Lamentation
Narrow the designated lament the emotions caused by lawsuits over the death of a man to whom they had an emotional relationship.
meaning
The lament for the dead is not a silent mourning. It takes audible to others, especially by the singing of dirges or pure lawsuits in the original sense, that "the screaming / wailing with grief or pain." The lament for the dead intensifies the grief over the loss of the deceased.
If one takes the term of the lament for the dead a little further, it not only means utterances about the human voice (singing, screaming, whining), but also bodily “utterances” such as gestures, movements and actions. The complainants - especially women - originally screamed shrill and inarticulate, disfigured themselves (tearing or cutting off their hair = hair sacrifice ), tore their clothes and inflicted pain from blows and scratching their skin.
If one takes the term of the lamentation a little further, it does not have to be limited to the spontaneous expressions of real emotions, but can also take on the character of a ritual or a pure performance with professional "actors" such as the mourning women . Examples of heavily ritualized mourning for the dead can be found in the sections on Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
The Reallexicon of German Antiquities defined lament in the meaning of lament for the dead as:
“Old, in some places still existing name of the lamentation for the dead, which was generally widespread among the ancient peoples, actually wailing over the dead, then lamentation with well-composed speech and certain gestures, for which the relatives had to help. As attributes of such a lament for the dead often appear to be scuffling and beating of the chest, also tearing off the clothes. Later this tedious ceremonial process was left to ordered and paid mourners. Hildebrand in Grimm's vocabulary "
The lament for the dead in different epochs and cultures
Ancient Egypt
Herodotus describes the Egyptians' mourning for death:
"Lamentation and funeral proceed as follows: When a respected housemate dies in a house, all the female residents of the house coat their heads or faces with excrement, leave the corpse in the house and run through the city with bare chests, struggling ; all female relatives join them. The men are also fighting and have their robes tied under their chests. "
Ancient Greece
The lament for the dead in the form of Threnus was aimed directly at the deceased as a being able to understand this lament. Furthermore, the truthfulness of grief should be demonstrated to the dead by inflicting their own pains in order to make them merciful. The shedding of one's own blood should also satisfy the thirst for blood in the deceased. The dead person was circled so that a protective circle was drawn around him.
Roman antiquity
In Roman antiquity, the lament for the dead or the song of the dead was called Nänie .
Judaism
The Hebrew lament for the dead finds expression in the poetic form of the Qina , which finds its artistic climax in the Lamentations of Jeremiah .
Christianization
With Christianization , the pagan lamentations for the dead are suppressed in Europe. In the 9th century the monk Pirmin forbade the "shrill lament for the dead " ( ululatus excelsus ), as well as eating and drinking at the burial mound. He sees the complaints as “diabolical chants” ( diabolica carmina , pestifera cantica ), “unseemly jokes and dance” ( ioca et saltationes ), “laughter and feasts ” ( inebriari et cachinnis ora dissolvi ). - He replaces the mourning for the dead with prayers , psalmody and liturgical chants.
middle Ages
In the medieval trobadord poetry of southern France, the planh was common as a lament.
Islam
The Koran and tradition do not provide for a formal lament for the dead. “I forbade them to cry, but they don't obey me. My God, they are stronger than me - or than us ”( Hadith, according to al-Bukhari ). Nevertheless, there is a pronounced practice of lamenting for the dead in traditional Muslim societies. Men in the funeral procession , especially women, burst into screams that often lead to trance-like states and unconsciousness.
See also
literature
- Gerlinde Haid : Lament for the Dead. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden Volume 7 - The Dictionary of Origin , Dudenverlag, 3rd edition 2001, ISBN 3-411-04073-4 .
- ↑ here online at zeno.org .