Lament ritual is an extremely ancient, rhetorically complex tradition of funerary practices involving multiple expressions. Among these ex- pressions are lament poetry, the oldest recorded type of song in Greece;4 emotive techniques of the body; and prescribed funerary rites in a tradi- tionally-approved sequence. The gravemarker in Greece, from Myceneaen times to the present, has recorded and, in a sense, has ritually inscribed these practices. Alexiou has noted that the survival of each funerary act in this complex tradition has depended upon the collective ritual practices of which it is a part.5 I would add that the gravemarker contributes significantly to the survival of this tradition, for the marker has instanti- ated these vital practices for 3,500 years. In other words, Greek funerary monuments themselves not only commemorate, but actually perform funerary ritual.

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