Memento Mori

The Latin term memento mori has long served as a reminder of mortality. Literally meaning, "Remember you will die," the term has traditionally been linked with striking images and stories of dying. Exceptionally clear examples of this tradition can be seen in New England graveyards, where tombstones from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often contain two phrases: "Memento mori " and "Hora fugit, " which means, "The hour flees." These lines explain the accompanying images of hourglasses, skulls, bones, and winged death's heads. The gravestones thus ask passersby to remember not only the deceased but their own mortality as well.