Funerals in Ancient Greece and Rome: What We Know

Much of how we think about funerals, from the procession to the eulogy to the question of burial or cremation, goes back to the ancient Mediterranean. This article describes what historians know about Greek and Roman funerals, and what remains uncertain, because many of the sources were written by and about the wealthy.

What did an ancient Greek funeral involve?

Three stages. The Metropolitan Museum of Art explains that by the sixth century BCE, the Greek ideas about the afterlife and the ceremonies of burial were well established. The elaborate rituals were customarily in three parts: the prothesis, when the body was laid out; the ekphora, the funeral procession; and the interment of the body or cremated remains. Relatives of the person who died, primarily women, conducted the rituals. The procession to the cemetery usually took place just before dawn.

Why did a proper burial matter so much?

Because Greeks saw it as a matter of dignity. The Met notes that ancient literary sources stress the necessity of proper burial, and describe leaving out burial rites as an insult to human dignity, citing the Iliad. Remembrance continued after the funeral too: pictures on painted oil flasks, called white-ground lekythoi, show that women of Classical Athens regularly visited graves with offerings such as small cakes and libations.

What happened at a Roman funeral?

A public procession, called the pompa funebris, from the home to the place of burial, which was located outside the city. A reference overview describes funeral rites taking place at home and at the burial site, a formal speech praising the dead (the laudatio funebris), and a sacrifice to the gods at the grave. For prominent families the procession could be a spectacle. Historian Harriet Flower explains that its main feature was the imagines, wax portrait masks of ancestors. Actors wore them, so that the dead ancestors seemed to join their newly dead relative on his last journey. The Greek historian Polybius is the main source, and a scholarly article notes that no ancestor masks survive, because they were made of organic material, and that ancient writers give conflicting descriptions.

Did they bury or cremate?

Both, and the preference changed. A reference overview says that although burial was practiced in early Rome, cremation was the most common practice in the middle and late Republic and the Empire into the first and second centuries CE. Then burial gradually replaced it, for reasons including changing attitudes toward the afterlife. World History Edu adds that Christianity, which favored burial because of beliefs about resurrection, influenced the shift. For the later story, see How Cremation Became Accepted in America and the West.

Was there really a coin for the ferryman?

Often, but not always. Many accounts describe a coin placed with the dead to pay Charon, the ferryman of the underworld. A reference overview says evidence of “Charon’s obol” appears across the Western Roman Empire well into the Christian era, but it was never practiced consistently or by everyone at any time or place.

What don’t we know?

A lot. Much of the evidence comes from elite funerals, from texts written by people who did not always agree, and from objects that survive better than the practices themselves. The funerals of ordinary people, women, and enslaved people are far harder to see. For related reading on honoring the dead over time, see Ancestor Veneration Around the World and When Did Humans Start Having Funerals?.