Memento mori (Latin for "remember [that you have] to die")[2] is anartistic symbol ortrope acting as a reminder of the inevitability ofdeath.[2] The concept has its roots in the philosophers ofclassical antiquity andChristianity, and appeared infunerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards.
The most commonmotif is a skull, often accompanied by bones. Often, this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs include a coffin,hourglass, or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. Often, these would accompany a different central subject within a wider work, such as portraiture; however, the concept includes standalone genres such as thevanitas andDanse Macabre in visual art andcadaver monuments in sculpture.
In English, the phrase is typically pronounced/məˈmɛntoʊˈmɔːri/,mə-MEN-tohMOR-ee.
Memento is thesecond-person singularactivefutureimperative ofmeminī, 'to remember, to bear in mind', usually serving as a warning: "remember!"Morī is thepresentinfinitive of thedeponent verbmorior 'to die'.[3] Thus, the phrase literally translates as "you must remember to die" but may be loosely rendered as "remember death" or "remember that you die".[4]
The philosopherDemocritus trained himself by going into solitude and frequenting tombs.[5]Plato'sPhaedo, where the death ofSocrates is recounted, introduces the idea that the proper practice of philosophy is "about nothing else but dying and being dead".[6]
TheStoics ofclassical antiquity were particularly prominent in their use of this discipline, andSeneca's letters are full of injunctions to meditate on death.[7] The StoicEpictetus told his students that when kissing their child, brother, or friend, they should remind themselves that they are mortal, curbing their pleasure, as do "those who stand behind men in their triumphs and remind them that they are mortal".[8] The StoicMarcus Aurelius invited the reader (himself) to "consider how ephemeral and mean all mortal things are" in hisMeditations.[9][10]
In some accounts of theRoman triumph, a companion orpublic slave would stand behind or near the triumphant general during the procession and remind him from time to time of his own mortality or prompt him to "look behind".[11] A version of this warning is often rendered into English as "Remember,Caesar, thou art mortal", for example inFahrenheit 451.[12]
Several passages in theOld Testament urge a remembrance of death. InGen. 3:19b, it is written, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." InPsalm 90, Moses prays that God would teach his people "to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12). InEcclesiastes, the Preacher insists that "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart" (Eccl. 7:2). In Isaiah, the lifespan of human beings is compared to the short lifespan of grass: "The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of theLord blows on it; surelythe people are grass" (Is. 40:7).
The expressionmemento mori developed with the growth of Christianity, which emphasizedHeaven,Hell,Hades and salvation of the soul in theafterlife.[13]
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The thought was then utilized in Christianity, whose strong emphasis ondivine judgment,heaven,hell, and thesalvation of the soul brought death to the forefront of consciousness.[14] In the Christian context, thememento mori acquires a moralizing purpose quite opposed to thenunc est bibendum ("now is the time to drink") theme ofclassical antiquity. To the Christian, the prospect of death serves to emphasize the emptiness and fleetingness of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements, and thus also as an invitation to focus one's thoughts on the prospect of the afterlife. A biblical injunction often associated with thememento mori in this context isIn omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis (theVulgate's Latin rendering ofEcclesiasticus7:40, "in all thy works be mindful of thy last end and thou wilt never sin.") This finds ritual expression in the rites ofAsh Wednesday, when ashes are placed upon the worshipers' heads with the words, "Remember, Man, that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return."
Memento mori has been an important part ofascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards theimmortality of the soul and the afterlife.[15]
The most obvious places to look formemento mori meditations are in funeral art andarchitecture. Perhaps the most striking to contemporary minds is thetransi orcadaver tomb, a tomb that depicts the decayedcorpse of the deceased. This became a fashion in the tombs of the wealthy in the fifteenth century, and surviving examples still offer a stark reminder of the vanity of earthly riches. Later,Puritantomb stones in the colonial United States frequently depicted winged skulls, skeletons, orangels snuffing out candles. These are among the numerousthemes associated with skull imagery.
Another example ofmemento mori is provided by the chapels of bones, such as theCapela dos Ossos inÉvora or theCapuchin Crypt in Rome. These are chapels where the walls are totally or partially covered by human remains, mostly bones. The entrance to the Capela dos Ossos has the following sentence: "We bones, lying here bare, await yours."
Timepieces have been used to illustrate that the time of the living on Earth grows shorter with each passing minute. Publicclocks would be decorated with mottos such asultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) orvulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Clocks have carried the mottotempus fugit ("time flies"). Old striking clocks often sportedautomata who would appear and strike the hour; some of the celebrated automaton clocks fromAugsburg, Germany, had Death striking the hour. In the private sphere, some people carried smaller reminders of their own mortality. For example,Mary, Queen of Scots, owned a large watch carved in the form of asilver skull, embellished with the lines ofHorace, "Pale death knocks with the same tempo upon the huts of the poor and the towers of Kings."
