[Illustration:
Alabastron, for holding oil or perfumes.
]
[Illustration:
Aryballos, oil-jug. Vases of this shape are often seen suspended from
the wrists of athletes.
]
[Illustration:
Vase (the ancient plemochoë?), probably used for holding perfumes, a
shape intermediate between the pyxis and the lekane. Note the
delicately executed knob serving as handle to the lid. In the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
]
TOILET JARS—PYXIS. Small terracotta box for holding toilet articles. It
regularly has a cover provided with a knob or a bronze ring for handle.
[Illustration:
Black-figured pyxis with a loop handle on the cover.
]
[Illustration:
White pyxis of conspicuously beautiful design and execution, decorated
with figures in color on a white ground. In the foot are three
notches for easier handling.
]
[Illustration:
White pyxis of design similar to the preceding, but with elongated
instead of arched knob. It also is an exceptionally fine product of
the potter’s art.
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
]
[Illustration:
Red-figured pyxis with high foot and knob-shaped handle.
]
[Illustration:
Red-figured pyxis with cylindrical body and low, broad foot.
]
[Illustration:
Red-figured pyxis of the late fifth century with low, broad body and a
bronze ring on the cover.
]
[Illustration:
Red-figured pyxis of cylindrical shape and no handle on the lid.
]
[Illustration:
Red-figured pyxis of late date with the knob in the form of a
knucklebone.
]
[Illustration:
Small pyxis of attractive design delicately worked.
]
[Illustration:
Small cylindrical pyxis without handle.
]
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ATTIC VASES. The theory has often been advanced that
the painted black-figured and red-figured vases were made for decoration
and for votive and funeral purposes but not for actual use. The
following illustrations from Attic vases show some of the best-known
types in use in the daily life of the Greeks, and thus furnish us with
contemporary evidence that the vases were made to serve the purposes for
which they are so well adapted.
[Illustration:
Scene on a red-figured stamnos. Three women are filling cups, a
kantharos, and a phiale, from a stamnos placed on a table. The
stamnos contains the mixture of wine and water which formed the
regular drink of the Greeks.
]
[Illustration:
Scene on an Ionic amphora in the collection of the Marquis of
Northampton. The god Dionysos and a company of satyrs are drinking
and making merry. The wine is in a lebes on a tripod at the right. A
satyr is dipping it out with an oinochoë without taking the trouble
to use a ladle. Dionysos himself holds up his large kantharos, and
the satyr at the left grasps a wine-skin and a drinking-horn.
]
[Illustration:
Scene on a red-figured kylix in the Antiquarium, Munich. Herakles,
wearied with his labors, is seated on a rock, while Athena, his
patroness, pours wine for him from an oinochoë into a kantharos. The
trefoil-shaped mouth of the oinochoë can be plainly seen.
]
[Illustration:
Detail from a scene on the Ficoroni Cista in the Museo Kircheriano in
Rome. A young man is drinking from a kylix which he holds by one
handle.
]
[Illustration:
Scene on a hydria in the Torlonia Collection in Rome. Two girls are
drawing water at a public fountain into large hydriai or water-jars.
The girl at the left is lifting her jar upon her head. The other is
putting a little cushion for protection on her head, meanwhile
holding her dress away from the water.
]
[Illustration:
Scene on a red-figured krater in the Antiquarium, Berlin. Two young
men are preparing for exercise in a gymnasium. One of them is
pouring oil into his hand from an aryballos attached to his wrist by
a cord, in order to rub the liquid over his body.
]
[Illustration:
Scene on a red-figured pyxis in the British Museum. A bride is being
dressed for her wedding; a little maid is fastening her shoes while
another is bringing her jewelry in a box. At the door stand two
marriage vases filled with twigs, and a loutrophoros nearby also
contains branches or flowers. On a little chest stands a pyxis or
perfume vase. A mirror hangs on the wall.
]
[Illustration:
Scene from a polychrome lekythos in the National Museum, Athens. Such
lekythoi were made especially for offerings to the dead. This
picture shows a woman bringing wreaths in a basket to place on a
gravestone on the steps of which are lekythoi and oinochoai. Behind
the monument appears the mound over the grave.
]
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