Greece: White Ground Lekythoi

The Topic:

White-ground lekythoi are a special class of vases, produced in the limited period of ca 470-400 BC. They are known primarily for their funerary iconography, which came to dominate their decoration at the height of production ca 460-450 BC and continued to do so until the production of lekythoi ceased. Visits to the grave dominate the iconography of the lekythoi. The popularity of these scenes suggest that the primary concern of Classical Athenians was to demonstrate their care for the memory of the deceased by attending to the grave and leaving offerings on it.

White-ground lekythoi are funerary vessels that held scented oil, and they were placed under the corpse at the prothesis, buried with the deceased, and dedicated at the grave. They have been found primarily in Athens and Attica in burials, and were crafted primarily for an Athenian market. The lekythoi have been discovered in only a quarter of excavated graves, suggesting that they were relatively expensive funerary offerings.

A small but emotionally evocative subset of white ground lekythoi features representations of the dead. Some of the vases show shades of the dead lingering at their graves where the living have come to visit, provide offerings, mourn and connect to the dead. Others show the living bidding the dead farewell with a resigned attitude while others part from them in great distress. A few show the dead departing for the underworld, accompanied by the mythological ministers of death, the psychopompoi: Hermes, Charon, and Hypnos and Thanatos. Most scenes are overlaid with calm and stillness, displaying quiet reserve, but a few depict active responses to loss or vociferous mourning.

Bibliography (from August 2008):

Albinus, L. 2000. The House of Hades: Studies in Ancient Greek Eschatology. Arhus: Arhus University Press. (Should contain a suitable chapter)

Alexiou, M. 2002. The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2^nd ed. Revised by D. Yatromanolakis and P. Roilos. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Athanassakis, A. 1976. The Homeric Hymns. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Bardel, R. 2000. “Eidola in epic, tragedy and vase painting,” in Rutter, K. and B. Sparkes eds. Word and Image In Ancient Greece. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Barringer, J. 2001. The Hunt In Ancient Greece. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Bazant, J. 1986. “Entre la croyance et l’expérience: Le mort sur les lécythes à fond blanc” BCH Supplement XIV: 37-44.

Beazley, J. 1938. Attic White Lekythoi. London: Oxford University Press. (Should contain a suitable chapter)

---. 1914. “The Master of the Achilles amphora in the Vatican” JHS 34: 179-226.

Bergenann, J. 1998. Datenbank der attischen Grabreliefs. München: CD ROM. Inscriptiones Graecae. Vol. 1 3^rd ed. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Boardman, J. 1955. “Painted funerary plaques and some remarks on prothesis” BSA 50: 51-66. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Bremmer, J. 1994. “The Soul, Death and the Afterlife in Early and Classical Greece” in Bremer, J.M., Th.P.J. vam den Hout, and R. Peters Eds. Hidden Futures. Amsterdam:

Amsterdam University Press.

---. 1991. “Walking, standing, and sitting in ancient Greek culture” in J. Bremmer and H. Roodenburg Eds. A Cultural History of Gesture. Ithaca, New York: Cornell

University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1983. The Early Greek Concept of the Soul. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Brijder, H. ed. 1984. Ancient Greek and Related Pottery: Proceedings of the International Vase Symposium Amsterdam 1984. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum. Vol. 5 of

Allard Pierson Series. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Bruss, J. 2005. Hidden Presences: Monuments, Gravesites, and Corpses In Greek Funerary Epigram. Leuven, Paris, and Dudley, MA: Peeters. Hellenistica Groningana Vol. X. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Buschor, E. 1969. Griechische Vasen. Munich: R. Piper & Co.

Catoni, M. 2005. “Le Regole del vivere, le regole del morire” Revue Archéologique 27-53.

Clairmont, C. 1993. Classical Attic Tombstones. Kilchberg, Switzerland: Akanthvs. (Should contain a suitable chapter)

---. 1986. “Some reflections on the earliest Classical Attic gravestones” Boreas 9: 27-50.

