DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0089
IV
THE HOUSE AND THE TOMB
(39
presses the conviction that if she failed in family duty to her
dead brother's body, she could not meet her father and mother
in Hades. Socrates, in the Platonic Apologia, speaks with en-
thusiasm of the prospect of meeting in Hades Orpheus and
Homer and other prophets of old. Many other passages to the
same purpose might be cited.
Thus it is natural that some archaeologists should have seen
in the family groups of the Athenian cemeteries scenes of re-
union in Hades rather than mere memorials of the past. This
view, however, cannot be maintained. The scenes predomi-
nantly represent farewells, not meetings. There is spread over
them an air, not of joyousness, but of sadness, greatly tempered
as it is. Any notion that the reference is to future reunion is
indeed put out of court, if we consider the sepulchral inscrip-
tions which are rare in the fourth century, but become more
frequent in the Hellenistic Age.
It is always enlightening to compare the works of Greek art
with those of literature. The literature which should be spe-
cially compared with the grave-reliefs is the charming memorial
epigrams of the Anthology. In the earlier age these are of
wonderful simplicity. What could be more direct than the
verses of Simonides set up over those who had fallen at Ther-
mopylae : "Go tell at Sparta, thou that passest by, that here
obedient to her laws we lie." No sentiment as to the beauty of
patriotism, no promise of eternal fame, no hint of future re-
ward ; only the eternal fitness of obeying the law at all costs,
the duty which is so nobly enforced in that immortal dialogue,
the Crito. Epigrams of the Hellenistic Age are naturally more
ornate; of the verses of such writers as Menander and Leonidas
of Tarentum it has been beautifully said that they are trifles,
but roses. But even these productions of a later and more
sophisticated age have the same simple charm as the sculp-
tured reliefs. They do not attempt either to stir painful re-
THE HOUSE AND THE TOMB
(39
presses the conviction that if she failed in family duty to her
dead brother's body, she could not meet her father and mother
in Hades. Socrates, in the Platonic Apologia, speaks with en-
thusiasm of the prospect of meeting in Hades Orpheus and
Homer and other prophets of old. Many other passages to the
same purpose might be cited.
Thus it is natural that some archaeologists should have seen
in the family groups of the Athenian cemeteries scenes of re-
union in Hades rather than mere memorials of the past. This
view, however, cannot be maintained. The scenes predomi-
nantly represent farewells, not meetings. There is spread over
them an air, not of joyousness, but of sadness, greatly tempered
as it is. Any notion that the reference is to future reunion is
indeed put out of court, if we consider the sepulchral inscrip-
tions which are rare in the fourth century, but become more
frequent in the Hellenistic Age.
It is always enlightening to compare the works of Greek art
with those of literature. The literature which should be spe-
cially compared with the grave-reliefs is the charming memorial
epigrams of the Anthology. In the earlier age these are of
wonderful simplicity. What could be more direct than the
verses of Simonides set up over those who had fallen at Ther-
mopylae : "Go tell at Sparta, thou that passest by, that here
obedient to her laws we lie." No sentiment as to the beauty of
patriotism, no promise of eternal fame, no hint of future re-
ward ; only the eternal fitness of obeying the law at all costs,
the duty which is so nobly enforced in that immortal dialogue,
the Crito. Epigrams of the Hellenistic Age are naturally more
ornate; of the verses of such writers as Menander and Leonidas
of Tarentum it has been beautifully said that they are trifles,
but roses. But even these productions of a later and more
sophisticated age have the same simple charm as the sculp-
tured reliefs. They do not attempt either to stir painful re-