View source for Epitaph

{{short description|Inscription on a tombstone}}
{{hatnote group|
{{other uses}}
{{distinguish|Epigraph (disambiguation){{!}}Epigraph|Epithet}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Globalize|article|Western culture|date=March 2019}}
[[File:The day will come.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Epitaph on the base of the ''[[Haymarket Martyrs' Monument]]'', [[Waldheim Cemetery]], Forest Park, Illinois]]

An '''epitaph''' ({{etymology|grc|''{{wikt-lang|grc|ἐπιτάφιος}}'' (epitáphios)|a funeral oration}}; {{etymology||''{{wikt-lang|grc|ἐπι-}}'' (epi-)|at, over||''{{wikt-lang|grc|τάφος}}'' (táphos)|tomb}})<ref>{{LSJ|e)pita/fios|ἐπιτάφιος|ref}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/epitaph |title=epitaph |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=2012-03-18}}</ref> is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves before their death, while others are chosen by those responsible for the burial. An epitaph may be written in [[prose]] or in [[verse (poetry)|poem verse]].

Most epitaphs are brief records of the family, and perhaps the career, of the deceased, often with a common expression of love or respect—for example, "beloved father of ..."—but others are more ambitious. From the [[Renaissance]] to the 19th century in Western culture, epitaphs for notable people became increasingly lengthy and pompous descriptions of their family origins, career, virtues and immediate family, often in Latin. Notably, the [[Laudatio Turiae]], the longest known [[Ancient Roman]] epitaph, exceeds almost all of these at 180 lines; it celebrates the virtues of an honored wife (sometimes identified, but not generally accepted, as the Wife of [[consul]] [[Quintus Lucretius Vespillo]]<ref>{{cite book |author1=Badian, Ernst |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726/page/822 |title=Oxford Classical Dictionary |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=019866172X |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |edition=3rd |location=Oxford |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726/page/822 822] |quote=...has traditionally been assigned to this Turia, but this is now generally rejected and there are no good arguments for the identification. |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |url-access=registration}}</ref>).

Some are quotes from holy texts, or [[aphorisms]]. One approach of many epitaphs is to "speak" to the reader and warn them about their own mortality. A wry trick of others is to request the reader to get off their resting place, inasmuch as the reader would have to be standing on the ground above the coffin to read the inscription. Some record achievements (e.g., past politicians note the years of their terms of office). Nearly all (excepting those where this is impossible by definition, such as the [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]]) note name, year or date of birth, and date of death. Many list family members and the relationship of the deceased to them (for example, "Father / Mother / Son / Daughter of").<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/928443479 |title=The Oxford handbook of Roman law and society |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-872868-9 |editor-last=Plessis |editor-first=Paul J. du |series=Oxford handbooks |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |oclc=928443479 |editor-last2=Ando |editor-first2=Clifford |editor-last3=Tuori |editor-first3=Kaius}}</ref>

==Linguistic distinctions==
In English, and in accordance with the word's etymology, the word "epitaph" refers to a ''textual'' commemoration of a person, which may or may not be inscribed on a monument. In many European languages, however, the meaning of the word (or its close equivalent) has broadened to mean the monument itself, specifically a mural monument or plaque erected in a church, often close to, but not directly over, a person's place of burial.<ref>{{cite book |first=Dóra |last=Mérai |chapter=Stones in floors and walls: commemorating the dead in the Transylvanian Principality |editor1-first=Daniel |editor1-last=Dumitran |editor2-first=Marius |editor2-last=Rotar |year=2015 |title=Places of Memory: cemeteries and funerary practices throughout the time |series=Annales Universitatis Apulensis: Series Historica |volume=19 |issue=2 |publisher=Editura Mega |location=Cluj-Napoca |issn=1453-9306 |pages=151–174 (153–162) |url=https://www.academia.edu/44789179 }}</ref> Examples include German ''[[:de:Epitaph|Epitaph]]''; Dutch ''[[:nl:Epitaaf|epitaaf]]''; Hungarian ''[[:hu:Epitáfium|epitáfium]]''; Polish ''[[:pl:Epitafium|epitafium]]''; Danish ''[[:da:Epitafium|epitafium]]''; Swedish ''[[:sv:Epitafium|epitafium]]''; and Estonian ''[[:et:Epitaaf (kunst)|epitaaf]]''.