---. 1983. Patrios Nomos: Public Burial in Athens During the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. International Series 161. Oxford: B.A.R. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1970. Gravestone and Epigram: Greek Memorials from the Archaic and Classical Period. Mainz on Rhine: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.(Should contain a suitable chapter)

Clinton, Kevin. 1992. Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Stockholm: Paul Aströms förlag. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Cook, B. 1991. “Attic red-figured lekythoi, secondary types: class 6L” OJA 10: 209-229. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1984. “Class 6L: a minor workshop of red-figured lekythoi” in Ancient Greek and Related Pottery. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Series. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Davies, G. 1985. “The Significance of the handshake motif in Classical funerary art” AJA 89: 627-40. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Edmonds III, R. 2004. Myths of the Underworld Journey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fairbanks, A. 1914. Athenian Lekythoi With Outline Drawing in Matt Color on a White Ground. New York: The Macmillan Company. Vol. VII (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Fairbanks, A. 1907. Athenian Lekythoi With Outline Drawing in Matt Color on a White Ground. New York: The Macmillan Company. Vol. VI (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Felton, D. 1999. Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity. Austin: University of Texas Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

G.-Kahil, L. 1967. “Loutrophore à fond blanc au musée du Louvre (T. 51-54)” in Gestalt und Geschichte: Festschrift Karl Schefold. Bern: Francke.

Garland, R. 1990. The Greek Way of Life. London: Duckworth. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1989. “The well-ordered corpse: an investigation into the motives behind Greek funerary legislation” BICS 36: 1-15.

---. 1985. The Greek Way of Death. London: Duckworth.

Gex-Morgenthaler, K. 1988. “Red-Figure lekythoi from Eretria” in Christiansen, J. and T. Melander, Eds. Ancient Greek and Related Pottery: Proceedings of the 3^rd Symposium, Copenhagen August 31-September 4 1987. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and Thorvalsens Museum. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Giudice, E. 2003 “Hypnos, Thanatos ed il viaggio della morte sulle lekythoi funerarie a fondo bianco” Ostraka: Rivista di antichità 12: 145-58.

Grinsell, L. 1961. “The Breaking of objects as a funerary rite” Folklore 72: 475-91.

Grossman, J. 2001. Greek Funerary Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum. (Should contain a suitable chapter)

---. 1995. The Sculptured Funerary Monuments of the Classical Period In the Athenian Agora. Ph.D. Dissertation, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Haspels, E. 1936. Attic Black-figured Lekythoi. Paris: École Française D’Athènes. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Herfort-Koch, M. 1992. Tod, Totenfursorge und Jenseitsvorstellungen in der griechischen Antike. München: Tuduv.

Holloway, R. 2006. “The Tomb of the Diver” AJA 110: 365-88.

Holst-Warhaft, G. 1992. Dangerous Voices: Women’s Laments and Greek Literature. London and New York: Routledge. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Humphreys, S. 1983. The Family, Women and Death. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

---. 1980. “Family tombs and tomb cult in ancient Athens: Tradition or Traditionalism?” JHS 100: 96-126.

Hyde, W. 1921. Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art. Carnegie Institution of Washington: Washington, DC. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Jacoby, F. 1944. “Patrios Nomos: State Burial in Athens and the public cemetery in the Kerameikos” JHS 64: 37-66.

Jeffery, L. 1962. “The Inscribed gravestones of archaic Attica” BSA 57: 115-53.

Johnson, S. 1999. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Kabbadias, Giorgos. 2000. O ZografoV toy Sabouroff. Athens: Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Kahil, L. 1967. “Loutrophore à fond blanc au músee du Louvre” in Gesalbt und Geschichte: Festschrift Karl Schefold zu Seinem Sechzigsten Geburtstag am 26 Jan. 1965. Bern: Francke.

Kardara, C. 1960. “Four white lekythoi in the national museum of Athens” BSA 55: 149-58.

