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Epitaphios [epitaphion; Gr.: ‘on the tomb’].
Term used to indicate a number of related items, first among them the iconographical theme of the Lamentation (Gr. epitaphios threnos), the earliest example of which is on an 11th-century Byzantine ivory panel (Konstanz, Rosgtnmus.). In Lamentation scenes Christ is usually depicted lying flat on a stone, clothed only in a loincloth, surrounded by the mourning figures of Joseph of Arimathaea, Nicodemus, the Virgin and St Mary Magdalene. This iconography gradually developed out of depictions of the Entombment, but whereas in the latter scene Joseph is shown holding Christ, in the Lamentation it is the Virgin who embraces him.
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