FIG. 148. DIPYLON VASE
FIG. 149. ATHENIAN TOMB LEKYTHOI
The greatest number of funeral scenes are found on the white Athenian lekythoi of the fifth century and later, which were made to be placed about the bier, in the tomb, or around the monument. One of those in Case L in the Fifth Room is painted in colors with a scene of mourners beside a funeral couch, treated in a later style. Other typical scenes are the farewell of the dead to his family as if for a long journey, and the care of the tomb by surviving relatives. Most of the vases in Cases L and F in the Fifth Room are decorated with variations of these two themes ([fig. 149]). Early in the morning of the second or third day after death the body was carried on the couch out of the city gates for burial or cremation. The funeral procession is represented on the lower bands of the Dipylon vases, or it may be that the horses and chariots are intended to suggest the funeral games, which were celebrated in early times after the death of a man of rank.
FIG. 150. MARBLE LEKYTHOS
FIG. 151. ETRUSCAN FOCOLARE
The loutrophoros is a vase associated especially with the funeral procession. These long-necked jars were used in the marriage ceremonies to bring water for the ceremonial bath of the bridegroom and the bride; and in the case of the death of a betrothed person, a loutrophoros was carried in the funeral procession and set up on the grave. One of these vases will be found in Case R in the Third Room. If the body was disposed of by cremation the ashes were placed in a jar, usually of stone or pottery. In Cases P, R, and T in the Seventh Room are a number of pottery jars which were used to hold the ashes of Greeks who died at Alexandria. Some of them are marked with the name of the deceased and the position of the jar in the cemetery. It was usual to erect tombs along the roads leading from the city gates, the sculptured tablets bordering the highway on either side, interspersed with trees, and sometimes accompanied by stone seats erected by families for the use of those members who came to tend the graves. Greek grave monuments are frequently very beautiful, and are characterized by fine taste and restraint in the expression of feeling, as well as by the absence of painful or shocking suggestion. There are a number of examples in the Sculpture Gallery. The marble lekythos is an example of a common type of monument ([fig. 150]). Another form is the lofty tablet with painted or sculptured akroterion (see [tail-piece, p. 131]), such as Nos. 6 and 5A in the Sculpture Gallery and the stele in the Third Room. Examples of tablets with sculptured figures are Nos. 4, 7, 10, 30, and 59 in the Sculpture Gallery and the stele of a young man in the Sixth Room. On these monuments the dead is represented alone in a quiet pose, with some article or utensil suggesting his favorite occupation or manner of life; or as taking leave of his family ([fig. 152]). In Rooms 21, 22, and 23 in the Gallery of Casts are reproductions of some of the most beautiful and best known of the Greek grave stelai. Several painted stones from the cemetery near Alexandria will be found in two cases in the Vestibule. The Cesnola Collection contains a number of Cypriote grave monuments inscribed with Greek formulas of farewell. These are in Cases 6 to 12, 14, and 15 in the corridor.