Running head: DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

An Overview of the Context of Death and the Practice of Funerary Rites in Ancient Greek
Tradition
Justine Vince A. de Dios
University of the Philippines Manila

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

The research paper aims to exposit three key foci: a) the context of death and the afterlife;
b) the events that occur before, during, and after the funerary process and rites; c) and the
religious and/or mythological, and legislative grounds of these funerary rites according to
Ancient Greek tradition. Aside from this primary objective, the author personally aims to not
only share his knowledge on the subject matter, but to also broaden it. The reason for this is that
he has taken profound interest on the culture of the Ancient Greeks. It should be noted that the
information collated on this paper is only an overview of the subject matter.
Before even any funerary rite is commenced, the first event that must happen is the
occurrence of death itself. By definition, it is when the vital functions of a living organismor a
human being for this mattercease permanently, thus ending its life. Death can occur at any
time within a humans life and in any means possible. It is not always death by old age. Some
may not be that lucky enough to live for a very long time. Death may happen in the form of
natural causes or illnesses, in which heart disease and cancer are most commonly associated as of
recent. Murder, suicide, and accidents are other means of death.
During the era when the supernatural was more widely believed in, the Ancient Greeks
saw death as the departure of a persons psyche or soul, and not much on how the physical body
ceased to exist. The psyche, which was likened to a breath or puff of wind, leaves the body via
the mouth or, if appropriate, via an open war wound (Retief & Cilliers, 2006, p. 44). It was
through this last exhalation of breath that the soul was finally released from its physical body. As
opposed to Western tradition, until complicating distinctions between somatic and molecular
death began to cloud the issue (Garland, 2001, p. 13), the Ancient Greeks did not see death as
much of an instantaneous event. Moreover, they did not only relate it with the dying person. In
normal circumstances death, funerary rites and expressions of mourning follow a highly rigid

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

pattern. In order to ensure that death was completed properly, multiple ritual stages were
required of the deceaseds relatives (Brown, 2013, p. 111).
Along with its general definition as the cessation of life, death was considered by the
Ancient Greeks to be polluting or contaminating. Sometimes, this kind of pollution was
called a miasma. Its basic context was stated in 2006 by Retief and Cilliers as follows:
The idea that death (like birth) involved a form of cultural/religious contamination for
those involved was general in the ancient world, although its precise scope varied from
area to area and from time to time. This contamination was not based primarily on
considerations of hygiene, but on the view that the act was repulsive to the gods. Thus
births and deaths were not permitted in holy places such as temples, or on the island of
Delos. Precisely how such contamination affected individuals is not always clear, but it
was believe to prevent their contact with the gods until the appropriate purification had
been undergone. (p. 48)
It could be inferred from this statement that the so-called pollution of death was more of a
spiritual concern, rather than what was stated as considerations of hygiene. It was more than
likely that these people highly regarded life and as such found death a miasmic and, to greater
extents, even a disrespectful act to the supernatural entities that they worshipped. However, death
itself was not always the sole reason of this kind of pollution. Instead, as Gabriel argues (as cited
in Parker, 2008) is often attributed to a single individual (e.g. Oedipus, Creon or Orestes) who
has offended a deity by defiling a sacral command or by breaking a vow. In Sophocless Theban
trilogy, Oedipus brings to Thebes through his unwitting transgressions of parricide and incest
(p. 2). Not only did Oedipus bring desolation upon the citys residents, but he also crossed
Thebes patron deity, Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

Dionysus was just one among countless deities worshipped in Ancient Greece.
Hellenism, the main religion of the Ancient Greeks, was one of the most known in the world.
The extensity and vividness of its traditions and myths have been the subject of various forms of
art, literature, and media since antiquity. Hellenism was a polytheistic religion that had an
enormous pantheon of gods and goddesses whom the Ancient Greeks believed to have governed
over the different aspects of their lives. Hades, one of the recognized figures in Hellenism, was
the sovereign of the darkest and loneliest region of the universe: the Underworld. Many Ancient
Greeks feared his realm, for it contained the souls of the dead, the most atrocious of monsters,
and the most horrifying of tortures that awaited the wicked. Despite the seemingly bad reputation
he garnered from mortals and gods alike, it was with no doubt that Hades had great power of his
own. He governed over death, the dead, and even the wealth hidden deep beneath the Earth.
Nonetheless, it wasnt exactly him who reaped the souls of the deceased. It was Thanatos,
the personification of death. He may be not as well-known as his master, but his most prominent
appearance was in Homers The Iliad when he was sent with his brother, Hypnos (Sleep), to
carry off Sarpedons body from the battlefield. As translated by Kline (2009), Apollo promptly
obeyed his fathers words, speeding towards the sound of bitter conflict from the heights of Ida.
At once he bore noble Sarpedon far from the war, bathed, anointed and clothed him, and give
him over to Sleep and Death to carry to the broad rich Lycian lands (para. 215). Although his
role as the agent of death was not explicitly stated in the Iliad, Thanatosor Death, as he was
also calledwas repeatedly likened to a black cloud that cloaked and embraced the dying. As
a matter of fact, the legend of the infamous Grim Reaper may have been inspired by the god.
Their most common attribute was the scythe or sickle, an implement used to harvest the souls

