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Collocatio

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Collocatio

designates a custom among the ancient Greeks and Romans of laying out the corpse of a dead person on, a bed or couch, and placing it outside the house (afterwards at the threshold), to give ocular proof that the person was really dead, or, perhaps, that the death had not been by violence. A honey-cake was laid beside the corpse as a gift to Cerberus, and painted earthen vessels were arranged beside the bed, and buried with the corpse. The ceremony lasted two days.