| Related sites for http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/JSp.html |
| Abortion,_Partial_Birth Site advocates end to abortion. Pro-life commentary and photos. | | Abortionfacts_com Abortion information, charts, statistics of abortions, including graphs. Laws, statistics, articles, and student abortion report assistance. | | Achieving_Peace_in_the_Abortion_War Online book that argues the abortion industry is on the verge of collapse, based on sociology and psychology. | | After_Abortion Information on the aftereffects of abortion and post-abortion healing, including research on post-abortion issues, resources, and testimonies. | | Born_Silent A website promoting Born Silent, a free pro-life web-based or TV video ad about the Supreme Court's approach to partial birth abortion. | | Boycott_to_Protect_the_Lives_of_Unborn_Children A pro-life boycott against Mazda and Ford Motor Companies to encourage them to stop providing abortions at company owned facilities. | | Buddhism_and_the_Morality_of_Abortion Explores traditional Buddhist arguments against abortion and contrasts them to Catholism, both of which have large numbers of adherents seeking abortion every year. | | Casey\'s_Critical_Thinking-_Is_Life_a_Right? Short essays and a collection of pro-life links. | | Consistent_Life_Ethic Condemns abortion as a form of violence which destroys human life and debases human dignity. | | Cryin_4_My_Angel Dedicated to the loss of my potential little one, this page urges other mothers to choose life at all stages of development. | | Fetal_Life_and_Abortion__Human_Personhood_at_Conception Scientific, legal and philosophical arguments for the personhood of the unborn child. | | GravityTeen Offers advice and personal stories about pregnancy and abortion. | | Insanitor_-_Abortion_Forums Discussion site about abortion. | | Leftout__The_Pro-Life_Liberal\'s_Home_on_the_Web A site for people who believe that liberal philosophy precludes discrimination against any member of the human family, including the youngest of us. | | Life_Dynamics Offers support for women hurt by abortionists. Abortion malpractice program for attorneys after a woman is killed by a procedure. | | Life_Research_Institute Faith-based organization intended to promote a pro-life agenda by educating the public about alternatives to abortion, countering information provided by pro-choice organizations, and encouraging acti | | LifeLinks An information resource for right-to-lifers of any political or religious affiliation. | | A_Mother\'s_Story Story of how local officials secured an abortion for her daughter without her knowledge or consent. | | Pregnant_Pause Collection of short articles on abortion and other related topics, including euthanasia and infanticide. | | Project_Grace Tools for abortion recovery ministries and individuals with testimonies, music and video clips, speakers available and links for support groups nationwide. | | Pro-Life_Feminism Includes essays on being pro-woman and pro-life, a discussion board, and an illustrated guide to fetal development. | | Pro-Life_Ireland Information on the abortion situation in Ireland. | | Pro-life_Resources Provides Biblical based information to support an anti-abortion stance. | | Right_Choice Presents prolife views and facts about abortion, RU-486, and the morning-after pill. Includes photos. | | Roe_Warriors__The_Media\'s_Pro-Abortion_Bias The Media Research Center asserts that the national media tilts the abortion debate in favor of abortion advocates. | | Save_the_Preconceived_Babies Concludes that the protection of each human life starts at conception. | | Silent_Scream Famous ultrasound video (originally produced in 1980) of an abortion 11 weeks after conception. Online video for Microsoft Media Player, plus transcript and photos. Additionally includes personal test | | A_Simple_Procedure An article written by the author from the unborn child's perspective -- during an abortion. | | StandUpGirl An approach to bringing the pro-life message to a wide audience using imagery of developing children, and stories of experiences with abortion. | | Tanya_Zanetti_Productions Pro-woman, pro-life site with educational information and facts for other people against abortion. | | Unequal_Justice_Under_a_Bad_Law Article advocates that nonviolent civil disobedience, including for pro-life causes, is an important America's right that should not be denegrated for political expediency | | VirtueMedia Television and radio commercials offering hope and healing to woman suffering from post-abortion syndrome, and help to woman in crisis pregnancies. | | AbleTV_net Activities, information and assistive technologies of the disabled community through video streaming with audio description and closed captioning. | | Assistive_Media_Inc_ Producing spoken-word recordings of short-subject literary works. Includes articles in realaudio format, as well as information on the organization and its directors. | | Crip_Blogger_Forum This is a space for Crips to talk about blogging, being