Studied by 15 peopleParentalia
9 days - 13th-21st February
Bank holiday, temples closed, no marriage
Day 1 -Blood sacrifice from. Vestal virgin
Day 1-8 - food and drink offerings for dead, extract from Ovid - "A tile wreathed round with garlands offered is enough, a scattering of meal, and a few grains of salt, and bread soaked in wine, and loose violets".
Day 9 - families would meet and share a meal in their home and would undo any wrongs
Lemuria
3 days in may - 9th 11th 13th
No official business
To ward off evil spirits
beans thrown in house
Death - Greek
Close eyes and mouth |
Wash body, then perfume it |
Wrap in long white shroud |
Place coin on deceased's mouth - offering to Charon, boatman who ferried dead to Underworld |
Prosthesis - Greek
Body laid out for two days |
Friends and family pay their respects |
Bowl of water placed outside to remove pollution as leave |
Women of house start lament - passionate expression of grief or sorrow |
Ekphora - Greek
Took place before dawn on day 3 |
Funeral procession that travelled from house of deceased to burial ground |
Deceased would travel by wagon or carried by pall-bearers, depending on wealth of family and distance to go |
Burial - Greek
Final resting place had to be sited outside of city to remove chance of religious pollution (but also practical - disease!) |
In Athens, the main burial ground was in the Kerameikos, just outside the northwest walls of the city |
Body would be either buried or cremated |
Cremation: pyre built, deceased laid on top, pyre lit, after fire ash collected in an urn, given to family, placed in shrine or grave |
To assist deceased in journey to Underworld, family would add burial gifts to grave |
Gifts might be items important to deceased in life or food for the journey |
Sacrifice, but blood of victim released on earth as offering to Hades and Persephone |
Stele might be set up, depending on wealth - important as vital that deceased were remembered |
If family neglected a grave, it would dishonour their family memory |
Remembrence - Greek
Stele = modern gravestone - monument to dead. NB stelai = plural form |
Sculptor employed to carve a relief that reflected deceased in life |
Stele was also a display of family's wealth and status |
Mourning period of 30 days |
Compulsory visits to deceased on days 3, 9 and 13. After this, annual visits happened. |
Death/Prosthesis - Rome
Last breath captured with a kiss
Those present would call out the deceased's name
Body washed and perfumed and dressed in their finest clothes
Coin placed in mouth to pay
Charon
If wealthy, the body would be placed in the atrium for 8 days so family and friends could pay their last respects.
Women would lament.
Funuary Procession - Rome
Funeral would take place 8 days after the death.
The procession would include lots of people - the family and friends, flute and horn players, their slaves and freedmen.
Members of the family would wear wax funerary masks of the family ancestors to symbolise the acceptance of the deceased into the afterlife by their ancestors.
If a family was wealthy but small, they would pay for professional mourners to join the procession or even pay an actor to mimic the deceased as they were in life.
Burial - Rome
Body would be buried or cremated outside the city.
The family's wealth again dictated the size of the tomb or monument.
The Romans built their tombs along the roads into their towns: this ensured the dead would be easily remembered.
It also meant that the rich would make sure their tomb stood out!
The super-rich would also place their dead in elaborately carved sarcophagi which would often contain carvings of battles, gods and heroes.
After the burial or cremation, a marble bust would be made and placed in the house. The Romans believed their turned into Manes - 'the deified ancestors'. They needed to be fed and the family were expected to leave wine and food at their tomb.
Note
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