Alexis Massey
January 29, 2003
Dr. Adams
English 102
Greek Death Ritual
Olympian religion was a public religion, whose main function was to integrate the individual into the community. “Funeral rites, and other rituals as well, strengthen social ties and reinforce the social structure of a group by calling forth feelings of togetherness and social solidarity”(Rehm,105). Death ritual in Greece varied through time and place, but some of the recurring features include: gifts to the dead, sacrifices at the grave, a banquet at the grave-site, a tomb marker (sema), and group mourning. Consisting of the laying out and mourning over the body, followed by a graveside meal and offerings and, sometimes, cremation, the funeral allowed the community to reaffirm its structure and beliefs.
The funeral ritual was a very dramatic scene involving “choral lament, weeping, rhythmic movement, and the cortege” (Danford, 107), brought together the family and the larger community: “they can define the social impact of a death and place the dead person and the survivors”(Danford, 107). The reactions and requirements of men and women differed throughout the funeral procession. The men entered from the right with their right arm raised which contrasts sharply with the “wild ecstasy of the women”(Alexiou, 7), who stand in varying attitudes and postures around the grave site. “The chief mourner usually clasps the head of the dead man with both hands, while the others may try to touch his hand, their own right hand stretched over him. Most frequently both hands are raised above the head, sometimes beating the head and visibly pulling at their loosed hair ” (Alexiou, 6). One painting actually shows the hair coming out. The violent tearing of the hair, face, and clothes were not just acts of uncontrolled grief, but “part of the ritual indispensable to lamentation involved movement as well as wailing and singing”(Alexiou, 6).