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Picturing Death in Classical Athens

The Evidence of the White Lekythoi

John H Oakley author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:7th Mar '05

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Picturing Death in Classical Athens cover

This book examines the pictures found on Attic lekythois, funerary vases appreciated for their beautiful polychrome images.

This is the first in-depth study of the pictures found on Attic white lekythois. These funerary vases have long been appreciated for their beautiful polychrome images. This richly illustrated volume closely examines the four major types of scenes.This is the first in-depth study of the pictures found on Attic white lekythois. These funerary vases, placed in and on Athenian graves, have long been appreciated for their beautiful polychrome images that evoke the style of lost classical wall and mural paintings. The most important visual source for classical Greek funerary customs, they exhibit a limited range of subject matter, most of it connected with death. This richly illustrated volume closely examines the four major types of scenes: domestic pictures, the mythological conductors of the soul, the prothesis (wake), and visits to the grave. In addition to analysis of the iconographical development of each type, this study places these pictures in the historical, social, cultural, archaeological, and literary contexts, documenting relationships between the 'rites of Passage', Athenian history, the changing perceptions of death in fifth-century Athens, and funerary epigrams and laments.

'The volume is handsomely illustrated … The book is written in a style that makes these attractive products and the important subject they highlight intelligible to a wide range of readers.' JACT
'… richly illustrated … will be of great value to scholars of death ritual.' Mortality

ISBN: 9780521820165

Dimensions: 282mm x 223mm x 24mm

Weight: 1200g

306 pages