somewhat with the evidence from the graves--Certain important differences in tendance of dead--Water essential in later Babylonian, wine and the triple libation in early Hellenic--Hero-cult strong in early Hellas, at least very rare in Mesopotamia--Hellenic idea of re-incarnation not {xi} yet found in Babylonian records--The evocation of ghosts, and the periodic meals with or in memory of the dead, common to both peoples--General All Souls’ festival--But in Babylonia no popular belief in posthumous punishments and rewards--The powers of the lower world more gloomy and repellent than in Hellas--No mysteries to develop the germs of a brighter eschatologic faith