The Burial Customs of the Ancient GreeksGraves, Frank Pierrepont
History
The Burial Customs of the Ancient Greeks
Graves, Frank Pierrepont
Burial -- Greece; Greece -- Antiquities
Becker adds a more serious objection. He argues from a passage in which
Plato explains that the laying-out, the procession and the burial of a
deceased priest are different from those observed for other citizens;
and then mentions, among these differences, that the whole of his
funeral robe must be white[61]. Pausanias also remarks[62] that, when
Aristodemus dreams that his murdered daughter came to him and gave him
a golden crown and a white vestment, he believes the vision to portend
his death, since “it is the custom among the Messenians to bury the
most illustrious persons crowned and wrapped in a white garment.” If
we take those statements as correct readings, the only way to explain
the apparent exception to the general rule, is to note that the white
robe is, in each case, a mere incident among the peculiarities awarded
the mighty who have died, and the color, of itself, is not necessarily
extraordinary. But it is almost certain, in the case of Becker’s
citation, that he has taken an old reading, that has now been replaced
by a more satisfactory text. By the addition of another word, the
discrepancy disappears and the obviously correct rendering is, “and
let every one [of those who attended the funeral] wear a robe entirely
white[63].”
On the other hand, even if we should disregard the fact that black
seems usually to have been the color of the mourner’s dress, and the
necessary consequence that the shroud of the deceased could hardly have
been of the same color, we certainly still have other good authority
for supposing the dead person to have been robed in white.
Archilochus points one of his verses with a beautiful metaphor by
indirectly likening the whiteness of the ashes to which the corpse has
been reduced to the “pure robe” of death[64].
Artemidorus states clearly in his work on the interpretation of dreams
that the appearance to a sick man of “white garments indicates death,
because the dead are wont to be buried in white; while the black dress
prophesies safety, since not those who have died, but those who are in
mourning use the latter dress[65].” Finally, in the scene where the
Greeks prepare the body of Patroclus for burial, after drawing on some
underwear of fine linen, over all they cover the hero’s body with a
snowy funeral robe[66]. The Cean inscription directs that the dead
be wrapped in three white cloths[67]. Aeschines arraigns Demosthenes
because he appeared in a white garment when he should have been in
mourning for his only daughter[68].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account