DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0155
134 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
epitaphs on their tombstones. The inscriptions were
mostly confined to the name. Many stones have no
inscription whatever; the names originally may have
been painted. On the other hand, certain slabs are
crowded with several names when there are only
two figures. The explanation of this redundancy
may be found in the fact that a tombstone made to
commemorate one person was afterwards appropri-
ated for another. Whether there was any legitimate
trading in second-hand tombstones I do not know;
but it looks as if in some cases the original name had
been chiselled out and the monument used by a later
generation.
The student of sculpture will find interesting
material for technical study and comparison in these
reliefs, some of which show close resemblance to Par-
thenon work, while in the later Roman period the
melancholy degeneracy of art is evident. But of far
more interest to me are the questions of life, death,
and the life after death which these grave reliefs sug-
gest. One of the most common motives is that of
two persons clasping hands. What is the meaning
of the clasped hands? Is it a gesture of farewell
from the departed? is it the joyous greeting he re-
ceives in the next life? or is it merely an expression
of friendship and affection in this life, as when on
other stones a woman is playing with a pet bird?
These are questions not easily answered.
The reasons advanced for rejecting the first sug-
gestion are that the clasping of hands was not with
the Greeks exclusively or chiefly a sign of farewell.
Nothing was more common, however, than for them
to clasp hands when they met. We find it on the
epitaphs on their tombstones. The inscriptions were
mostly confined to the name. Many stones have no
inscription whatever; the names originally may have
been painted. On the other hand, certain slabs are
crowded with several names when there are only
two figures. The explanation of this redundancy
may be found in the fact that a tombstone made to
commemorate one person was afterwards appropri-
ated for another. Whether there was any legitimate
trading in second-hand tombstones I do not know;
but it looks as if in some cases the original name had
been chiselled out and the monument used by a later
generation.
The student of sculpture will find interesting
material for technical study and comparison in these
reliefs, some of which show close resemblance to Par-
thenon work, while in the later Roman period the
melancholy degeneracy of art is evident. But of far
more interest to me are the questions of life, death,
and the life after death which these grave reliefs sug-
gest. One of the most common motives is that of
two persons clasping hands. What is the meaning
of the clasped hands? Is it a gesture of farewell
from the departed? is it the joyous greeting he re-
ceives in the next life? or is it merely an expression
of friendship and affection in this life, as when on
other stones a woman is playing with a pet bird?
These are questions not easily answered.
The reasons advanced for rejecting the first sug-
gestion are that the clasping of hands was not with
the Greeks exclusively or chiefly a sign of farewell.
Nothing was more common, however, than for them
to clasp hands when they met. We find it on the