Kinds of
Vases
The subjects on Greek vases are of vast variety,
almost as great as the number of specimens now in the
museums of the world. This number was estimated by De
Witte at fifty thousand, but Dr. Birch places it at
twenty thousand of vases of all kinds.
These subjects are chiefly of four classes: 1.
Relating to mythology; 2. Relating to the Heroic Age and
traditions of early Greek history; 3. Relating to known
history; 4. Relating to contemporary manners and
customs. Among the vast number belonging to the first
and second classes are not only numerous pictures which
are recognized from knowledge of the mythology, poetry,
and traditions of the Greeks, but also many which are
unexplained by any extant literature. The songs of many
ancient poets are lost, while the illustrations of their
songs remain on pottery vases.
A study of Greek vases can be made intelligently only
as accompanied by a study of Greek history and
literature, and an appreciation in some sort of the
Greek mind. The chief bond of the various Greek tribes
was their common language, not identical, but
sufficiently alike in different families to sustain
intercourse. The epics of Homer and the Cyclic poets had
been recited among the Grecian families before written
language was generally known among them, and thus arose
a community of traditions relating to the Heroic Age,
which was another bond. The Olympiads date from 776
B.C., when Lycnrgus<??> and Iphitus established,
or revived, the Olympian games. The various cities of
Greece remained independent, but the "Iliad"
and "Odyssey" were the common property of all
Greeks, and were as familiar in the seventh century
before Christ to the uneducated tribes of Greece as the
Bible is to modern Christians. It was not till about 530
B.C. that the books of Homer were rescued from
confusion, and arranged. Other epics were popular,
abounding in roman tie story. All these were handed down
from lip to lip and generation to generation long before
they were committed to writing. Men boasted of their
ability to repeat them from beginning to end. When
painting became an art known to the Greeks, they used it
to illustrate the stories with which every Greek
household was familiar. Hence the thousands of vases now
known, and countless thousands more, on which the
paintings represent the stories of heroes, demi-gods,
and gods, from poems which were the delight of every
Greek.
Inscriptions on Greek pottery are numerous, both
painted and incised. Oftentimes each figure in a painted
subject has the name near or on it. Abbreviated forms of
spelling are common in these; letters are omitted; where
double letters occur, one only is used. The names of men
are sometimes accompanied with adjectives, as "The
beautiful Hector," and occasionally inscriptions
represent what the person is supposed to be saying. Thus
Silenus says, "The wine is sweet;" a man
lighting a funeral pyre says, "Farewell;" a
boy playing ball says, "Send me the ball." On
cups "Hail to you, and drink well!" is a not
uncommon legend. The prize vases of the Athenian games
were inscribed, "I am a prize from Athens"
(III.51). Names of persons with the epithet
"beautiful" are of frequent occurrence, often
of boys and females. Thus vases have "Dorotheos the
boy is beautiful, the boy is beautiful;" "Stroibos
is beautiful;" "The beautiful Nikodemos;"
"Oinanthe is beautiful;" and one vase has
"Beautiful is Nikolaos; Dorotheos is beautiful: it
seems to me one and the other boy is beautiful. Memmon
to me is beautiful, dear." The frequency of this
style of inscription has led to much discussion of its
origin and intent, without satisfactory solution. It has
been suggested that they referred to children, and were
presents, or that they have allusion to victors in
games, or to persons specially popular among a people
who loved beauty, and that potters placed them on vases
to suit public taste. Inscriptions intentionally
illegible are of frequent occurrence, and unexplained.
The largest pottery object made by the Greeks was the
pithos. It was common also to the Egyptians and the
Romans, and among all nations served the purposes of a
cellar for the storage and preservation of all kinds of
provisions. It was moulded with clay around a frame. Its
gigantic size well fitted it to be, as it often was, the
refuge of the poor seeking shelter. This was the tub of
Diogenes, who is represented on a Roman lamp, seated in
the month of an old broken pithos, receiving the visit
of the Macedonian hero (III.54).
The most frequent form of vase was the amphora, also
an ancient Egyptian and Phenician form. It was of long
cylindrical or ovoid body, made in all sizes, from the
small drug vase two or three inches high to the large
receiver of oil, grain, fruit, wine, or water.
Originally the base was pointed, to be pressed into the
sand or soil, and thus hold the vase upright; but later,
and always in ornamental vases, the pointed base was
surrounded with a small foot. The invariable two handles
gave the name to the vase. This was a favorite vase for
decoration, and, thus finished, was a noble household
ornament and adornment on festal occasions.
From the early days of fine pottery, the Greeks
admired it, and the art was cultivated by the patronage
of the wealthy and refined. Superbly painted amphorae
were frequently prizes of victors in the games.
Panathenaic amphorae, prizes in the Athenian contests,
are among the noblest relics of Grecian art (III. 51).
The amphora, made of coarse unglazed pottery, was the
common vehicle for the preservation and transportation
of wines, oils, and fruit. Rhodian amphorae went to all
parts of the Eastern world. These often had the makers'
names stamped on the handles, and sometimes the name of
a magistrate, around a stamped device. Thus the symbolic
rose of Rhodes frequently appears on amphorae, as on
coins of that island.
The krater was a gigantic punch-bowl, from which at
feasts the mixed wines were dipped out in the oinochoe,
or wine-pitcher, and poured into the various forms of
cups held by the guests. The oinochoe, borne by a page,
must never be placed on the krater, for that implied
that the wine was exhausted and the feast was ended. The
most common form of cup was the kylix, varying in shape,
but always the same in general character--a broad,
shallow cup six to ten inches in diameter, usually with
handles. The guests in the symposium are represented on
painted vases, twirling the kylikes on their fingers, as
in the illustration (62). The rhyton was another form of
drinking-cup, in a variety of shapes, sometimes that of
a horn, more frequently with its foot extending into the
head of a deer or other animal. It could not be set down
till emptied. The prochoos was the ordinary jug or
pitcher, used, like modern pitchers, for all liquids,
and, like them, varying in form. The epichysis was a
little perfume or oil pitcher, most frequently made in
metal, but often in pottery. The oxybaphon was used to
hold vinegar for table use. The kantharos, a cup with a
high handle, was the ladle. In short, the form in
general suggests the use of the article, and it is a
safe rule in antiquarian research, when seeking the
probable purpose of an object, to ask, "What would
we use it for?" An explorer once, in our presence,
showed an American gentleman a curious object in ancient
pottery, and asked him what he supposed it was. The
American instantly replied, "When I was a boy in
the country, we used just that shaped object in tin to
hang on the wall and hold a candle, and I should call it
a sconce." The astonished explorer exclaimed,
"I have shown it to scores of people. One thought
it a chariot box, another a sacrificial vessel--no one
knew it; but you are right, for I found it hanging on
the wall of a tomb, and here is the pottery lamp which
was in it."
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Introduction
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First
Painted Vases |
History
Of Greek Art |
Kinds
of Vases |
Greek
Burial Pottery
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