The Egyptians and Greeks had very different burial ideas. Even though they were different, they made sure that the dead person was respected as much as they needed to be. They did everything exactly the way they would do it for everyone.
The Egyptians thought more of the afterlife than they did with actual life. They made sure that when someone died, they did everything perfect so that person would be comfortable in their tomb and they would have a chance to make it to the afterlife. They wanted to make that person feel at home, so they would bury them with all of their animals, pottery, and pictures that people painted for them or that they owned. Also, they would sometimes bury people they loved with them because they felt as if they needed to die together. They would take all their organs out, put them in jars, and lay them in the tomb with the dead body. If an Egyptians heart weighed less than a feather at their "judgment" in the after life, then they were allowed to cross over. If it weighed more, than they were stuck inside their tombs forever
The Greeks had burial sessions quite like ours today. They would take care of the body, clean it, dress it, and then lay it out for people to come see. Once the family members were done mourning, they would take the body and do a normal funeral procession such as they have today. The family would bring things to lay on the grave that reminded them of the person, and they did everything at a certain time. They felt as if the dead person at least deserved the respect of having a proper burial procession. Everything was done extremely precise and almost perfect.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm
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Nice, concise explanation.
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