Fallen Soldiers and the Gods
Religious Considerations in the Retrieval and Burial of the War Dead in Classical Greece
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37900Keywords:
Death, Greek History, Greek Paganism, Greek Religion, Ancient Religion, Ancient HistoryAbstract
The retrieval and subsequent burial of the war dead in classical Greece was considered an important component of any given battle. Scholarship has observed how the retrieval of the war dead in the classical period could determine the outcome of a battle, as well as how the commemoration of the war dead functioned as a tool of civic identity, especially in the city of Athens. Although the above observations provide sufficient motivation for the recovery of the battle dead, this paper proposes an additional impetus for their collection: religion. Although scholars have often noted that Greek customs surrounding the war dead were motivated by religious concerns, what those religious concerns were have not been elaborated. This paper remedies this gap by exploring the relationship between the war dead and the gods. In this paper, I argue that the war dead were considered the property of the gods and were afforded special protections for this reason. Moreover, the proper burial of the war dead was necessary to transfer the war dead from the custody of the human world to the gods below. Such a transfer, I argue, maintained the relationship between the polis and the gods, ensuring its continued existence.
References
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——. Xenophontis Opera Omnia, Vols. 1-3. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968 [1900]. Perseus Digital Library.
Arrington, Nathan T. Ashes, Images, and Memories: The Presence of the War Dead in Fifth-Century Athens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1515/hzhz-2016-0301
——. “The Location of the Athenian Public Cemetery and its Significance for the Nascent Democracy.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1, no. 4 (2010): 499–539. https://doi.org/10.2972/hesp.79.4.499
Boardman, John, and Donna C. Kurtz. Greek Burial Customs. New York: Cornell University Press, 1971. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/79.5.1524-a
Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/95.1.140
Demosthenes. Demosthenes. Translated by A. T. Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1939. Perseus Digital Library.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 4-8. Edited by C. H. Oldfather. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989. Perseus Digital Library. https://doi.org/10.4159/dlcl.diodorus_siculus-library_history.1933
Dimakis, Nikolas. “Ancient Greek Deathscapes.” Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 3, no. 1 (2015): 27–41. https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.3.1.0027
Ebbott, Mary. “The List of the War Dead in Aeschylus’ ‘Persians’.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000): 83–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/3185210
Endsjø, D. Ø. “To Control Death: Sacrifice and Space in Classical Greece.” Religion 33, no. 4 (2003): 323–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.religion.2003.09.003
Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama. Edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O’Neill, Jr., translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York: Random House, 1938. Perseus Digital Library.
——. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. 2. Edited by Gilbert Murray. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. Perseus Digital Library.
Herodotus. Histories. Edited by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1920. Perseus Digital Library.
Hesk, Jon. “Leadership and Individuality in the Athenian Funeral Orations.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 56, no. 1 (2013): 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2013.00050.x
Homer. The Iliad, edited by A.T. Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924. Perseus Digital Library.
——. The Odyssey, translated by Walter Shewring. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
——. Homeric Hymns, edited by Michael Crudden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Jackson, A. J. “Hoplites and the Gods: The Dedication of Captured Arms and Armour.” In Hoplites: the Classical Greek Battle Experience, edited by Victor Davis Hanson, 228–49. London: Routledge, 1993. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203423639_chapter_9
Jameson, Michael H. “Sacrifice Before Battle.” In Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, edited by Victor Davis Hanson, 197–227. London: Routledge, 1993. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203423639_chapter_8
Johnston, Sarah Iles. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520217072.001.0001
Kucewicz, Cezary. “War Dead in Ancient Greece: Ancestral Custom.” Ancient Warfare 9, no. 6 (2016): 28–35.
Lanni, Adrian. “The Laws of War in Ancient Greece.” Law and History Review 26, no. 2 (2008): 469–89.
Lattimore, Richmond. Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs. Champaign: University of Illinois Press,1962.
Loraux, Nicole. The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City, translated by Alan Sheridan. Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1986. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjh.22.3.383
Lysias. Lysias. Edited by W. R. M. Lamb. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930. Perseus Digital Library.
Morris, Ian. Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/95.3.793
——. Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Patterson, Cynthia. “‘Citizen Cemeteries’ in Classical Athens?” Classical Quarterly 56, no. 1 (2006): 48–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/s000983880600005x
Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, 3 vols. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903. Perseus Digital Library.
Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914. Perseus Digital Library.
Polybius. Historiae. Edited by Theodorus Büttner-Wobst. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893. Perseus Digital Library.
Pritchett, W. Kendrick. The Greek State at War, Part IV. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Sophocles. Antigone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “Further Aspects of Polis Religion.” In Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, edited by Richard Buxton, 38–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
——. “What is Polis Religion?” In Oxford Readings in Greek Religion, edited by Richard Buxton, 13–37. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Sternberg, Rachal Hall. “The Transport of Sick and Wounded Soldiers in Classical Greece.” Phoenix 53, nos. 3-4 (1999): 191–205. https://doi.org/10.2307/1088983
Thucydides. Historiae in Two Volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942. Perseus Digital Library.
——. The Peloponnesian War, Book II. Edited by J. S. Rusten. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Vaughn, Pamela. “The Identification and Retrieval of the Hoplite Battle-Dead.” In Hoplites: the Classical Greek Battle Experience, edited by Victor Davis Hanson, 38–62. London: Routledge, 1993. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203423639_chapter_2
Waldner, Katharina. “Dimensions of Individuality in Ancient Mystery Cults: Religious Practice and Philosophical Discourse.” In The Individual in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Jörg Rüpke, 215–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199674503.003.0009
Xenophon. Xenophon, Vol. 3. Edited by Carleton L. Brownson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1922. Perseus Digital Library.
——. Xenophontis Opera Omnia, Vols. 1-3. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968 [1900]. Perseus Digital Library.
Published
2019-11-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Veale, S. L. (2019). Fallen Soldiers and the Gods: Religious Considerations in the Retrieval and Burial of the War Dead in Classical Greece. Pomegranate, 21(1), 5-25. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.37900
