Ancient Greek funerary practices are attested
widely in the literature, the archaeological
record, and the art of ancient Greece.
Finds associated with burials are an important
source for ancient Greek culture, though Greek
funerals are not as well documented as those
of the ancient Romans.
== Mycenaean Period ==
The Mycenaeans practiced ritual burial of
the dead, and had highly consistent practices
in doing so.
The body of the deceased was prepared to lie
in state, followed by a procession to the
resting place, either a single grave or a
family tomb.
Processions and ritual laments are depicted
on burial chests (larnakes) from Tanagra.
Grave goods such as jewelry, weapons, and
vessels were arranged around the body on the
floor of the tomb.
Graveside rituals probably included libations
and a meal, since food and broken cups are
also found at tombs.
A tomb at Marathon contained the remains of
horses that may have been sacrificed at the
site after drawing the funeral cart there.
The Mycenaeans seems to have practiced secondary
burial, when the deceased and associated grave
goods were rearranged in the tomb to make
room for new burials.
Until about 1100 BC, group burials in chamber
tombs predominated among Bronze Age Greeks.Mycenaean
cemeteries were located near population centers,
with single graves for people of modest means
and chamber tombs for elite families.
The tholos is characteristic of Mycenaean
elite tomb construction.
The royal burials uncovered by Heinrich Schliemann
in 1874 remain the most famous of the Mycenaean
tombs.
With grave goods indicating they were in use
from about 1550 to 1500 BC, these were enclosed
by walls almost two and a half centuries later—an
indication that these ancestral dead continued
to be honored.
An exemplary stele depicting a man driving
a chariot suggests the esteem in which physical
prowess was held in this culture.
Later Greeks thought of the Mycenaean period
as an age of heroes, as represented in the
Homeric epics.
Greek hero cult centered on tombs.
== Archaic and Classical Greece ==
After 1100 BC, Greeks began to bury their
dead in individual graves rather than group
tombs.
Athens, however, was a major exception; the
Athenians normally cremated their dead and
placed their ashes in an urn.
During the early Archaic period, Greek cemeteries
became larger, but grave goods decreased.
This greater simplicity in burial coincided
with the rise of democracy and the egalitarian
military of the hoplite phalanx, and became
pronounced during the early Classical period
(5th century BC).
During the 4th century, the decline of democracy
and the return of aristocratic dominance was
accompanied by more magnificent tombs that
announced the occupants' status—most notably,
the vaulted tombs of the Macedonians, with
painted walls and rich grave goods, the best
example of which is the tomb at Vergina thought
to belong to Philip II of Macedon.
=== Funeral rites ===
A dying person might prepare by arranging
future care for the children, praying, and
assembling family members for a farewell.
Many funerary steles show the deceased, usually
sitting or sometimes standing, clasping the
hand of a standing survivor, often the spouse.
When a third onlooker is present, the figure
may be their adult child.
Women played a major role in funeral rites.
They were in charge of preparing the body,
which was washed, anointed and adorned with
a wreath.
The mouth was sometimes sealed with a token
or talisman, referred to as "Charon's obol"
if a coin was used, and explained as payment
for the ferryman of the dead to convey the
soul from the world of the living to the world
of the dead.
Initiates into mystery religions might be
furnished with a gold tablet, sometimes placed
on the lips or otherwise positioned with the
body, that offered instructions for navigating
the afterlife and addressing the rulers of
the underworld, Hades and Persephone; the
German term Totenpass, "passport for the dead,"
is sometimes used in modern scholarship for
these.
After the body was prepared, it was laid out
for viewing on the second day.
Kinswomen, wrapped in dark robes, stood round
the bier, the chief mourner, either mother
or wife, was at the head, and others behind.
This part of the funeral rites was called
the prothesis.
Women led the mourning by chanting dirges,
tearing at their hair and clothing, and striking
their torso, particularly their breasts.
The Prothesis may have previously been an
outdoor ceremony, but a law later passed by
Solon decreed that the ceremony take place
indoors.
Before dawn on the third day, the funeral
procession (ekphora) formed to carry the body
to its resting place.At the time of the funeral,
offerings were made to the deceased by only
a relative and lover.
The choai, or libation, and the haimacouria,
or blood propitiation were two types of offerings.
The mourner first dedicated a lock of hair,
along with choai, which were libations of
honey, milk, water, wine, perfumes, and oils
mixed in varying amounts.
A prayer then followed these libations.
Then came the enagismata, which were offerings
to the dead that included milk, honey, water,
wine, celery, pelanon (a mixture of meal,
honey, and oil), and kollyba (the first fruits
of the crops and dried fresh fruits).
Once the burial was complete, the house and
household objects were thoroughly cleansed
with seawater and hyssop, and the women most
closely related to the dead took part in the
ritual washing in clean water.
Afterwards, there was a funeral feast called
the perideipnon.
The dead man was the host, and this feast
was a sign of gratitude towards those who
took part in burying him.
=== Scenes from funerary steles ===
== Commemoration and afterlife ==
Although the Greeks developed an elaborate
mythology of the underworld, its topography
and inhabitants, they and the Romans were
unusual in lacking myths that explained how
death and rituals for the dead came to exist.
The ruler of the underworld was Hades, not
the embodiment of death/personification of
death, Thanatos, who was a relatively minor
figure.Performing the correct rituals for
the dead was essential, however, for assuring
their successful passage into the afterlife,
and unhappy revenants could be provoked by
failures of the living to attend properly
to either the rite of passage or continued
maintenance through graveside libations and
offerings, including hair clippings from the
closest survivors.
The dead were commemorated at certain times
of the year, such as Genesia.
Exceptional individuals might continue to
receive cult maintenance in perpetuity as
heroes, but most individuals faded after a
few generations into the collective dead,
in some areas of Greece referred to as "thrice-ancestors"
(tritopatores), who also had annual festivals
devoted to them.
== See also ==
Funeral oration (ancient Greece)
Greek underworld
Ancient Greek funerary vases
Kerameikos, site of an extensive cemetery
at Athens
Lekythos, a type of vessel holding oils or
liquids often used in connection with death
rites
Roman funerals and burial
Sit tibi terra levis
Seikilos epitaph
== References ==
