Protonekrotafeio 2013

It is my third visit to the Protonekrotafeio.  The first time, I stumbled onto the ossuary which was poorly maintained and had the bone boxes stacked outside and some were even blown open, revealing the bones inside.  A scandal, really.  I went back the second year and it was the same.  This third year at last it has been cleaned up, which is a good thing, but makes a less dramatic end to our tour of the cemetery.

The cleaned up ossuary.

I always talk with the students about what is different at the cemetery.  They notice that the green grass, neat rows and relatively uniform gravestones are absent.

We seem in America to want to sanitize death, anonymize the dead, and assert tight control over our graveyards with these things, where in Greece the graves are personalized with photos.  The dead are brought to life with the pictures.

This was clearly someone associated with the film industry.

The pictures remind me of icons sitting on the altar of the tomb, but I don't think the analogy holds, as I don't think the dead person is being worshipped, but rather memorialized.  It gives a focus to talk to when one brings the news to the person as they clean the grave.  Also there is often a separate icon in a tiny shrine as part of the grave with an oil lamp and matches tucked inside as well.

The icon and lamp are on the shelf at the back.  I didn't get the right angle. but there was a small bucket and mop right inside the door.

This one even had Christmas and Easter decorations from the holiday visits.

The graves are not uniform in any way.  It isn't just the Protonekrotafieo, either, with its marble sculptures.  I've heard that the Protonekrotafeio is often visited by art classes to study the wealth of sculpture.  It isn't just the grave markers.  Live plants grow on the graves, and surprisingly some are even food plants.  We saw a pomegranate... a relevant choice and perhaps not understood as food.

What struck me this time was the domesticity.  Death isn't being sanitized in a Greek graveyard, it is being domesticated.  There are cleaning supplies often tucked into a corner of a big mausoleum, because just like the house, a grave needs to be cleaned frequently.  Just like the corner shrine in a house, the oil lamp needs to be lit regularly.  Just like at home there are live plants and even holiday decorations.  Shade seems important, just like a balcony.

The arbor here could belong to a garden rather than a grave.

I think this is the May, a wreath celebrating May 1 on the door of a mausoleum.

This lovely memorial to G.G. is not the most recent person buried in this family mausoleum, but the second most recent.

I believe this is essentially an ossuary, but one that still emphasizes the individual.  It is in Athens, where the community identity is not as strong, so perhaps that is why.  No oil lamps here, but there are photos, candles and flowers.

The dead aren't gone so much as moved out on their own?  Emigrated perhaps?  Whatever the metaphor, it is a very different relationship than we have with our dead.

At the entrance, near the church are the tombs for the priests.. note the fancy hat on the top.