Marta González González

Taking a wide selection of Greek funerary epigrams from the 6th to 4th centuries BC, this volume considers their historical and chronological contexts to draw out information about the society that created them. Using both Hansen's corpus of epigrams and wider examples, it gives priority to those cases where the whole monument ensemble is preserved, both text and image, enabling a much better understanding of the significance of the texts.

A thematic structure within a broader chronological framework provides a valuable lens on the epigrams, allowing readers to compare particular types across the time period. After introducing the funerary landscape in which the selected epigrams fit, González briefly considers the literary form of epigrams as a foil for the rest of the book. The remaining chapters focus on epitaphs of individuals in the most significant stages of life, where gender differences are most marked: themes include untimely death, women and wives, friendship, piety and non-kin love. All epigrams are offered in Greek, followed by an English translation. The analysis focuses on the literary aspects of the epigrams, as well as on the information they provide about both society and religion of ancient Greece.

“This book offers a survey of Greek funerary epigram up to the 4th century and introduces readers to its development and several of its most salient themes. Those new to the subject will find much of value within its pages.” –  Donald E. Lavigne, Associate Professor of Classics, Texas Tech University, USA,

“The Ancient Greeks commemorated some of their dead with grave monuments that included statues or relief sculptures and epitaphs written in poetic verse. This book offers an excellent, highly readable introduction to these mixed-media memorials that can still bring tears to the eyes with their records of young people dead before marriage and sad testimonies to the pain of parents, husbands, and dear friends who commissioned the monuments.” –  Joseph Day, Emeritus Professor of Classics, Wabash College, USA,

La existencia de un tratado dedicado a cantar las hazañas de las mujeres en un mundo como el griego, que había crecido escuchando las gloriosas gestas de los hombres transmitidas por Homero, puede resultar llamativo. Sin embargo, lo realmente nuevo de este libro es que su autor lo redactara tras haber debatido antes el asunto con una mujer. Plutarco le dedicó La excelencia de las mujeres a su admirada Clea. De ese buen comienzo nació
este ensayo, que merece ser leído sin los prejuicios que atribuyen a los griegos de la Antigüedad una especial misoginia; de igual manera, su autor merece reconocimiento por haber entendido que la excelencia, las diferentes maneras de manifestarse las variadas virtudes humanas, no entiende de sexos. No pocas de las historias que aquí se recogen están
pasando ahora mismo y nos invitan a estar vigilantes y a no dar por asegurada ninguna victoria de la civilización sobre la barbarie.

En este volumen se ofrece una visión de conjunto, actualizada y crítica, sobre las creencias acerca de la muerte de los griegos de épocas Arcaica y Clásica. Los diferentes capítulos analizan las relaciones entre hombres y dioses, la figura compleja del héroe y su culto, las elaboraciones literarias y filosóficas del paisaje del más allá, el surgimiento de las creencias en un alma inmortal, los rituales y las legislaciones funerarias, las diferentes prácticas de comunicación con el mundo de los muertos, la organización de los espacios funerarios y los grandes descubrimientos arqueológicos vinculados a las necrópolis.

Los aspectos abordados y los enfoques que se aplican hacen que este libro sea de interés para los estudiosos de la literatura, la religión y el arte de la Grecia antigua, así como para historiadores, arqueólogos y antropólogos, que encontrarán en estas páginas una amplia información contextualizada sobre la historia de los monumentos y los espacios funerarios.

Achilles is a complex hero. His brief, brilliant life is sacrificed to avenge the death of his beloved friend. He is a consummate warrior, yet he is childlike in his rage; and outside the Homeric Iliad we learn that he was dressed as a girl to escape being sent to fight at Troy. Marta González González explores the many facets of this fascinating figure, deftly applying insights from modern theories, literary and psychological, to help bring him into focus. It is a pleasure to read. (- Professor David Konstan, New York University, USA)

Achilles is the quintessential Greek hero, but that does not mean that he is a conventional hero. His uniqueness is dictated by his birth, as the son of a sea goddess, and his education at the hands of a centaur. The hero’s exceptional nature also forms part of the tension that both unites and opposes him to Apollo.

Achilles presents the different episodes in the life of this hero conventionally, in chronological order, based primarily on the Greek sources: birth, education, deeds in Troy, death and subsequent destiny as a figure of worship. On the other hand, this study employs the hero Achilles to reflect on various issues, all of them crucial for historians of the Greek world: what it meant to be and become a man in ancient Greece, what a hero’s aretê consisted of, how the Greeks represented the concepts of friendship and camaraderie, what moved them to revenge or reconciliation, what hopes they harboured as they faced their fate, how they imagined something as difficult to conceive of as a human sacrifice, and how they developed their ideas about the afterlife and hero cult..

