death and burial

• Preparation of the body (Greece)

  1. Eyes and mouth are closed

  2. Washed, perfumed, dressed in a white shroud

  3. Coin (for the ferryman Charon) is placed on the mouth
• Prothesis (laying out) (Greece)


  1. Lasted for 2 days

  2. Family + friends would pay their respects

  3. A bowl of water was placed outside so people could wash themselves on leaving (religious pollution)

  4. Women would play a big role in the lament (expression of grief) - cut their hair, wear shabby black clothing, beat their chests
• Ekphora (carrying out) (Greece)


  1. Funerary procession to the burial ground

  2. Happened at dawn on the 3rd day

  3. Family (men, women + children) would accompany the body

  4. An aulos (flute/pipe) player also accompanied them
• Burial (Greece)

  • Outside the city → avoiding spread of religious pollution and disease
  • Body buried or (more often) cremated
  • Family may place more gifts aiding the dead on their journey
  • If family was wealthy enough, a stele may have been arranged
• Stele


  A slab of stone carved with a pattern/image as a gravestone, also preserved the memory and honoured the loved one
• Cremation (Greece)

  1. A pyre was built (heap of logs for body)

  2. Bones + ash from the middle of the pyre, in urn, given to the family

  3. Urn was placed in a grave/shrine
• Sacrifice (Greece)

  A sacrifice would be performed after the burial → blood of the animal was released onto the earth as an offering to Hades and Persephone
• Mourning (Greece)

  1. 30 days

  2. Required days family had to visit: 3rd, 9th, 13th

  3. After that the family visited on a yearly basis
• Anthesteria (3 days) (Greece)


  1. Day 1: wine from previous years opened, libations poured to Dionysus

  2. Day 2: drinking contests, libations on ancestors graves

  3. Day 3: dedicated to the dead; offerings made to Hermes; no food eaten by the living; dead returned to underworld
• Genesia (1 day) (Greece)


  1. Athenians decorated ancestors grave with ribbons

  2. Offerings and food and blood sacrifice to honour the dead
• Burial (Rome)

  • Mostly same as Greeks
  • The wealthy → buried in tombs by roads to allow passers to pay respects
• Burial clubs (Rome)


  Pay a monthly fee to join the club, club would pay for funeral ensuring their death wasn't forgotten, members may be buried in a club tomb/burial ground, clubs also met for meals and gatherings, providing social connections
• Preparation (Rome)

  Same as Greeks, except relative would kiss the (dead) person
• Funeral (Rome)

  1. Took place 8 days after death

  2. Variety of people → flute + horn players, male + female relatives

  3. Wax masks made of the dead relatives and brought to wear during family funerals → symbolising the appearance of deceased into afterlife by ancestors

  4. Some families paid for professional mourners → increasing importance
• Parentalia (9 days) (Rome)


  1. Day 1: public sacrifice by Vestal Virgins

  2. Day 2-8: gift offerings given at the ancestors tombs'

  3. Day 9: family meal - reconciliation
• Lemuria (3 days) (Rome)


  Midnight ritual every night: 1. Make sign, 2. Purification, 3. Throw black beans over shoulder without looking, 4. Say incantation 9 times, 5. Purification and beating of bronze, 6. Order spirits to leave, look back