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Burial, GreeceMARKUS SEHLMEYER
The study of burial practices is important for
understanding the cultural development, reli-
gious ideas, and political culture of the Greek
world. Since ceremonies connected with burial
are well known only from the late Archaic
period, the investigation of early Greek burials
has to concentrate on cemeteries and objects
found in graves; the survey otherwise is chrono-
logical with excurses on general topics such as
funeral art or specific rituals. As there is a mul-
titude of literary and archaeological sources for
Athens, that city here serves an exemplary
purpose. Other poleis and kingdoms can only
be treated selectively – when they show different
types of burial.
LATE BRONZE AGE; MYCENAE
The situation in Late Helladic Mycenae is
characterized by several different means of dis-
posing of the dead. In Grave Circle A,
a cemetery in early use, the chambers contained
the corpse and numerous burial objects. Some
had a stele or gravestone (see STELAE, GREEK).
In the late Helladic period the Mycenaean
elite reorganized the cemetery as a place of
commemoration with a central entrance.
Another type of burial place was the tholos,
a single chamber in a burial mound or cut into a
hillside. The Treasury of Atreus is one of nine
tholoi in Mycenae. This burial chamber, 15 m in
height, has a vault built from megaliths, but the
contents were stolen in antiquity. Both inter-
ment and cremation of the corpse were possible.
The sites of cremation and interment were as a
rule different: it is unusual to find the building of
a tumulus (burialmound) directly over the pyre.
In Athens chamber burials and cist graves
were predominant. Rural Attica exhibited
tholoi and burials as well. Research on the
connection between demes, cemeteries, and
politics are in progress (see below).
DARK AGES; FURTHER GRAVE TYPES
Cremation seems to have been used more often
than burial in the so-called Dark Age of Greece,
especially in Argos and on Crete. Lefkandi
(2009) has a famous example of a tumulus
over a megaron, which served as the grave of a
man and a woman. The man was cremated and
his ashes were stored in an urn. The womanwas
buried. Both have numerous burial objects,
among other things four horses and luxury
goods from the Near East, which demonstrates
the restoration of economic relations in the
Aegean area.
A large number of burials in Attica, both in
Athens and in some of the rural demes, allow us
to track the development of burial practice,
which is also illustrated in the ceramic
evidence. In the Protogeometric period, about
1100–900 BCE, cremation prevails; in the Geo-
metric period, about 900–750, burial became
more important, with cemeteries near the
gates of the city. The graves could be marked
by a tumulus, a tombstone, or a vase. Some of
these vases, or kraters, have pictures of the first
part of every burial, the prothesis (the laying
out). The second part, the ekphora (funeral
procession), was rarely depicted, and the actual
interment never. Grave goods include models
of animals, pomegranates, and commercial
Figure 1 Slab of a cist grave depicting a scene of
prothesis, National Archaeological Museum, Paes-
tum. © Photo Scala, Florence. Courtesy of the
Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1212–1216.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah22043
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pottery. The burials in the Kerameikos near the
Dipylon gate increased, but the grave goods
decreased with the beginning of the Archaic
period (see KERAMEIKOS, ATHENS).
ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREECE
Morris (1987) spent much effort on the anal-
ysis of the number of burials in Athens in the
archaic age. He concluded that “formal burial”
was limited to the aristocratic elite in about
1050–750 and 700–600. The dependent peas-
ants had an “informal disposal,” that is, they
were not buried in cemeteries like the
Kerameikos. But there are other explanations
for the decline in the number of graves on a
single plot (Bergemann 1999, Patterson 2006).
Furthermore, Morris explains the higher
number of burials in 750–700 with the devel-
opment of the polis. The right of a “formal
burial” should create a community of citizens,
Morris insists. Other scholars reject the idea of
“citizen cemeteries.”
Another way of analyzing Greek burial in the
Archaic Age is to look at Homeric epic, which
describes the rituals of a society ruled by war-
riors, basileis. Homer does not describe the
burial of ordinary people, but splendid burials
including quite exceptional elements, for
example, the ritual slaughter at the graveside
of Patroklos (Hom. Il. 23.175ff). Funeral games
for the dead are restricted to the highest mem-
bers of the aristocracy; in addition to Homer’s
example of Patroklos, AMPHIDAMAS of Chalkis
could be mentioned, whose son organized a
poetical contest which was won by Hesiod
(Hes. op. 654–62).
Rituals of prothesis have been well docu-
mented since the Archaic Age. After death the
eyes of the deceased were closed. An obol
was placed in the mouth, the fee for Charon,
the ferry-man of the underworld (see HADES).
The corpse was washed and received the
appropriate clothing (e.g., a wedding dress
for an unmarried girl or a recently married
female). Additionally, the laid-out corpse was
decorated with garments, branches, or a
crown. The location of the ekphora could be
in the house or in the courtyard. Female
mourners raised their hands to their head
and tore their hair, male ones directed one
hand to the head. Apart from gestures, the
mourners sang laments, rituals that satisfied
the soul of the dead. The deposition took
place in one of the ways mentioned above.
