ABSTRACT

In Greek art, two raised arms appear to signify female mourners, the single arm male mourners. Women could even be hired as mourners at funerals in antiquity. Marriage and death were frequently linked in Greek thought. One thinks specifically of the stories of Persephone or Antigone, or of funerary epitaphs which mourn the maidens who died before wedlock. Funerary vases, mainly but not entirely from Athens, may shed some light on the social history of women. As background it is important to realize the significance of vases as such to Greek burials and funerary rituals. A grave dated in the Geometric period was recently excavated in Athens. Down the center of the rectangular pit were the skeletal remains of a young woman lying on her back with her head tilted toward her right shoulder. The funerary scenes on the Geometric vases in New York and Athens, and on others like them, might be described in condescending terms.