Attic Lekythos

[Klingan]

I was recently writing a short paper on different ceramic vessels in Attica (600 BC - 0 BC ish) and their use for different situations in life. An interesting thing that caught me was that the vessel know to us as the Lekythos seems to always be painted white, even when the ceramics fashion changed several times (White -> Black figure -> Red figure mainly). It was used to bring oil to the dead (Anointing the body itself, included with the grave goods, to sweeten the atmosphere and to place at the step of the grave at certain days) and large ones even had a smaller inner container to not use too much oil. (it was the quality not the quantity that mattered.)

 

Anyway does anyone know why it always seems to be white? Was it that they somehow connected white with death? There were smaller ones that were painted differently but the one Lekythos shaped always stay the same.

[Maladict]

An interesting thing that caught me was that the vessel know to us as the Lekythos seems to always be painted white, even when the ceramics fashion changed several times (White -> Black figure -> Red figure mainly).

 

Really? I'm quite sure I've seen red lekythoi. Maybe even black ones but I might be wrong there.

[Klingan]

I can't say for sure that all of them are white. My book says "the most easily recognizable funerary case for oil is the tall white-grounded oil flask - a shape we call today the Lekythos" (The Red and the Black, Studies in Greek pottery by Brian A.Sparkes)

 

I'm really no expert in attic pottery. After I took a look at Google I found some red and black one's too but the large mass is white grounded. I guess there's always a few exceptions to everything. Anyway that would put us back at the original question, more or less.

[Maladict]

I can't say for sure that all of them are white. My book says "the most easily recognizable funerary case for oil is the tall white-grounded oil flask - a shape we call today the Lekythos" (The Red and the Black, Studies in Greek pottery by Brian A.Sparkes)

 

I'm really no expert in attic pottery. After I took a look at Google I found some red and black one's too but the large mass is white grounded. I guess there's always a few exceptions to everything. Anyway that would put us back at the original question, more or less.

 

I'm no expert either, but I believe the white grounded lekythoi were favoured as grave gifts.

That might explain their relative abundance: they were better preserved than the 'daily use' variants.

[Klingan]

Very good point, I should have thought about that. I even had a short piece in my paper about the fact that most complete pots were found in graves. Still than, why was white preferred as grave gifts?

[Maladict]

Very good point, I should have thought about that. I even had a short piece in my paper about the fact that most complete pots were found in graves. Still than, why was white preferred as grave gifts?

 

Dunno, might be something as simple as 'tradition' or 'fashion'.

White grounded pottery as a whole seems to be different from the other kinds as far as chronology and typology are concerned. Less susceptible to changes, perhaps.

But again, I'm really not that knowledgeable on the subject.