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Multidisciplinary or post-disciplinary research is what is needed when dealing with such complex subjects as ritual behaviour. This research, therefore, combines ethnography with historical sources to examine the relationship between modern Greek death rituals and ancient written and visual sources on the subject of death and gender.

The central theme of this work is women’s role in connection with the cult of the dead in ancient and modern Greece. The research is based on studies in ancient history combined with the author’s fieldwork and anthropological analysis of today’s Mediterranean societies. Since death rituals have a focal and lasting importance, and reflect the gender relations within a society, the institutions surrounding death may function as a critical vantage point from which to view society. The comparison is based on certain religious festivals that are dedicated to deceased persons and on other death rituals. Using laments, burials and the ensuing memorial rituals, the relationship between the cult dedicated to deceased mediators in both ancient and modern society is analysed. The research shows how the official ideological rituals are influenced by the domestic rituals people perform for their own dead, and vice versa, that the modern domestic rituals simultaneously reflect the public performances. As this cult has many parallels with the ancient official cult, the following questions are central: Can an analysis of modern public and domestic rituals in combination with ancient sources tell the reader more about the ancient death cult as a whole? What does such an analysis suggest about the relationship between the domestic death cult and the official? Since the practical performance of the domestic rituals was – and still remains – in the hands of women, it is crucial to discover the extent of their influence to elucidate the real power relations between women and men. This research represents a new contribution to earlier presentations of the Greek “reality”, but mainly from the female perspective, which is highly significant since men produced most of the ancient sources.

This means that the principal objective for this endeavour is to question the ways in which history has been written through the ages, to supplement the male with a female perspective, perhaps complementing an Olympian Zeus with a Chthonic Mother Earth. The research brings both ancient and modern worlds into mutual illumination; its relevance therefore transcends the Greek context both in time and space.

List of Figures ...viii
A Note on Transliteration ...xiii
Acknowledgements ...xv
Introduction ...1
Chapter One ...6
Death Rituals and the Cult of the Dead in Greece
From death in general to Greek women and death in particular
Festivals and rituals connected with death
Bridging a cultural divide to situate the context
Locating gendered values: from the honour of masculinity toward
a poetics of womanhood
Women
The death cult
From fieldwork in modern Greece to ancient death rituals
The female sphere
Chapter Two ...31
Fieldwork: Modern Saints Festivals
Tinos, the most important pilgrimage centre in modern Greece
The festival dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary
The day of the Annunciation of the Panagia, 25 March
The Monastery of Kekhrovouno and Agia Pelagia
Agia Pelagia’s vision, 23 July
16 August 1992: the summer festival dedicated to Agios Gerasimos
on the island of Kephallonia
The feast dedicated to the saint who deals with demonic aggression
The Monastery of Agios Nektarios on the island of Aegina
The festival dedicated to Agios Nektarios
The feast day, 9 November
The bodies of saints
Table of Contents
Chapter Three ...130
The Cult of the Saints, Heroes, Heroines and other Exceptional Dead
Easter on Tinos, 2012
From Easter on Tinos to the cult of dead mediators,
ancient and modern
Chapter Four ...190
Laments and Burials
Some preliminary reflections on modern Greek death rituals
and the gender issue
Female laments and male burials
Laments for dying personified vegetation Goddesses and Gods
and other divinities
Chapter Five ...265
Tombs and Gifts
Women at the cemetery on Saturday mornings and modern
memorial celebrations
“Soul Saturdays”: Psychosabbata
Ancient offerings and memorial rituals
Grave inscriptions and funeral orations
Chapter Six ...350
The Cult of the Bones
Chapter Seven ...417
The Cult of the Deceased Mediators
Ancestor worship and the saint cult
Ancient ancestor, hero and heroine worship
Chapter Eight ...485
Communication between the Living and the Dead
Ideas about the afterlife
Life out of death
The festival cycle and the death cult
Chapter Nine ...550
Some Concluding Reflections on Gender and Death in Greece,
the Interpretation of Greek History, and the Wider World
Rituals of Death and Dying in Modern and Ancient Greece vii
Glossary of Greek Terms ...574
Sources and Bibliography ...588
Index ...628