crippled, taking over the world, and other fun stuff. | | Disability_Discoveries Syndicated column by Bill Micklitz on "Disabilities With a Positive Edge". | | Enabled_Online News of persons with disabilities, special reports, and opinions. | | Inclusion_Daily_Express A subscription email service reporting on the movement toward full community inclusion, self-determination and human rights for people who have developmental and other disabilities. | | International_Disability_News_Ticker Disability news headlines from around the world. | | InTouch_Networks Online reading service for people who are blind, visually impaired and physically disabled. Stories from major magazines and newspapers are broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. |
|
"Til Death Do Us Part: Marriage and Funeral Rites in Classical AthensJana Shopkorn In the ancient Mediterranean world there was hardly room for choice:not only was marriage destiny, but so was death. The identity of theClassical Greek world is established through the traditional sacrifices andrituals that were practiced in these times of bliss and mourning. The sacredwedding and the dramatic funeral compliment each other in character andcontent, for the ceremonies are both interwoven with ritual meaning andoverlapping rites. Evidence for these formalities, both literary and artistic,help to provide a complete account of Greek customs in order to form thegeneral picture of the wedding, the funeral, the parallels, the writings, andthe vase paintings. Every respectable woman in Athens became a wife if she could. Therewas no real alternative other than marriage. The bride and the groom preparedfor the wedding by means of offerings, dedications, and sacrifices. All ofthese rites had a purificatory and propitiatory character.[1] Marriage in Classical Athens is constituted bythe acts of engue , ekdosis , andgamos.Engue refers to the betrothal arranged by the kurioi, usually the fathers. It may also refer to the relationship between theguardian of the bride and the groom himself, if the groom has reachedthe majority age of eighteen. This ceremony consists of a private verbal contract where the woman istransferred. The Greek marriage is composed of both transfer andtransformation: a transfer is enacted in the engue and transformationis the responsibility of the woman. Many actions are symbolic of a woman'stransfer to a new status. By cutting her hair, in removing the girdle which isworn since puberty, by taking a ritual bath in water drawn from a sacredspring, in shifting from childhood to hood and from virginity to wifehood, the bride undergoes many significant transformations. The bride is notconsidered a legal agent, thus her presence is not necessary at the engue where the arrangement of the dowry is settled. The dowry is designed toprovide the wife with protection if her husband abandons or divorces her. The wedding is designated by the terms ekdosis and gamos .Ekdosis is the giving away of the bride from father to husband in orderto create an oikos. The ekdosis does not render a single moment, but is a process oftransfer where a variety of preliminary sacrifices are performed. Theofferings presented before the wedding consist of dedications to various gods.Many offerings and sacrifices are made to divinities, especially to Artemis whois associated with menstruation, virginity and childbirth.[2] The most frequent dedication is locks of hair.The recipients of these hair offerings are representative of virginity. Theoffering of hair by the bride to virgin deities might be understood as asubstitute for the bride herself who is about to leave the virginal way oflife.[3] The bride's passage from childhood tomaturity is marked by her dedication of a lock of hair at the shrine. On thewedding day both the bride and groom are each given a ritual bath with waterbrought from the Kallirroe spring.[4] Thenuptial bath is believed to induce fertility.[5]The special vessel used for this purpose is the loutrophoros whichmeans, "someone who carries the bath water."[6]Among these activities the bride is assisted in adorning herself for thewedding night. At a banquet given at the family's home, the bride firstappears veiled. The unveiling of the bride, anakalupteria, possibly took place at this celebratory feast where music and dancing play alarge role in the festivities. Both the bride and groom wear a crown orgarland to mark the occasion. The actual transfer of the bride from father togroom takes place at night after the bridal banquet. The central event of the Athenian wedding is the procession in achariot from the home of the bride to the home of the groom. The veiled bridestands in the cart as her husband mounts it in preparation for their journey.The families follow the chariot by foot, bearing gifts. In the procession thebride's mother carries torches which stressed her protective role.[7] Traditionally, this journey took place atnight, hence the figures carrying the torches to light the way. The flames ofthe torches and the sound of the music function against evil spirits whichintend to harm the bride during the procession.