Sit tibi terra levis

{{Short description|Latin inscription on funerary items}}

Image:ERAEmerita 138.JPG, in the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano (National Museum of Roman Art), reading:
M(arco) Cornelio M(arci) f(ilio) Pap(iria) Pollio / M(arco) Cornelio Urbano / M(arco) Cornelio Celeri / Cornelia M(arci) l(iberta) Iucunda / sic nuncquam Fortuna sinat te nosse dolo[rem] / praeterisse potes quasm pius o iuvenis / sit datus in flammas nosse doloris rit nunc petit i[---] / quisquis ades dicas sit tibi terra levis h(ic) [---] ]]

Sit tibi terra levis (commonly abbreviated as S·T·T·L or S.T.T.L. or STTL) is a Latin inscription used on funerary items from ancient Roman times{{cite book|first=Judson Allen|last=Tolman|title= Dissertation: A study of the sepulchral inscriptions in Buecheler's Carmina epigraphica latina|publisher=University of Chicago press|year=1910|pages=3,6|url=https://archive.org/stream/astudysepulchra00tolmgoog#page/n19/mode/1up}} onwards. The English language translation is approximately "May the earth rest lightly on you" or "May the ground be light to you"; the more literal, word by word, translation, is sit "may be", tibi "to you", terra "ground, soil", levis "light" (in the sense of the opposite of "heavy").

