Cut These Words into My Stone: Ancient Greek Epitaphs

by Michael Wolfe (Translator)

The lively ancient epitaphs in this bilingual collection fit together like small mosaic tiles, forming a vivid portrait of Greek society. Cut These Words into My Stone offers evidence that ancient Greek life was not only celebrated in great heroic epics, but was also commemorated in hundreds of artfully composed verse epitaphs. They have been preserved in anthologies and gleaned from weathered headstones. Three-year-old Archianax, playing near a well,
Was drawn down by his own silent reflection. His mother, afraid he had no breath left,
Hauled him back up wringing wet. He had a little. He didn't taint the nymphs' deep home.
He dozed off in her lap. He's sleeping still. These words, translated from the original Greek by poet and filmmaker Michael Wolfe, mark the passing of a child who died roughly 2,000 years ago. Ancient Greek epitaphs honor the lives, and often describe the deaths, of a rich cross section of Greek society, including people of all ages and classes― paupers, fishermen, tyrants, virgins, drunks, foot soldiers, generals―and some non-people―horses, dolphins, and insects. With brief commentary and notes, this bilingual collection of 127 short, witty, and often tender epigrams spans 1,000 years of the written word. Cut These Words into My Stone provides an engaging introduction to this corner of classical literature that continues to speak eloquently in our time.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collections of 127 Greek epitaphs spans 1000 years, from the earliest, anonymous inscriptions on gravestones, some of which might have been the first public writing seen by a people for whom the written word was still a relatively new phenomenon, to the final writings of an intellectual class who upheld what had become pagan tradition under the new state-imposed Christianity of the Emperor Constantine in the 6th century C.E.

Michael Wolfe has spared the modern reader samples of the many predictable epitaphs that use formulaic motifs to laud great statesmen, soldiers, or the rich. The tone throughout the book can be affectionate and deeply felt, and the humor places the deaths of individuals in the inevitable cycle of human life. During the classical age, there was a tendency to credit great writers of the past with some of this writing, a habit modern scholarship has pulled apart and corrected. The great age of the epitaph was during the Hellenistic period, when writers were freest to make the form their own. Many major poets appear in the section, along with women writers for the first time. (The earlier poems by Sappho are among those misattributed by the original anthologists.) And the subject matter opens up to include all classes of people, beloved pets -- ranging from dogs to crickets-- and even poems written in the voice of a house or a piece of land that has watched the changing hands that claim its ownership. Death may be tragic or ignominious, with the overriding message that we are all destined to make the same nighttime passage.

During the Roman period, a wilder humor comes into play, but the tone never becomes sarcastic or mean spirited -- at least not in this selection. For the final section, we are reading poets who realize that Christianity is actively putting an end to their culture. Plato's Academy has been closed, because the atmosphere of free discussion of philosophical matters is no longer an acceptable pedagogical method. And the words engraved on tombstones become for the most part the precursors of the saccharine formulas we continue to see in cemeteries to this day. (Humorous, early New England epitaphs could be noted as a exception here, but they lack the elevated tone and formal elegance of these Greek originals.)

This is the perfect book for anyone contemplating a fuller emersion in the Greek Anthology where this material and so much more is to be found.

[Kahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book - a story of reconciliation.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually read fiction, but I really enjoyed this book with its surprisingly insightful, and moving, epitaphs from an ancient world. The title piece was my favorite.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I, the actor, Philistion
Soothed men's pain with comedy and laughter.
A man of parts, I often died
But never quite like this.

No surprise that the ancients were masters of the short poem. Sometimes sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes both, the biggest challenge of this collection is that it ought to be much bigger. Fortunately, it's drawn from a vaster collection of epigrams and epitaph called "The Greek Anthology." Something to look forward to.

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I hold my daughter's young one lovingly, The one I held on my knee while we were living,
Back in the days when we blinked at the bright sun
The one I still hold here, though we have vanished."

***

This is a sharply painful but gorgeous study of ancient Greek epitaphs - gravestone inscriptions - belonging to different time periods, ranging from heartrending 4-line poems that will set you weeping to satirical insults making fun of dead misers and alcoholics.

The introduction and historical notes beautifully help one contextualise the epitaphs and understand their use as literacy aids, warnings, historical records, political statements, and even journalism.

[Andrew Swain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This barely counts as a book, but I love these words. Many of these were written by professional poets, commissioned to write something befitting for a lost loved one. But the most beautiful words were by those who were simply trying to express their grief, impossible as it might be.

“To our towering friendship
I’ve raised this little stone.
Sabinus, I will look for you forever…”

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a real treat. The essays that preface every section are elucidating and help draw distinctions between time periods and the development of the elegiac epigram/epitaph across centuries.

I would recommend it to anyone who loves the ancient world or a good turn of phrase.

Though direct and very touching, I would not say that these epitaphs are morbid at all.