After the burial proper a banquet
(perideipnon) was held.We do not have detailed
knowledge of the burial of common people, but
in every case religious rites had to be fulfilled in
a defined order; otherwise it was a sacrilege.
On the third, ninth, and thirtieth days after
death, three ritual forms of commemoration
were usual: the feeding of the dead, a drink-
offering (libation) for the gods, and the decora-
tion of the stele. The second rite involved the
production of lekythoi, white vases for the oil to
be sacrificed. A large number of such lekythoi,
showing scenes of funerary cults, are preserved.
At the annual festival of Genesia, families hon-
ored their deceased members (Herodotus 4.26).
Whenever someone was about to take up
office in Athens, the fulfillment of burial rites
for the parents was scrutinized (see DOKIMASTES,
DOKIMASIA).
Burial is an important theme in Greek
mythology and literature. Oedipus, Ajax, and
Alcestis are subjects of Greek tragedy. The per-
formance of tragic suicide (made a theme
of tragedy by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Soph-
ocles) completes our idea of Greek burial.
Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle also
wrote extensively about death (for literary
sources see Boardman and Kurtz 1971: 360).
Epidemics like the plague at the start of the
Peloponnesian war, on the other hand, fostered
careless burials, just as the war in general
caused a kind of anomie (Thuc. 2.53.1).
A mass grave was found in Kerameikos. DNA
analysis of the bones, and especially of the
teeth, suggests that the deceased died from
typhus (Papagrigorakis et al. 2006).
In the fourth century BCE stelae, or relief
gravestones, were allowed again; many grave
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plots with relief gravestones adorn the roads of
the Kerameikos. Funeral orations by Isocrates,
Lycurgus, Lysias, Demosthenes, and Hyperides
enrich our knowledge of Athenian burial.
FUNERAL LEGISLATION:
SUMPTUARY LAWS
It is not clear whether Solon passed laws
regulating burial in Athens. The historicity
of some Solonian laws remains doubtful. In
the present instance, the law is referred to by
Pseudo-Demosthenes (Or. 42.62) and Plutarch
(Sol. 21): the prothesis is limited to one day
and the corpse has to be interred on the fol-
lowing day before sunrise. Only close relatives
were allowed to take part in the ekphora; wives
could only attend if they were more than sixty
years old. Ornaments and grave goods were
limited as well. These regulations are authentic,
but one has to consider whether they actually
reflect a law of the early sixth or fifth century
BCE. Bernhardt (2003: 72–8) assumes a connec-
tionwith the laws of succession practiced in the
fourth century. In late archaic Athens funerary
art and luxurious burials represented aristo-
cratic competition. Whether the Solonian law
is a sign of a more democratic approach
remains doubtful.
In the fourth century the enforcement of
sumptuary legislation in Athens was relaxed;
gravestones decorated with reliefs were created
in large numbers. Dexileos, who died in the
Corinthian war (inscription: O&R 7), is shown
as a cavalryman. Single graves are an exception,
and family burial is typical on the Kerameikos.
Many reliefs show scenes from family life
(Bergemann 1997).
Demetrios of Phaleron, Macedonian gover-
nor in Athens and eponymous archon in
309/308, regulated burials in the Solonian
tradition. He forbade extended ekphorai and
limited the costs of stelae. The activities of
women were controlled by a GYNAIKONOMOS.
Needless to say, Demetrios justified his deeds
in various texts (Cic. Leg. 2.66).
PUBLIC FUNERALS
The public funeral in Athens is quite well
documented. It might have begun after the
Athenian losses in the battle of Drabeskos
(465 BCE, Jacoby 1944). Thucydides explains
the situation after the first defeat in the
Peloponnesian war in 430:
Having erected a tent, they lay out the bones of
the dead three days before, and each one brings to
his own relative whatever [funeral offering] he
pleases. When the funeral procession takes place,
cars convey coffins of cypress wood, one for
each tribe; in which are laid the bones of every
man, according to the tribe to which he belonged;
and one empty bier is carried, spread in honor of
the missing, whose bodies could not be found to
be taken up. Whoever wishes both of citizens and
strangers, joins in the procession; and their female
relatives attend at the burial to make the wailings.
They lay them then in the public sepulcher, which
is in the fairest suburb of the city, and in which
they always bury those who have fallen in the wars
(except, at least, those who fell at Marathon; but
to them, as they considered their valor distin-
guished above that of all others, they gave a burial
on the very spot). (Thucydides 2.34, transl. Henry
Dale 1855)
For public funerals the Solonian regulationswere
suspended. A longer prothesis and a splendid
funeral procession, described by Thucydides,
were organized by the Athenian state. The war
dead were buried with the deceased from the
same tribe. They were returned as they had
gone away, in the tribal order, in their phyle.
The Athenians invented the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier, which spread over the whole
world in the twentieth century. In contrast to
private funerals, all inhabitants of Attica could
join the ekphora, not only the relatives.
Following the text above, Thucydides relates
a funeral oration by Perikles (2.35–46), the
historicity of which is not undisputed. Has he
modeled the speech after the historic oration?
