TOPOGRAPHIC SEMANTICS: The Location of the Athenian Public Cemetery and Its Significance for the Nascent Democracy Author(s): Nathan T. Arrington Source: Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 79, No. 4 (October-December 2010), pp. 499-539 Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41012853 . Accessed: 18/03/2014 10:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:17:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HESPERIA 79 (2OIO) TOPOGRAPHIC Pages 499S39 SEMANTICS The Location of the Athenian Public Cemetery and Its Significance for the Nascent Democracy ABSTRACT In thisarticle, the author seeks to understandthe place of the demosion sema, thepublic cemetery of Athens, within the Athenian physical and cognitive landscape.The archaeologicaland literary evidence shows that the cemetery was establishedca. 500 b.c., along the road fromthe DipylonGate to the Academy.This wasan areawith few pre-Classical burials but strong religious and civicassociations. Here thenascent democracy shaped a newspace for corporateself-definition byjuxtaposing the public cemetery with the district furtherto theeast, around the road leading to Hippios Kolonos,which had longbeen a centerfor aristocratic display. INTRODUCTION Each yearat theend of a seasonof military campaigns, the Athenians buried theirwar dead in the public cemetery,the 8r||ióaiovGr''ia} Thucydides (2.34.1-5) describeshow the Atheniansbrought the crematedremains home,publicly displayed them for three days, and theninterred them by tribein the cemetery,which was locatedin "themost beautiful suburb of the city"(etcì toî kocAAígtoi)Tcpoocaxeíoi) ttíç kóXecuç). A scholiastglosses thedemosion sema as theKerameikos, and Aristophanes, the Suday and other scholiastslink the Kerameikoswith the war graves.2Cicero, Philostratos, and Pausaniasmore precisely locate the stategraves along a road leading fromthe cityto theAcademy.3 1. The communalburial usually theSara B. AleshireCenter for the Melesagoras,on thefuneral games occurredin winter.On thedate, see Studyof Greek Epigraphy, and the (Epitaphia)held in theKerameikos Pritchett1985, pp. 110-112.1 thank StahlEndowment of the University (withcommentary in Parker2005, JohnPapadopoulos, Nikolaos Papa- ofCalifornia at Berkeley.All dates p. 470). zarkadas,Julia Shear, Andrew Stewart, areb.c. unlessotherwise indicated. Ò. Uic. tin. 5.1-5; Fhilostr.VS and thejournal's anonymous reviewers 2. Ar.A;. 395-399,with schol. on 2.22.604;Paus. 1.29.2-16.Paus. 1.29.4: fortheir comments on earlierdrafts of 394-395; Suda,s.w. KepccuEiKÓç,Kepoc- oi ôè akXoi [i.e.,those not buried on thisarticle. My researchwould not have ueiKoí.The Suda and thescholia both thebattlefield at Marathon]koct<x xfiv beenpossible without the assistance of citeMenekles and Kallikrates.See also óôòvKeîvTou TTiv èç AicaÔTiiLÚav. theFulbright Foundation in Greece, Hsch.,s.v. £tï' Eupuyúfl àycóv, citing © The AmericanSchool of Classical Studiesat Athens This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:17:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 5OO NATHAN T. ARRINGTON There can be no doubtabout the existenceof thisplace, where cele- bratedorators eulogized thousandsof Atheniandead, and where loyal alliesand illustriouscitizens were interred.4 Exactly where in theAthenian landscapethe cemetery was located,however, has been a subjectof debate. Most scholarsplace it alongthe wide roadthat led fromthe Dipylon Gate to theAcademy, but an eruditeminority prefer a roadfurther to theeast that issuedfrom the ancient gate located at theintersection of modern Leokoriou andDipylou Streets (hereafter called the Leokoriou Gate).5 Whatever their views,few scholars have discussedthe implicationsof the locationor the relationshipbetween the cemeteryand the surroundinglandscape. The placingof the cemeteryis notjust a topographicalexercise.The locationof the burialground in Athenshas importantconsequences for how one understandsits purpose, design, and function.By mappingmore accuratelythe cemetery s relationship to itsphysical landscape, it is possible to chartsome of the contours of theAthenian cognitive landscape, and to understandthe way in which the demos manipulatedspace, interpreted its past, and articulatedsocial values. The demosionsema was an area where,through speeches, art, and civicceremonies, the citizens of Athens collectivelyexpressed, to