Come Back? Why Bother? by Jennifer Scelsi

Come Back? Why Bother? There is a recurring theme here with the sightings of ghosts who demand proper burial rights that they were not given, Here are three examples:

* During the war at Troy, the specter of Patroclus appeared to his friend Achilles requesting to be cremated, and to also tell Achilles that he would be killed in battle as well.

* Next we have Elpenor, one of Ulysse's crew members, who fell to his death while on Circe's island. After which his spirit did appear on the ship after it had sailed, asking his leader to go back and give him a proper burial.

* Last we have the ghost of the Roman emperor Caligula, who had been murdered and then quickly cremated, took to haunting the Lamian Gardens where his ashes were entombed until proper rights were issued. There are many reasons why ghosts came back to the world of the living. One was a show of gratitude.Roman statesman and author Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) told of Simonides, who buried the body of a stranger. The man's ghost later appeared to Simonides, advising him not to board the ship on which he intended to sail. Unfortunately he followed the warning: The ship was lost at sea.

Spirits came back (and still do) to give advice, offer assistance, especially to their loved ones here on the earthly plain. Also to bring healing love and other forms of comfort to those who were in mourning. For example, according to the fifth-century B.C.E. Greek historian Herodotus: a Corinthian tyrant named Periander was visited by his then deceased wife to help him find an object that he valued but lost. Also, after Aeneas's wife was burned during the sacking of Troy,Her ghost returned to comfort her husband.

Yet others who did meet violent ends returned as ghosts to help the living find their murderers. Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.E.-C.E. 18 ) wrote about the ghost of Remus coming back to name his murderer. In De Divinatione, Cicero describes an innkeeper that murders one of two men staying at the tavern.The victim's ghost returns to help his friend relocate his corpse so a proper burial can be done.

Some ghosts did not wait for others to do their bidding. In fact there are dozens of legends and even new accounts of spirits coming back to harm their murderers. Although back then ghosts were thought of as insubstantial. In certain instances they were able to physically assault their wrong doer's. Many of these wronged spirits have also been (and still are) dishonored and kept from proper burials that they did and still do deserve.