Due to the Dead: Difference between revisions

== Ballads ==

* In some variants of the [[Child Ballad]] ''The Famous Flower of Serving Men'', the heroine must dig her husband and child's grave. When the magical ending is used, a milk-white hind leads the king to the grave, where a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|bird]] laments how his love had become a serving man, and explains to the king how they had been murdered by the heroine's mother.

And all alone the bell I rang, and all alone the psalm I sang'' }}

* In the [[Child Ballad]] ''The Unquiet Grave'', the true love is mourned for a year and a day -- though after that time, the dead have a new demand:

The dead began to speak:<br />

"Oh who sits weeping on my grave,<br />

** In ''Ice Crown'', the heroine sees the queen and her attendants in full mourning. Her ability to describe this clinches the accuracy of the vision in question.

* In [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-poem-the-phoenix-and-the-turtle.htm The Phoenix and the Turtle]'', many birds are called to the [[Meaningful Funeral]], to show this.

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.'' }}

* ''[[Discworld]]''

** The Discworld's Silver Horde have a word for those who rob the graves of fallen warriors. That word is "Die!"

** A nonhuman version occurs in ''[[Discworld/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'' when Gavin, a [[Big Badass Wolf]] went up against {{spoiler|Angua's brother Ludwig, and died. Gaspode finds his corpse, and has a natural instinct overtake his magic [[Talking Animal]] behaviour}} and howls. The howl carries for miles, and all know.

* In ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy|Johnny and the Dead]]'', the novel revolves about the plan to dig up a cemetary to replace it with a high-rise.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novels, Uriel goes to pay his respects before [[Dead Guy on Display|his primarch, Roboute Guilliman in stasis]].

** And in ''The Chapter's Due'', after the renegade Vaanes {{spoiler|died helping Uriel in a hopeless battle, Captain Shaan of the Raven Guard orders the apothecary to take Vaanes' gene seed, effectively acknowledging him as part of the Chapter for one last time, thus proving that Vaanes was not as alone as he thought.}}

* In [[Plato]]'s ''Phaedo'', when Crito asks Socrates how they should bury him, Socrates jests that they will have to catch him to do that, and then explains that they can't bury him, but only his corpse.

* In [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''[[Little Fuzzy]]'', a human kills one of the Fuzzies and claims she was just an animal and attacked him. Then the other Fuzzies gather up her body, dig a grave, and gently bury her. A policeman who arrived in time to see the burial -- and took off his beret in respect until it was over -- takes this as evidence that the human should be arrested for murder.

* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|The Warrior's Apprentice]]'', [[Miles Vorkosigan]] insists on burying {{spoiler|Sergeant Bothari}}'s body in a grave he dug himself. He explains to his mother that {{spoiler|Bothari}} told him that "blood washes away sin," and he feels responsible for the death, so he literally works until his hands bleed.

* In ''[[Highlander the Series]]'', Duncan casts Darius's ashes into the Seine river, saying it will symbolically allow Darius to complete his unfinished journey to the sea.

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Bushwhacked", the crew encounter a ship that has had its crew and passengers slaughtered by Reavers. Shepherd Book prevails upon Mal to let him perform a funeral for them with this line:

** Subverted in that the only reason atheist Mal stuck around for said funeral is that {{spoiler|he knows the Reavers will have booby-trapped the ghost ship and they need to disarm said bomb before they can leave}}.

** Subverted ''hard'' in [[The Movie]]. See "Film," below.

** In ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', Olivia is in deep mourning for her brother. The Duke is trying to convince her that a more suitable form would be to perpetuate his family line by marrying and having children. The Jester even calls her a fool for mourning her brother's soul being in Heaven, much to Olivia's shock.

** Oswald in ''[[King Lear]]'', after being mortally wounded by Edgar:

If ever thou wilt thrive, [[Due to the Dead|bury my body]];'' }}

** ''[[Julius Caesar (theatre)|Julius Caesar]]'', after Brutus dies, his enemies, Antony and Octavian agree on giving him a respectful burial.

[[Due to the Dead|With all respect and rites of burial]].<br />

Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,<br />

* In ''[[The Iliad]]'', Achilles secured Hector's body to his chariot after killing him, and circled the city thrice with the corpse in tow. For the era, this was regarded as crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]], and sealed his doom in the eyes of the gods. Now, Achilles is known more for [[Achilles Heel|how he died]] than how he didn't. However, after Priam, Hector's father came to him in person, Achilles regretted his actions, and gave Hector's body to him, so he did eventually have a proper funeral.

* In ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'', Agamemnon tells Odysseus:

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', after murdering {{spoiler|Robb Stark in the [[Moral Event Horizon|Red Wedding]], the Freys desecrate his corpse by decapitating it and sewing the head of his [[Big Badass Wolf|direwolf Grey Wind]] in its place.}}

** Also as part of that same incident {{spoiler|the Frey's dumped the body of Robb's mother, Catelyn Tully Stark, in the river as a mockery of the funeral customs of House Tully. [[Back From the Dead|That one is going to come back to haunt them...]]}}

* [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'s victims tend to end up as meat pies at Mrs. Lovett's pieshop.

* [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'': Queen Gertrude's quick remarriage did not take a proper period of mourning:

'''Horatio''': Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. }}

** Played humorously in the opening number of ''Hamlet, Cha-cha-cha!'': "Boo-hoo! I do!"