Dressing the dead: evidence from Greek popular literature, oral lament and ethographic field work

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we address issues relative to the clothes used to dress the dead in Greek culture in modern times through to the present. This is done firstly by using descriptions from popular artistic prose, many of which provide significant detail. More specifically, we draw upon testimony from songs about death and the moirologia (laments or dirges), sung over the corpse, based on references in primary folkloric material in both printed and handwritten collections. We also draw from 100 ethnographic interviews conducted between 2005–12. We include all the types of clothes, differentiations in urban and rural areas, in social and economic class, and in gender and age. We also shed light upon the possible ritual uses of these clothes, as encountered in the death customs of the Greek people.