Email this article Farewell to Arms – Farewell in Arms: Depictions of Weapons on Stone and in Hellenistic Inscriptional Epigrams
Abstract
Abstract
Through four case studies I discuss the importance and frequency of the appearance of weapons (an important element of epic imagery) in funerary poetry, and its relation to representations of arms on gravestones and monuments in the Hellenistic period, geographically ranging from Lycia and Caria to the Black Sea, from mainland Greece to the Aegean islands. One of the most common features of poetic epitaphs for soldiers (including citizens, mercenaries, and soldiers belonging to royal armies) is the celebration of the military valor (arete) of the deceased; on the other hand, except for the spear, weapons are not mentioned often in funerary poetry. When they are not mentioned in the epitaph, or when an epitaph is not present, weapons are sometimes represented on the funerary monument itself, in the form of reliefs or paintings, either in the context of a battle scene, or carried by the standing deceased, or simply as isolated objects, as symbols of his profession or social rank in life.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abramitis - Abbe 2019
D.H. Abramitis - M.B. Abbe, A Group of Painted Funerary Monuments from Hellenistic Alexandria in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Technè 48 (2019), 60-71.
Angliker - Bultrighini 2023
E. Angliker - I. Bultrighini (eds.), New Approaches to the Materiality of Texts in the Ancient Mediterranean: From Monuments and Buildings to Small Portable Objects (Archaeology of the Mediterranean World 4), Turnhout 2023.
Annan 2014
B. Annan, Mourir à la grecque? Monuments et représentations funéraires en Phénicie aux époques perse et hellénistique, in J.-M. Mouton - J. Paviot (éds.), Civilisations en transition. Sociétés conquérantes et sociétés composites à travers l’Histoire. L’exemple du Liban, Byblos 2014, 207-260.
Asgari - Fıratlı 1978
N. Asgari - N. Fıratlı, Die Nekropole von Kalchedon, in S. Şahin - E. Schwertheim - J. Wagner (hrsgg.), Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens. Festschrift für F.K. Dörner zum 65. Geburtstag, Leiden 1978, 1-107.
Bar - Kochva 1976
B. Bar-Kochva, ‘Menas’ Inscription and Curupedion, SCI 1 (1974), 14-23.
Barbantani 2007
S. Barbantani, The Glory of the Spear: A Powerful Symbol in Hellenistic Poetry and Art. The Case of Neoptolemus «of Tlos», SCO 53 (2007), 67-138.
Barbantani 2014
S. Barbantani, «Déjà la pierre pense où votre nom s’inscrit». Identity in Context in Verse Epitaphs for Hellenistic Soldiers, in R. Hunter - A. Rengakos - E. Sistakou (eds.), Hellenistic Studies at a Crossroads: Exploring Texts, Contexts and Metatexts (Trends in Classics, suppl. 25), Berlin - New York 2014, 305-338.
Barbantani 2014
S. Barbantani, Hellenistic and Roman Military Epitaphs on Stone and on Papyrus: Questions of Authorship and Literariness, in C. Carey - I. Petrovic - M. Kanellou (eds.), Greek Literary Epigram: From the Hellenistic to the Byzantine Era, Oxford 2019, 154-175.
Barbantani 2016
S. Barbantani, «Simplify Me When I Am Dead»: War Heroes in Hellenistic Funerary Epigrams, Aevum Antiquum 16 (2016), 183-239.
Barbantani 2018
S. Barbantani, «Fui buon poeta e buon soldato». Kleos militare e paideia poetica negli epigrammi epigrafici ellenistici, Eikasmos 29 (2018), 283-312.
Barbantani 2020
S. Barbantani, Models of Virtue, Models of Poetry: The Quest for Everlasting Fame in Hellenistic Epigrammatic Poetry, in R. Faber - S. Ager (eds.), Celebrity, Fame, and Infamy in the Hellenistic World, Toronto 2020, 37-69.
