What is "epitaphios"

Epitaphios or epitaphius may refer to:

• Epitaphios (liturgical) or epitaphion, a cloth icon used during Holy Week in churches that follow the Byzantine rite
• Funeral oration (ancient Greece) or epitaphios logos
  • Gorgias' text on the same

The Epitaphios ( Greek: Ἐπιτάφιος, epitáphios, or Ἐπιτάφιον, epitáphion; Slavonic: Плащаница, plashchanitsa; Arabic: نعش, naash) is an icon, today most often found as a large cloth, embroidered and often richly adorned, which is used during the services of Good Friday and Holy Saturday in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It also exists in painted or mosaic form, on wall or panel.

The Epitaphios is also a common short form of the Epitáphios Thrēnos, the "Lamentation upon the Grave" in Greek, which is the main part of the service of the Matins of Holy Saturday, served in Good Friday evening. Armenian Orthodox have also the tradition of the epitaphios. Their celebration on this day is called T'aghman Kark (''Rite of the Burial).