[8] As a part of the incorporation rites, the bride eats a quince or an apple,demonstrating that her livelihood now comes from her husband. This is a way ofmarking her initiation into the new oikos . The fruit and nuts whichthe bride and groom are showered with act as agents of fertility andprosperity. Different interpretations of this action suggest that thisconsumption exemplifies a sympathetic guarantee of fertility.[9] The physical union of bride and groom takesplace in the nuptial bed where intercourse marks the goal in the transferal ofthe bride to her husband. The gamos is the consummated marriage. Oneday after the wedding the couple receives gifts in a ceremony called theepaulia , an outdoor procession of people bringing gifts or anindoor gathering with only women in attendance. The gifts are carried inprocession to the house and are presented to the couple. Some of the giftsinclude vases filled with greenery, baskets, pots, furniture, jewelry, combsand perfume which allude to the domestic role or ual identity of the newwife, and mirrors or wreaths which are attributed to the bride. Ultimately,the "Athenian marriage was a relationship between a man and a woman which hadthe primary goal of producing children and maintaining the identity of theoikos unit within the social and political community."[10] The kedeia (funeral) is athree part drama consisting of the prothesis (laying out ofthe body), the ekphora (conveyance ofbody to its place of internment), and the deposition of the body. The funeralpresents opportunities for a display of wealth, family pride, and familybonding. As in weddings, women play the most significant role in mourningrituals including: washing, anointing, dressing, crowning, and covering thebody after adorning it with flowers. Upon a person's decease, the eyes andmouth are shut to secure the release of the psyche from the body.[11] A ritual washing of the body is performed bythe women of the household. The funeral ritual consummates with laying out thecorpse at the prothesis on a kline (bed) whereit remains on view for two days. It was a widespread custom for the deceasedto wear a long, ankle-length garment and to be crowned. Pottier suggests thatthe crown "allowed a last chance to contemplate the deceased under a guise oftranquil and serene beauty."[12] The crowns andbranches incorporated into the funeral ritual serve at most sacred occasions inorder to add dignity and lustre to the proceedings. Women generally stand overthe corpse at the top end of the couch where they may beat their head, raisetheir hands, or tear their hair. Men, when present, often raise their righthands with their palms out to the Gods. When mourners paid their respects tothe deceased they dressed in black. In wearing dark clothing similar to thedeceased, the mourners exemplify honor and respect by identifying with thedead. During this principal ceremony, women would sing ritualized laments .After the prothesis the corpse is removed for the burial at theekphora before the dawn of the third day after death. If it wasaffordable, the transport of the body was done by cart. Men led the processionand the women followed. Whether the body is inhumed or cremated, the dead areburied along with gifts and offerings such as pottery, stone vases, mirrors,and other personal belongings. As with the wedding, formal prayers are exemptand mourners make offerings of fruit. After the burial, when singing andperforming dances would cease, the men and women would leave the burial siteseparately. The women probably left first in order to supervise thepreparation of the perideiprion (banquet)that the funeral party attended in honor of the deceased. General agreement exists on the practices of the fifth century weddingand funeral, if not a significance between the two rituals. Wedding rituals ofpurification, the adorning of the bride, the shearing of hair, and theprocession accompanied by song are paralleled by rituals which took place atfunerals. The funeral, like the wedding, is a special concern of the women ofClassical Athens. Both events are family festivals and an initiation toanother realm.[13] There are numerousoverlapping elements in the two rituals of marriage and death. A bride infifth century Athens offers, as a dedication, a lock of hair before marriage,whereas mourners offer the same when visiting the deceased. Both the bride andgroom, like the dead, are ritually bathed in sacred water, dressed and adorned,and ultimately crowned by women who play critical roles in both ceremonies.The duality of marriage and death persists with the parallel of covering boththe bride and the corpse with a veil and a sheath respectively. Both eventsinvolve a night journey to a new home, taken by a cart or chariot in aprocession with torch-bearers where song and dance are ritualistic. Just as awedding culminates in the nuptial bed, the dead are laid out on a bed as well.Each ritual contains blessings, both over the married couple and over thedeceased. Both festivals define an irreversible, physical change -- the lossof virginity and the loss of life. This idea of loss, rebirth, and renewal ispresent in both marriage and sacrifice.