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

of the dead and dying. Nevertheless, the Ancient Greeks mostly attributed the inverted torch to
their god of death.
By the time Hellenism was a widespread belief in Ancient Greece, various funerary
practices, especially those that concerned burial, were already performed. In the Early Iron Age,
single burials were the norm in Attica marking a break with the multiple burials practice of the
Bronze Age (Hermary, 2012, p. 367). Surprisingly, it was discovered that from the
Protogeometric period until the 8th century BC, cremation was a more prevalent form of funerary
practice at the time. Just like in modern times, the ashes of the cremated corpse were placed in an
urnor amphorae for the Greeksand then interred. By the 8th century BC, inhumations
became increasingly popular, especially in the city of Athens. Inhumation was often conducted
on a magnificent scale, with the dead being laid out on a wooden kline covered in splinters of
ivory and pieces of amber, as explained by Garland (as cited in Donnison, 2009). Around the
same time, the dead were buried inside and outside the city walls. As the centuries passed,
almost all graves were eventually moved out. During the Classical era (from the 4 th to the 3rd
century BC), Retief and Cilliers (2006) claimed that:
Grave structures became simple and more uniform; the incidence of cremation decreased
markedly and it was performed less efficiently. In the grave, corpses were now often
covered with tents of tiles piled at an angle rather than with layers of stone or wood,
while metal containers were used instead of ceramic urns. (p. 57)
In the archetypal Ancient Greek funerary rite, it was commenced with the preparation of
the deceaseds body or prothesis. Following the death of the person, the body was washed,
anointed with oil and perfumed, wrapped in a shroud and then laid out on the funeral kline which
served as the funeral bier. A lesser covering was also provided over the body (Hermary, 2012,

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

p. 365). When laid on the kline, the corpses feet must be facing the doorway of his or her house.
According to Plato (as cited in Retief & Cilliers, 2006), the corpse was left in this position long
enough (usually a day) to be sure that the person was indeed dead and to provide an opportunity
for the traditional respects to be paid (p .53). In a written work of Garland (as cited in Retief &
Cilliers, 2006), This task was usually performed by close female relatives over the age of sixty.
Forms of mummification were known but seldom used (p .53). Aside from usually restricting
the process to the elderly women, prothesis, by law, should be done indoors. Moreover, as stated
before, the house of the deceased was considered to be polluted. Therefore, the water used to
both wash the deceaseds body and the mourners must be collected from somewhere else. The
duration of the prothesis may vary between families and social statuses.
The second part of the funerary rites was the ekphora or funeral procession. While the
body was carried through the streets of the polis, either by a horse-drawn cart or hired corpsebearers, the men walked ahead and led the procession. The women, on the other hand, followed.
However, unlike the men, they had restrictions in terms of age. It was stated by Demosthenes (as
cited in Stevanovi, 2009) that:
No woman less than sixty years of age shall be permitted to enter the chamber of the
deceased, or to follow the deceased when he is carried to the tomb, except those who are
within the degree of children of cousins. (p. 45)
Moreover, there were also rules regarding public lamentation and mourning during the ekphora.
According to Solonian law, such acts were prohibited, unless these were done during official
funerals. In addition, the ekphora must take place before sunrise. However, this legislation
seemed to be not standardized across Greece. In the case of funerals done in Athens, Kamen (as

