CHAPTER IV

_USES AND SHAPES OF GREEK VASES_

Mention of painted vases in literature—Civil and domestic use of pottery—Measures of capacity—Use in daily life—Decorative use—Religious and votive uses—Use in funeral ceremonies—Shapes and their names—Ancient and modern classifications—Vases for storage—Pithos—Wine-amphora—Amphora—Stamnos—Hydria—Vases for mixing—Krater—Deinos or Lebes—Cooking-vessels—Vases for pouring wine—Oinochoe and variants—Ladles—Drinking-cups—Names recorded by Athenaeus—Kotyle—Skyphos—Kantharos—Kylix—Phiale—Rhyton— Dishes—Oil-vases—Lekythos—Alabastron—Pyxis—Askos—Moulded vases.

Those who are acquainted with the enormous number of painted vases now gathered together in our Museums, showing the important part they must have played in the daily life of the Greeks and the high estimation in which they were clearly held, as evidenced by the great care bestowed on their decoration and the pride exhibited by artists in their signed productions, may feel some surprise that so few allusions to them can be traced in classical literature. Such passages as can be interpreted as referring to them may actually be counted on the fingers of one hand, and even these are but passing allusions; while any full descriptions of vases, such as that in Theocritus' first Idyll or some of those in Athenaeus’ Book XI., almost invariably refer to metal vases with chased designs. Nor can we trace any reference to known potters or artists in literature or documents, save in a few inscriptions recently found at Athens, which are, of course, of secondary importance for literary history.

More general allusions to pottery and its use in daily life are common enough, and it would hardly be profitable to quote all such passages in detail; many indeed, such as the early allusion to the potter’s wheel in the _Iliad_ (see p. 207), have found a place elsewhere in this work. The passage of Homer at all events supplies proof, if such were needed, that the use of the wheel was known in early times in Greece.

Of undoubted references to painted vases there are but two, though both of them are particularly interesting, as they refer to well-known special classes of Attic vases. The earlier of the two is in Pindar’s tenth Nemean Ode,[447] in which he celebrates the victory of Thiaios of Argos, who had twice been successful in the Panathenaic games at Athens. He says:

γαία δὲ καυθείσα πυρὶ καρπος ἐλαίας ἔμολεν Ἤρας τὸν ευάνορα λαόν, ἐν ἀγγέων ἔρκεσι παμποικίλοις.[448]

These prize-vases are also mentioned by Simonides of Keos:

καὶ Παναθηναίοις στεφάνους λάβε πέντ’ ἐπ’ ἀέθλοις ἑξῆς ἀμφιφορεῖς ἐλαίου.[449]

The other passage, from the _Ecclesiazusae_ of Aristophanes (l. 996), is equally well known. One speaker, in somewhat contemptuous terms, alludes to “the fellow who paints the lekythi for the dead”:

ὃς τοῖς νεκροῖσι ζωγραφεῖ τοὺς ληκύθους.[450]

These lekythi may with certainty be identified with the white Athenian variety decorated with appropriate subjects and made specially for funerals (see Chapter XI.). The best examples of this class belong to the very period at which the _Ecclesiazusae_ was written (392 B.C.), but most of them show signs of being hastily executed or made to be sold at a low price. It is probably for this reason that the speaker implies his contempt for the painter, although at the same time it seems likely that vase-painters, like all craftsmen, were looked down upon by the Athenians of that day, in spite of the real beauty and artistic merit of their productions.

One or two doubtful allusions must next be considered. The lyric poet Alcaeus, who flourished 610–580 B.C., seems to allude to painted vases, but the reading is very doubtful. The passage is read by Bergk as follows (_Poet. Lyr. Graec._ iii. p. 165, frag. 41):

κἀδ δ' ἄειρε κυλίχναις μεγάλαις, αἴτ’ ὄτι, Οἶκι, λαῖς· ... ἔγχεε κίρναις ἔνα καὶ δύο πλέαις κὰκ κεφάλας, ἁ δ’ ἀτέρα τῶν ἀτέρων κύλιξ ὠθήτω.[451]

Ahrens[452] read αἶψα ποϊκίλαι for αἴτ’ ὄτι, Οἶκι, λαῖς, and other versions have been suggested. Bergk’s reading is very uncouth, and it certainly seems as if ποϊκίλαις was intended, whatever the preceding word. If it is allowed to stand, it obviously implies _painted_ vases, as in the παμποικίλοις of Pindar.

