Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

Private Life 185
speaks keenly to the sacrifice made by the dead youth on behalf of
the state. It is important to note, however, that kouroi depended on
context and provenance for interpretation. Identical statues have
also been found in sanctuaries of Apollo, the god who is eternally
poised upon the threshold to adulthood. In other words, it is impossible
to tell whether a kouros is intended to depict a dead youth or
Apollo, other than by its provenance or inscription. This ambiguity
tells us much about the way in which the Greeks sought to idealize
death. By being assimilated to the youthful god, the deceased
becomes ageless and physically perfect for all eternity.
Conclusions
Most of the evidence about the handling of death in ancient
Greece relates to Athens. Yet attitudes toward the dead surely varied
markedly from one Greek community to another. The Spartans,
for instance, were far less circumspect in their dealings with the
dead than the Athenians were. Legislation attributed to the lawgiver
Lykourgos attempted to reduce the fears associated with
death by permitting burial within the precincts of the city and even
in proximity to sacred places (Plutarch, Life of Lykourgos 27.1).
Let us take our leave of the recently deceased by considering a
lêkythos, or olive oil container, on which is depicted a particularly
Hellenistic grave marker from Athens. The raised
band facilitated the placing of a fillet around the
marker as a sign of respect for the dead. From
D. Kurtz and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1971). Courtesy of
University of Oxford.