Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
23.
_What is the cause that they use to sell at_ Rome _all things perteining to the furniture of Funerals, within the temple of the goddesse_ Libitina, _supposing her to be Venus_. THIS may seeme to be one of the sage and philosophicall inventions of king _Numa_, to the end that men should learne not to abhorre such things, nor to flie from them, as if they did pollute and defile them? Or else this reason may be rendred, that it serveth for a good record and memoriall, to put us in minde, that whatsoever had a beginning by generation, shall likewise come to an end by death; as if one and the same goddesse were superintendent and governesse of nativitie and death: for even in the city of _Delphos_ there is a pretie image of _Venus_, surnamed _Epitymbia_; that is to say sepulchrall: before which they use to raise and call foorth the ghosts of such as are departed, for to receive the libaments and sacred liquors powred foorth unto them.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.