Language for the Dead in Ancient Rome and Nigeria
By Monica Omoye Aneni
Abstract: Contemporary authors have attempted to demonstrate and explain funerary commemoration in antiquity, therefore bridging the gap between archaeological findings and interpretations as well as epigraphic interpretations of these commemorations. Various studies have also examined obituary announcements in newspapers in modern times while focusing on figurative language employed as well as attitudes of a people within their socio-cultural context. The aim of this inquiry is to examine epithets on headstones in ancient Rome and epithets on obituaries in modern Nigeria in order to understand the purpose for which this language was adopted. In so doing, the study attempts to demonstrate whether the language was utilized in order to meet the demands of the conventions of burial or whether it was merely in response to the ideology that one must not speak ill of the dead. The study discovers that emotions of sympathy as well as name, sex age of dedicatee and names of dedicators relate in no little way aspects of cultural trends of people in ancient Rome with regard to burial practices. It also discovers that similar trends are evidenced on obituary/in memoriam announcements in Nigeria where names, age, occupation, names of spouse and children of the deceased are noted and the importance of these epithets vis-à-vis burial practice in Nigeria. The paper argues that these epithets may or may not have been a demonstration of sincere feelings of sympathy towards the dead, but a cultural as well as a psychological construct where the mourner must do the appropriate by voicing good rather than ill of the dead irrespective of how disliked or embarrassing they were and the crimes they had committed in their existence. Further studies that may interrogate burial practices in ancient Rome and Nigeria are recommended.
Published by AJOLL: Ago-Iwoye Journal of Languages and Literary Studies. Vol. 5, pp.94- 111, (2014).