Karouzou, S. 1954. Musée National. CVA Athens (Musée National) fascicule 2, Greece fascicule 2. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Kirchner, J. 1913-40. Inscriptiones Graecae II et III: Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores, Editio Minore, Parts I-III. Berlin: Gualterus de Gruyter et Socii.

Koch-Brinkmann, U. 1999. Polychrome Bilder auf weißgrundigen Lekythen. München: Biering & Brinkmann Verlag

Kristensen, W. 1992. Life Out of Death. Bondgenotenlaan: Peeters Press.

Kurtz, D. 1984. “Vases for the dead, an Attic selection” in Ancient Greek and Related Pottery. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Series.

---. 1975. Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Should provide a suitable chapter)

Kurtz, D. and J. Boardman. 1971. Greek Burial Customs. London: Thames and Hudson. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Kurtz, D. 1968. The Iconography of the Athenian White-Ground Lekythos. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oxford. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Lambru, V. 1998. “Appunti su una lekythos a fondo bianco ateniese” in Capecchi, G. et al. In Memoria di Enrico Paribeni. Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider Editore.

Lattimore, R. 1942. Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Leader, R. 1997. “In death not divided: gender, family and state on classical Athenian grave stelae” AJA 101: 683-99.

Lee, M. 2004. “Review of M. Stieber. 2004. The Poetics of Appearance In the Attic Korai. Austin: University of Texas Press.” BMCR 8.10. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Lewis, D. et al. 1981-1994. Inscriptiones Graecae I: Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno anteriores. 3rd ed. Berlin: Gualterus de Gruyter et Socii. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Lissarague, F. 2000. “Jeu d’images: un nouveau lécythe du peintre de Bosanquet” Ktèma XXV: 89-91. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Loraux, N. 1986. The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City. Trans. A. Sheridan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Lynch, G. 2005. “Do not leave me behind unwept”: The Imperative of Grief and Its Aesthetic Forms in Greek Tradition. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Mackail, J. 1890. Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology Edited with a Revised Text and Notes. New York: London Longman’s, Green and Co. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

McNiven, T. 1989. Gestures in Attic Vase Painting: use and meaning, 550-450BC. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Metcalf, P. and R. Huntington. 1991. Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Meyer, E. 1993. “Epitaphs and citizenship in Classical Athens” JHS 113: 99-121.

Mintsi, E. 1997. “Hypnos et Thanatos sur les lécythes attiques a fond blanc (deuxième moitié du V siècle AV. J.-C.)” REA 99: 47-61.

Morris, I. 1994. “Everyman’s Grave” in Boegehold, A. and A. Scafuro. Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

---. 1992/3. “Law, culture and funerary art in Athens, 600 - 300 B.C.” Hephaistos 11/2: 35-50.

---. 1987. Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek city-state. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mylonas, G.E. 1961. Eleusis and the Elusinian Mysteries. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

Nicholson, N. 2005. Aristocracy and Athletics in Archaic and Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Oakley, J. 2004. Picturing Death In Classical Athens. Cambridge and New York. (Absolutely critical source, should provide a suitable chapter for Review of Scholarship)

---. 2003. “Death and the Child” in Neils, J. and J. Oakley. Coming of Age in Ancient Greece. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

---. 2001. “Charon on an Attic red-figure amphora of Panathenaic shape: a masterpiece by the Kleophon Painter in Quebec” in Panathenaïka: Symposion zu den Panathenäischen

Preisamphoren Rauischholzhausen 25.11. – 29.11.1998. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.

---. 2000. “Some ‘other’ members of the Athenian household: maids and their mistresses in fifth-century Athenian art” in Cohen, B. ed. Not The Classical Ideal. Leiden: Brill.

---. 1997. The Achilles Painter. Mainz am Rhein: Philip Zabern. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. et al. 1994. Athenian Potters and Painters: Catalogue of the Exhibit. Athens: Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies.

---. 1990. The Phiale Painter. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1980. The Phiale Painter. Ph.D. Dissertation: Rutgers University. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Oliver, G. ed. 2000. The Epigraphy of Death. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Parlama, L. and N. Chr. Stampolidis. 2000. The City Beneath the City. Athens: Kapon Edition, published by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Museum of Cycladic Art.