The origin of the phrase can be found in Euripides' Alcestis; the phrase in Greek is {{lang|grc|κούφα σοι χθὼν ἐπάνωθε πέσοι}}, koupha soi chthon epanothe pesoi.{{cite book|author=Euripides|title=Alcestis|language=Greek|chapter=Verses: 463-4|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0087%3Acard%3D455}} {{cite book|title=Alcestis|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0088%3Acard%3D455|chapter=Verses: 463-4}}; cf. {{cite book|title=Helen|language=Greek|chapter=Verses: 852-3|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Hel.+852&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0099}} {{cite book|title=Helen|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Hel.+852&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0100|chapter=Verses: 852-3}} At the Perseus Project.{{cite book|title=Ancient Jewish Epitaphs: An Introductory Survey of a Millennium of Jewish Funerary Epigraphy (300 BCE-700 CE)|author-first=Pieter Willem van der|author-last=Horst|author-link=Pieter Willem van der Horst|page=54|publisher=Kok Pharos Publishing House|place=Kampen|year=1991|isbn=90-242-3307-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F549XluX9DQC&pg=PA54}} Euripides' phrase "underwent all kinds of variations",cf. {{cite book|author=Menander|author-link=Menander|title=The Fragments of Attic Comedy|volume=IIIB|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8sUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA778|chapter=Fragment 538, Verse 3|editor-first=Edmonds|editor-last=John Maxwell|editor-link=John Maxwell Edmonds|pages=778–9|year=1961|place=Leyden|publisher=E. J. Brill|language= Greek, English}} At Google Books.{{refn|group=n|A later satirical example of this in Greek, is the following epigram (cf. Martial's Epigrammata 9.29.11-12) by Ammianus Epigrammaticus (1st and/or 2nd century CE):
{{lang|grc|Εἴη σοι κατὰ γῆς κούφη κόνις, οἰκτρὲ Νέαρχε, ὄφρα σε ῥηϊδίως ἐξερύσωσι κύνες.}} May the dust lie light on thee when under earth, wretched Nearchus, so that the dogs may easily drag thee out.{{cite book|title=The Greek anthology |volume=VI|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/greekanthologyv01patogoog#page/n190/mode/1up|pages=178–9|chapter=Book XI, Epigram 226|year=1918|series=Loeb Classical Library|others=With an English translation by W. R. Paton}} At the Internet Archive.{{cite book|title=A Commentary on Martial, Epigrams, Book 9|first=Christer|last=Henriksén|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgPJfgToMpMC&pg=PA127|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-019-960631-3|page=127}}{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter%3DA:entry+group%3D19:entry%3Dammianus-bio-1|editor-first=William|editor-last=Smith|year=1873|chapter=Ammianus}} At the Perseus Project.}} especially in Latin poets like Propertius, Ovid, Martial, and Persius;Persius, Saturae, I, 37.{{cite book|title=Epigrammata|author=Martial|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0506%3Abook%3D9%3Apoem%3D29|chapter= Book 9, Epigram 29, Verse 11|language=Latin}} cf. {{cite book|title=Epigrammata|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Mart.+5.34&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0506|chapter= Book 5, Epigram 34, Verses 9-10}} {{cite book|title=Epigrammata|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Mart.+6.68&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0506|chapter= Book 6, Epigram 68, Verse 12}} At the Perseus Project.{{cite book|title=Amores|author=Ovid|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0068%3Atext%3DAm.%3Abook%3D3%3Apoem%3D9|chapter= Book 3, Poem 9, Verse 68|language=Latin}} {{cite book|title=Amores|chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0069%3Atext%3DAm.%3Abook%3D3%3Apoem%3D9|chapter=Book 3, Poem 9, Verse 68}} At the Perseus Project.{{cite book|title=Elegiae|author=Propertius|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0066%3Abook%3D1%3Apoem%3D17|chapter= Book 1, Poem 17, Verse 24|language=Latin}} {{cite book|title=Elegiae|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0067%3Abook%3D1%3Apoem%3D17|chapter=Book 1, Poem 17, Verse 24}} At the Perseus Project.cf. {{cite book|title=Troades|last=Seneca|author-link=Seneca the Younger|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Sen.+Tro.+602&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0011|language=Latin|chapter=Verse 602}} At the Perseus Project. although some minor variants like Sit Ei Terra Levis – abbreviated to SETL – are attested,{{cite book|title=Manual of Classical Literature|first=Johann Joachim|last=Eschenburg|author-link=Johann Joachim Eschenburg|page=85|year=1836|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arAoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA85|publisher=Key and Biddle|place=Philadelphia|others=Translated from German by N.W. Fiske}} and excluding Roman Africa which developed its own stock formula (Ossa Tibi Bene Quiescant – OTBQ – or similar),{{cite book|series=Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|title=Inscriptiones Africae Latinae: Indicum|volume=octavi supplementi partis quintae fasciculus tertius|page=300|first1=Gustav|last1=Wilmanns|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vk8bGATsJj0C&pg=PA300|year=1959|place=Berlin|publisher=Walter de Gruyter and Co|isbn=9783110013849|display-authors=etal}} At Google Books. in Latin epitaphs the phrase became formulaic, acquiring the aforementioned abbreviation. On the contrary, in Greek epitaphs, it never became such a fixed formula; it is found in various forms, e.g. {{lang|grc|γαῖαν ἔχοις ἐλαφράν, κούφη σοι κόνις ἥδε πέλοι, κούφη σεῖο γαῖ' ὀστέα κεύθοι.}}s.v. {{LSJ|kou{{=}}fos|κούφη}}, {{LSJ|e)lafro/s|ἐλαφρά|ref}}.

The Latin formula was usually located at the end of the inscription;{{cite book|first=Joshua|last=Scodel|title=The English poetic epitaph: commemoration and conflict from Jonson to Wordsworth|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1991|isbn=0-8014-2482-8|page=82|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6oULX3wr58C}} at the beginning, another formulaic phrase was often used: Dis Manibus, i.e. "To the spirits of the dead"; first thus, then shortened to Dis Man and finally to DM. The latter, along with STTL, had replaced in about the mid-first century CE, the older model, common during the first century BCE and first century CE, of ending the inscription with Hic situs est or Hic sita est ("he or she lies here"; abbreviated to HSE), and the name of the dead person.{{cite book|title=Understanding Roman Inscriptions|first=Lawrence|last=Keppie|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJmFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT107|page=107|chapter=Gravestones and tomb monuments|date=1991|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134746170}}{{refn|group=n|A very common, through space and time, phrase in Greek and the analogue of the Latin one is {{lang|grc|Ἐνθάδε κεῖται}}, Enthade keitai, "Here lies".}}