[14] Theoverriding continuity between wedding and funeral rites suggests thesignificance of these rituals in Classical Athens.[15] A connection between weddings and funerals is exhibited in young Athenians whodied unmarried. Such untimely deaths demand the crowning of the grave sitewith loutrophoroi , representing the ritual vessel for nuptial bathing.When someone died unmarried they had to receive a posthumous bridal bath inorder to attain the goal of life.[16] One ofthe loutrophoroi pots might also have been buried with the youngdeceased. Death before marriage signifies a marriage with the underworld. Thenotion that unmarried girls have made a marriage with Hades invokes theparadigm of Persephone in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Many rituals of marriage and death are exposed in The Homeric Hymnto Demeter. The link between death and marriage is very real in the myth.Persephone marries Death himself, and in doing so she loses her identity.Persephone's abduction by Hades happens when she is picking flowers in a meadowamong the company of virgins. Persephone, the young virginal bride,exemplifies innocence because of her young age.[17] While she is gathering a narcissus, theearth gapes and Hades "snatche[s] the unwilling maid into his golden chariotand [leads] her off lamenting."[18] As aparallel to the Greek wedding procession it is reasonable that Hades shouldhave a chariot when he carries Persephone off. Like the typical Athenianbride's incorporation rites, Persephone's eating of a pomegranate seed bindsher to marriage with Hades in the underworld. This fruit, as a symbol of bothblood and death and marriage and fertility, signifies the marriage ofPersephone and Hades. With this seed, Hades coerces Persephone to stay withhim. The myth portrays an intimate relationship between mother and daughter whichelicits two distinct phases in a woman's life: maidenhood and motherhood.Parallel to this transformation of virgin to wife in the myth is the transitionof the female in a traditional Greek marriage. Demeter's role as mothercorresponds to that of the bride's mother, since she is the person who is mostaffected by her daughter's separation.[19] Herheart grieves because of this painful disunion, a parallel to what occurs whenthe bride is taken away from the family circle in which she has been nurtured.Demeter, "holding torches ablaze in her hands," imitates the experience of themother of the bride who carries flaming torches in the bridal procession.[20] These blazes of light beared by Demeter insearch of her daughter are a significant emblem utilized in the myth. Thetorches may be associated with purification, the bringing of fertility, and theemergence of light from dark.[21] Likemourners at a funeral, "revered Demeter of the dark robe" still wears her darkgarb during, and even after, her reunion with her daughter as a reminder ofmourning.[22] The Homeric Hymn toDemeter provides a mythological paradigm for marriage and death rites. Through literature and art, writers and painters look at the worldaround them. Vase paintings are one of the main sources of evidence of boththe wedding ceremony and the funeral ritual. The form of the vase on which thepainting appeared strongly influenced the design. Loutrophoroi arelinked with weddings and funerals since they are used to bring water(loutron) for the wedding bath and serve as grave offerings for thosewho died unmarried. The loutrophoros had a specific function ofcarrying sacred water, whereas the lebes gamikos , anuptial cauldron, had various functions. It has been used as a bowl for mixingwine or preparing food at a wedding banquet, as a storage vessel duringfestivities, as a container for warming the nuptial bath, as a vase forflowers, or simply as a symbol.[23]Predominant scenes on the lebetes gamikoi are processions and scenes ofgift offerings. A red-figure lebes gamikos vase, Mississippi1977.3.91, depicts preliminary wedding preparations and a gift offering. The bride isshown seated to the left, holding a small casket or chest which has beenpresented to her as a gift by the girl facing her. This nuptial vessel sits ona raised pedestal and has been exclusively used as part of the wedding ritual.It is probably one of the gifts given to the bride. Lebetesgamikoi also depict funeral scenes which juxtaposes the two rituals. The vases with wedding scenes may have been presented as gifts to the bridalcouple as a reminder of the highest moment of their life.