== History ==
The history of epitaphs extends as far back as the [[ancient Egypt]]ians and have differed in delivery.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=June 20, 2019|title=Epitaph {{!}} poetic form|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/epitaph-poetic-form|access-date=2021-08-05|website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]}}</ref> The [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] utilised emotive expression, written in [[Elegiac couplet|elegiac verse]], later in prose.<ref name=":0" /> [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Romans]]' use of epitaphs was more blunt and uniform, typically detailing facts of the deceased – as did the earliest epitaphs in English churches.<ref name=":0" /> "May the earth lie light upon thee" was a common inscription for them.<ref name=":0" /> Due to the influence of Roman occupiers, the dominant language of epitaphs was Latin, evidenced by the oldest existing epitaphs in Britain. French and English came into fashion around the 13th and 14th centuries, respectively.<ref name=":0" />

By the 16th century, epitaphs had become more literary in nature and those written in verse were involved in trade.<ref name=":0" /> In America and Britain, comedic epitaphs are common in the form of acrostics, palindromes, riddles, and puns on names and professions – [[Robert Burns]], the most prolific pre-Romantic epitaphist, wrote 35 pieces, them being largely satirical.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The rate of literary epitaphs has been historically overshadowed by "popular sepulchral inscriptions which are produced in countless numbers at all time"; "strictly literary" epitaphs were most present during the start of the [[Romanticism|Romantic period]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Bernhardt-Kabisch|first=Ernest|date=1967|title=The Epitaph and the Romantic Poets: A Survey|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3816994|journal=Huntington Library Quarterly|volume=30|issue=2|pages=113–146|doi=10.2307/3816994|jstor=3816994|issn=0018-7895|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The [[Lake Poets]] have been credited with providing success to epitaph-writing adjacent to that of poetry significance – Robert Southey, in focusing simultaneously upon transience and eternity, contributed substantially.<ref name=":1" /> General interest for epitaphs was waning at the cusp of the 19th century, in contrast to a considerable burgeoning intellectual interest.<ref name=":1" /> Critical essays had been published before on the matter, possibly contributing towards its flourishing in the latter half of the 18th century.<ref name=":1" /> Epitaphs never became a major poetic form and, according to Romantic scholar Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch, they had "virtually disappeared" by 1810. "The art of the epitaph was largely lost in the 20th century", wrote the ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Format ===
Sarcophagi and coffins were the choice of ancient Egyptians for epitaphs; [[Monumental brass|brasses]] was the prominent format for a significant period of time.<ref name=":0" /> Epitaphs upon stone monuments became a common feature by the [[Elizabethan era]].<ref name=":0" />

==In England==

===Medieval era===
[[File:SirJohnHarsyck 1384 SouthAcreChurch Norfolk.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ledger stone]] with epitaph in [[Ledger line (tombstone)|ledger lines]] of Sir John Harsyck ({{died in|1384}}), South Acre Church, [[Norfolk]]]]
Stock phrases or standard elements present in epitaphs on mediaeval church monuments and [[ledger stone]]s in England include:
*''Hic jacet..'' (here lies...)
*''... cuius animae propitietur deus amen'' (generally abbreviated to ''cuius aie ppitiet ds ame'' with [[tilde]]s indicating the omitted letters) ("whose soul may God look upon with favour Amen")
*''Memoriae sacrum ...'' / ''MS'' ("Sacred to the memory (of) ...")

===Modern era===
*''Requiescat in pace'' / ''RIP'' ("may he rest in peace")

== Notable examples ==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2015}}
{{wikiquote|Epitaphs}}

=== Poets, playwrights and other writers ===

{{poemquote|text=While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due.|multiline=yes
|title=[[Seikilos epitaph]] (oldest surviving complete musical composition)<ref>Landels, John G. 1999. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PDBMPo1VkhYC&pg=PA252 Music in Ancient Greece and Rome]''. London and New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415167765}} (cloth); {{ISBN|9780415248433}} (pbk); {{ISBN|9780203042847}} (ebook)</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|text=This is my father's crime against me, which I myself committed against none.
|author=[[Al-Ma'arri]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=An Elegy by al-Ma'arri|url=https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32488|last=Blankinship|first=Kevin|date=2015-09-20|website=Jadaliyya|language=en|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref>}}

{{poemquote|text=Good frend for İesvs sake forebeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be yͤ man yͭ spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yͭ moves my bones.

