Death-Brides in Early Greece
Myrrhinous, near Athens, around 540 BCE. A girl, Phrasikleia, dies before she is old enough to be someone’s bride. On her grave, a statue of a kore (‘maiden’) is placed. It is inscribed:
The tomb of Phrasikleia, I shall be called maiden forever,
Because I won this name from the gods instead of marriage.
(IG I3 1261 trans. Dillon)
She was, probably, buried as a bride. She was given grave gifts that were more usually the gifts of weddings. Her funeral was a substitute for her marriage rites.
In Greek myth, too, girls who die before reaching marriageable age become brides in death, but these girls sometimes also become Brides of Hades, Lord of the Dead. In this paper, I will trace the phenomenon of ‘marrying off’ girls to d/Death in early Greece. I will look at the ways that death becomes a substitute ‘rite-of-passage’ and how this is constructed both mythically and in the ritual practices of families whose daughters die before marriage. I will link this to religious practices that are celebrated before real weddings, and how death-related iconography is incorporated into pre-marriage celebrations in some parts of the Greek world.
Ultimately, this paper aims to comment on the delicate balance between life and death, and the way that death is understood, used, and played with in early Greece. It will reveal an underlying unease about unusual deaths, which need to be veiled by a celebration of life and its perpetuation.
The tomb of Phrasikleia, I shall be called maiden forever,
Because I won this name from the gods instead of marriage.
(IG I3 1261 trans. Dillon)
She was, probably, buried as a bride. She was given grave gifts that were more usually the gifts of weddings. Her funeral was a substitute for her marriage rites.
In Greek myth, too, girls who die before reaching marriageable age become brides in death, but these girls sometimes also become Brides of Hades, Lord of the Dead. In this paper, I will trace the phenomenon of ‘marrying off’ girls to d/Death in early Greece. I will look at the ways that death becomes a substitute ‘rite-of-passage’ and how this is constructed both mythically and in the ritual practices of families whose daughters die before marriage. I will link this to religious practices that are celebrated before real weddings, and how death-related iconography is incorporated into pre-marriage celebrations in some parts of the Greek world.
Ultimately, this paper aims to comment on the delicate balance between life and death, and the way that death is understood, used, and played with in early Greece. It will reveal an underlying unease about unusual deaths, which need to be veiled by a celebration of life and its perpetuation.