In the late 16th and through the 17th century,memento mori jewelry was popular. Items includedmourning rings,[16]pendants,lockets, andbrooches.[17] These pieces depicted tiny motifs of skulls, bones, and coffins, in addition to messages and names of the departed, picked out inprecious metals andenamel.[17][18]
During the same period, there emerged the artistic genre known asvanitas, Latin for "emptiness" or "vanity". Especially popular inHolland and then spreading to otherEuropean nations, vanitas paintings typically represented assemblages of numerous symbolic objects such as human skulls, guttering candles, wilting flowers, soap bubbles, butterflies, and hourglasses. In combination, vanitas assemblies conveyed the impermanence of human endeavours and of the decay that is inevitable with the passage of time. See also the themes associated withthe image of the skull. The 2007screenprint by the street-artistBanksy "Grin Reaper" features theGrim Reaper with acid-house smiley face sitting on a clock demonstrating death awaiting us all.[19]
Memento mori is also an important literary theme. Well-known literary meditations on death in English prose include SirThomas Browne'sHydriotaphia, Urn Burial andJeremy Taylor'sHoly Living and Holy Dying. These works were part of aJacobeancult of melancholia that marked the end of theElizabethan era. In the late eighteenth century, literaryelegies were a common genre;Thomas Gray'sElegy Written in a Country Churchyard andEdward Young'sNight Thoughts are typical members of the genre.
In the European devotional literature of the Renaissance, theArs Moriendi,memento mori had moral value by reminding individuals of their mortality.[20]
Apart from the genre ofrequiem and funeral music, there is also a rich tradition ofmemento mori in theEarly Music of Europe. Especially those facing the ever-present death during the recurringbubonic plaguepandemics from the 1340s onward tried to toughen themselves by anticipating the inevitable inchants, from the simpleGeisslerlieder of theFlagellant movement to the more refined cloistral or courtly songs. The lyrics often looked at life as a necessary and God-givenvale of tears with death as a ransom, and they reminded people to lead sinless lives to stand a chance atJudgment Day. The following two Latin stanzas (with their English translations) are typical ofmemento mori in medieval music; they are from thevirelaiAd Mortem Festinamus of theLlibre Vermell de Montserrat from 1399:
Vita brevis breviter in brevi finietur,
Mors venit velociter quae neminem veretur,
Omnia mors perimit et nulli miseretur.
Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus.
Ni conversus fueris et sicut puer factus
Et vitam mutaveris in meliores actus,
Intrare non poteris regnum Dei beatus.
Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus.
Life is short, and shortly it will end;
Death comes quickly and respects no one,
Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one.
To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning.
If you do not turn back and become like a child,
And change your life for the better,
You will not be able to enter, blessed, the Kingdom of God.
To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning.
Thedanse macabre is another well-known example of thememento mori theme, with its dancing depiction of theGrim Reaper carrying off rich and poor alike. This and similar depictions of Death decorated many European churches.
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Memento mori was the salutation used by theHermits of St. Paul of France (1620–1633), also known as the Brothers of Death.[21] It is sometimes claimed that theTrappists use this salutation, but this is not true.[22]
Colonial American art saw a large number ofmemento mori images due toPuritan influence. The Puritan community in 17th-century North America looked down upon art because they believed that it drew the faithful away from God and, if away from God, then it could only lead to the devil. However, portraits were considered historical records and, as such, they were allowed.Thomas Smith, a 17th-century Puritan, fought in many naval battles and also painted. In his self-portrait, we see these pursuits represented alongside a typical Puritanmemento mori with a skull, suggesting his awareness of imminent death.
The poem underneath the skull emphasizes Thomas Smith's acceptance of death and of turning away from the world of the living:
Why why should I the World be minding, Therein a World of Evils Finding. Then Farwell World: Farwell thy jarres, thy Joies thy Toies thy Wiles thy Warrs. Truth Sounds Retreat: I am not sorye. The Eternall Drawes to him my heart, By Faith (which can thy Force Subvert) To Crowne me (after Grace) with Glory.
Muchmemento mori art is associated with theMexican festivalDay of the Dead, including skull-shaped candies and bread loaves adorned with bread "bones".
This theme was also famously expressed in the works of the Mexican engraverJosé Guadalupe Posada, in which people from various walks of life are depicted as skeletons.
