DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0361
33§
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. Xl.
CHAPTER XI.
SPARTAN TOMBS AND THE CULTUS OK THE DEAD.*
In no class of ancient monuments have more extensive
or more important discoveries been made of late than in
the class of sepulchral monuments, so that we have now
to revise in fresh light our opinions of a few years ago.
In some respects we have altogether to remodel those
opinions. So rapid is in our days the growth of Greek
archaeological science, that every year consigns to limbo
some dictum of the older school of archaeologists, who
laid down rules as to Greek art with all the courage of
limited experience.
But the chief discoveries of sepulchral reliefs have been
made outside Attica. Nothing has appeared to throw
doubt on the thesis, set forth in the last chapter and
firmly established by the discovery of the great Athenian
cemetery by the gate Dipylon, that in sculpturing their
tombs the minds of the Athenians exhibited a strong
tendency to look backwards rather than forwards, to
dwell on the life which finds its termination in the grave,
rather than on that which there begins. But we now
know that the custom of referring only to the life of the
past was not by any means universally observed in the
subjects painted and sculptured on Greek tombs. It was
* The subject of this paper is treated more in detail, and with
citation of authorities, in an article entitled A Sepulchral Relief from
Tarentum, by the present writer, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies
for 1884.
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. Xl.
CHAPTER XI.
SPARTAN TOMBS AND THE CULTUS OK THE DEAD.*
In no class of ancient monuments have more extensive
or more important discoveries been made of late than in
the class of sepulchral monuments, so that we have now
to revise in fresh light our opinions of a few years ago.
In some respects we have altogether to remodel those
opinions. So rapid is in our days the growth of Greek
archaeological science, that every year consigns to limbo
some dictum of the older school of archaeologists, who
laid down rules as to Greek art with all the courage of
limited experience.
But the chief discoveries of sepulchral reliefs have been
made outside Attica. Nothing has appeared to throw
doubt on the thesis, set forth in the last chapter and
firmly established by the discovery of the great Athenian
cemetery by the gate Dipylon, that in sculpturing their
tombs the minds of the Athenians exhibited a strong
tendency to look backwards rather than forwards, to
dwell on the life which finds its termination in the grave,
rather than on that which there begins. But we now
know that the custom of referring only to the life of the
past was not by any means universally observed in the
subjects painted and sculptured on Greek tombs. It was
* The subject of this paper is treated more in detail, and with
citation of authorities, in an article entitled A Sepulchral Relief from
Tarentum, by the present writer, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies
for 1884.