Sample Essay On Ancient Greek Notion Of Death And Afterlife

Funerary Plague. 625-610 BC. Painted terracotta. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. MFA. Web. 23 Feb 2016. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/funerary-plaque-151469.
On the plaque, we can see two women who cry over the body of a dead one. The dead woman lies on the funeral coach. Beneath the coach we can see a siren, a symbol of death that came for a woman, and above it, at the top of the plaque, there are three flying birds. In Greek mythology, birds are a symbol of life and death, and the flight of the soul. The psyche leaves the soul at the moment of death, and could reappear as a bird, guide in the afterlife. The right bird on the plaque is smaller than the others. This can be a soul of the dead woman that just flew away, while two are still here; the dead woman’s time has already come, while two other women are still alive. But at the end, death is unavoidable.
Gela Painter. Black-Figure “Pinax” (Plaque). 2nd half of 6 century BC. The Walters Art Museum, Maryland. The Walters Art Museum. Web. 23 Feb 2016. http://art.thewalters.org/detail/19887.
On the plaque, we can see the scene of the prothesis, or “laying out of the dead,” first of three main parts of the Greek burial ritual. At first, the deceased is bathed and clothed, and then put on a high bier with his legs towards the door. The deceased man is surrounded by members of his family; some of them cry. Lamentation has always been a part of the prothesis. We can see that three members of the family are located near the head of the deceased man pointing him in tributes. Other family members stand at some distance, and one of them even do not look at the deceased. The plaque is made in red-figure style.

Works Cited

Funerary Plague. 625-610 BC. Painted terracotta. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. MFA. Web. 23 Feb 2016. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/funerary-plaque-151469.
Gela Painter. Black-Figure “Pinax” (Plaque). 2nd half of 6 century BC. Terracotta (ceramics). The Walters Art Museum, Maryland. The Walters Art Museum. Web. 23 Feb 2016. http://art.thewalters.org/detail/19887.