Death in Ancient GreeceDeath in Ancient GreeceCLAS-E 128: Death and the Afterlife in the Ancient WorldHarvard Extension SchoolFall 2007

The Odyssey, Bk 11: What’s familiar?

What’s unfamiliar?

So-called “Memnon pieta”: Eos lifting up the body of her son

Memnon. Kalos inscription. Interior from an Attic red-

figure cup, ca. 490 ﾐ480 BC. From Capua, Italy.

The heroic death

Prothesis scene. Attic black-figure pinax (plaque), ca. 560-550 BC. Found in Athens. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Stages of the Greek Funeral: The Prothesis

Funerary plaque, ca. 520 ﾐ 510 B.C.; Archaic, black-figure Greek, AtticTerracotta; H. 10 1/4 in. (26.04 cm)Rogers Fund, 1954 (54.11.5). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Krater, second half of 8th century B.C.; Geometric Greek, Attic Attributed to the Hirschfeld WorkshopTerracotta; H. 42 5/8 in. (108.25 cm)Rogers Fund, 1914 (14.130.14). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Prothesis scene: exposure of the dead and mourning. Detail from a krater, ca. 750 BC (Late Geometric). From the Dipylon Cemetery in Athens.Now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Mourner tearing her hair, detail.

Neck from an Attic red-figured loutrophoros, ca. 500-490 BC. Musée du Louvre, Paris..

Mourning woman. Terracotta, made in Boeotia, ca. 300-275 BC. British Museum, London.

1. Prothesis

2. Ekphora

3. Cremation

4. Libations, sacrifice at grave

5. Establishing a grave site

6. Visits to the grave

Stages of the Greek Funeral

Grave stele of a youth and a little girl, ca. 530 B.C.; Archaic Greek, AtticParian marble; H. 166 11/16 in. (4.233 m)Inscribed on the base: to dear Me[gakles], on his death, his father with his dear mother set [me] up as a monumentFrederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911Rogers Fund, 1921Anonymous Gift, 1951 (11.185a-c,f,g). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The grave shrine of Aristonutes funerary monument. Deceased hoplite. Athens 310 BC. Now in the Archaeological Museum of

Athens.

Tiny bowls, typical of funerary materials. Attica, 7th century BC Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich.

Woman decking a gravestone with garlands. Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. 420-410 BC.

British Museum, London.

Visit to a tomb. Detail from an Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. 400 BC.

British Museum, London.

Woman before a grave. Attic red-figured white-ground lekythos, ca. 420 BC. From Piraeus. Now at the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Lekythos (oil flask), ca. 450 B.C.; white-groundAttributed to the Sabouroff PainterGreek, AtticTerracotta; H. 12 7/16 in. (31.6 cm)Rogers Fund, 1921 (21.88.17)Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Greek Afterlife

Orphic lamella from Thurii, 4th cen. BCE

Lekythos from the tomb of a woman. She is represented holding the hand of her

husband. Attica, ca. 375 BC. Glyptotek, Munich

Attic white-ground red-figured lekythos, late 5th

century BC.Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.

Attic grave marker. Athens Archaeological

Museum, Athens.

Grave stele of a little girl, ca. 450-440B.C.

Greek. Parian marble; H. 31 1/2 in. (30.01 cm)

Fletcher Fund, 1927 (27.45)Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Funerary stele from Nicomedia (modern İzmit) in Bithynia, white marble, ca. 120 BC. The inscription reads:

Thrasōn, son of Diogenes, erected this funerary stele for his two sons, Dexiphanes, age 5, and Thrasōn, age 4, and for Hermēs, age 25, who brought them up. In the earthquake collapse, so did he hold them in his arms. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Funerary stele of Plangon. Athens, ca. 310 BC. Glyptotek, Munich.

Funerary stele from Nicomedia (modern İzmit) in Bithynia, white marble, ca. 150-100 BC. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Seated woman leaving her newborn child to the a nurse, funerary stele. Marble, made in Athens, ca. 425-400 BC. From Athens. Now in the British Museum, London.

Funerary relief of a young man. Attica (?), ca. 360 BC. Glyptotek, Munich.

Funerary stele of Xenokrateia, daugther of Eukleides of Oie in Attika (according to inscription).

Ca. 350 BC. Glyptotek, Munich.

Tombstone of the shoemaker Xanthippos. Marble, Greek artwork,

ca. 430-420 BC. From Athens. British Museum, London.

Funerary stele bearing the inscription: “Thalea, [daughter of] Athenagoras, [from the city of] Oroanna, hail!”. Found in Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). Marble, ca. 150 BCE, Hellenistic work. Musée du Louvre, Paris.