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MDS2/3 TGW
Ancient Greece
Death in Athens:
Egalitariansim in Life and Death
Gillian Shepherd Photo © Gillian Shepherd The Kerameikos (Athens)
Image Source Page: h7p://www.dainst.org/sites/default/files/media/abteilungen/athen/kerameikos_2011_Abb-­‐1.jpg The Kerameikos (Athens)
NB Sacred Way; Dipylon Gate; Pompeion
Burial Methods
Image not available for copyright reasons Child burials (enchytrismoi) in reused wine amphorae, 500-490 BC
(Kerameikos)
•  Inhumation
•  Cremation
•  Primary
•  Secondary
•  Enchytrismos
All the funeral ceremonies which used to be observed were
now disorganised and they buried the dead as best they
could… many people… adopted the most shameless
methods. They would arrive first at a funeral pyre which
had been made by others, put their own dead upon it and set
it alight; or, finding another pyre burning, they would throw
the corpse that they were carrying on top of the other one
and go away.
Thucydides II.52
Image Source Page: h7p://archive.archaeology.org/image.php?page=online/news/jpegs/kerameikos/kerameikos2.jpeg Kerameikos metro station site
Conjectured location of the demosion sema
The coffins are laid in the public sepulchre
(demosion sema)which is situated in the most
beautiful suburb of the city; there they always bury
those fallen in war, except indeed those who fell at
Marathon; for their valour the Athenians judged to
be pre-eminent and they buried them on the spot
where they fell (Thuc. 2.34)
Image not available for copyright reasons The Demosion Sema
See what strong evidence we have of this. In the
first place, you alone of all mankind publicly
pronounce over your dead funeral orations, in
which you extol the deeds of the brave. Such,
however, is the practice of men who admire
bravery, not of men who envy the honours that
bravery wins. Next, you have from time
immemorial given the richest rewards to those who
win crowns in the athletic games… no one, I think,
has ever surpassed our State in generosity; such a
superabundance of rewards has she heaped on
those who serve her well (Demosthenes 20.141,
Against Leptines)
[Thrasybolos’] tomb is here and beside it the tombs of Perikles,
Chabrias, Phormion. There is a memorial to all the Athenians
who died in battles at sea or on land except for those who fought
at Marathon. Their tomb is in that place, in honour of their
courage, but all the rest lie beside the road to the Academy;
tombstones stand on each grave to tell you each man’s name and
district…[the tomb of] Kleisthenes…those who fell at Corinth
(394 BC) lie here…Harmodios and Aristogeiton… Ephialtes…
Pausanias I.29
Image Source Page: h7p://www.greece-­‐athens.com/page.php?page_id=60 Excavations of the site identified as the demosion sema
(Salaminos St, Athens)
NB: polyandria
No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to
the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty…
We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than
as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be
ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical
measures to escape from it.
