Source A: an Athenian black-figure terracotta funerary plaque of about 500 BC.
A dead man lies on a bier with his head propped up on a pillow. A woman at the head of the bier holds his head in both hands. Other women crowd round the bier, some of them tearing at their hair. At the foot of the bier a line of men approaches, each raising his right hand.
To what extent were women more important than men in Greek funeral rites? Use Source A as a starting point and your own knowledge.
Model answer
Source A suggests that women were at the centre of Greek funeral rites. The women crowd around the bier, the chief mourner holds the dead man's head and others tear their hair in lament, while the men stand at the foot of the bier, raising a hand in farewell. This matches what we know of the prothesis: women of the family washed the body, anointed it with oil, dressed it and laid it out, and they led the laments. In the Iliad it is Andromache, Hecuba and Helen who lead the laments for Hector. After the funeral, women continued to care for the dead: white-ground lekythoi often show women bringing ribbons and offerings to a grave stele.
However, men held the authority. The duty to bury the dead and keep up offerings fell on the male heir, and in the ekphora the men walked in front while the women followed behind. Male lawmakers also controlled women's part: Solon's laws, as Plutarch reports, banned mourners from tearing their flesh or singing composed laments, and a law quoted by Demosthenes kept women under sixty away unless they were close relatives. In the public funeral for the war dead described by Thucydides, the state organised everything and a leading man such as Pericles gave the speech, while the women only lamented at the grave.
Overall, women were more important in the emotional and ritual heart of the funeral - preparing the body and leading the lament, as Source A shows. But they were not more important overall, because men controlled the public, legal and political side of death. The very fact that the state passed laws to restrict women's mourning suggests their role was powerful, but it was a power that men limited.
Explanation
A top answer uses Source A and a range of own knowledge (preparation of the body, laments, the ekphora rules, Solon's laws, grave visits, public funerals) and weighs women's ritual importance against men's legal and public authority. It should reach a clear judgement, for example that women mattered more in the rites themselves but men controlled them. Answers that only describe what women did, without comparing them with men, stay in Level 2.