The existence of human sacrifice in ancient Greece remains open to debate (Henrichs 1981, Hughes 1991, Bonnechere 1994, Georgoudi 1999, and Bremmer 2007a). Although archaeology might appear to be the best tool to obtain a definitive answer, information can also be extracted from the many literary testimonies available, including some passages in Plutarch. By analysing three such passages, I focus on the subject of sacrifice and build on Jan Bremmer's seminal article: "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece" (1983). I shall briefly address the historicity of the stories narrated by Plutarch and will examine two interesting questions: how did the ancient Greeks imagine human sacrifice and what kind of victim was considered suitable?

Dividido en dos partes, este estudio se centra en el análisis de dos fuentes diferentes, un epitafio ático de edad clásica, preservado con su estela, y un epigrama helenístico del libro VII de la Antología Palatina, ambos dedicados a niños y relacionados con la muerte de hermanos durante la infancia. Entre otros aspectos, se examinan el léxico y los recursos literarios utilizados por los poetas, así como los temas predominantes en
estas composiciones funerarias

According to Plutarch, the daimon which appears to Dion and announces to him his imminent death looks as a Tragic Erinys (Dion 55.2). Plutarch says also that a vision which identifies itself as " your evil daimon " appears to Brutus, just before the battle of Philippi, to announce to him his death (Brutus 36.7). We find this last motive also in Caesar. This paper focuses on the similarities between these episodes which announce the death to Dion and Brutus in a similar way, establishing intertextual links between these Lives. Secondly, I'll pay attention to the relationship between these texts and the tragedy.

The hypothesis of this paper is that in Consolatio ad Apollonium 107C-107E Plutarch does not use the mythical image of the sons of the Night, Hypnos and Thanatos,
as poetic device. There is something different, something between comparison and identification, and presupposes eschatological beliefs that allow the author to make a
connection between Hypnos and Thanatos through a third element: Psyche.

Plutarch, Themistocles 13.13, narrates a human sacrifice before the battle of Salamis. This text has been widely studied from the historical point of view, and most scholars deny the veracity of episode. Our proposal does not go into this debate but is aimed at explainig the occurence of a Dionysos Omestes as the recipient of the sacrifice. This is a strange fact that has received not explanation except the attribution of such invention to Phanias, source of Plutarch, historian of Lesbos, where Dionysos was invoked as Omestes (and similar epiclesis).

El paisaje funerario griego a través de algunos textos de Plutarco (Solón 21.1, 5-7; Temístocles 32.4-6; Foción 22.1-2) (The Greek Funerary Landscape through some Texts of Plutarch: Solon 21.1, 5-7; Themistocles 32.4-6; Phocion 22.1-2) Marta González González (martagzlez@uma.es) Universidad de Málaga Resumen-Este trabajo se centra en tres pasajes de las Vidas de Plutarco que ofrecen información relevante para el estudio del arte funerario en Grecia Antigua. Los textos estudiados, de tres épocas diferentes (Solón 21.1, 5-7; Temístocles 32.4-6; Foción 22. 1-2), permiten repasar las principales características de este arte entre los siglos VI y IV a.C. De las consideraciones de Plutarco (aunque no sean de tipo estético) y del contexto histórico y legislativo de los episodios aquí recordados, se pueden extraer ideas útiles sobre unos monumentos a los que los griegos concedieron enorme importancia. Palabras clave: Plutarco, Solón, Temístocles, Foción, arqueología funeraria. Abstract-This essay is focused on three passages from Plutarch's Lives that provide us relevant information for the study of funerary art in Ancient Greece. The studied texts (Solon 21.1, 5-7; Themistocles 32.4-6, Phocion 22.1-2) are from three different periods and allow us to review the main characteristics of this art between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. From Plutarch's considerations (even if not of an aesthetic nature) and from the historical and legislative context of these episodes, useful ideas can be obtained about monuments to which the Greeks gave an enormous importance. En las páginas que siguen me detendré en tres pasajes de las Vidas de Plu-tarco que pueden aportar un poco de información a la historia del arte funerario en Atenas. Hacen referencia a tres épocas diferentes, de modo que, aunque sin ninguna pretensión de exhaustividad, pueden permitirnos recordar algunos de los rasgos y características de ese arte entre los siglos VI y IV a.C. En el primer caso, se trata más bien de arqueología funeraria. Me centraré en la información que ofrece Plutarco en la Vida de Solón sobre la legislación atribuida al famoso político y poeta ateniense. Entiendo que la desaparición, desde mediados del siglo VI a.C., del tipo de culto que se evidenciaba en los túmulos con Opferrinnen (depósitos de ofrendas en las tumbas, posiblemente vinculados a banquetes fúne-bres) puede estar relacionada con la legislación soloniana relativa a los enterramien-tos. Si fuera así, es especialmente Plutarco y no Cicerón (Leg. 2.66), mucho más citado como fuente para este asunto, nuestro principal informador. Se trata, como veremos, en el caso de Solón, de una legislación más bien de carácter antropológico que suntuario, ya que la Atenas del siglo VI a.C. sigue siendo una ciudad en la que la ostentación preside determinadas ceremonias fúnebres, como puede verse en el http://dx.