Thuc. 2.34 ff (Perikles’ funeral oration)
Photo © Gillian Shepherd Tumulus of the Athenians, Marathon (490 BC)
Image not available for copyright reasons Black-figure hydria from the Tumulus of the Athenians,
Marathon (c. 490)
Image Source Page: h7p://farm3.staMcflickr.com/2508/4188160558_db7bf567af_z.jpg Street of the Tombs, Kerameikos
Stele of Aristion,
Athens, late 6th cent. BC
Image source page: h7p://library.artstor.org/library/iv2.html?parent=true# 5th century Athenian grave markers
Image not available for copyright reasons Some time later [ie after Solon], on account of the size of the tombs which we see in the Kerameikos, it was decreed that no one should make a tomb which required the work of more than ten men in three days, and that no tomb should be decorated with plaster or have the so-­‐‑called “herms” set upon it
Cicero de Legibus II.26.64
D. Kurtz & J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (London, 1971) fig. 22 NB: opus tectorium; sumptuary legislation; see I. Morris, Death Ritual and Social Structure in
Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1995) esp. chpts 4 & 5)
Image not available for copyright reasons Corinthian sarcophagi
Victorian (19th cent.) funerals
NB “Expressive redundancy”
Image not available for copyright reasons Image source page: h7p://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7pZKDLU881Y/TR1At-­‐lmRJI/AAAAAAAAA7c/p97t7UBl2zQ/s1600/
hegeso_stele.jpg Stele of Hegeso
Late 5th cent. Image source page: h7p://archaeologyonlinejournal.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/11.png Stele of Ampharete
c. 420
Image Source Page: h7p://www.greece-­‐athens.com/pages_images/57.jpg Peribolos of Koroibos of Melite/
Sosikles son of Euthydemos of Eitea
(with Hegeso; all replicas)
Image Source Page: h7p://www.museumkennis.nl/sites/lp.rmo/contents/i000550/hoofdstuk1-­‐plaatje7.jpg Peribolos of Agathon and Sosikrates from Herakleia in the Pontos
Lysias, Against Diogeiton (32.21)
•  Diogeiton (in c. 409) supposed to have spent 5000 drachmas
on tomb for brother Diodotos
•  Instead he only spent half and kept the rest
•  Even if only 2,500 dr?
•  Cf 1dr = average days wage
(ie 5-7 years salary on a tomb?)
They shall not pile up a mound to a height greater than can
be made by five men in five days; nor shall they erect stone
pillars of a size more than is required to hold, at the most,
a eulogy of the dead man’s life consisting of not more than
four heroic lines…one ought never to spend extravagantly
on the dead… it is our duty to make a wise use of what we
have and to spend in moderation… Let this, then, be the law:
an expenditure on the whole funeral not exceeding five minas
for a man of the highest property class, three minas for one of
the second class, two for one of the third, and one mina for one
of the fourth class, shall be held to be moderate amounts.
Plato Laws XII.958-­‐‑9
Grave stele of Dexileos,
394/3 BC
“Dexileos son of Lysanias
in Thorikos, born in the
archonship of Teisander
[414/13 BC)]; one of the five
knights who fell at Corinth
in the archonship of
Euboulides [394/3 BC]”
Plus 2 monuments in the demosion sema
1. List of dead (Pau. 1.29.11)
2. Anthemion for the hippeis
Image Source Page: h7p://www.greece-­‐athens.com/pages_images/69.jpg Image Source Page: h7p://cdn4.vtourist.com/4/4122828-­‐street_of_tombs_Athens.jpg Dexileos Monument (replica), Street of the Tombs, Kerameikos
Image Source Page: h7p://blogs.usyd.edu.au/theoryandpracMce/Greece_2007%20038.jpg Alcibiades’ urn??
“Hipparete Daughter of Alcibiades from
Skambonidai”
Image Source Page: h7p://www.dainst.org/sites/default/files/media/abteilungen/athen/kerameikos_2011_Abb-­‐1.jpg Image not available for copyright reasons Athenian white ground lekythoi
Image Source Page: h7p://farm3.staMcflickr.com/2508/4188160558_db7bf567af_z.jpg Street of the Tombs, Kerameikos
Cf also periboloi known from Pireaus,
Rhamnous
Photo © Gillian Shepherd But Demetrios [of Phaleron] also tells us that pomp at funerals
increased again to about the degree which obtains for Rome
at present. Demetrios himself limited these practices by law…
He lessened extravagance not only by the provision of a penalty
for it but also by a rule in regard to the time of funerals; for he
ordered that corpses should be buried before daybreak. But he
also placed a limit upon newly erected monuments, providing
that nothing should be built above the mound of earth except
a small column no higher than three cubits (1.5m) or a table or
a basin, and he created a magistrate to oversee this legislation.
Cicero, de Legibus 2.66-67
Image Source Page: h7p://iconoclasm.dk/images/kerameikos.jpg Kioniskoi and trapezai (Kerameikos, not in situ)
NB name, patronymic, demotic
Photo © Gillian Shepherd