Spectacular Dead : Staging Death in Classical Antiquity

From the moment of death to the corpse itself and memorial processes afterward, death ritual in classical antiquity was inherently theatrical. This book explores the ancient staging and modern reception of death and the dead, taking the deceased as objects of the audience’s gaze in executions, funerary ritual and commemoration, amphitheatre and spectacle entertainment, fatal charades, superhuman feats, and now museum exhibitions where the actual dead replace artistic representations.

Beginning with the moment of death – most notably during combat or execution – death ritual involved performing participants and multiple layers of viewing, private and public, centred upon a corpse. Modern re-enactments of deaths such as Christ’s and Julius Caesar’s continue this spectacular tradition. On display at a wake, at the funeral, in procession and finally at disposal, the resultant corpse remains at centre of the audience’s attention. These ancient and modern performances have sated bloodlust, instilled fear and stirred the curiosity of captive audiences. The corpse is the show!