Figurine of a mourner

In ancient Greece (as well as in other cultures) funerary rites had a tripartite structure. First was the prothesis, that is the presentation of the dead body in the family house. This stage was meant to allow relatives to come in terms with the loss of a beloved person. It involved lamentation by relatives, friends, but also by professional mourners. Then, came the ekphora, which involved the processual carrying of the body to the cemetery. The actual burial (either by inhumation or by cremation) was the last stage of the funerary rite.

This terracotta figurine represents a female mourner, who holds her head with both hands. The head is covered with a peplos. This is a typical mourning gesture, known from funerary vases of the Geometric period and later representations of prothesis scenes. As we read in ancient sources, sometimes mourners hit their heads and tore their hair.

The figurine was produced in a Boeotian workshop of the 5th c. BC on a single mould. The back side was flat and had a rectangular vent-hole, which allowed sufficient air-flow during the firing process.

PUBLICATION
Zarkadas Α. 2014. ‘Figurine of a mourner’, in Stampolidis Ν. – Oikonomou Σ. (eds), Beyond. Death and Afterlife in Ancient Greece, Athens, col. no. 20.