Art History 505: Marriage and Death in Greek Art Course Description

Marriage and death are intimately (if somwhat paradoxically) linked in ancient Greece. Tragedies are full of parallels and similes between weddings and funerals; Rush Rehm's recent book Marriage to Death explores some of these issues. Similar concerns pervade Greek art. The same sorts of ritual vases, for instance, were used in both marriage ceremonies and death rituals; andthe dead are often depicted as a bride or groom on grave markers. In a more general way, these two transitions are among the most important foci of domestic art. They form one of the relatively few occasions when a household would commission works of art for private display rather than for dedication in a sanctuary (although the boundaries quickly become blurred).

This seminar will explore the artistic and cognitive links between marriage and death in ancient Greek culture, from the 8th through the 4th centuries BC. We will look at works of art such as vases, tombstones, and the like, and read Greek literature, especially poetry, philosophy and epigrams. Emphasis will be placed on the social, historical and cultural context of the works of art, on understanding their ancient meanings, and on the intellectual process of deciphering and reconstructing meaning in works of art and history.

Students will work in small groups to prepare presentations and to lead discussions following their presentations. The first reports will be fairly straightforward and factual accounts of the rituals of marriage and death and their physical manifestations in different periods and media, and may be more "anecdotal," treating individual monuments rather than general trends. After these initial reports, groups will investigate more general topics, tying these rituals and monuments together into a broader picture of Greek private art. Some suggestions for these second papers are listed below.

Each student will write up these reports as proper research papers. The first paper, based on the initial presentation, will be due when all the presentations have been made. This will then be rewritten and expanded to a 15-20 page research paper due near the end of the semster.

A fourth credit option is available: students taking the course for four credits will meet for an additional hour a week for a discussion of extra readings, and do more in-depth work with Greek literary sources.

The course is open to undergraduate majors and non-majors. Students with little background in Greek art are welcome but should expect to do additional readings early in the semester to catch up.

Potential Research Topics:

• Mythological marriages and deaths as archetypes for real marriages
• Youth vs. age in death
• Different treatment of married vs. unmarried dead
• Demeter and Kore in death rituals and memorials
• The warrior in death
• Vases made specifically for marriages: not just the obvious ones (loutrophoroi, etc.) but made, e.g., for marriage feasts (e.g. the François Vase; the Eurytios Krater?).
• Idem for death
• Family relationships and tombstones; weddings in Attic funerary markers.
• Marriage as the death of the maiden/youth.
• Funerary rituals on South Italian and Sicilian vases; tragedy, comedy, mythology.

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Last modified Sept. 3, 1997 by Nick Cahill