Burial+Rituals+in+Ancient+Greece

//__Burial Rituals in Ancient Greece__//

In Ancient Greece, the burial rituals were actually made up of three parts. The first part is the laying out of the body, or the prothesis. This is where the women wash and dress the body and decorate it with jewels, gold and flowers. The mouth and the eyes are shut so that the soul, or psyche, does not escape the body. During the second part, the body is then laid out to be viewed for two days. Those who attended would dress in black to honor the dead; women would mourn and sing while the men stand out with their palms to the gods. The last stage of the ritual is the actual burial. According to ([|www.museum.upenn.edu])“When it came time for the burial, before the dawn of the third day, the body was taken to the tomb by cart. The men would lead the procession and the women would follow. At the internment the corpse or ashes would be placed in the tomb along with the grave goods of pottery, jewels, vases, or other personal property.

//offering jewels for the grave was respectable and honorable witch usually showed wealth status. The Greeks believed that if you weren’t buried a certain way you would suffer between worlds until you were buried properly. Before the archaic period the graves use to be either single pit graves or carved inside rock graves.// //Over the years the grave gifts became more beautiful and plentiful showing how much wealthier Greece was becoming. The wealth in Sparta became evident after the 8th & 9th centuries.//

The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the //psyche//, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals.

Source: [|Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art] Category, By. "Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." //The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Metmuseum.org//. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. [].

"Burial Rituals and the Afterlife." //UNCW Faculty and Staff//. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. [].