The gate of the year

Vase of the Geometric period, from the Athenian burial place of Dipylon (about 740 B.C.), now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. In the upper part it is shown a scene of ritual lamentation around an exposed corpse. After death, the corpse was washed, anointed and dressed in white, sometimes with her/his marriage clothes, and then prepared for the próthesis, the placing in public of the corpse, lying in the home courtyard or in the vestibule. Frequently, the head was wreathed with flowers and the feet facing the exit door, as if the dead was ready to take the right direction. The women of the family gathered around the coffin, moaning and tearing their hair with their hands outstretched (as is shown in the pottery painting).

[Source: http://greeksculpture.wikispaces.com/Geometric+Period]




World of the Dead

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Vase of the Geometric period, from the Athenian burial place of Dipylon (about 740 B.C.), now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. In the upper part it is shown a scene of ritual lamentation around an exposed corpse. After death, the corpse was washed, anointed and dressed in white, sometimes with her/his marriage clothes, and then prepared for the próthesis, the placing in public of the corpse, lying in the home courtyard or in the vestibule. Frequently, the head was wreathed with flowers and the feet facing the exit door, as if the dead was ready to take the right direction. The women of the family gathered around the coffin, moaning and tearing their hair with their hands outstretched (as is shown in the pottery painting). [Source: http://greeksculpture.wikispaces.com/Geometric+Period]