Ancient Greece in the Cemetery

The First Cemetery: A Little Bit of Ancient Greece in Modern Athens

The First Cemetery  

An Ancient Tomb

                        

The  Athens First Cemetery is overwhelmingly a Greek Orthodox burial ground and less than 180 years old and yet, the overall impression a visitor gets, in spite of many modern touches and the thousands of crosses in evidence, is more ‘ancient’ than modern.

 

It is true that when the First Cemetery was established and growing, neoclassical design was already popular in Europe,  and the Greek revival in architecture and design was in full swing, so the the choice of ancient motifs fit in with established tastes, - tastes that were imported by King Othon’s German advisors and cosmopolitan Greeks into the new Kingdom. So these design parameters were ‘in the air’  But, in the case of  Athens’ First cemetery, there is more.  

After 1830, there was a conscious effort on the part of the new nation to remind the world that they were culturally and biologically the direct descendants of ancient Greece. This conviction was a point of pride and a firm basis for a national identity, making just about anything that harkened back to ancient Greece popular and politically correct in the context of the new nation.  Nowhere is this more obvious than in Athens First Cemetery. Some tombs simply replicate famous ancient Athenian monuments or motifs.

 

                             

The Greek key around tombs was particularly popular in the early days, especially for leading families. 

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Entire ancient Greek temples complete with columns, cornices and capitals were built to house many of the Christian dead in the First Cemetery.

 

                    

The sheer variety and number of such temples is nothing short of amazing and the symbolism is interesting, a little breathtaking even. Greek temples housed only gods; so burial inside a temple is a clear statement about the importance and high status, not to mention the pedigree, of those buried within. 

And while perhaps not so common in classical Greece’s heyday, elaborate  marble sarcophagi have found their way into the ancient vocabulary of the First Cemetery – no doubt filtered through the Hellenistic period and Rome as well.  Bodies were not placed inside; the sarcophagi are there to indicate the importance of the person buried:

Dec 4

Grave monuments were a point of family pride and an indication of the family’s real or hoped for position in the society of the new city. Many newcomers to the capital went to great lengths to establish their credentials in marble:

The results are never dull. 

Ancient architectural elements could be and were combined according to personal taste or perceptions of status.

 

 

And then there was Kerameikos, Athens’ ancient burial ground. Excavations had begun in 1870 and copies of the wonderful tombs discovered became so popular in the First Cemetery that a stroll among its tombs today offers a fleeting glimpse of what Kerameikos was probably like… 

 

                First Cemetery     

                                      

                                                               Kerameikos

                                

   

                                                          First cemetery      

                                                           Kerameikos                  

                                                     First Cemetery

                                                                                                

The grave stele in particular is everywhere, often topped by an akroterion or other ancient architectural element and, this being the nineteenth century and not the 4^th century BC, by rather Victorian marble busts which are often excellent likenesses of the dead.

The ubiquitous motif of sad farewells so popular in ancient times segued very nicely into nineteenth century Athenian romantic sensibilities and many versions of that motif are evident in the First Cemetery 

                         

                                                             First Cemetery                            

                                                            Kerameikos

The ‘temple tomb as bas relief’, in particular was adopted and adapted in the 19^th century and early 20^th century; examples of this type are everywhere. The scene depicted has sometimes been altered to reflect a more modern ethos. A figure may be alone, reflecting his or her importance as an individual, or even dressed in nineteenth century clothes:

 

But the gravitas supplied by the enclosing temple motif remains in place no matter how modern the figure(s) depicted. (It helped that the new nation had so many wonderful and intuitive marble sculptors able to translate this aesthetic into true works of art. Their virtuosity and skills get a separate section in the blog.)

Christian Symbols and Ancient Motifs

 Of course, early on Christianity had incorporated ancient motifs and symbols, altering their meaning to fit the Orthodox world-view. Victory Palms and wreaths, rosettes, lit lamps for heroes, and winged figures for victory were adopted with a different emphasis, this time not symbolizing victory in life but victory over death. That they could equally symbolize both made them especially popular as grave embellishments for modern Greek warriors and heroes.

      

                             

Makrygiannis                                 

 Michael Tositsas

                            

 This potent mixture of Christian and ancient worked well; it had a special spiritual resonance for a people who could and did claim both worlds as their own. Take the tomb of Kyriakos Koumbaris:

 Kyriakos Koumbaris

The down-turned extinguished torch is held by an angel and a small butterfly of immortality can be seen issuing from its tip in the scene above. The message is Christian but the overall design and ethos is much older…

 There are purely Christian motifs and reminders of Byzantium in the First Cemetery – even a few small Byzantine temples here and there used as family tombs. But Byzantium is not nearly as present as ancient Greece.

 Demitrios Vikelas noticed this when he visited in 1866 and called it archaiolatry. And perhaps it is. But the fact remains it was the ancient strand of their DNA that many Greeks chose to emphasize and immortalize in marble. And if that tendency caused just a tinge of Christian unease, an ancient motif, be it temple, column, statue, or laurel wreath, could be instantly baptized by the addition of a cross, -

even if it was a rather small one...