Rituals in stone: early Greek grave epigrams and monuments

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to increase our understanding of what archaic verse epitaphs meant to contemporary readers. Section I suggests their fundamental message was praise of the deceased, expressed in forms characteristic of poetic encomium in its broad, rhetorical sense, i.e., praise poetry. In section II, the conventions of encomium in the epitaphs are compared to the iconographic conventions of funerary art. I conclude that verse inscriptions and grave markers, not only communicate the same message of praise, but do so in a formally parallel manner. Section III, drawing on Pindar as a preserver of archaic thinking, attributes the parallelism between verse epitaph and grave marker to their common debt to funerary ritual. The epigrams will be seen to share with their monuments the goal of memorializing this ritual.

Θεσσαλίᾳ στέφανον τεύχων: Epinician motifs in Theotimos’ funerary Epigram ('CEG' 637)

“…We are no longer in the world of the Homeric epos, where warriors faced each other on the battlefield mostly in single combat, but in the world of the polis-state, where hoplites collaborated together in close and permanent formation to bring down 4 For the relation between elegy, inscribed epigram and funerary oration, see Gentili (1968) and Loraux (1981). For a detailed analysis of these topics, see also Day (1989); Köhnken (2007); González González (2019), etc. 6 For the preservation of the hero's fame through a tomb, cf.…”

L’‘epitafio’ di Argo. Osservazioni sul lessico funerario in Hom. Od. 17.291-327

“…302-304, che mostrano Argo nell'atto di scodinzolare, abbassare le orecchie e tentare invano di correre incontro a Odisseo -può morire in pace. I versi a lui dedicati lo elevano pertanto al rango di eroe, non solo per il suo valore nella caccia ricordato da Eumeo, ma soprattutto perché è l'unico personaggio del poema a riconoscere Odisseo senza bisogno di alcuna 32 Richiamiamo a tale proposito la funzione dell'epitafio iscrizionale come testimonianza e riassunto del rito funebre per quanti non vi hanno preso parte: Day (1989), Rossi (1999: 29-32).…”

Nature, culture and the body in classical Greek religious art

“…Archaic cemeteries shared many visual features with contemporary sanctuaries: little temples or naiskoi, kouroi and korai, sphinxes (Karusos 1961: 30ff.). Funerary laments, echoed in the vocabulary of the inscriptions on the bases of tomb statues, memorialized the deceased in a vocabulary which assimilated him to the mythic heroes of the Trojan wars, more immediate epigony of the gods from whom the members of aristocratic families liked to claim descent (Alexiou 1974;Day 1989). Funerary laments, echoed in the vocabulary of the inscriptions on the bases of tomb statues, memorialized the deceased in a vocabulary which assimilated him to the mythic heroes of the Trojan wars, more immediate epigony of the gods from whom the members of aristocratic families liked to claim descent (Alexiou 1974;Day 1989).…”