themselvesand tovisitors, who theywere and what theystood for.6Here, in one particularplace, they were unified around a sharedloss, in the faceof a commonthreat. In thisnecropolis, the living membersof thepolis forgeda collectiveidentity. In thediscussion that follows, I beginby summarizing earlier theories about the locationof the cemetery.I thenaddress the date at which the demosionsema was establishedand thechronological distribution of earlier archaeologicalremains in the districtnorthwest of the city.This analysis will show thatthe choice of site forthe cemeteryreflected a particular orientationtoward the citys past. Aftersetting the chronologicalscene, I attemptto locatethe cemetery more precisely within the Athenian land- scape,relying heavily on the archaeologicalevidence. I thenconsider why thisspecific site was selected,emphasizing the religiousand civicsignif- icanceof the areaprior to the cemetery'sestablishment. Finally, I suggest thatthe site chosen enabled the demos to juxtaposethe values of the new democracywith those on displayin thearistocratic cemetery immediately to theeast. 4. Patterson(2006, pp. 53-56) has thisplace as a publiccemetery and call questionedthe equation of Thucydides' it thedemosion sema, even though it was demosionsema with a publiccemetery. usedfor other purposes in additionto She arguesthat the concept of an Athe- burialsat publicexpense. niannational cemetery is a "modern b. 1his gate is sometimesreferred to invention"(p. 55). As I haveargued as thef|picu nvXai on thebasis of a elsewhere(Arrington 2010, pp. 40-49), referencein theEtym. Magn.y s.v. 'Hpict. it is truethat the demosion sema was not On theinappropriateness ofthis des- a fixed,bounded, and organizedspace ignation,see Matthaiou1983; Pritchett ofthe sort normally associated with a 1998,pp. 22-23, n. 15; 1999,p. 60. nationalcemetery. There was, neverthe- b. Loraux^zuuo, esp. pp. zsi-zs/) less,one placein Athensdeemed most showshow the funeral oration praised appropriatefor the burial of war dead thepolis and articulatedan Athenian and illustriouscitizens. I shallrefer to ideology. This content downloaded from 71.168.218.10 on Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:17:05 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions LOCATION OF THE ATHENIAN PUBLIC CEMETERY 5OI THE LOCATION OF THE PUBLIC CEMETERY Previous Theories Althoughthe literary testimonia indicate that the public cemetery lay along a roadfrom the city to theAcademy, the question remains, which road? Cicero'sreport that he walkedpast the stategraves after leaving the DipylonGate, together with the many other ancient references to state burialswithin the Kerameikos, and the discoveries of the polyandrion of theLakedaimonians (Pol 1) and theprominent monument at thethird horosnear the Dipylon Gate itself,have led mostscholars to conclude thatthe state graves lined the broad road that departed from this gate, herecalled the Academy Road (see Fig. 4, below).7Their views on the size and natureof thespace, however, vary considerably. Some include theTomb of the Lakedaimonians within the demosion sema,s while others thinkthat the cemetery began beyond the shrine of Artemis Ariste and Kallistebecause of Pausanias'ssilence until that point (Paus. 1.29.2; AK 1,2).9 Before the entire width of the Academy Road had been excavated, AlfredBruckner suggested that it actually consisted of two roads forming a thematicallyorganized, elongated racetrack, with the graves of Harmodios andAristogeiton at one end,that of Kleisthenes at theother, polyandria 7. Forthe literary sources, see nn.2 1983,pp. 32-33; Stupperich1984, ofthe road was halvedin 303 to guard and3, above.On theTomb of the Lake- p. 640; Knigge1991, p. 13;Tsirigoti- againstthe approach of siege machines. daimonians,see Xen. Hell. 2.4.33; IG IP Drakotou2000, p. 94; Loraux2006, Althoughthe covering of the graves 11678;Bruckner 1915, pp. 118-119; p. 50. has recentlybeen called into question Karo1930, pp. 90-91; Ohly1965, 8.Travlos,^/^wi,p. 301; Stuppe- (Stroszeck2003, p. 76, n. 116,but cf. pp.314-322; Willemsen 1977; Kienlin rich1977, p. 25 (somewhatskeptical); p. 69; Costaki2006, p. 458), thereis 2003,pp. 114-118,121-122; Stroszeck Meyer1993, p. 118;Wolpert 2002, littleroom for doubt. Hellenistic co- 2006. (Bold lettersand numbers[e.g., p. 89. Kurtzand Boardman(1971, lumnargrave monuments found in situ Pol 1] referto