Tombstones in honor of the deceased person are called epitaphs. Traditionally, they are poetic, but they are found, for example, in the form of aphorisms or passages from sacred texts that are easy to remember. The goal of many popular epitaphs was to make the reader think, to warn him of his own mortality. Some of them people choose during their lifetime, others are those who are responsible for burial. It is known that many famous poets, among them William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, composed epitaphs for themselves.
Gravestone inscriptions lead their evolution with poetic speeches, which were pronounced in honor of the deceased on the day of his funeral and repeated on anniversaries. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, they formed the genre of "epitaph" (from the Greek words - "above" and "grave"). Later, in order to preserve the memory of people who had gone to another world, they were engraved on the monuments erected by him. Some were filled with pain and poetic tenderness, others were more than simple, although there were also those who stated only the fact of death.
Tombstones were diverse, in accordance with the cultural traditions of a particular nation. So, the Romans were extremely attentive to the epitaphs. They could read interesting descriptions of deceased people regarding their military career, political or commercial activities, marital status, and the like. In general, praise was given to physical data and moral virtues. Short or long, poetic or prosaic, but all the gravestone inscriptions reflected the feelings of relatives, friends of the deceased. Cicero, for example, made a short epitaph on the grave of his daughter Tullia, in which the pain of loss is strongly felt: “Tulliola, Filiola” (“Tulliola, daughter”).
A great place and the most accessible source for studying the history of a particular community are cemeteries. Tombstones with the information they contain provide an ideal launching pad for any genealogical research. Some of them can only have the names of the dead and dates of life, others include detailed stories about several generations of the same family, relationships between people during life (husband, wife, son, sister and so on), their professional activities. Tombstones have long been popular with historians and genealogists. From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in Western European culture for deceased people who held high positions in society during life, they were very long with descriptions of the almost legendary descent of their families, contained information about their activities, praised virtues, and often provided information about their closest relatives.
Symbols of death engraved on the monuments, and not just tombstones, are also interesting. Epitaphs keep the memory of dead people, they emphasize the fact that everything and everything is dying. As a rule, this can be a skull with crossbones, a bell that rings at a funeral, a coffin and an hourglass, hinting that time is not standing and brings us closer to death, or an hourglass with wings, also symbolizing the running of time.
