Chapter XV

.). A departing warrior is sometimes represented on Lucanian and Campanian vases (see Fig. 108 and Plate XLIV.), but chariot and battle scenes are comparatively rare. Among the Apulian vases occur a large class of subjects formerly characterised on insufficient grounds as “toilet scenes” of Aphrodite or Helen. Many no doubt actually represent scenes from women’s daily life; but the commonest type is that of a seated woman and a standing youth exchanging presents of fruit, mirrors, sashes, or toilet-boxes. The presence of Eros in most cases suggests scenes of courting and the offerings of lovers; but as a rule they are purely fanciful, like the designs on Dresden and Sèvres china.

Athletic scenes, in which a race or contest, is going on, are practically non-existent; but groups of athletes, or rather of _ephebi_, usually wrapped in mantles and conversing together, furnish the stock decoration of the reverse of the kraters and other double-sided vases, a practice already begun in the Athenian R.F. vases, and now become invariable.

Two classes of subjects to which allusion has not yet been made, and which are almost confined to the large Apulian vases, have an important bearing on the purpose for which these vases were made—namely, for use at funerals. The first class includes scenes from the under-world, and in this series are some of the most magnificent of existing vases (see Plate LII.). The subjects and the manner of their representation have been fully discussed elsewhere (