Lekythos 500 BC

This small Lekythos was made in Athens around the late 7th or early 6th century BCE, by an artist belonging to the so-called 'Class of Athens 581'. It is made of clay and decorated in the black-figure technique. These vessels were used to hold perfumed oil, often placed in tombs as offerings. The painted decoration shows warriors with spears and shields. Note the symbols on the shields: a lion, a snake, and a plain white blazon. This imagery speaks to the values of Athenian aristocratic society, where military prowess and athletic competition were highly esteemed. The symposium, or aristocratic drinking party, was one key social institution in which values were expressed through poetry, song, and of course, painted pottery. Archaeologists and art historians can study such objects alongside other textual and material evidence, in order to reconstruct the beliefs, rituals, and social structures of Ancient Greece. The Lekythos thus serves as a window into a long-lost world.