Bean - Harrison 1967
G.E. Bean - R.M. Harrison, Choma in Lycia, JRS 57.1/2 (1967), 40-44.
Bresson 1991
A. Bresson, Recueil des inscriptions de la Pérée rhodienne (Pérée intégrée), Besançon 1991.
Breuer 1995
C. Breuer, Reliefs und Epigramme griechischer Privatgräber (Arbeiten zur Archäologie 12), Köln - Weimar - Wien 1995.
Brown 1957
B. Brown, Ptolemaic Paintings and Mosaics in the Alexandrian Style, Cambridge 1957.
Cadario 2001
M. Cadario, La corazza ai piedi dell’eroe. Una statua con Panzertronk da una necropoli di Luni, Quaderni del Centro Studi Lunensi n.s. 7 (2001), 115-154.
Cadario 2004
M. Cadario, La corazza di Alessandro. Loricati di tipo ellenistico dal IV sec. a.C. al II d.C. (Il Filarete Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università degli Studi di Milano 218), Milano 2004.
https://www.lededizioni.com/catalogo/cadariocorazza.html
Cairon 2009
E. Cairon, Les épitaphes métriques helléniques du Péloponnèse à la Thessalie, Budapest 2009.
Chaniotis 2005
A. Chaniotis, War in the Hellenistic World: A Social and Cultural History, Oxford 2005.
Chaniotis 2009a
A. Chaniotis, Lament for a Young Man: A New Epigram from Aphrodisias, in Á. Martínez Fernández (ed.), Estudios de Epigrafía Griega (Colección Publicaciones Institucionales. Serie 1. Investigación), La Laguna 2009, 469-478.
Chaniotis 2009b
A. Chaniotis, A Few Things Hellenistic Audiences Appreciated in Musical Performances, in M.C. Martinelli - F. Pelosi - C. Pernigotti (a cura di), La Musa dimenticata. Aspetti dell’esperienza musicale greca in età ellenistica. Convegno di studio Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore 21-23 settembre 2006, Pisa 2009, 75-97.
Chaniotis 2012a
A. Chaniotis, The Ritualised Commemoration of War in the Hellenistic City: Memory, Identity, Emotion, in P. Low - G. Oliver - P. Rhodes (eds.), Cultures of Commemoration: War Memorials, Ancient and Modern, Oxford 2012, 41-62.
Chaniotis 2012b
A. Chaniotis, Listening to Stones: Orality and Emotions in Ancient Inscriptions, in J. Davies - J. Wilkes (eds.), Epigraphy and the Historical Sciences, Oxford 2012, 299-328.
Chaviaras 1911
M. Chaviaras - N. Chaviaras, Epigraphai Peraias tōn Rhodiōn, AE 1911, 52-69.
Cole 2019
S.E. Cole, Ptolemaic Cavalrymen on Painted Alexandrian Funerary Monuments, Arts 8(2), 58 (2019), 1-23.
Couilloud - Le Dinahet 1974
M.-T. Couilloud - Le Dinahet, Les Monuments funéraires de Rhénée, Athènes 1974.
Couilloud - Le Dinahet 2003
M.-T. Couilloud - Le Dinahet, Les rituels funéraires en Asie Mineure et en Syrie à l’époque hellénistique (jusqu’au milieu du Ier siècle av. J.-C.), Pallas. Revue d’études antiques 62 (2003), 65-95.
Cremer 1991-1992
M. Cremer, Hellenistisch-römische Grabstelen im nordwestlichen Kleinasien, I: Mysien; II: Bithynien, Bonn 1991-1992.
D’Amore 2017
L. D’Amore, Lesteia e nauagia: le paure dell’uomo greco sui mari, in L. Chioff - M. Kajava - S. Orma (a cura di), Il Mediterraneo e la Storia, II, Naviganti, popoli e culture ad Ischia e in altri luoghi della costa tirrenica (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 45), Roma 2017, 193-211.
