Harpy Tomb
About
A tall stone pillar tomb rises at the heart of ancient Xanthos, its summit chamber carved with relief panels of winged female figures once mistaken for harpies carrying off the dead. British excavators removed the original marble panels to London in the 1840s, but the pillar itself still stands on its ancient base, fitted today with plaster casts of the missing reliefs.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
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