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

cited in Donisson, 2009) stated that the procession was noisy and held during the day causing
significant disruption within the polis (p. 24).
Finally, after being carried along the streets, the body was finally exhumed or cremated.
During the burial, living sacrifices, food and drink, jewelry, weapons, and other goods were
offered at the grave. The sacrifices were usually in the form of animals, although humans were
also used. One such evidence was during the funeral rites of Patroclus. Achilles promised that he
would slit the throats of twelve fine youths of Troy to placate his anger. Moving on, the burial
was the time for the people present to express and sing their laments and dirges. According to
Holst-Warhaft (as cited in Donnison, 2009), the women were tearing their cheeks, baring their
breasts, and cutting their hair to express grief (p. 25). Coffins were already used to enclose the
body, aside from the traditional wrapped cloth. If cremation was opted by the deceaseds family
members, the ashes were also buried in the grave. Rites done after the burial, according to Cicero
(as cited in Retief & Cilliers, 2006), was stated as follows:
Grain was traditionally strewn over the grave after it had been filled in. It is generally
accepted that this could have formed part of the ta trita ceremony, which would be
repeated three days later and was followed by the drinking (choe) and pouring of
libations (spondai) for the gods. Gifts for the deceased were also left on or in the grave.
(p. 54)
Furthermore, the family went home to their oikos (or home) where they had a funeral meal called
perideipnon. The meal commemorated the life and praised the deeds of their deceased relative.
The perideipnon was a proof that the Ancient Greeks funerary rites were not merely marked by
grief and melancholy.

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

The Ancient Greeks believed that a proper burial must be done in order for the dead to
pass on successfully into the afterlife. One of their customs was the placing of a coin in the
deceased persons mouth. This coin, called Charons obol, was a symbolic and important item
that a soul must bring on their journey to the Underworld. According to myth, it must first
cross the River Styx, the body of water that separated the mortal world from the Underworld.
Waiting by the banks of the Styx was Charon, the godly ferryman that transported the souls of
the dead. In order to ride on his boat, the soul must offer the coin to him as payment or bribe.
Otherwise, the soul will not be able to pass on to the afterlife. Typically, those who did not cross
the Styx ended up wandering the Earth, appearing to people and demanding them of a proper
burial.
Upon crossing the River Styx, souls were judged based on the good and evil deeds they
have done while they were still alive. Neither social status nor material wealth could save them
from the verdict of the three judges of the Underworld: former kings Minos, Aiakos, and
Rhadamanthys. Souls could go in one of three places in the Underworld: Elysium, where the
good were blessed and rewarded; Asphodel, where those who did neither good nor evil wandered
aimlessly; and Tartarus (or Fields of Punishment in some versions), where the wicked were
punished for eternity.
The most known laws regarding funerary rites were implemented by the Athenian Solon.
His laws were primarily meant to address the concerns of possible cases of contamination,
especially on those who necessarily had to be polluted by death during the funerary process.
Donnison (2009) claimed that:
This was done by regulating who must or must not be return to the home after the burial
of the corpse, what elements of funerary apparatus must not be allowed to touch public

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

spaces, specific measures for the isolation and or cleansing of the deceaseds home and
relations. (p. 52)
Cleansing of the deceaseds home and those contaminated by death was done on the third day
after the funeral. They would wash with unpolluted water (i.e. from a source other than the
house). The house would be sprinkled with sea water, if possible, or with other unpolluted water,
and strewn with soil (Retief & Cilliers, 2006). Furthermore, the polis officials considered
lamenting or grieving, especially during the ekphora, as harmful to the city-state, for they
believed that the lamenters of the dead exuded madness. According to Brown (2013):
The performance of personal grief mirrors the sentimentality of death-pollution.
Although there was an acceptance of personal grief over the loss of a family member,
grief was tempered by an understanding of the inevitability of death. Public grief was not
a long-lasting trauma that overtook a person indefinitely but was highly controlled and
channeled into a ritualistic outpouring. (pp. 111-112)
As a preventive measure, the polis officials created laws that regulated the mourning of the
people, especially those that came from women, during funerary processions. Examples of acts
prohibited through these laws were the laceration of skin, beating of breasts, and singing of loud
dirges.
To conclude, death has been a concept both grieved and celebrated by the Ancient
Greeks. At a time where drastic technological innovations have not been witnessed yet, people
resorted to a more traditional way of thinking. The Ancient Greeks, regardless of being one of
the most advanced civilizations of antiquity, have mostly centered their way of life on
supernatural beliefs. Funerary rites, for example, have been based on the existence of the death

DEATH AND FUNERALS IN ANCIENT GREEK TRADITION

10

god Thanatos, the concept of the psyche, the journey of the soul into the Underworld, and the
pollution or contamination brought about by death. However, as rational thinking increased in
the polis, man-made law have been also made to regulate the funerary rites done by the citizens.
Based on the information provided and gathered on this research paper, it is sufficient to say that
the funerary rites of the Ancient Greeks was a convergence of intricate methodologies,
traditional and religious beliefs, and judicial policies.

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11

References
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