Figuring Death in Classical Athens: Visual and Literary Explorations

Death in the ancient world has long been a subject of interest. Studies abound that examine its social and ideological dimensions, funerary practices, and changing attitudes and beliefs. This book takes a fresh approach, cutting across sub-disciplines (art, text, philosophy, and so on) to build a picture of how ancient art and literature got their audiences thinking-thinking not just about death but about its knowability. Whether in the theatre, at the symposium, or on the Acropolis, representations of death challenged Athenians by presenting problems of exteriority (how can the living know what dying might be like?) and particularity (can one person’s experience hold for another? is death truly a ‘leveller’?).

The material covered is wide ranging. Unlike other studies, which often focus on either art or text and on one category of objects or one literary genre, the book pulls together exemplary texts and objects (including Plato, drinking cups, Sophocles, temple sculpture, and Thucydides) and makes each accessible to readers from multiple sub-disciplines and, indeed, from beyond Classics.

It will be critical reading for those interested in ancient attitudes to death, as well as those interested in cultural imagination and intellectual history. As a multi-media study, it will appeal to those working on ancient image and text (and their intersection), and, more broadly, to those in other disciplines working on visuality, mediality, materiality, and culturally situated ideas.