The Artistic Legacy of Ancient Greece: A Study of Greek Pottery & Vases

Ancient Greece was an incredible era of civilization. Many aspects of modern society are influenced by Ancient Greek cultures, such as democracy, the educational system, literature, science, and arts. Ancient Greece is known for its magnificent artworks, which have influenced many other cultures throughout the centuries. When I visited the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, I was surprised at the detailed decorations and intricate beauty of Ancient Greek pottery. Although Ancient Greece civilization was long gone in history, the pots and vessels made by Greeks reveal many details of that era, including daily life, religion, and society.

The vessel I observed is a ceramic vase from the Archaic period (500-480 B.C.) in Athen, Greece. The large jar on the left side of the picture is a type of vessel called lekythos, or oil flask in Greek. It is characterized by a tall cylindrical body, a looped handle, and a thin neck with a small, profound mouth in order to hold olive oil and aromas. This lekythos does not have the handle found, but we can still see the pieces of the broken neck with a hollow opening at the top. this certain lekythos, the picture on the surface portrays approbates, a type of chariot racing. The black figures on the lekythos are preserved in relatively good condition with good details about this chariot racing. A charioteer, clad in white, strains to control the jogging ponies. A warrior is caught mid-jump, his legs obscuring with those of ponies as he gets ready to run behind the chariot and vault back ready. Chariot racing is one of the most popular sports competitions in the Panathenic Games, a religious festival in honor of the goddess Athena held every four years in the city of Athen (Reed, 1990). The depiction of approbates on this lekythos suggests that this vessel was possibly associated with this event for a certain purpose.

Olive oil played an important role in Ancient Greek culture and was utilized in many areas like diet, medicine, beauty, and social events like the Panathenic games. According to historians, winners of the sports events were awarded with a large amount of olive oil ranging from 2000-5000 kilograms in large jars of amphorae, the worth of a few years’ wages of a common laborer (Thomas and Sneed, 2018). This indicated that olive oil has a high socio-economic value in Ancient Greek life. Records also show that athletes applied oil to their bodies to protect their skin from sunlight as they went to the games. The size of this lekythos is not big enough to hold many gallons of oil given as the prize of the champion of the chariot race, so it might have been used for containing smaller quantities of oil for athletes preparing for their competitions.

Vases from the Ancient Rome period share similar features with these lekythos. When the Romans conquered the Ancient Greeks, they also accepted many aspects of Ancient Greek culture, including Greek pottery techniques. However, there was a difference between the Greeks and Romans regarding their ceramic works. Greeks believed that art was an expression of perfection. The Greeks often represented the gods in their arts, in an effort to express the ideal form of beauty, physical strength, and power. For the Romans, however, art had a more practical function. The artwork was primarily used for ornamentation and decoration. Vase was an important part of daily living in ancient Rome. As Romans used vases for most purposes, a huge quantity of utensils, cooking pots, amphorae, and fine wares was produced. Many have since been discovered during excavation. These items provide a rare insight into Roman life and society. Roman pottery was initially influenced by the Greek style but later on, established its own separate identity.

No treatment of the main period of Greek civilization should end without emphasizing the continuity both with what went before and what came after. As they can see Ancient Greek left us a great cultural heritage in the form of hand-painted pottery and vases. Apart from the fact that the Greek civilization was very intellectual, the reason why so many different types of styles flourished across various forms of art like vases or pottery. Continuity is clearest in the sphere of religion, which may be said to have been “embedded” in Greek life. Some of the gods alleged to have been relatively late imports into Greece can in fact be shown to have Mycenaean origins.