Attic Lekythoi Research Articles

"Vases des Lénéennes". Cent ans après

Here will be discussed the name of “ Lenäenvasen” which has been given, after the publications of A. FRICKENHAUS (1912) and Fr. FRONTISIDUCROUX (1991), to two main series of attic vases (black figure lekythoi around 480 B. C. ; red figure Stamnoi, 460-420 B. C.). Illustrations of the Attic feast of the Lenaia (A. FRICKENHAUS) ? Of an attic dionisiac ritual celebrated with dignity by female worshippers (Fr. FRONTISI-DUCROUX) ? have been proposed. Actually, while the attic lekythoi were bought by Greeks for the deads and their God, Dionysos, the red figure Stamnoi were sent to Etruscan and Campanian customers, which means that the connection with Attic Dionysiac celebrations cannot be sustained. However, a red figure cup by Makron, quoted by both scholars, could illustrate an important dionysiac ceremony in Athens.

A BRONZE CARYATID CENSER FROM AMMAN

A tomb was discovered recently in the course of digging the foundations of a private house in the southern part of Umm Udaina. The site lies about 1 km. north-west of the sixth circle in Amman. Immediately rescue excavations were undertaken by a team from the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman. The tomb was very rich in finds and these included; an inscribed seal, core-formed glass bottles, broken alabaster vessels, two Attic lekythoi, and other pottery. In addition, bronze bowls and other bronze and silver artefacts were found. The outstanding bronze caryatid censer stand described in this article was also discovered in this tomb. The following study consists of a description with parallels, a study of fabrication techniques, a chemical analysis and conclusions.

On a Group of Early Attic Lekythoi

The white lekythoi represented on Plates IV.–VII. and Figs. 1 and 2 are members of a series, twelve or more in number, all bearing a marked family likeness in style, subject, and inscription. They are of interest to the historian as presenting pictures of Athenian domestic life in the years of peace which followed the Persian War: to the student of sculpture as anticipating in a curious way many of the types and motives of later grave-reliefs: and to the student of vase-technique as bridging the interval between the white-ground kylikes of the ‘severe’ school and the ‘Lécythes blancs attiques à représentations funéraires’ on which M. Pottier has written. Here is the list. For the sake of clearness I have placed the inscriptions of the white-ground lekythoi on the left-hand side of the page, those of the red-figured on the right.

Three Attic Lekythoi from Eretria

The three lekythoi with black figures on a white ground, now published for the first time on Plates I., II., and III., were found in 1888 in the excavations carried on by the Greek Government on the site of the ancient Eretria. They are now in the Central Museum at Athens, and have been catalogued and briefly described by M. Staes in the Δελτίον ἀρχαιολογικόν for 1889 (pp. 99 and 139). The vases are of almost unique interest: two of them belonging to the cycle of the adventures of Odysseus, subjects from which have proved so curiously rare in vase-painting, while the third gives an episode in the story of Herakles and Atlas, of which the solitary monumental instance up to now had been the famous metope of Olympia (Friederichs-Wolters, 280). The beauty of the vases, the perfect state of their technique and of their preservation, no less than the interesting problems connected with mythography which they raise, have already won for them considerable celebrity; I therefore wish to record my special thanks to the Ephors of Antiquities in Athens for allowing me the publication of the vases—so graciously accorded to me during my studentship at the British School at Athens in 1891. Mr. Ernest Gardner, Director of our School, had the kindness to supervise the drawings which have been executed by M. Gilliéron. It had been my intention to make the publication of these lekythoi the occasion for a discussion of white-faced ware in connection with the whole subject of Greek painting proper, but I have unfortunately been prevented from collecting the necessary material in time for the present number of the Journal.