Hidden Presences: Monuments, Gravesites, and Corpses in Greek Funerary Epigram (review)

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in studying the relation between the inscribed epigrammatic tradition and the Hellenistic epigram. At the heart of Bruss' book lies the question of continuity and rupture between epigrams inscribed on stones and Buchepigramme. The author explores the way the so-called "roadside monument" and "cenotaphic monument" of Hellenistic epigrams employ the sepulchral inscriptional motif of hidden presences.

Bruss meticulously lays the foundations (chapter 1) of his research by studying the progressive widening of the semantical field expressed by the word έπίγραμμα and by considering the importance of early epigram collections as the necessary intermediate stage between inscribed and literary epigrams. The author devotes one more chapter (2) to the study of the evolution of inscribed funerary epigram over the course of time: whereas archaic epigrams highlight the presence of the dead among the living, their fourth-century counterparts emphasize the idea of the "welcoming earth" as a special place for the deceased.

Bruss explores the theme of hidden presence by engaging it with the theme of the roadside monument in inscribed epitaphs (chapter 3) and literary funerary epigrams of the Hellenistic period (chapter 4). By minutely scrutinizing multiple examples of epigrams containing references to roadside monuments, the author shows that in the archaic period the placement of the monument near the road aims at effectuating the deceased's kleos and projecting his living memory to the community. Conversely, private fourth-century epitaphs tending to focus on family and close friends speak increasingly of the importance of highlighting personal commemoration. The roadside monument acquires now a different function as it aims at attracting an audience which will see that the deceased's memory has been preserved through familial domesticity, reflected both by the particulars of the epitaph concerning the deceased and by the fact that the erection of the monument has been commissioned by members of the dead person's family. In the Hellenistic period, the few inscribed epigrams focusing on the placement of the monument aim either at underscoring the fact that the deceased has taken the road to the Underworld or at pointing to a fictive "isolation" of the monument from human life.

The picture is quite different when we turn to literary funerary epigrams of the Hellenistic period (chapter 4). The author amply shows that decoding the meaning and function of these highly elegant and polished compositions required from Hellenistic readers a knowledge not only of the literary epigrammatic tradition but also of its inscribed predecessor.

In the second part of the book, the author copes with a subcategory of epitaphs, the ναυγικά. After surveying the limited number of inscribed epitaphs for people lost at sea, Bruss explains their scantiness by showing both that the earth is considered the regular place of the deceased's burial and that the loss of the dead person's body annuls the possibility of a proper funerary service, of which the erection of the monument and the inscribed epitaph constituted an integral part.

Chapter 6 deals with the motif of hidden absence in literary epigrams for cenotaphs. Through a subtle reading of epigrams Bruss explores the complicated but fascinating rewriting and subversion of some of the inscribed epitaphic topoi. Special emphasis is placed on the dictional choices epigrammatists make on the full-blown narrative and on the continuous and "relentlessly" demanding interplay between the horizon of expectations and the abrupt deviation from expected norms.

The author then turns his attention to the motif of revealed absences (chapter 7) and in particular to the revelation of the deceased's body on the seashore of some distant place. Once again, knowledge of inscriptional conventions is required from the reader in order to "fill in" the missing details. One important variation of the "hidden presence" motif is exemplified by those Hellenistic literary epigrams referring to people who, having fallen overboard at sea, were washed ashore and buried (chapter 8). To touch upon...