 Funerary practices in the Roman world conformed to tradition. Among the important rituals in the pagan world were the oblations and refrigeria, meals eaten at the grave at the time of burial and other occasions. Vessels found in burials of the Mediterranean indicate that this custom had antecedents in pre-Roman, Greek, and Near Eastern cultures. Such traditions served to perpetuate the memory of the deceased, and to renew the spirit after death. For the Christians, death marked the entry of the soul into life everlasting. Hence the representations of the comforting refrigerium or agape in the catacombs might have prefigured heavenly banquets for the blessed in the hereafter. Peter and Paul were commemorated with such refrigeria or memorial repasts observed in the triclia in the catacomb of S. Sebastiano.
As in more ancient periods, wine, fish, and bread were offered ritually by pagan, Jews, and Christians alike and were shared in such festal meals as the agape, a love feast at which the deceased was believed to be present; the cena pura, the holy meal before the Jewish Sabbath; the Passover feast; and the Eucharist. The sacrament of the Eucharist was established in the Last Supper, which had origins in the Passover feast (John 6:4-13) commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites (Exodus 13: 6-8).
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From ancient times communal banquets, including the sharing of bread, established a bond among the participants and with divine beings.
Liquids such as blood, wine, and water also had special meanings in ritual observances. Regenerating or revitalizing substances were sacrificial blood, blood spilled in combat over a grave, or its look-alike surrogate, red wine. In the sacrament of the Eucharist, wine with bread symbolized the blood and body of Jesus, who—like ancient Near Eastern vegetation and shepherd gods—was offered for the salvation of the faithful. The Eucharist recalls the ancient Semitic rite of "first fruits."
Expiation, salvation, and rebirth were attained through the miraculous properties of water. In the ancient world, pure water was believed to be endowed with restorative qualities. This life-giving element, along with sacramental oil and unguent, was essential in such ceremonies as the purification of the pharaohs, the lustration of eastern Mediterranean monarchs, and in ancient cleansing rituals such as those practiced in burial rites and baptism. In New Testament iconography, the nurturing waters of baptism fed, renewed, and purified souls symbolized by fish; thus, by analogy, Jesus made his disciples "fishers of men." |
