Title: "Reading" Greek Death
First published: 1995
Description: This book offers a series of in-depth studies of some aspects of the beliefs, attitudes, and rituals surrounding death in ancient Greece from the Minoan and Mycenean period to the end of the classical age.

Drawing on every kind of available evidence - from literary texts to burial customs, inscriptions, and images in art - the author sheds new light on many key, still essentially problematic, aspects of Greek life, myth, and literature: including the world of the dead in Homer; the perceptions associated with grave monuments and articulated in their images and epigrams; the myths of Charon, Hermes, and the journey of death; and the shifting attitudes towards death in a changing society.

The book is also a sophisticated critique of the methodologies appropriate for interpreting the various kinds of evidence for ancient beliefs, and there is discussion of these in the light of insights from anthropology and other disciplines that can help us reconstruct the ancient Greek discourse of death, while minimizing the intrusion of our own culturally determined assumptions which reflect modern thinking rather than ancient realities.
Subjects: Death, Death in art, Death in literature, Funeral rites and ceremonies, Funeral rites and ceremonies in literature, Greek literature, Historiography, History and criticism, Literature and society, Social aspects, Social aspects of Death, Social life and customs, Edebiyat ve toplum, Rites et ce re monies dans la litte rature, Litte rature grecque, M¿urs et coutumes, Mort, Eschatologie, Dans la litte rature, Rites et ce re monies fune raires, Historiographie, Dans l'art grec, Sosyal yo nleri, Mort dans l'art, Fune railles, Tarih ve eles ʹtiri, O lu m, Rites et ce re monies, Dans l'art, Griekse oudheid, Aspect social, Sociologie de la mort, Yunan edebiyat♯ł, Tarihc ʹilik, Histoire et critique, Mort dans la litte rature, Dodenbezorging, Litte rature et socie te, Cenaze to renleri, Greek literature, history and criticism, Greek drama, history and criticism, Death, social aspects, Greece, social life and customs
Places: Greece
LC classification: PA3015.D43 S65 1995