Daux 1941
G. Daux, Notes épigraphiques et philologiques, REG 54 (1941), 218-227.
Fabricius 1999
J. Fabricius, Die hellenistischen Totenmahlreliefs. Grabrepräsentation und Wertvorstellungen in ostgriechischen Städten (Studien zur antiken Stadt 3), München 1999.
Fabricius 2016
J. Fabricius, Hellenistic Funerary Banquet Reliefs: Thoughts on. Problems Old and New, in C.M. Draycott - M. Stamatopoulou (eds.), Dining and Death: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the ‘Funerary Banquet’ in Ancient Art, Burial and Belief (Colloquia Antiqua 16), Leuven - Paris - Bristol 2016, 33-69.
Fantuzzi 2008
M. Fantuzzi, La doppia gloria di Menas, in A.M. Morelli (a cura di), Epigramma longum. Da Marziale alla tarda antichità, II, Cassino 2008, 603-622.
Fraser - Rönne 1957
P.M. Fraser - T. Rönne, Boeotian and West Greek Tombstones, Lund 1957.
Garulli 2014
V. Garulli, Stones as Books: The Layout of Hellenistic Inscribed Poems, in M.A. Harder - R. Regtuit - G. Wakker (eds.), Hellenistic Poetry in Context (Hellenistica Groningana 20), Paris - Leuven 2014, 125-169.
Grossman 2001
J.B. Grossman, Greek Funerary Sculpture: Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa, Los Angeles 2001.
Helly 2014
B. Helly (avec E. Santin), Épigramme funéraire de Gonnoi pour Dikaiogénès, mort au combat au cours de la troisième guerre de Macédoine dans la région d’Askuris (Bas-Olympe), in E. Santin - L. Foschia (éds), L’épigramme dans tous ses états, épigraphiques, littéraires, historiques, Lyon 2014, 246-281.
Kaczyńska 2000
E. Kaczyńska, Wizerunek Kreteńczyków w twórczości Kallimacha z Cyreny (A presentation of the Cretans in literary works by Callimachus of Cyrene [in Polish]), Meander 6 (2000), 513-535.
Kalaitzi 2016
M. Kalaitzi, Figured Tombstones from Macedonia, Fifth-First Century BC, Oxford 2016.
Karagiorga 1963
Th. Karagiorga, Ἀρχαιότητες καὶ μνημεῖα Λακωνίας – Ἀρκαδίας, Ἀρχαιολογικὸν Δελτίον 18/Β΄1 (1963), 86-90.
Karlsson 2014
S. Karlsson, Emotions Carved in Stone? The Social Handling of Death as Expressed on Hellenistic Grave Stelai from Smyrna and Kyzikos, Doctoral Diss., Gotherburg 2014.
Kinch 1920
K.F. Kinch, Le tombeau de Niausta. Tombeau Macedonien (Memoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et des Lettres de Danemark, Copenhague, 7ème Serie Section des Lettres, 4.3), København 1920, 283-288.
Kistler 2009
E. Kistler, Funktionalisierte Keltenbilder. Die Indienstnahme der Kelten zur Vermittlung von Normen und Werten in der hellenistischen Welt, Berlin 2009.
Looijenga 2014
A.R. Looijenga, The Spear and the Ideology of Kingship in Hellenistic Poetry, in M.A. Harder - R.F. Regtuit - G.C. Wakker (eds.), Hellenistic Poetry in Context (Hellenistica Groningana 20), Leuven - Paris 2014, 217-246.
Ma 2004
J. Ma, Une culture militaire en Asie mineure hellénistique?, in J.-C. Couvenhes - H.L. Fernoux (éds), Les Cités grecques et la guerre en Asie Mineure à l’époque hellénistique, Paris 2004, 199-220.
