One of the daily duties for women was to collect water from the communal fountain.

For Greek citizens it was important that women stayed at home as much as possible, so usually it was the slave women who queued at the fountain and chatted with each other, before carrying their heavy load back in large hydriai. Its name from the Greek word for water. 

Hydriai often appear on painted Greek vases in scenes of women carrying water from a fountain. A hydria has two horizontal handles at the sides for lifting and a vertical handle at the back for dipping and pouring. Of all the Greek vase shapes, the hydria probably received the most artistically significant treatment in terracotta and in bronze.

Hydrai were not only made of clay, but were also cast in Bronze. Bronze hydriai consist of a body, which was hammered, and a foot and handles, which were cast and decorated with figural and floral motifs. Sometimes the moldings and other decorative elements of the foot, handles, and rim were embellished with silver inlay. The green patina evident on many Greek bronze hydriai is a result of corrosion over the centuries. Originally, these vessels had a gold, copper, or brown tint, depending on the particular bronze alloy that was used.