In the speech of Demosthenes _De Falsa Legatione_ (p. 415) occurs a passage which is generally taken as having reference to painted vases: καὶ σύ, Φιλόχαρες, σὲ μὲν τὰς ἀλαβαστοθήκας γράφοντα καὶ τὰ τύμπανα, “And you, Philochares, who paint the alabastos-stands and the pediments.” The word ἀλαβαστοθήκη is commonly supposed to describe a stand with holders for pots of perfume (also called κέρνος, see below, p. 195), although most painted examples of this vase found in Greece are of very early date. The τύμπανα are more easy of explanation, being the triangular pediments of temples, which, like the metopes of the so-called Theseion at Athens and those at Thermon (p. 92), were no doubt often adorned with paintings in place of sculpture.

Other passages, if they do not actually refer to painted or even to fictile vases, are at least of value as giving information as to the current names for those in every-day use, or as to various purposes for which they were used. Reference will be made to many of these in the course of the chapter.

Suetonius in his Life of Caesar (§ 81) describes how the colonists who were sent out under the _Lex Julia_ to build new houses were destroying ancient tombs for the purpose when they came upon remains of ancient pottery (_aliquantum vasculorum operis antiqui_), the discovery of which caused them to redouble their efforts in the work of destruction. Similarly Strabo[453] tells us that when Julius Caesar sent colonists to rebuild Corinth they came upon tombs containing large quantities of ὀστράκινα τορεύματα, which they nicknamed “Necrocorinthia.” The meaning of this expression is somewhat doubtful, but the word τορεύματα seems to imply chased or relief work, and it is probable that these were not painted vases, but Hellenistic ware with reliefs, like the so-called Megarian bowls.[454] The latter can be identified, by means of their subjects, with the _scyphi Homerici_ of which Nero was so fond; Suetonius tells us that they were so named _a caelatura carminum Homeri_, from the subjects from Homer’s poems carved in relief upon them.[455] The _scyphi_ were doubtless of metal, the use of which was confined to the wealthy and luxurious, while the so-called Megarian bowls and similar ware were copied from them in the cheaper material for the use of the humbler classes.

We see, then, that classical literature throws but little light on the uses made of painted vases as such by the Greeks. But we are by no means ill supplied with information as to the uses of pottery in general, about which evidence may be obtained both from the vases themselves and from innumerable passages in ancient writers or the commentaries of the scholiasts and lexicographers. This question is more or less bound up with that of the different shapes and names of vases, of which some 150 have been handed down by Athenaeus, Pollux, and other writers, and these will be considered in detail subsequently. For the present it may suffice to say a few words on what is known of the use of pottery in general and of painted vases in particular.

As most of the vases hitherto known have been discovered in tombs, it would at first sight appear that they were exclusively destined for sepulchral purposes; but this seems to have been in many cases only a subsequent use of them, and they doubtless also found a place among the wants of daily life. That this is true of the plain unglazed or unpainted pottery goes indeed without saying; in regard to the painted vases the question is, in view of the scanty literary evidence, more difficult to decide.

As the civil and domestic use of pottery is the most important, it is necessary to consider it first. For ordinary purposes earthenware largely took the place of bronze and the precious metals, just as it does at the present day. One instance of this we have already quoted in speaking of the “Homeric bowls,” and others might be cited, in particular its use for measures, for which metal would naturally be employed as a general rule. This usage is established by the occasional discovery of vases inscribed with the names of measures and the like. The British Museum possesses a small one-handled cup of black glazed ware (F 595 = Fig. 14) found in the island of Cerigo (Kythera), on which is incised in fifth-century lettering the word [ΗΕΜΙΚΟΤΥΛΙΟΝ], ἡμικοτύλιον, or “half-kotyle.” The word κοτύλη is interesting as denoting not only a shape of a drinking-cup (see below, p. 184), but a Greek measure, equivalent to about half a pint. Again, in 1867, a cylindrical vase of red ware was found at Athens inscribed [ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΝ], δημόσιον, or “public (measure).”[456] It was stamped with the figure of an owl and an olive-branch, the official seal of Athens, and has been supposed to represent the χοῖνιξ or quart, its capacity having been estimated at 0·96 litres, or 1¾ pints, while the χοῖνιξ is generally reckoned as equivalent to 1 litre.[457]

Many of the names in common use for shapes of vases are also found applied to measures of capacity either for liquid or dry stuffs; and it is possible that herein lies the explanation of the somewhat puzzling _graffiti_ inscriptions found under the feet of Attic vases (see