It seems more probable that Thucydides
created the speech to demonstrate Athenian
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cultural authority, for it differs markedly from
other speeches of this genre.
A list of the war dead was presented in the
Agora, a place full of memorials like the epony-
mous heroes or the painted Stoa. The heroon,
or shrine, of Theseus is especially interesting in
the context of burials. The bones of the hero
were brought (ca. 475) to the Agora, where
there was a cult to him in the Theseion (see
HERO CULT).
Two public war memorials remained in
Attica near MARATHON and PLATAIA. Every year
the festival of Epitaphia remembered the war
dead. Also outside of Attica public funerals
were celebrated, for example, after the battle
of Chaeronea (338 BCE; see CHAERONEA, BATTLE
OF). The ethnic affiliation of the 254 dead is
disputed to this day; Pausanias (9.40.10)
assumed it was the burial of the Thebans, but
others think it was Macedonian war dead
(Boardman and Kurtz 1971: 248; Ma 2008).
HELLENISM
In Hellenistic times monarchic rule pre-
dominated, but details of the royal funerals
are seldom mentioned. The disposal of the
body of a king necessitated a dynastic tomb.
Macedonian kings, from Philip II, were buried
in grave-chambers in Vergina (see AIGAI). It is
quite possible that the one-eyed skull found in
the tomb is that of Philip. The remains of
Alexander were mummified in preparation
for transport from Babylon to Vergina. Follow-
ing the quarrel between Perdikkas and
Ptolemay the spectacular procession (Diod.
Sic. 18.26–8) was redirected to Alexandria in
Egypt. The funeral car fuses Greek andOriental
elements. The place of interment, however,
remains an open question. The mummifica-
tion of Alexander, moreover, is an exception
which has to dowith Egyptian tradition and, of
course, his death abroad.
Demetrios of Phaleron regulated Athenian
burials through limiting the costs of stelae. We
have numerous funerary inscriptions from
Hellenistic Athens, but rarely with reliefs.
Far from central Greece we find some inno-
vations in funerary art. Mausolos of Caria
(satrap 377–353) planned for himself and his
wife Artemisia a spectacular public tomb in
Halikarnassos, the Mausoleion, ranking among
the seven WONDERS OF THE WORLD. Hellenistic
grave monuments of various kinds are pre-
served around Pergamon. Graves in rows,
sarcophagi, and tumuli show the variance
between burials of the poor and the rich.
The Roman ambassador Scipio Nasica died
in Pergamon and was buried there in 133/132
(inscription: IstMitt 29: 1979: 309ff). Greek
influence on Roman funerals is especially to
be noticed in funerary art, for example, the
mausoleum of Augustus, which was similar to
monumental graves in Asia Minor like the
Mausoleion in Halikarnassos.
Burial according to the ancient rituals was
extremely important for the Greeks. To be bur-
ied with religious rites was necessary for the
salvation of the soul. The Greeks rank with the
Etruscans and Egyptians in burial customs,
although aristocratic societies often have to
confront sumptuary laws, as did democratic
Athens, which reserved public funerals for
fallen soldiers.
SEE ALSO: Death, ancient Near East; Funerary
cult, Greek; Funerary inscriptions, Christian.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Bergemann, J. (1997) Demos und Thanatos.
Untersuchungen zum Wertesystem der Polis im
Spiegel der attischen Grabreliefs des 5. und 4. Jhs. v.
Chr. und zur Funktion der gleichzeitigen
Grabbauten. Munich.
Bergemann, J. (1999) “Graber, Grabbauten,
Grabbezirke: Nekropolen und Geschichte 10
Jahre nach ‘Burial and Ancient Society.’”
Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen
Instituts. Athenische Abteilung
114: 39–48.
Bernhardt, R. (2003) Luxuskritik und
Aufwandsbeschrankungen in der griechischen
Welt. Stuttgart.
Boardman, J. and Kurtz, D. (1971) Greek burial
customs. London.
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Garland, R. (2001) The Greek way of death, 2nd ed.
Ithaca.
Jacoby, F. (1944) “Patrios nomos: state burial in
Athens and the public cemetery in the
Kerameikos.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 64:
37–66.
Jung, M. (2006) Marathon und Plataiai. Gottingen.
Lefkandi (2009) “The protogeometric building
and the cemetery of Toumba.” [online]
[Accessed March 3, 2011.] Available from http://
lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html.
Liddel, P. (2007) Civic obligation and individual
liberty in ancient Athens. Oxford.
Ma, J. (2008) “Chaironeia 338: topographies of
commemoration.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 128:
72–91.
Morris, I. (1987) Burial and ancient society.
The rise of the Greek city-state. Cambridge.
Papagrigorakis, M. J. et al. (2006) “DNA
examination of ancient dental pulp incriminates
typhoid fever as a probable cause of the Plague of
Athens.” International Journal of Infectious
Diseases 10,3: 206–14.
Patterson, C. (2006) “‘Citizen cemeteries’
in Classical Athens?” Classical Quarterly 56:
48–56.
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