Paton, W. 1917. The Greek Anthology, Loeb ed. Vol. II Book VII: Sepulchral Epigrams. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Pedrina, M. 2001. I gesti del Dolore nella ceramica Attica (VI-V Secolo) per un’analisa della comunicazione non verbale nel mondo greco. Venezia: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Pemberton, E. 1989. “The Dexiosis on Attic Gravestones” Med Arch 2: 45-50. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Pomeroy, S. 1997. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Should provide a suitable chapter)

Reilly, J. 1989. “Many brides: ‘mistress and maid’ on Athenian lekythoi” Hesperia 58: 411-44.

Rhode, E. 1925. Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Greeks. Trans. W.B. Hillis and K. Paul. London: Trench, Truber and Co. Ltd. 2000 Reprint.

Richter, G. 1961. The Archaic Gravestones of Attica. London: The Phaidon Press.

---. 1945. “Pesistratos’ law regarding tombs” AJA 49: 152. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 1944. Archaic Attic Gravestones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Martin Classical Lectures Vol. X.

*Ridgway, B. 1987. “Ancient Greek women and art: the material evidence” AJA 91: 399-409.

---. 1981. Fifth Century Styles In Greek Sculpture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Rose, H. 1925. “The Bride of Hades” Classical Philology 20: 238-42.

Rosivach, V. 2003. “‘Military’ Lekythoi: Private vs. Public Mourning of Athenian War Dead” Paper read at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Philological Association (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Roy, J. 1999. “‘Polis’ and ‘oikos’ in Classical Athens” Greece and Rome 46: 1-18. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Seaford, R. 1982. “The Tragic Wedding” JHS 107: 106-130.

Simantoni-Bournia, E. (Shmantonh-Mpoyrnia, E.) 1988. Attika Llasika Epitymbia Anaglyfa. Athens: EkdoseiV Kardamitsa.

*Shapiro, H. 1991. “The iconography of mourning in Athenian art” AJA 95: 629-56.

*Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 1995. ‘Reading’ Greek Death. Oxford & New York: Clarendon Press.

---. 1987. “Images grecques de la mort: représentation, imaginaire, histoire” AnnAStorAnt 9: 145-58

---. 1981. “To Die and enter the house of Hades: Homer, before and after” in Whaley, J. Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death. London: Europa Publications Limited.

Stears, K. 2008. “Death becomes her: gender and Athenian death ritual” in A. Suter. Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press.

---. 1995. “Dead women’s society: constructing female gender in Classical Athenian funerary sculpture,” in Spencer, N. Time, Tradition and Society In Greek Archaeology. London and New York: Routledge.

Steiner, A. 2007. Reading Greek Vases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Steiner, D. 2003. Images in Mind. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Stupperich, R. 1994. “The Iconography of Athenian State Burials in the Classical Period” in W. Coulson et al. The Archaeology of Athens and Attica Under the Democracy. Oxford: Oxbow Books, Monograph 37.

Svenbro, J. 1992. Phrasikleia: An Anthropology of Reading in Ancient Greece. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Suter, A. 2008. “Male lament in Greek tragedy” in A. Suter. Lament: Studies in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Trendall, A. 1936. “Greek Vases In the Otago Museum” JHS 56: 235-6. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Tsiafakis, D. 2000. “The Allure and repulsion of Thracians in the art of classical Athens” in Cohen, B. ed. Not The Classical Ideal. Leiden: Brill. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Tyrrell, W. 1999. “Antigone’s Unnoticed Rite of Passage” in Padilla, M. ed. Rites of Passage in Ancient Greece: Literature, Religion, Society. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Tzachou-Alexandri, O. 1998. LeykeV L¸kyuoi: Toy Zvgråfoy toy AxillevV sto Eunikø Arxaiologikø Moyseio. Athens: Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Van de Put, W. 2006. Red-figure and White-ground Lekythoi. Allard Pierson Museum. CVA Amsterdam fascicule 4, The Netherlands fascicule 10. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