Ma 2005
J. Ma, The Many Lifes of Eugnotos of Akraiphia, Studi Ellenistici 16 (2005), 141-191.
Ma 2013
J. Ma, Statues and Cities. Honorific Portraits and Civic Identity in the Hellenistic World: Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation, Oxford - New York 2013.
Magnelli 1999
A. Magnelli, Il santuario delle divinità egizie a Gortyna. L’evidenza epigrafica, Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle missioni italiane in Oriente, n.s. 56-57 (1999), 33-52.
Martínez Fernández 2006
A. Martínez Fernández, Epigramas Helenísticos de Creta (Manuales y Anejos de Emérita), Madrid 2006.
Miller 1993
S.G. Miller, The Tomb of Lyson and Kallikles: A Painted Macedonian Tomb, Mayence 1993.
Montachamp 1993
J.-P. Montchamp, Les stèles funéraires du Bosphore et de la Chersonèse, Topoi 3.1 (1993), 167-211.
Nikolaidou-Patera 2013
M. Nikolaidou-Patera, Nεκροπόλεις της Ανατολικής Μακεδονίας, in K. Sporn (hrsg.) Griechische Grabbezirke klassischer Zeit. Normen und Regionalismen. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums am Deutschen Archäologischen Institut, Abt. Athen, 20.-21. November 2009 (Athenaia Bd. 6), München 2013, 95-106.
Paganini 2021
M.C.D. Paganini, Gymnasia and Greek Identity in Ptolemaic Egypt, Oxford 2021.
Peek 1971
W. Peek, Epigramme und andere Inschriften aus Lakonien und Arkadien, Heidelberg 1971.
Peek 1980
W. Peek, Griechische Versinschriften aus Kleinasien (TAM Suppl. 8), Wien 1980.
Pekridou 1986
A.Pekridou, Das Alketas-Grab in Termessos (MDAI (I) Beiheft 32), Tübingen 1986.
Petrovic - Petrovic - Thomas 2018
A. Petrovic - I. Petrovic - E. Thomas (eds.), The Materiality of Text: Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity (Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy 11), Leiden - Boston 2018.
Pfuhl - Möbius 1977-1979
E. Pfuhl - H. Möbius, Die Ostgriechischen Grabreliefs, Mainz 1977-1979.
Polito 1998
E. Polito, Fulgentibus armis. Introduzione allo studio dei fregi d’armi antichi (Xenia Antiqua. Monografie 4) Roma 1998.
Posamentir 2011
R. Posamentir, The Polychrome Grave Stelai from the Early Hellenistic Necropolis (Chersonesan Studies 1), Austin, TX 2011.
Post forthcoming
R. Post, The Bithynian Army in the Hellenistic Period, forthcoming.
https://www.academia.edu/4131224/TheBythinian_Army_in_the_Hellenistic_Period
Powell 1925
J.U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina: Reliquiae minores Poetarum Graecorum Aetatis Ptolemaicae 323-146 A.C. Epicorum, Elegiacorum, Lyricorum, Ethicorum, Oxford 1925.
Ramba 2014
D. Ramba, Bestimmung der prägenden Wesenszüge im Sport der griechisch-römischen Antike, Diss., Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 2014.
Rapella 2019
E. Rapella, Gli epigrammi di Mnasalce di Sicione. Introduzione, traduzione e commento, Tesi di dottorato, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, XXXI ciclo, a.a. 2017/18, Milano 2019.
Romiopoulou - Touratsoglou 1971
K. Romiopoulou - I. Touratsoglou, Ο Μακεδονικός τάφος της Νιάουστας, ΑΕ (1971), 65-71.
Rouveret 2004
A. Rouveret (éd.), Peintures grecques antiques. La collection hellénistique du musée du Louvre, avec la collaboration de P. Walter, Paris 2004.
