Elizabeth Dean Y11 (London)
Ancient Greek burial customs are attested in literature, archaeological evidence and art. The only methods of burial native to and normally practised by either classical culture was inhumation or cremation. The ancients were certainly aware of other practises -Herodotus for one describes with remarkable accuracy the Egyptian process of mummification (2.86-88)- but never adopted these. The choice between an inhumation or cremation does not seem to have hinged on differing religious belief but instead perhaps on racial difference, economy, the fashion-of-the-time or simply personal preference.
The essential element was that the body should be covered with earth. This was to hide the body from the celestial gods, whose concern they were no longer, and since it was believed a body must be buried for that person to enter the underworld. Indeed, burial was a universal act o piety only denied certain criminals or suicides. For the ancient Greeks, three handfuls of earth would suffice a ceremonial burial; for instance, Antigone scatters a thin layer of earth over Polyneices body. Contrast against the Romans; a buried body was one where no bones showed above the ground.
Minoan and Mycenaean burial customs
Unfortunately evidence surrounding Minoan and Mycenaean burials is scant. The Minoans preferred burial to cremation and placed the body or ashes into a decorated larnax. Larnakes were a type of small coffin used for storing human remains; either the body bent double or ashes. Larnakes are first found in the Minoan period. They were made of ceramic to imitate a wooden chest and were richly decorated with abstract patterns, cult practices and animals such as octopodes. It has been suggested that they are an imitation of the Egyptian linen chest. Larnakes rose in popularity again in later Hellenistic period. Singular burial was the norm and these burials consist much of the physical evidence for Minoan culture
The early Mycenaean Greeks -immortalised into the age of heroes as in the Iliad- seem to have practised burial of the dead consistently. The body of the deceased was placed to lie in state, (a practise where official’s bodies were laid down in state building to allow the public to pay their respects), before a procession to a single grave or family tomb and burial. Goods, such as jewellery, and rituals were placed with the body. Discovery of broken plates and food suggest the performance of graveside libations and meals. Mycenaean laments and processions have been found detailed on Larnakes from Tanagra. The Mycenaeans also practised secondary burial. The tomb would be reopened and rearranged to allow another body to be buried. Such shared tombs predominated until 1100BC.
Archaic and Classical Greece
After 1100BC individual tombs became widespread; Athens was the exception where cremation and the placing of ashes into a funerary urn was the norm. Ancient Greek funeral rites can be broken down into three distinct sections; prothesis, ekphora and perideipnon.
Prothesis: This was the laying out and display of the body for formal mourning. Female relatives washed, anointed and dressed the body in clothes befitting the person’s status in life. A talisman or coin was sometimes placed on the deceased’s mouth eyes. This was ‘Charon’s Obol’, a payment to Charon,(the ferryman of the underworld), to convey the person’s psyche to the world of dead. The body was then displayed so that relatives and friends could pay their respects and formal mourning began. There was a stark distinction between the formal mourning practises ascribed to men and women. Women stood close to the body and expressed great, frightening emotion. Lead by a chief mourner -the mother or wife- they lamented through chanting dirges, tearing their hair and clothes and beating their breasts. Men are typically portrayed in art as standing at a distance. Stoic. Detached. At the mythical funeral of Patroclus, (described by Homer in the Iliad), Achilles is the chief mourner. Patroclus’ body is wrapped, anointed and formally bewailed by women.
Ekphora: The transportation of the body to the site of internment in a procession or ‘ekphora’. The ekphora took place at night and was accompanied by the ringing cries of mourners. Then cremation or inhumation took place. Little is known about the actual acts of burning and/or burying the body because this is rarely portrayed in art. In the funeral of Patroclus, his body is carried to a large pyre by a procession of warriors in full armour. As he burned, Achilles and a few select other watched through the night. In the morning, beasts were slaughtered and, together with other food-offerings, animal and human sacrifices were laid about the body presumably to accompany him in the underworld. The ashes are then quenched with wine and the bones gathered into an urn. A heap of earth was piled over the urn; such a barrow was often marked with a post or similar. Tradition has it that Achilles was later cremated and his ashes mixed with those of Patroclus.
Perideipnon: The internment was followed by a commemorative banquet usually held in the deceased’s home. Sacrifices were made at the tomb on the third, ninth, thirtieth day and one year after death as well as during festivals.
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