"Greeks and the Undead" Topic

Ancient supernatural practices may explain why two Grecian graves contain skeletons that are pinned down with heavy objects and rocks, almost as though people wanted to trap the bodies underground, a new article finds.

Archaeologists have known about these two peculiar burials since the 1980s, when they uncovered the graves along with nearly 3,000 others at an ancient Greek necropolis in Sicily. But a new analysis suggests the two graves contained so-called "revenants," dead bodies thought to have the ability to reanimate, leave their graves and harm the living — essentially an ancient version of zombies.

The ancient Greeks believed that, "to prevent them from departing their graves, revenants must be sufficiently 'killed,' which [was] usually achieved by incineration or dismemberment," Carrie Sulosky Weaver wrote in the article, published June 11 in the online magazine Popular Archaeology. "Alternatively, revenants could be trapped in their graves by being tied, staked, flipped onto their stomachs, buried exceptionally deep or pinned with rocks or other heavy objects."…

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The theme of my doctoral dissertation was the proscription of magic in the Roman legal tradition. Having spent almost a decade of my life reading every primary and secondary work work dealing with magic in the Classical and Late Antique periods that I could find, I can assure you that descriptions of magical practices (particularly necromancy) in the Greco-Roman Roman world were enough to give Lovecraft or Clive Barker the creeps.

Kevin

I'm gonna have to use this stuff in my D&D adventures at the library. Creeping teens out is great fun.

Creeping teens out is great fun.

And now you're on a list.

But seriously folks, one of the things that fascinates me about the Romans is how they could be so wonderfully pragmatic about religion (e.g., legal contracts with the gods) and at the same time be so riddled with superstition, including a genuine horror of sorcery.

There are more stories of vampires in Mani (Southern Greece) than there are in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia combined……..

Kevin C: I don't guess I am the only one who would be interested in reading your dissertation. Do you have a .pdf?

Jeff,

I finished completed my dissertation about 15 years ago and I think I may have an electronic copy at my mother's house. I will check when I visit her later this summer. In the meantime apparently the University of Hong Kong has an electronic copy (something of which I was unaware until today). Here is a link to the University of Hong Kong site: link

Kevin

this is a pan european pre christian practice – theres bodies excavated in ireland, poland and all points inbetween, weighed down with stones on their chests or buried face down. Whether it still happens in eastern europe – romania/serbia Im not sure.

For wargaming context, Fortean Times had a small article last year about an excavation at Verdun (I think) turned up a german corpse that had been treated in the same way. Apparently the last evidence of the practice in western europe.

Nope not verdun but carried out by british troops..

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There was an interesting Monster Talk episode on vampires a while back that had a chunk on greek vampire myths and the problems tied into it.

Very interesting, and thanks also Kevin C.