(In modern spelling):
Good friend, for Jesus's sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
|author=[[William Shakespeare]]<ref name="ReferenceA">[[commons:File:Shakespeare grave -Stratford-upon-Avon -3June2007.jpg|Photograph of William Shakespeare's grave, 3 June 2007]]</ref>}}

{{blockquote|text=Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water
|author=[[John Keats]]}}

{{poemquote|text=Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
|author=[[W. B. Yeats]]|title=[[Under Ben Bulben]]}}

{{poemquote|text=Heroes and Kings your distance keep;
In peace let one poor poet sleep,
Who never flattered folks like you;
Let [[Horace]] blush and [[Virgil]] too.
|author=[[Alexander Pope]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Dickens|title=Dickens' Dictionary Of The Thames|year=1893|page=269}}</ref>}}

{{poemquote|text=Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.
|character=[[Joseph Conrad]]|author=[[Edmund Spenser]]|title=''[[The Faerie Queene]]''}}

{{blockquote|text=Homo sum! the adventurer
|author=[[D. H. Lawrence]]}}

{{blockquote|text=Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!
|author=[[Virginia Woolf]]<ref>{{Citation
  | first = Virginia | last = Woolf
  | author-link = Virginia Woolf
  | title = The Waves
  | place = Berlin
  | publisher = Harcourt
  | year = 1931
}}</ref>}}

=== Statesmen ===
{{blockquote|text=Oh God ([[Devanagari]]: ''हे राम'')
|author=[[Mahatma Gandhi]]}}

=== Mathematicians ===
{{poemquote|text=I've finally stopped getting dumber.
({{langx|hu|Végre nem butulok tovább.}})
|author=[[Paul Erdős]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Man Who Loved Only Numbers |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-man.html |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> }}

{{poemquote|text=We must know. We will know.
({{langx|de|Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen.}})
|author=[[David Hilbert]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6ttingen_Stadtfriedhof_Grab_David_Hilbert.jpg|title=Göttingen Stadtfriedhof Grab David Hilbert|website=Wikimedia}}</ref>}}

=== Soldiers ===
{{poemquote|text=Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by
that here, obedient to their law, we lie.
|source=[[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]]'s [[epigram]] honoring the 300 at [[Battle of Thermopylae|Thermopylae]]}}

{{poemquote|text=Here sleeps at peace a Hampshire Grenadier
Who caught his early death by drinking cold small beer.
Soldiers, be wise at his untimely fall,
And when you're hot, drink strong or none at all.
|source=[[Thomas Thetcher]] tombstone epitaph in [[Winchester Cathedral]]}}

{{poemquote|text=To save your world you asked this man to die:
Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?
|source=Epitaph for the [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier|Unknown Soldier]], written by [[W. H. Auden]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/epitaphs/34.htm |title=Famous Epitaph on Unknown Soldier tomb stone |publisher=Famousquotes.me.uk |access-date=2012-03-18}}</ref>}}

{{poemquote|text=When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today
|source=[[Battle of Kohima#Memorial|The Kohima Epitaph]] by [[John Maxwell Edmonds]]}}

{{poemquote|text=There is borne an empty hearse
covered over for such as appear not.
Heroes have the whole earth for their tomb.
|source=[[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier|Unknown Soldier]]'s epitaph, [[Athens]]; passages taken from [[Pericles' Funeral Oration]]<ref>{{cite book|title=The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury|volume=VIII|author-last=Thucydides|author-link=Thucydides|others=[[Thomas Hobbes]] (translator)|editor-first=William|editor-last=Molesworth|publisher=John Bohn|place=London|date=1843|page=188|chapter=History of the Peloponnesian War 2.34.3| 
chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0247%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D34}} Available online at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Peloponnesian War|author-last=Thucydides|author-link=Thucydides|translator=Richard Crawley|translator-link=Richard Crawley|publisher=J. M. Dent; E. P. Dutton|place=London, New York|date=1910|chapter=2.43.3| 
chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D43}} Available online at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref>}}

=== Entertainers ===
{{blockquote|text=And the beat goes on.
|source=[[Sonny Bono]]}}

{{blockquote|text=That's all folks!
|source=[[Mel Blanc]]}}

{{poemquote|text=I told you I was ill.
({{langx|ga|Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite.}})
|source=[[Spike Milligan]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3742443.stm|title=Milligan gets last laugh on grave|date=2004-05-24|access-date=2015-06-08|newspaper=BBC News Online}}</ref>}}

=== Activists ===
{{blockquote|text=Free at last, Free at last,<br>Thank God Almighty<br>I'm Free at last.
|source=[[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]}}

=== Other ===
{{poemquote|text=He never killed a man that did not need killing.
|source=[[Gunfighter]] [[Clay Allison]]}}

