The Macedonian Tombs

It takes your breath away to stand outside of the tomb of Alexander the Great's son, who was murdered at the age of 16 by jealous rivals. A few minutes before, the fifteen other Fulbrighters and I stood by the amphitheater where Phillip II, Alexander the Great's father was assasinated. Both were buried in the 'Macedonian tombs', which were to be filled with everything needed in the afterlife. So they were richly decorated for royalty. (Incidently, theVia Egnatia, mentioned in the June 11th posting, passed by the tombs.)

This included friezes of hunting scenes, metopes with warriors, judges of the Underworld as well as Ionic or Doric facades.* Also the interiors of tombs were painted with scences of chariot races and battles, while being furnished with banquet seating, ornamented thrones, and marble sarcophagi with ossuary chests.** Source: http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/D1.4.html

* frieze (n) - a superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns and resting on the
capitals of the same.

triglyph (n) - is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze.

metope (n) - is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze.

** ossuary (adj) - related to a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human
skeletal remains.

Greece: land of Continuity and Change