The Impact of Funeral Rites on Women‟S Lives in Ancient Greece

The Impact of Funeral Rites on Women‟s Lives In Ancient Greece, there were many different social constraints placed on both men and women. Many of the differences between male and female gender roles were exemplified in funeral rituals. Women were often inherently associated with death because women were also the ones that gave birth and therefore gave their children their mortality. It was because of this that women were expected to perform a large amount of the rituals that took place during a funeral. Some of the roles given to women included preparing the body during the prothesis, containing the miasma that came from death, and properly mourning. Men, however, played much more limited roles in funeral rituals. Women often had a very small role in society, and their role in funeral rites allowed for women to have a voice and participate in a society where they were often repressed. In this paper, I will argue that funerary rituals gave women a key opportunity to break from the restricted freedom and socio-culture roles in their lives. The funeral played a very important role in Ancient Greece because it was what allowed for souls to move on to the afterworld. It is because of this that the role women played in funeral rituals was a very important one that women utilized to gain power. In Homer‟s The Iliad, Patroclus says to Achilles, “Bury me quickly / So I may pass through Hades‟ gates. / The spirits keep me at a distance, the phantoms / Of men outworn, and will not yet allow me / To join them

Jordan 2 beyond the River. I wander / Aimlessly through Hades‟ wide-doored house” (Book 23, 76-81). To the Ancient Greeks, there is an actual and concrete reason to be buried. Without a proper burial, it is impossible to get in the gates of Hades. It was also thought that leaving someone without a proper burial would result in anger from the gods. In Book 11 of Homer‟s The Odyssey, Odysseus meets the ghost of Elpenor, whose body lays unburied in Circe‟s hall. Elpenor...