Burial Epitaphs

Mid-2nd Century BCE–Early 2nd Century CE

Epitaph for an Anonymous Bride

Weep for me, stranger, a maiden ripe for marriage, who formerly shone in a great house. For, together with my bridal garments, I, untimely, have received this hateful tomb as my bridal chamber. For when the noise of revelers at my . . . . was going to make my father’s house resound, suddenly Hades came and snatched me…

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Poetic epitaphs were common throughout the Greek and Roman world. These metric Greek epitaphs are all from a Jewish cemetery in Leontopolis, Egypt (Tel el-Yehoudieh) and have been dated between the mid-second century BCE and the early second century CE. The epitaphs were inscribed on limestone stelae found inside rock-cut tombs.

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