death and burial

Parentalia 

Parentalia 

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

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.