Chapter II

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Vases were employed in the burial rites in various ways, as we learn from the subjects depicted upon them. In the celebrated vase representing the death and funeral of Archemoros,[474] two persons are seen carrying tables laden with vases to the tomb, while an oinochoë is placed under the bier on which the corpse is laid. It is also probable that they were often burnt on the funeral pile with the corpse, and if this is the case it may account for the discoloured condition of many fine vases in which the red glaze has turned to an ashen grey under the

## action of fire.[475] In any case vases were often broken before being

placed in the tomb, the idea being that they must participate in the death of the person to whom they were consecrated. There is a special class of B.F. amphorae found at Athens, which are commonly known as “prothesis-amphorae,” the subjects relating exclusively to the πρόθεσις or laying-out, and other funeral rites. They were, therefore, probably placed round the bier during this ceremony.

Vases were also used for holding milk, oil, unguents, and other liquids which were poured upon the corpse, or for the lustral water placed at the entrance of the tomb. It was the regular practice of the Athenians to place vases on the outside of the tombs, the commonest forms being that of the lekythos, or a larger vase known as the λουτροφόρος, mentioned by Demosthenes.[476] These were, however, generally of stone, and are sometimes sculptured in relief, or bear inscriptions like the Attic stelae[477] and modern tombstones.

The custom of placing lekythi on tombs is also alluded to once or twice by Aristophanes in the _Ecclesiazusae_—_e.g._ line 538:

οὐδ’ ἐπιθεῖσα λήκυθον,

and again, line 1032:

καὶ ταινίωσαι καὶ παράθου τὰς ληκύθους.[478]

[Illustration: FIG. 19. FUNERAL LEKYTHOS, WITH VASES INSIDE TOMB (BRIT. MUS.).]

The manner of employing vases as adjuncts to the tomb is nowhere better illustrated than on the Athenian white lekythi, which are almost all painted with funeral subjects, and, from the hasty way in which many are executed, show that they were often made to order at short notice (see above, p. 132). In particular, one example in the British Museum (D 56 = Fig. 19) shows the interior of a conical tomb or tumulus, within which vases of various shapes are seen. In other examples they are ranged along the steps of a stele, or are represented as being brought to the tomb in baskets by mourning women.[479] The larger vases of Southern Italy, which similarly show by their subjects that they were only made for funeral purposes, bear a close relation to the white lekythi, and also to the Attic funeral stelae with reliefs. The treatment of the subject varies in the different fabrics, but two main types prevail. In the one, of Lucanian origin, the tomb takes the form of a stele or column, round which vases are ranged on steps[480]; in the other, on the large Apulian kraters and amphorae, the tomb is in the shape of a ἡρῷον or small temple, within which is seen the figure of the deceased, while on either side approach women bearing offerings (Fig. 106); but vases do not play an important part in these latter scenes.

[Illustration: FIG. 20. VASES PLACED ON TOMB (LUCANIAN HYDRIA IN BRIT. MUS.).]

Thirdly, we have to deal with the use of painted vases in the tomb itself. As regards their use as cinerary urns, to contain the ashes of the dead, it appears to have been somewhat restricted.

In the Mycenaean period we know that inhumation, not cremation, was the practice, contrary to that of the heroic or Homeric age, in which an entirely different state of things is represented. But when we do read in Homer or the tragic poets, of the methods of dealing with the ashes of the dead, there is no mention of any but metal urns. Thus the ashes of Patroklos were collected in a χρυσέη φιάλη[481] (the word is probably used loosely), while those of Achilles were stored in a golden amphora.[482] Again, Sophokles, in the fictitious account of Orestes’ death given in his _Electra_, uses the expression (l. 758)[483]:

ἐν βραχεῖ χαλκῷ μέγιστον σῶμα δειλαίας σποδοῦ,

showing that metal vases were generally employed for this purpose.

No instances occurred among the early tombs in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens or elsewhere in Greece before the sixth century, nor was the practice usually favoured by the Etruscans, who employed painted vases in their tombs exclusively as furniture. In Mycenaean times in Crete coffers (λάρνακες) of terracotta, painted like the vases, were used as _ossuaria_[484]; and similarly in Etruria at all periods the remains of the deceased were placed in rectangular chests or sarcophagi of terracotta or stone. But in the earliest tombs of Etruria and Central Italy urns and hut-shaped receptacles for the ashes were invariably employed (see