Another manifestation ofmemento mori is found in the Mexican "Calavera", a literary composition in verse form normally written in honour of a person who is still alive, but written as if that person were dead. These compositions have a comedic tone and are often offered from one friend to another duringDay of the Dead.[23]
Roman Krznaric suggestsmemento mori is an important topic to bring back into our thoughts and belief system; "Philosophers have come up with lots of what I call 'death tasters' – thought experiments for seizing the day."
These thought experiments are powerful to get us re-oriented back to death into current awareness and living with spontaneity.Albert Camus stated "Come to terms with death, thereafter anything is possible."Jean-Paul Sartre expressed that life is given to us early, and is shortened at the end, all the while taken away at every step of the way, emphasizing that the end is only the beginning every day.[24]
The Buddhist practicemaraṇasati meditates on death. The word is aPāli compound ofmaraṇa 'death' (anIndo-European cognate of Latinmori) andsati 'awareness', so very close tomemento mori. It is first used in early Buddhist texts, thesuttapiṭaka of thePāli Canon, with parallels in theāgamas of the "Northern" Schools.
In Japan, the influence ofZen Buddhist contemplation of death on indigenous culture can be gauged by the following quotation from the classic treatise onsamurai ethics,Hagakure:[25]
The Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining the most sightly way of dying, and putting one's mind firmly in death. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.[26]
In the annual appreciation ofcherry blossom and fall colors,hanami andmomijigari, it was philosophized that things are most splendid at the moment before their fall, and to aim to live and die in a similar fashion.[citation needed]
In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a mind training practice known asLojong. The initial stages of the classic Lojong begin with 'The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind', or, more literally, 'Four Contemplations to Cause a Revolution in the Mind'.[citation needed] The second of these four is the contemplation on impermanence and death. In particular, one contemplates that;
There are a number of classic verse formulations of these contemplations meant for daily reflection to overcome our strong habitual tendency to live as though we will certainly not die today.
The following is from theLalitavistara Sūtra, a major work in the classical Sanskrit canon:
ज्वलितं त्रिभवं जरव्याधिदुखैः मरणाग्निप्रदीप्तमनाथमिदम्।
भवनि शरणे सद मूढ जगत् भ्रमती भ्रमरो यथ कुम्भगतो॥
अध्रुवं त्रिभवं शरदभ्रनिभं नटरङ्गसमा जगिर् ऊर्मिच्युती।
गिरिनद्यसमं लघुशीघ्रजवं व्रजतायु जगे यथ विद्यु नभे॥
Beings are ablaze with the sufferings of sickness and old age,
And with no defence against the conflagration of Death
The bewildered, seeking refuge in worldly existence
Spin round and round, like bees trapped in a jar.
The three worlds are fleeting like autumn clouds.
Like a staged performance, beings come and go.
In tumultuous waves, rushing by, like rapids over a cliff.
Like lightning, wanderers in samsara burst into existence, and are gone in a flash.[27]
A very well-known verse in the Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan canons states [this is from the Sanskrit version, theUdānavarga]:
सर्वे क्षयान्ता निचयाः पतनान्ताः समुच्छ्रयाः |
सम्योगा विप्रयोगान्ता मरणान्तं हि जीवितम् |1,22|
All that is acquired will be lost
What rises will fall
Where there is meeting there will be separation
What is born will surely die.[28]
Shantideva, in theBodhisattvacaryāvatāra 'Bodhisattva's Way of Life' reflects at length:
कृताकृतापरीक्षोऽयं मृत्युर्विश्रम्भघातकः।
स्वस्थास्वस्थैरविश्वास्य आकमिस्मकमहाशनि:॥
२/३४॥
अप्रिया न भविष्यन्ति प्रियो मे न भविष्यति।
अहं च न भविष्यामि सर्वं च न भविष्यति॥
२/३७॥
तत्तत्स्मरणताम याति यद्यद्वस्त्वनुभयते।
स्वप्नानुभूतवत्सर्वं गतं न पूनरीक्ष्यते॥
२/३६॥
रात्रिन्दिवमविश्राममायुषो वर्धते व्ययः।
आयस्य चागमो नास्ति न मरिष्यामि किं न्वहम्॥
२/४०
यमदूतैर्गृहीतस्य कुतो बन्धुः कुतः सुह्रत्। पुण्यमेकं तदा त्राणं मया तच्च न सेवितम्॥
२/४१॥
Death does not differentiate between tasks done and undone.
This traitor is not to be trusted by the healthy or the ill,
for it is like an unexpected, great thunderbolt.
BCA 2.33
My enemies will not remain, nor will my friends remain.
I shall not remain. Nothing will remain.
BCA 2:35
Whatever is experienced will fade to a memory.
Like an experience in a dream,
everything that has passed will not be seen again.
