The Burial Customs of the Ancient Greeks

by Frank Pierrepont Graves

IX.
THE TOMBS.

Of the tombs themselves, the recent excavations have also made us acquainted with the construction and the varieties. Cumanudis[198], a Greek archæologist, now living at Athens, enumerates eight distinct types of tombs. His classification is rather too minute in some respects. For all practical purposes, there were four kinds of tombs, differing from each other in general form. They were variously known as (a) the stelae or shafts, (b) the kiones or columns, (c) the trapezae or square-cut tombs, and (d) the naidia [heroia] or temple-like structures. There were also tombs which were merely heaps of earth. These mounds were not, however, unimportant; for it was possible to display there a lavish expenditure. The tomb of Alyattes, the father of Crœsus, according to Herodotus[199], was six stadia in circumference, that is, about two-thirds of a mile. It was made entirely of earth, except a base formed of great stones, and was declared by Herodotus to be a monument of art, second to none but those of the Egyptians and the Babylonians. This mass was raised by merchants, laborers and young women who obtained their money in a questionable manner. On many of the white lecyths, the mound can be seen to exceed the height of the persons depicted[200]. In a dialogue of Lucian[201], Hermes and Charon, from the top of Parnassus and Oeta, piled one on the other, contemplate the world and that which attracts their attention in the cemeteries of the large cities are the heaps of earth, the pillars and the funeral pyramids.

The stelae proper were slabs of stone, standing upright in the ground. They were often made of marble[202]. The shape was frequently that of a little chapel, and they were usually of one piece, the upper part being designated the epithema[203]. This epithema was sometimes rounded like a coping tile, and sometimes fashioned like a gable. The latter form of the triangular arch was suggestive of a religious purpose and the attributing of divine honors to the dead, for this pediment belonged to the house of a deity. It was usually adorned with acanthus leaves, worked into arabesques, closely resembling those on the coffins[204]. The stele of a warrior, found in the Attic deme of Icaria during the excavations by the American School in February, 1888, has been an object of considerable interest to archæologists[205]. The slab of stone had been broken into three parts, but when compared with the well-known stele of Aristion, (found in 1838) the Icarian relief was found to correspond very closely with the older monument. The Icarian stele, when complete, must have been about eight feet high, and about a foot and a half wide at the base, tapering slightly as it rose. The figure is of a warrior in armor, holding an upright spear. There is unmistakable evidence that the details of the relief had been painted. The Lyseas stele (found in 1839) had a uniform surface, on which had been painted Lyseas, draped in a long himation, and engaged in pouring out a libation.

The stelae and the tombs were frequently adorned with reliefs in which the details were probably finished by painting. The chapel-like form was convenient for the artist in carving the relief, since this afforded a retreating background, and gave the figures the appearance of being within the chapel or temple.

A favorite subject was an idealistic representation of the dying scene[206]. The occupation of the deceased is also indicated, and a mounted horseman is cut in relief on the tomb of a knight who fell at Leuctra[207]; on the tomb of an athlete is seen his figure, with his strigil and dog[208]; one who had taken prizes for declamation, music, ball-throwing and ring-tossing is represented with a scroll, a lyre, the ball and the ring[209]. Many similar carvings and paintings have been recently discovered. Pausanias refers to this custom of decorating the tombs, and mentions the picture at Sicyon, on the monument of Xenodice, who died in child-birth, as particularly worthy of examination[210].

Many tomb-stones were evidently intended for general application, since the inscription sometimes fails to correspond in every respect with the relief, but other scenes were wrought out for the particular occasions on which they were erected. To this latter class must have belonged the monument at Athens[211], where the figures are of heroic size, representing a youth in the full vigor of early manhood, accompanied by an old man, leaning on a cane. In the hand of the young man is a stout club, an attendant is sleeping at his feet, while his dog is watchfully alert. There is no inscription to inform us who is commemorated by this monument, nor what artist has left this wonderful evidence of his genius and skill, but the subject is treated with marvellous vigor and grace.

The siren was a familiar figure on the tombstone either singly or in couples, signifying that, by their song, the dead were constantly lamented and the living consoled. A small tombstone in the Berlin Museum contains a lady engaged in her toilet with the assistance of an attendant maid and, above them, two sirens are engaged in playing, the one on the lyre and the other on the flute.

Very frequently the scene represented typifies the separation of the deceased from the relatives who stand sorrowfully about. To the Greek, there was a solemn dignity in death and that sentiment finds expression in these reliefs by the representation of the deceased as seated and rather larger than the other persons of the group. The nearest relative bids farewell to the seated figure by clasping hands. In the particulars that have been mentioned, the scene, in every instance, is nearly the same but, in other details great variety is introduced. Now, it is a husband who holds the hand of his departing wife while her sister stands by her side and the long sleeved servant is behind the chair resting her hand upon the back of it, as if ready to render instant service. Again a mother is going away from her little daughter and, at the moment of departure, has placed her arm tenderly about the child and bends sadly over her. The servant stands as usual behind the deceased. In another scene, the infant in the arms of one of the group would suggest that distressing incident in family history, the death of the young mother in, or near child-birth. In this group too, there remains the hand and long sleeve of the servant. In all these pictures, if it is a lady who is commemorated, she is represented as holding her veil in a peculiarly graceful manner, which occurs so frequently as to suggest a symbol of departure.

Some of the monuments present scenes of every day domestic life or of a lady engaged about her toilet. In a relief, found at Athens, some kind of a repast or feast is shown. A bearded man reclines upon a couch and holds a plate or saucer in his hand, his wife is seated at his feet and a naked cup-bearer is near at hand. A friend stands at the head of the couch and the dog lies under it.