History of Ancient Pottery 19

History of Ancient Pottery 19

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.

 

[Illustration:

 

FIG. 14. HEMIKOTYLION (VASE USED AS MEASURE).

BRITISH MUSEUM.

]

 

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

Chapter XVII.), where the words used seem to have no relation to the

vase itself. Thus in liquid measure the amphora (ἀμφορεύς) or κάδος,

also known as μετρητής, was equivalent to about 7½ gallons, and was

divided into 12 χόες, the χοῦς into 12 κοτύλαι, which, as we have seen,

answer to our ½-pints. The ὀξύβαφο was one-fourth of a κοτύλη, the

κύαθος one-sixth.[458] All these words were in common use to express

various forms of vases, as will be seen later on. Further, the word

κεράμιον, which, like the Latin _testa_, is used generally for pottery,

has a more restricted sense of a cask or vessel used for transporting

wine, and is even used as a term of measure, presumably equivalent to

the amphora.[459]

 

Earthenware was also used generally for the purpose of storing liquids

or various kinds of food, for the preparation of food and liquids, and

for the uses of the table or toilet. The painted ware, however, was not

employed for the commoner purposes, nor to contain large quantities of

liquids, for which it would have been far too expensive. But we know

that it was largely used at banquets and drinking-bouts, and on other

occasions, from the evidence of the vases themselves. Thus, in the

well-known vase with the Harpies robbing the blind Phineus of his food

(p. 357), a kotyle painted with black figures is seen in the king’s

hands; and in a scene representing the reception of Paris by

Helen,[460] the former is offered wine drawn from a large four-handled

vase on which figures are painted.[461] Vases with subjects represented

on them are also seen placed on columns forming the background of

scenes, as if forming part of the furniture of a hall or chamber. But

as a general rule the vases represented in banquet scenes and elsewhere

are left plain or only decorated with patterns.

 

To the use of vases in connection with athletic games we have already

alluded in discussing Pindar’s mention of the Panathenaic amphorae; it

is, of course, likely that other forms of vases were also given as

prizes or presented to young men on special occasions, such as entering

the ranks of the ἔφηβοι or being married, but we have no evidence of

such customs.

 

[Illustration: FIG. 15. CHILD PLAYING WITH JUG (BRITISH MUSEUM).]

 

Vases were also used as toys, as is proved by the discovery of many

little vases, chiefly jugs, in the tombs of children at Athens, on

which are depicted children playing at various games.[462] They are too

small to have served any other purpose, and as similarly shaped jugs

appear among the toys used by the children in these scenes, it is

reasonable to suppose that they were playthings. No doubt some of the

more unusual shapes were made with the same end, such as vases in the

shape of animals or fruit, or the aski (p. 200), which contained little

balls and were used as rattles.

 

We have already hinted at the purely decorative use of vases as

domestic ornaments, in which capacity they were often placed on

columns; there is, however, no hint of this in ancient authors. But

that it was customary in Greece and Italy, at all events in the later

period (_i.e._ after the Persian Wars), seems to be indicated by the

practice which obtains with the larger vases of executing only one side

with care, while the other exhibits an unimportant and badly painted

design (generally three boys or men wrapped in mantles). It is natural

to suppose that the carelessly executed side was not supposed to be

seen, owing to the fact that the vase was intended to be placed against

a wall. Some of the large round dishes of Apulian fabric seem to have

been intended for hanging up against a wall, on the same principle