Şahin 2014
S. Şahin, Stadiasmus Patarensis. Likya Eyaleti Roma Yolları, İstanbul 2014.
Schmidt 1991
S. Schmidt, Hellenistische Grabreliefs: typologische und chronologische Beobachtungen, Köln 1991.
Staab 2018
G. Staab, Gebrochener Glanz. Klassische Tradition und Alltagswelt im Spiegel neuer und alter Grabepigramme des griechischen Ostens (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 130), Berlin - Boston, 2018.
Stefanakis 2016
M.I. Stefanakis, Looking towards the North: The Circulation of Cyrenaic Coins on Crete, in A. Asolati (a cura di), Le monete di Cirene e della Cirenaica nel Mediterraneo. Problemi e prospettive. Atti del V Congresso Internazionale di Numismatica e di Storia Monetaria Padova, 17-19 marzo 2016, Padova 2016, 65-81.
Stolba 2015
V.F. Stolba, «Archers» of the Blessed City: City’s Deliverance in the Coinage of Early Hellenistic Olbia, Notae Numismaticae X (2015), 43-63.
Tentori Montalto 2017
M. Tentori Montalto, Essere primi per il valore. Gli epigrammi funerari greci su pietra per i caduti in guerra (VII-V sec. a.C.), Pisa - Roma 2017.
Tentori Montalto 2020
M. Tentori Montalto, Datazione e analisi di un’iscrizione di Choma (Merkelbach-Stauber, SGO 17/17/01), RCCM 62.1 (2020), 211-227.
Verilhac 1978
Anne-Marie Verilhac, ΠΑΙΔΕΣ ΑΩΡΟΙ – Poésie funéraire, Athens 1978.
Vertoudakis 2000
V. Vertoudakis, Epigrammata Cretica. Λογοτεχνικοί Τόποι και Μύθοι της Κρήτης στο Αρχαίο Ελληνικό Επίγραμμα, Heraklion 2000.
Zanker 1993
P. Zanker, The Hellenistic Grave Stelai from Smyrna: Identity and Self-image in the polis, in A. Bulloch -E.S. Gruen - A.A. Long - A. Stewart (eds.), Images and Ideologies: Self-Definition in the Hellenistic World, Berkeley 1993, 212-230.
Zanusso 2019
V. Zanusso, ‘Sentire’ sulla scena tragica del V sec. a.C.: la funzione drammaturgica del rumore nel dramma attico, Tesi di dottorato, Università di Roma La Sapienza, 2019.
https://iris.uniroma1.it/handle/11573/1241420
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7358/erga-2024-001-bars
Copyright (©) 2024 SILVIA BARBANTANI – Editorial format and Graphical layout: copyright (©) LED Edizioni Universitarie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Announcements
Erga/Logoi accepts books for review
The books are to be sent to the Executive Editor
Call for papers Vol. 14 (2026)
Authors have to read through the Information for Authors and the Author guidelines carefully before beginning the submission process.
Erga-Logoi. Rivista di storia, letteratura, diritto e culture dell'antichità
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (20/09/2012 n. 353)
Online ISSN 2282-3212 - Print ISSN 2280-9678
Executive Editor: Cinzia Bearzot
Editorial Staff: Paolo A. Tuci (Coordinator) - Marcello Bertoli - Livia De Martinis - Laura Loddo - Annabella Oranges - Alessandra Valentini
Editorial Board: Gaetano Arena - Christopher A. Baron - Ralf Behrwald - Margherita Cassia - Paolo Cesaretti - Michele Faraguna - Massimo Gioseffi - Dominique Lenfant - Lauretta Maganzani - Roberto Nicolai - Giovanni Parmeggiani - Marina Polito - Umberto Roberto - Francesca Rohr - Marco Sannazaro - Stefan Schorn - Sławomir Sprawski - Paolo A. Tuci - Gianpaolo Urso - José Vela Tejada
Emeritus Editorial Board: Serena Bianchetti - Giovannella Cresci - Lia Raffaella Cresci - Ugo Fantasia - Franca Landucci - Rosalia Marino - Riccardo Vattuone - Robert Wallace
© 2001 LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto