An Historical Study of Athenian Verse Epitaphs from VI through IV BC

An Historical Study of Athenian Verse Epitaphs
from the Sixth through the Fourth Centuries BC

by

Julia Lougovaya

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Ph.D.
Graduate Department of Classics
University of Toronto

©by Julia Lougovaya (2004)

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An Historical Study of Athenian Verse Epitaphs
from the Sixth through the Fourth Centuries BC
Ph.D. 2004
Julia Lougovaya
Department of Classical Studies
University of Toronto

ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores the social and historical significance of Attic verse epitaphs
from their appearance in the second quarter of the sixth century to the late fourth century.
By examining verse epitaphs in context (both archeological and literary), the thesis assesses
the way in which various strata of society commemorated the dead; it thereby permits
acquaintance with a wider range of people than found in literary sources. The material
under investigation consists primarily of verse epitaphs edited by P.A. Hansen in Carmina
Epigraphica Graeca, with the addition of a few recent discoveries. Since this dissertation

considers the archeological context of inscriptions, including the appearance of the
inscription, type and location of the monument, etc., it also makes extensive use of

archeological data.
Chapter One is a study of archaic Attic verse epitaphs. During this period, the
practice was confined to the elite, whether Athenians or foreign residents in Athens, and
inscribing verse on a funerary monument was one of the features of elite display at a burial
site. The tradition ceased around 500 BC when this type of display, which was associated
with elite families during the reign of the Athenian tyrants, was either forbidden or deemed
inappropriate following the liberation from tyranny and the reforms of Kleisthenes.
Chapter Two investigates fifth century Athenian public verse inscriptions. It argues
that during a period of at least fifty years (from the reforms of Kleisthenes to at least the mid
460s or even later) the Athenians did not inscribe public funerary monuments with verse
epitaphs. Instead, there developed a special genre of inscriptional verse which I call public
commemorative or celebratory epigrams. At some point in the mid fifth century the practice

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ABSTRACT

of inscribing verse epitaphs resumed in Athens, in commemoration of those who were

granted the honor of public burial by the Athenians.
Chapter Three opens with discussion of the reappearance of private grave monuments
inscribed with verse epitaphs, and then analyzes verse epitaphs of the later classical period,
often in comparison with and contrast to the archaic tradition.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of this thesis was made both possible and enjoyable by the help
of many people. My dissertation committee comprised outstanding scholars of various
fields who were always ready to share their expertise, Emmet Robbins and Jonathan Burgess
in early Greek poetry, and John Traill in the thorny field of Greek epigraphy. Joseph Day's
critical comments were very helpful at the final stage of the project. Above all, my
supervisor, Malcolm Wallace, contributed to all aspects of my thesis, and has been a most
helpful teacher and colleague. My ideas have not always been shared by members of
my committee, and I take full responsibility for the views expressed in this study, as well
as for any mistakes.

I owe many thanks to the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto for
providing scholarly and material support during my time as a graduate student, and to
Ann-Marie Matti and Coral Gavrilovic for their kind assistance in all practical matters
associated with my work at the Department, which was often conducted long-distance.
My indefinite gratitude goes to my family for their unflagging support, especially
to my father, Michael Bronstein, who helped me in all computer matters, my husband,
Rodney Ast, who discussed and read my study, offered numerous insightful comments,
and helped in every possible way, to our younger daughters, Alitsia and Aglaia, the source
of constant joy, and to our older daughter, Marfa, without whose resourcefulness I would
never have been able even to start this work.

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1. Archaic Attic Epitaphs, p. 223.
Figure 1. Outline of the stele ofMnasitheios from Akraiphia, p. 57. (After Andreiomenou
2000, p. 85, fig. 1. Drawing by R. Posamentir. Courtesy ofR. Posamentir.)

Figure 2. Upper part of the stele of Mnasitheios with reconstructed finial, p. 59.
(After Andreiomenou 2000, p. 89, fig. 4. Drawing by R. Posamentir.
Courtesy ofR. Posamentir.)
Figure 3. Drawing of the gravestone and epitaph for Philon, CEG 76, p. 80. (After
Kourouniotes 1897, col. 151, fig. 5.)
Figure 4. Drawing of the gravestone and epitaph for Pleistias, CEG 77, p. 81. (After
Kourouniotes 1897, col. 152, fig. 6.)
Figure 5. Periboloi in Section A of the Kerameikos, p. 159. (After Garland 1982, p. 137,
fig. 2. Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.)
Figure 6. Peribolos of Koroibos of Melite (A 20), p. 160. (After Brueckner 1909,
p. 105, fig. 66.)
Figure 7. Peribolos ofDionysios ofKollytos (A3), CEG 593, p. 161. (After Brueckner
1909, p. 66, fig. 37.)

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ABBREVIATIONS

CAT = Chr. Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombstones, Kilchberg 1993--.
CEG = Carmina epigraphica Graeca
Carmina epigraphica Graeca: saeculorum VIII-V a.Chr.n., P.A. Hansen, ed.,
Berlin and New York 1983.
Carmina epigraphica Graeca: saeculi IV a. Chr. n. (CEG 2), P.A. Hansen, ed.,
Berlin and New York 1989.
DAA = A. E. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athenian Akropolis; a catalogue of the
inscriptions of the sixth and fifth centuries B. C., Archaeological Institute of
America 1949.
FGE

=

Further Greek Epigrams: Epigrams before A.D. 50 from the Greek Anthology
and Other Sources not included in 'Hellenistic Epigrams' or 'The Garland of
Philip ', D. L. Page, ed., rev. and prepared for publication by R. D. Dawe and
J. Diggle, Cambridge 1981.

IEG2 = M. L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum Cantati, 2nd ed., Oxford 1998.
IGAA = L. H. Jeffery, "The Inscribed Gravestones of Archaic Attica," BSA 57, 1962,

pp. 115-153.
IGLPalermo = M. T. Manni Piraino, Iscrizioni greche lapidarie del Museo di Palermo,
"SIKELIKA. Collana di monografie pubblicate dal Centra Siciliano di Studi
Storico-Archeologici 'Biagio Pace', Serie Storica," 6. Palermo 1973.
LGPN =Lexicon of Greek Personal Names
LGPN I: Aegean Islands, Cyprus, Cyrenaica, P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews, eds.,
Oxford 1987.
LGPN II: Attica, M. J. Osbome and S. B. Byrne, eds., Oxford 1994.
LGPN III.A: Peloponnese, Western Greece, Sicily, and Magna Graecia, P. M. Fraser
and E. Matthews, eds., Oxford 1997.
LGPN III.B: Central Greece: From the Megarid to Thessaly, P. M. Fraser and
E. Matthews, eds., Oxford 2000.
LSAG = L. H. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece, ed. rev. with a supplement
by A. W. Johnston, Oxford 1990.
ML

R. Meiggs and D. M. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the
End of the Fifth Century, Oxford 1969.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ii

ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IV

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

V

ABBREVIATIONS

VI

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE.
ARCHAIC ATTIC VERSE EPITAPHS

10

1. Early Archaic Burial Practice to ea. 600 BC

10

Prior to ea 600 BC, 10. Changes ea. 600 BC, 12. Solon's Funerary
Legislation, 14.

2. Archaic Attic Verse Epitaphs in Context

15

Typology of Monuments Associated with Verse Epitaphs, 15.
Display and Layout of Archaic Attic Verse Epitaphs, 17. Verse
vs Prose, 18.

3. Commemorated Deceased

18

Death in War, 19. Virtues of the Deceased, 22. Origin of
the Deceased, 26. Untimely Death, 29. Other Expressions
of Grief, 37.

38

4. ChiefMourner
Identity of the ChiefMoumer, 38. Grief of the ChiefMoumer, 44.

5. Address to a Passer-by and Reflections

45

6. Monument

47

Sight of the Monument, 47. Sculptors' Signatures on Monuments
with Verse Epitaphs, 48.

60

7. Meter and Literary Context
Meters Employed in Archaic Attic Epitaphs, 60. Metrical
Anomalies, 62. Excluded Inscriptions, 63. Literary Elegy and
Verse Epitaph, 66. The Meaning of Elegos, 67. Inscriptional
Evidence for Threnodic Elegy, 69. Literary Elegy and Verse
Epitaph, Revisited, 72.

8. Disappearance of Verse Epitaphs in Attica ea. 500 BC

74

Post-Solonian Funerary Legislation, 74. After the Disappearance:
Athenians and Athenians(?) Outside Attica, 80.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TWO.
PUBLIC VERSE EPITAPHS AND COMMEMORATIVE EPIGRAMS
Introduction

84
84

1. Literary Evidence to 479 BC

85

Chalkis, ea. 507-501 BC, 85. Marathon 490 BC, 87. Artemisium
and Salamis, 91. Plataia, 91.

2. Inscriptional Evidence to 480/479 BC

92

IG 13 1142 (1}, 92. The Persian Wars Epigrams, IG 13 503/504
(2 and 3), 93.

3. Public Commemorative Epigrams:
Features and Further Examples

104

The Tyrannicides Epigram (430), 105. The Eion Epigrams, 105.
The Eurymedon Epigram, 107.

4. Evidence for the Burial of the War Dead in Athens

112

5. Patrios Nomos

113

6. Public Verse Epitaphs

125

Bringing Ta 6cna Home or Burying on the Battlefield: (a)
Individual Burials, (b) Collective Burial, 114. Burying the War
Dead Publicly (Bru.lOoic;x}, 117. Prothesis and Ekphora, 119.
Epitaphios Logos, 120. Patrios Nomos Reconsidered, 121.
Evidence from Pausanias and Plato, 122.
The Epitaph for Argive Casualties (135), 125. Epitaphs for
Distinguished Foreign Individuals (11, 12, 469), 126. The
Epitaph for Athenians who Fell at the Hellespont (6), 129. The
Koroneia Epitaph (5), 131. Fragmentary Verse Epitaphs of
the mid Fifth Century, 134. The Potidaia Epitaph, 134. An
Epitaph for Athenian Cavalrymen (4}, 136. A New Epitaph for
Athenian Cavalrymen, 138. Public Epitaphs in the Late Fifth
Century, 143.

CHAPTER THREE.
ATTIC VERSE EPITAPHS OF THE LATER CLASSICAL PERIOD
Introduction

144
144

1. Reappearance of Private Athenian Verse Epitaphs

145

Private Verse Epitaphs in the Fifth Century, 145. Date and Causes
of the Reappearance ofPrivate Athenian Verse Epitaphs, 149.

2. Later Classical Attic Verse Epitaphs in Context

157

Periboloi, 157. Typology of Classical Grave Stelai, 158.
Display and Layout of Verse Epitaphs, 15 8. Verse Epitaphs
Associated with Large Periboloi, 159. Members of Propertied
Families, 165.

3. Commemorated Deceased

168

Death in War, 168. Virtues of the Deceased, 171. Origin of the
Deceased, 174. Activities of the Deceased: (a) Soothsaying
and Priesthood, (b) Medicine, (c) Theater and Music,
(d) Craftsmanship, (e) Occupations of Foreigners, 175. Untimely
Death and Death in Old Age, 198. Grievous Fate, 200.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. ChiefMoumer

200

5. Addresses and Reflections

203

6. Monument

205

7. Peculiarities of Poetic Diction and Meter

205

The Bridal Chamber of Persephone, 205. Gods and Personifications, 207. Meter, 208.

CONCLUSION

209

BIBLIOGRAPHY

212

TABLE

223

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INTRODUCTION

1. Verse Epitaphs as a Subject of Social History
The purpose of a funerary monument is both to mark a burial site and to perpetuate
the memory of the deceased. In Homer, the place of burial is a physical entity, generally
marked in some way, and the memory of the deceased lives on not in written memorials but
in songs and legends. Earthen mounds over the graves of heroes tell unwritten tales about
those buried beneath them, as we fmd in the Iliad where, before engaging in a duel, Hector
imagines his opponent's death and the tomb that will be a source of stories for future
generations and will perpetuate the memory of a fallen hero of the Trojan War:
crfi~a

Te oi xevwmv enlnAaTei 'EAAT)CJTIOVTCt>.
Kai lTOTE TIS eilTlJOI Kat 0\I'IYOVUJV av8pt:Jnwv
VTJt lTOAVKAi)YSt lTAEUJV eni oivona lTOVTOV"
avSp6s ~ev
TObE on~a
lTciAat KaTaTe8VT)WTOS,
OV lTOT' aptCJTEVOVTa KaTEKTaVE