Funeral meal (ancient)

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Funeral meal relief from Bonn, 2nd century AD

Organizing a funeral meal (in Latin refrigerium "refreshment") was a natural part of social life in the Roman Empire. At first Christians saw no reason to distance themselves from their surroundings, according to Augustine von Hippo's judgment : one should stick to the customary local rules for burials and remembrance of the dead.

Occasions

A Roman funeral meal took place on the following dates:

  • After the burial - a family meal and a banquet ( silicernium ) at the grave.
  • Completion of the first phase of mourning after nine days ( cena novemdialis ). Since, according to the ancient Roman understanding, death made unclean, the family of the deceased returned to everyday life with this meal.
  • Annually on the birthday ( dies natalis ) of the deceased.
  • Annually on the Roman festival of the dead ( parentalia ), between February 13th and 22nd.

execution

Grave slab, 1st century BC BC, Timgad
Dining table in the Catacomb of St. Paul, Malta

At the funeral meal the deceased was perceived as active and present in the meal community. In order for this to be the case, his seat had to be prepared and his food prepared. Then he was invited and his name was given.

A relief from Timgad exemplifies how the table was set on the occasion of a funeral meal: “Two fish, bread, small cakes, eggs with egg spoons, a knife, a tablespoon and two ladles from which one drank warmed wine.” The ladles were sunk Libation tubes with which the living gave wine to the dead; they said: "Eat and drink and have a good time."

Christian graves had the same facilities for the funeral meal as pagan graves: so-called canteens (stone tables) in corners of the cubicula or on the sides of arcosoles . Often a round marble or glass bowl was found here on which, it is assumed, the food was offered to the deceased.

In the catacombs of Malta even the circular dining benches have been preserved.

But there was little space underground in a burial chamber or catacomb, so that the funeral meal was mostly held outdoors or in a triclinium near the grave. Under the Basilica of San Sebastiano in Rome, a 360 square meter courtyard (so-called triklia) was excavated in 1915 for funeral banquets. Everything was there: a fountain house provided the necessary water, and covered benches all around made it possible to dine in the shade. This corresponds exactly to the layout of the so-called Flavier Gallery, an originally pagan courtyard for the cult of the dead.

Particular highlights were the popular martyrs' festivals, which were combined with a vigil at the graves of the martyrs.

Christian adaptation

Supper, Catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter, Rome

Since the fourth century there has been increasing criticism of the Christian funeral feasts, which were reputed to be veritable feasts at which the wine flowed freely. Ambrose of Milan therefore had guards set up at the entrances to the cemetery, and Augustine 's mother Monica was turned away when she tried to bring a cup of wine to the graves. According to Augustine's report, Monica accepted the innovation with great resignation.

The funeral feasts were adapted to Christianity in the following way:

  • Chapels were built in the cemeteries, which served the funeral meals, but gave them a more religious setting. It was now part of it, for example, to combine the meal with feeding the poor.
  • By depositing relics in the altar, the martyrs were brought into the church and thus one could feel connected to them in the Eucharist .

The depictions of feasts in the Roman catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter are particularly frequent, and this seems to have been a "local fashion". The viewer sees whole families united at the meal, the living and the dead. It remains to be seen whether a paradisiacal afterlife was depicted here or the garden ambience in which people came together for dinner above ground.

Web links

Commons : Funeral Supper (Ancient)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Merkt: Eating at the graves . S. 31 .
  2. ↑ Alfred Klotz : Silicernium . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III A, 1, Stuttgart 1927, Col. 59 f.
  3. ^ Otto Gerhard Oexle: Memoria and culture of remembrance . S. 14 .
  4. ↑ Andreas Merkt: Eating at the graves . S. 27 .
  5. ↑ a b Norbert Zimmermann: On the interpretation of late antique meal scenes . S. 174 .
  6. ↑ a b Andreas Merkt: Eating at the graves . S. 28 .
  7. ↑ Norbert Zimmermann: On the interpretation of late antique meal scenes . S. 181-182 .
  8. ↑ Norbert Zimmermann: On the interpretation of late antique meal scenes . S. 175 .