---. 2006². Black-figure, Pattern and Six-Technique Lekythoi. Allard Pierson Museum. CVA Amsterdam fascicule 3, The Netherlands fascicule 9. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Van Gennep, A. 1960. The Rites of Passage. Trans. M. Vizedom and G. Caffe. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. (Orig. publication: Les rites de passage, 1908) (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

Vermeule, E. 1979. Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. (Should provide a suitable chapter)

Vernant, J.P. 1990. Myth and Society In Ancient Greece. Trans. J. Lloyd. New York: Zone Books. (Should provide a suitable chapter)

Zaidman, L. and P. Pantel. 1992. Religion In the Ancient Greek City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trans. by P. Cartledge, La Religion greque. (Unsuitable for Review of Scholarship)

For Further Reading (some citations incomplete)

Beazley, J. 1914. “The Master of the Achilles Amphora in the Vatican,” JHS 34: 179-226.

---. 1946. “A Lekythos by the Achilles Painter,” JHS 66: 11-12.

Beschi, L. 1991. “Mousikè, Téchne e Thánatos: L’immagine della musica sulle lekythoi funeraire attiche a fondo bianco,” Imago Musicae 8: 39-59.

Boersma, J. 1970. Athenian Building Policy from 561/0 – 405/4 BC.

Bosanquet, R. 1899. “Some early funeral lekythoi,” JHS 19: 169-72.

Bowie, A. 1993. Aristophanes’ Myth, Ritual and Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hame, J. 1999. Ta Nomizomena: Private Greek Death-Ritual … Ph.D. Dissertation, Bryn Mawr University.

Haverlock, C. 1982. “Mourners on Greek vases: remarks on the social history of women,” in N. Broude and M. Garrard ed. Feminism and Art History. New York: Harper & Row.

Haywood, C. 1997. Death in White and Color: An Exhibition of Attic White Lekythoi of the 5^th cent. BC. Dublin: .

Kahil, L. et al., eds., Iconographie classique et identités régionales. Paris 26 et 27 mai 1983, BCH Supplement 14: 37-44.

Lincoln, B. 1991. Death, War and Sacrifice.

Low, P. 2003. Remembering War in Fifth-Century Greece.

Moore, M. 1997. Attic Red-Figured and White Ground Pottery. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Murray, A. and A. Smith. 1896. White Athenian Vases in the British Museum London.

Nakayama, N. 1982. Grabmäler.

Nielsen, T. et al. 1989. “Athenian grave monuments and social class” GRBS 30: 411-20.

Nolan, B. 1981. “Inscribing Costs At Athens In the Fourth Century BC” Dissertation Ohio State University.

Osborne, R. 1985. Demos: The Discovery of Classical Attika. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Parker, R. 1996. Athenian Religion: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Patton, K. et al. 2005. Holy Tears: weeping in the religious imagination.

Patton, K. 2000. When the High Gods Pour Out Wine. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.

Pottier, E. 1883. Étude sur les lécythes blanc attiques à représentations funéraires.

Rupp, D. 1980. “Altars as funerary monuments on Attic white lekythoi” AJA 84: 524-7.

Shapiro, H.A. 1990. “Comings and goings: The iconography of departure and arrival on Attic vases” Metis

Siebert G. 1981. “Eidola: Le problème de la figurabilité dans l’art grec” Méthodologie Iconographique: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 27-28 avril 1979. Strasbourg.

Thomas, R. 1989. Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens.

Van de Put, W. 1988. “The Development of the white-ground lekythos in the later fifth-century and its relationship to red-figure vase-painting” Thesis: University of Amsterdam.

Vickers, M. 1984. “The Influence of exotic materials on Attic white-ground pottery” in Ancient Greek and Related Pottery. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Series.

Waser, O. 1898. Charon, Charun, Charos. Berlin: .

Wehgartner, I. 1983. Attisch Weissgrundige Keramik. Mainz: .