[24] Some of the most common marriage motifs showthe gesture of unveiling and chariot processions with the bride and the groom.Williams 1919 CG 42, anAttic black-figure vase delineates the nuptial chariot. This imagecelebrates a traditional Athenian procession containing a bridal couple in afour-horse chariot being led by the light of flaming torches. Wedding scenesare by far most frequent on loutrophoroi and lebetes gamikoi ,where ritual function is reflected in the painted scene. The Tampa 86.78 vase reveals a bride wearing a crown with a woman beside her donning acrown and carrying a torch. The groom is crowned with a wreath markingfecundity, and between them flies a winged Eros who is engaged in adding to thebeauty of the bride since grace and splendor are symbolized by his presence.Behind the groom is a winged Nike who seems to indicate divine approval, ormore precisely, approval of a favorable outcome. Nike represents success andfulfillment in the transition of the wedding. The images on this vase elicitthe significance of symbols that are reflected in a marriage scene. As so far as funeral representations, certain traits are shared withmarriage rituals.[25] The processional image,so commonly found on wedding vases, is also distinguishable in funeral scenes.Philadelphia 30-4-1is a loutrophoros which portrays a funeral scene of men in processionwith their right arms extended and their palms held out in a gesture of respector farewell to the dead.[26] As it is understood and as it is depicted, women have a definite place infuneral rituals. The distinction between male and female roles are clearlydelineated. Men and women not only play distinct roles but adopt differentgestures and occupy separate parts of the vase. Louvre CA 453,isa loutrophoros vase which exposes the duties of female mourners wholament by striking their heads and tearing at their hair. In anotherprothesis image of the same vase,women surround the kline , hold the head of the corpse, and raise theirhands in gestures of grief. All of these actions are traditional ritualgestures of women mourners during the prothesis and the ekphora.. In both funeral and wedding scenes, a popular motif often utilized is theimage of the vessel on the vessel. In this type of scene it is typical forthere to be images of women carrying loutrophoroi on the vase itself.[27] A funeral scene on the Malibu 82.AE.16vase reveals the ritual use of the decoration of the painted loutrophoroion the loutrophoros vase. A mourning Niobe is pictured standingbetween two loutrophoroi. The loutrophoroi represent thefuneral bath that will be received and point to its final use as a grave gift.The composition of the vase-type on the vase itself unites iconography withfunction.[28] The Athenians incorporated images of weddings and funerals in order to revealthe most popular iconography for these family festivals and initiations.Scenes of ritual gestures, wedding preparations, nuptial processions, or visitsto the deceased's tomb allude to the Classical Greek way of ritual. The eventspracticed in their every day society are eloquently expressed in the powerfulutilization of form and function in their imagery. The significance ofmarriage and funeral rites are illustrated, not only in vase paintings whichare a vital source of evidence of the ancient Greek world, but also in textualdocumentation. Through examining The Homeric Hymn to Demeter and itsattitude to the institution of marriage and death, an understanding of theancient world of wedlock and sacrifice is developed for the modern world. Theidea of marriage to death exposes a juxtaposition which proves so forceful thatone ritual seems to engender the other. These two rituals reveal aninterrelationship -- one which penetrates further than a mere attraction ofopposites. Bibliography Avagianou, Aphrodite. Sacred Marriage in the Rituals of GreekReligion. Peter Lang: Bern, 1991.Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. Harvard University Press:Cambridge, 1995.Duby, Georges and Perrot, Michelle. A History of Women in the West: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints. The Belknap Press:Cambridge, 1992.Foley, Helene P. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Princeton UniversityPress: New Jersey, 1994.Garland, Robert. The Greek Way of Death. Cornell University Press:Ithaca, 1985.Morris, Ian. Key Themes in Ancient History: Death-Ritual and SocialStructure in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge University Press:London, 1992. Redfield, James. "Notes on the Greek Wedding," in Arethusa (1982)Vol.15, 181- 199. Rehm, Rush. Marriage to Death: The Conflation of Wedding and FuneralRituals in Greek Tragedy. Princeton University Press: New Jersey,1994.Seaford, R. "The Tragic Wedding," in Journal of Hellenistic Studiescvii (1987) 106- 130.Vase Images:Louvre CA 453, image 1image 2Malibu 82.AE.16, Mississippi 1977.3.91,Philadelphia 30-4-1,Tampa 86.78,Williams 1919 CG 42,To Women In Antiquity course information Please note: all student papers hosted by the Perseus Project are offered "as is." Papers are the work of students: the project does not edit, revise, update, or otherwise endorse the content of these pages. These papers may not be copied or reproduced elsewhere; see our copyright page for more information. Please feel free to link to these materials. We do not retain contact information for the authors. |
|