BCA 2:36
Day and night, a life span unceasingly diminishes,
and there is no adding onto it. Shall I not die then?
BCA 2:39
For a person seized by the messengers of Death,
what good is a relative and what good is a friend?
At that time, merit alone is a protection,
and I have not applied myself to it.
BCA 2:41
In a practice text written by the 19th-century Tibetan masterDudjom Lingpa for seriousmeditators, he formulates the second contemplation in this way:[29][30]
On this occasion when you have such a bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on the unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind... The appearances of this life, including your surroundings and friends, are like last night's dream, and this life passes more swiftly than a flash of lightning in the sky. There is no end to this meaningless work. What a joke to prepare to live forever! Wherever you are born in the heights or depths of saṃsāra, the great noose of suffering will hold you tight. Acquiring freedom for yourself is as rare as a star in the daytime, so how is it possible to practice and achieve liberation? The root of all mind training and practical instructions is planted by knowing the nature of existence. There is no other way. I, an old vagabond, have shaken my beggar's satchel, and this is what came out.
The contemporary Tibetan master,Yangthang Rinpoche, in his short text 'Summary of the View, Meditation, and Conduct':[31]
།ཁྱེད་རྙེད་དཀའ་བ་མི་ཡི་ལུས་རྟེན་རྙེད། །སྐྱེ་དཀའ་བའི་ངེས་འབྱུང་གི་བསམ་པ་སྐྱེས། །མཇལ་དཀའ་བའི་མཚན་ལྡན་གྱི་བླ་མ་མཇལ། །འཕྲད་དཀའ་བ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དང་འཕྲད།
འདི་འདྲ་བའི་ལུས་རྟེན་བཟང་པོ་འདི། །ཐོབ་དཀའ་བའི་ཚུལ་ལ་ཡང་ཡང་སོམ། རྙེད་པ་འདི་དོན་ཡོད་མ་བྱས་ན། །འདི་མི་རྟག་རླུང་གསེབ་མར་མེ་འདྲ།
ཡུན་རིང་པོའི་བློ་གཏད་འདི་ལ་མེད། །ཤི་བར་དོར་གྲོལ་བའི་གདེངས་མེད་ན། །ཚེ་ཕྱི་མའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཨ་རེ་འཇིགས། །མཐའ་མེད་པའི་འཁོར་བར་འཁྱམས་དགོས་ཚེ།
།འདིའི་རང་བཞིན་བསམ་ན་སེམས་རེ་སྐྱོ། །ཚེ་འདི་ལ་བློ་གདེངས་ཐོབ་པ་ཞིག །ཅི་ནས་ཀྱང་མཛད་རྒྱུ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ། །འདི་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་རེ་བ་ཡིན།
You have obtained a human life, which is difficult to find,
Have aroused an intention of a spirit of emergence, which is difficult to arouse,
Have met a qualified guru, who is difficult to meet,
And you have encountered the sublime Dharma, which is difficult to encounter.
Reflect again and again on the difficulty Of obtaining such a fine human life.
If you do not make this meaningful,
It will be like a butter lamp in the wind of impermanence.
Do not count on this lasting a long time.
The Tibetan Canon also includes copious materials on the meditative preparation for the death process and intermediate periodbardo between death and rebirth. Amongst them are the famous "Tibetan Book of the Dead", in TibetanBardo Thodol, the "Natural Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo".
The "remembrance of death" (Arabic:تذكرة الموت,Tadhkirat al-Mawt; deriving fromتذكرة,tadhkirah, Arabic formemorandum oradmonition), has been a major topic of Islamic spirituality since the time of the Islamic prophetMuhammad inMedina. It is grounded in theQur'an, where there are recurring injunctions to pay heed to the fate of previous generations.[32] Thehadith literature, which preserves the teachings of Muhammad, records advice for believers to "remember often death, the destroyer of pleasures."[33] SomeSufis have been called "ahl al-qubur," the "people of the graves," because of their practice of frequenting graveyards to ponder on mortality and the vanity of life, based on the teaching of Muhammad to visit graves.[34]Al-Ghazali devotes to this topic the last book of his "The Revival of the Religious Sciences".[35]
TheHávamál ("Sayings of the High One"), a 13th-centurynorse compilation poetically attributed to the godOdin, includes two sections – the Gestaþáttr and the Loddfáfnismál – offering manygnomic proverbs expressing the memento mori philosophy, most famously Gestaþáttr number 77:
Deyr fé,
deyja frændur,
deyr sjálfur ið sama;
ek veit einn at aldri deyr,
dómr um dauðan hvern.
Animals die,
friends die,
and thyself, too, shall die;
but one thing I know that never dies
the tales of the one who died.
This is an allusion to the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
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