the.com/pyre
the last bonfire you'll ever attend, and the only one you can't leave early.
means A pyre is a heap of combustible material, especially wood, built to burn a dead body in a funeral rite.
from From Greek 'pyra,' meaning a funeral fire, which comes straight from 'pyr,' the Greek word for fire — the same root that quietly burns inside 'pyromaniac,' 'pyrotechnics,' and 'empyrean.' It reached English in the 17th century through Latin 'pyra.' The deep root 'pyr' is an old one, a cousin of words for fire across many Indo-European languages — including, distantly, the English word 'fire' itself.
- fuel demand
- A human cremation needs roughly 500 pounds of wood
- varanasi
- Manikarnika ghat's fires haven't gone out in centuries
- viking myth
- Boat-burnings were rarer than Hollywood suggests
- etymology
- From Greek pyr, simply meaning fire
- physics
- Open pyres struggle past bone without serious heat
burning ghat varanasi — hindu cremation site on ganges river where thousands are cremated annually
hitler's pyre berlin 1945 — nazi leader's body burned by staff in bunker garden, may 1945
sati practice india — historical widow immolation on husband's funeral pyre, banned by british 1829