== Monuments with epitaphs ==
<gallery>
File:Selena Quintanilla-Perez's grave.jpg|Grave of [[Selena]] at Seaside Memorial Park in Corpus Christi, Texas citing [[Isaiah]] 25:8 writings 
Image:Grave of W. B. Yeats; Drumecliff, Co Sligo.jpg|Grave of [[W. B. Yeats]], Drumecliff, Co. Sligo
File:Grabplatte Johann Wauer Hochkirch.jpg|Lengthy epitaph for Johann Wauer (d. 1728), a German pastor, concluding with a short Biblical quotation
File:Mel Blanc 4-15-05.JPG|The epitaph on voice actor [[Mel Blanc]]'s tombstone
Heather O'Rourke crypt 2.jpg|Inscription at [[Heather O'Rourke]]'s crypt
File:Sahabi tomb.jpg|[[Ezzatollah Sahabi]], Glory of Iran and his patriotic daughter [[Haleh Sahabi|Haleh]]
File:Garner headstone with eitaph, Houghton, Cambridgeshire.jpg|A folksy epitaph to an English village blacksmith in [[Houghton, Cambridgeshire]]
File:Spike Milligan's gravestone.jpg|Gravestone of comedian, writer and actor [[Spike Milligan]], including his epitaph
</gallery>

==In music==
In a more figurative sense, the term may be used for music composed in memory of the deceased. Igor Stravinsky composed in 1958 ''[[Epitaphium (Stravinsky)|Epitaphium]]'' for flute, clarinet and harp. In 1967 [[Krzysztof Meyer]] called his Symphony No. 2 for choir and orchestra ''Epitaphium Stanisław Wiechowicz in memoriam''. [[Jeffrey Lewis (composer)|Jeffrey Lewis]] composed ''Epitaphium – Children of the Sun'' for narrator, chamber choir, piano, flute, clarinet and percussion. In 1969, [[King Crimson]] released the song [[Epitaph (song)|Epitaph]], giving a reference to epitaphs within the song. [[Bronius Kutavičius]] composed in 1998 ''Epitaphium temporum pereunti''. [[Valentin Silvestrov]] composed in 1999 ''Epitaph L.B.'' (Епітафія Л.Б.) for viola (or cello) and piano. In 2007 [[Graham Waterhouse]] composed ''[[Epitaphium (Waterhouse)|Epitaphium]]'' for string trio as a tribute to the memory of his father [[William Waterhouse (bassoonist)|William Waterhouse]]. The South African poet Gert Vlok Nel wrote an (originally) untitled song, which appeared on his first music album "Beaufort-Wes se Beautiful Woorde" as "Epitaph", because his producer Eckard Potgieter told him that the song sounded like an epitaph. [[David Bowie]]'s final album, ''[[Blackstar (album)|Blackstar]]'', released in 2016, is generally seen as his musical epitaph, with singles "[[Blackstar (song)|Blackstar]]" and "[[Lazarus (David Bowie song)|Lazarus]]" often singled out.

== See also ==
* [[Chronogram]]
* [[Cenotaph]]
* [[Death poem]]
* [[Epigraph (archeology)|Epigraph]]
* [[Eulogy]]
* [[Funeral oration (ancient Greece)|''Epitaphios logos'' (ancient Greek funeral oration)]]
* [[Hero stone]]
* [[Seikilos epitaph]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{cite book |last=Bertrand |first=Régis |year=2005 |chapter=Que de vertus: Les épitaphes édifiantes des débuts du XIXe siècle |editor1-first=Régis |editor1-last=Bertrand |editor2-first=Anne |editor2-last=Carol |editor3-first=Jean-Noël |editor3-last=Pelen |title=Les narrations de la mort |pages=241–255 |location=Aix-en-Provence |publisher=Publications de l'Université de Provence |isbn=2853996131 }}
*{{cite book |last=Guthke |first=Karl S. |year=2003 |title=Epitaph Culture in the West: variations on a theme in cultural history |location=Lewiston, NY |publisher=Mellen |isbn=0773467858 }}
*{{cite book |first=Joshua |last=Scodel |title=The English Poetic Epitaph: commemoration and conflict from Jonson to Wordsworth |location=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1991 |isbn=0801424828 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Vidor |first=Gian Marco |year=2014 |title=Satisfying the mind and inflaming the heart: emotions and funerary epigraphy in nineteenth-century Italy |journal=Mortality |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=342–360 |doi=10.1080/13576275.2014.921667 |s2cid=144222277 }}

== External links ==
{{sister project links}}
* {{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum |author-link=Imperial War Museum |url=http://archive.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.1261 |title=What is the Kohima Epitaph? |work=archive.iwm.org.uk |access-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230155628/http://archive.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.1261 |archive-date=30 December 2014 |url-status=dead }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150510152752/http://www.burmastar.org.uk/epitaph.htm Kohima Epitaph]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Acknowledgements of death]]
[[Category:Inscriptions by type]]