Death and burial - Greece Flashcards
Greece
How was the body prepared in Greece?
All - not matter status - had to be treated with respect.
Body was washed and perfumed.
Wrapped in long, white shroud.
Coin placed on the mouth for Charon the ferryman.
Greece
What was the prothesis following the preparation of the deceased?
Two days of family and friends paying respects.
After seeing the body, a they would wash themselves from a bowl as they left, since the dead body was deemed polluted.
Then the women would begin the lament - they cut their hair, dressed in shabby black clothing, and they wailed next to the body, beating their chests and flailing their arms.
Greece
What was the ekphora?
The funeral procession from the house of the deceased to the burial ground.
The body would be carried by pallbearers if the burial site was not far off, or on a cart.
The family would be accompanied by an aulos player.
Greece
Describe the burial of the body and aftermath.
Outside of the city to remove chances of religious pollution and the spread of any disease.
In Athens this was the Kerameikos - NW of the city.
At the burial ground the body was either buried or cremated on a pyre, the ashes from which would be collected and handed over to the family to be placed in a shrine or grave.
Gifts would be placed on the grave or shrine to help the deceased in their underworld journey - something important to them in life, or food.
Wealthy folk may set up a stele, a tombstone slab carved with images or patterns - the stele needed taking caring of, otherwise the family would be dishonoured. Wealthier folk may have more elaborated carvings than poorer.
Post burial/cremation - the sacrifice, the blood of which was poured onto the earth as an offering to Hades and Persephone.
There was also a thirty day period of mourning - the family would visit the grave on the the 3rd, 9th, and 13th days; after that, they would visit annually.
Greece - festivals of the dead
What was the anthesteria?
A three day festival of the dead taking place in January and commemorating the maturing of the wine and hence Dionysus.
- Day 1: the dead rose from the underworld and roamed the earth. Wine would be drunk in libation to Dionysus.
- Day 2: family and friends engage in drinking contests and pour more wine into the earth for Dionysus.
- Day 3: honouring the dead with offerings and honouring Hermes (both he and Dionysus could travel between the world and underworld). The living were not allowed to eat any of the food offered. It was the day when the dead also returned to the underworld.
What does this image show?
A stele (tombstone); this one, from the textbook, shows a Greek woman called Hesego and a slave girl. Hesego is admiring a piece of jewellery - an important piece or gesture that is commemorated for her on her stele.
Greece
What was the Genesia (aka nemeseia)?
In late September, the Greeks would decorate the graves of the deceased with ribbons and food offerings and blood sacrifices in their honour .
The object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had been in any way neglected.
Nemesis: a goddess portrayed as the agent of divine punishment for wrongdoing or arrogant presumption (hubris).
