Lecture 16: Athenian commemorative sculpture: grave markers and monuments

Map of Athens, showing the location of the outer Kerameikos.

The most well-known cemetery of ancient Athens was located in the outer Kerameikos, on the north west side of the city. It was not, however, the only cemetery. Burial grounds, located just outside the urban boundary, lined many of the major roads leading in and out of Athens.

Outer Kerameikos: Street of the Tombs.

Funerary markers were set up to be seen from the roads and became a way of expressing Athenian family, as well as individual, identity

Kouros from Anavyssos in Attica, circa 530 BC, height: 1.94 metres, Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Throughout the sixth century BC, the graves of the Athenian male élite were often marked either with freestanding kouroi or with funerary stelai, either sculpted in relief or painted with figures. Whereas the kouroi and grave stelai frequently marked aristocratic male graves, female graves rarely received such distinction, with only two funerary korai known from Athens and Attica.

Types of sixth century Attic grave stelai.

The earliest Archaic grave stelai were of limestone: their surface was coated with stucco, or plaster, which was then decorated in low relief, incision or paint. Relief decorated or painted marble stelai were also produced, though with these there was no need to use a coating of stucco. Until circa 530 BC the tall stelai (type I in the diagram) were crowned with a sculpted sphinx: after this date the finial changed to a palmette (type II in the diagram).

Marble Sphinx from Spata in Attica, circa 570 BC, height: 0.45 metres. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

The sphinx, a mythical creature adopted by the Greeks from the east, was composed of a lion's body, human head and bird's wings, combining human cunning, feline strength and a bird's speed in one being. In the funerary context it functioned as an apotropaic creature, that is one able to protect and ward off evil. Most frequently used as a crowning device for the grave stele, the sphinx like the lion also less commonly stood above graves as a free standing figure in its own right.

Marble grave stele of Aristion from Velanideza in Attica, circa 510 BC, height: 2.4 metres. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

The most common iconographic schema employed on Archaic grave stelai is a profile view of a single standing male figure. Most frequently represented are athletes and warriors, men with dogs, or elders leaning on a staff. The men are represented as typical and idealised members of the polis community. Here we see the stele of Aristion, in the guise of the hoplite warrior. An inscription below the figure records the name of the sculptor, Aristokles. The stele would have been crowned by a palmette, now lost. As with all sculpture, we must also remember that the stelai would originally have been painted with colour.

Running Hoplite stele, marble, circa 510-500 BC, height: 1 metre. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Though the figures depicted on the stelai are usually still and calm, a few display more dramatic composition such as this running hoplite relief. Note the conventional Archaic running pose, with back leg bent to the ground and front leg raised and originally bent at the knee.

Fragmentary marble grave stele of a discus thrower from the Kerameikos, circa 550 BC, preserved height: 34 centimetres. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Here a young athlete's head is profiled against the discus he holds: his thumb is visible on its lower edge.

Fragmentary marble grave stele from Anavyssos in Attica, circa 530 BC, preserved height: 38.5 centimetres. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

This sadly fragmentary grave stele is unique in its choice of subject, depicting a woman cradling a child's head in her left hand. The boy's eye appears to be closed in death, and the image is imbued with a sense of poignant tenderness.

Towards the end of the sixth century, Athenian grave monuments decline in number and ultimately disappear. We know from the ancient literary sources that Solon had earlier attempted to introduce legislation to limit the amount of wealth being poured into funerary monuments, though this apparently had little effect. Cicero explains that subsequently "on account of the size of the tombs which we see in the Kerameikos, it was decreed that no one should make a tomb which required the work of more than ten men in three days, and that no tomb should be decorated with plaster or have the so-called 'herms' "(ie stelai)" set on it" (Laws ii.26.64).

Marble grave stele of Mnesagora and Nikochares, circa 430 BC. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Only towards the end of the third quarter of the fifth century do we see the production of figured funerary stelai and freestanding funerary sculpture begin again at Athens. Why this should be is not altogether clear, although it has been postulated that the outbreaks of plague (429 and 426 BC) and the Peloponnesian War (431 BC) would all have caused increased mortality rates and may have resulted in a loosening of funerary legislation. To this may perhaps be added a surfeit of sculptors looking for work now that employment prospects on the Acropolis monument were drying up. Whatever the reason, grave stelai now resume production until 317 BC when Demetrios of Phaleron again introduced legislation to curb funerary expenditure.

Classical grave stelai vary in form: some are simple stone slabs, carved with the name of the deceased and sometimes also painted with ribbons. Other more elaborate stelai bear figured scenes: these are shorter and wider than their Archaic counterparts and may be crowned by an acanthus or palmette finial, or enclosed within an architectural frame and topped by a pediment. Of the figured relief decorated stelai, one and two figure compositions are most common in the fifth century. A broader range of subjects is now depicted than in the earlier Archaic stelai: men still appear in the role of athletes, warriors and elders, but they also appear in domestic scenes with their womenfolk. Women are now also regularly depicted, and children appear either with their mother or mother and father, or even in their own right as lone figures.

Above we see the stele of Mnesagora and her brother, the infant Nikochares, who are identified by the inscription carved above the scene.

Marble grave stele of Ampharete holding her grandchild, from the Kerameikos, circa 410-400 BC.

On first view we might assume this stele to mark the grave of mother and child, but the inscription above the figures identifies them as grandmother with grandchild. It reads, "My daughter's beloved child is the one I hold here, the one whom I held on my lap while we looked at the light of the sun when we were alive and still hold now that we are both dead".

Grave stele of Hegeso from the Kerameikos Cemetery, circa 400 BC. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Commonly in the two figure Classical grave stelai, one person is seated. Here Hegeso, identified by the inscription at the top of the stele, is seated on a klismos, or high-backed chair, her feet on a foot-stool, and chooses a piece of jewellery - originally painted on to the scene - from the casket offered by the maidservant. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to distinguish the dead from the living on the grave stelai. Often a man and woman will shake hands (the dexiosis motif) in farewell, one seated, one standing: it is usually assumed that the seated figure is the deceased, but we can be by no means sure of this.

Marble grave stele of Panaitios from the Kerameikos, circa 380 BC. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

Some stelai, such as this erected for Panaitios, depict lekythoi or loutrophoroi in relief, vessels which carried particular funerary symbolism. The lekythos  in its ceramic form, either decorated in the black-figure or white-ground technique, and filled with oil, was a common grave offering. The ceramic loutrophoros, meanwhile, was a vessel used for carrying the nuptial bath water: if a young person died before attaining marriage, the ceramic loutrophoros was, therefore, often symbolically buried with him or her. In addition to grave stelai decorated with these vessel shapes in relief, free-standing stone versions of the lekythos or loutrophoros were also used as grave markers.

Marble grave stele of Dexileos from the Kerameikos, 394 BC, height: 1.4 metres.

Unusual among Classical grave stelai for the amount of  information it gives us about the deceased is the tombstone erected for Dexileos. The inscription below the relief reads, "Dexileos, son of Lysanias of Thorikos, born in the archonship of Teisander, one of the five knights who fell at Corinth in the archonship of Euboulides". Since we know from the archon lists the dates when Teisander and Euboulides held office, we can concluded that Dexileos was only twenty years old when he died in 394 BC.

Street of the Tombs in the Athenian Kerameikos

During the fourth century BC freestanding animal figures, such as lions, bulls and dogs, were used to mark graves in addition to funerary stelai. Furthermore, the grave stelai tended to get broader and to depict a greater number of figures.