Pottery & Vase Painting: Revealing Social Aspects in the Ancient Greek World

Yining Zhou

Melbourne School of Myth, Art, and Empire: Greece and Rome, University of Melbourne

ANCW10002

Monique Webber

October 10, 2022

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Introduction

In Ancient Greece, potteries and vases were the typical representative everyday

objects, occupying a high proportion of Greeks' daily life for several centuries. For instance,

Black-figure (600-580 BC) and Red-figure (around 530 BC) are the most famous

classification in Ancient Greek society that using for selling as decoration, furniture, a

container for wine or barley, and other food.1 Based on the manufacturing techniques such as

firing, and unique paintings, especially female homosexuality, the potteries, and vases

attracted many merchants from different countries to trade, which generates high finical

support in Ancient Greece, hence improving the economic development. So, the social

aspects that pottery and vase can illustrate encompass female homosexuality in the vase

painting with the technique of making pottery, and therefore lead the economy in Ancient

Greece to new development by selling those potteries or vases based on the design.

1. Female Homosexuality

Vase paintings fulfill a variety of social phenomena in Ancient Greece, particularly

homosexuality as a subset of sexual studies. Greek people emphasize male homosexuality

rather than female, which indicates that male or masculine is the dominant value among the

overall population as a kind of celebration of their sexuality. For male homosexuality, the

relationship is obviously between an older man and a younger boy which demonstrates that is

an idealized asymmetry with the delineation of dominance and submission. By contrast,

——————————————————
1. Dimitris Plantzos and Tyler Jo Smith, “Greek Decorated Pottery I: Athenian Vase-
painting”, The Companion to Greek Art (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 46-57.
2. Nancy Sorkin, and Lisa Auanger, “Excavating Women’s Homoeroticism in Ancient
Greece”, Among Women from the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World
(University of Texas Press, 2002), 130.
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female homosexuality without an age boundary line between women’s identity or

sharing the dominant/submissive organization is the same as heterosexuality and male

pederasty.2

1.1 Sappho

Female homosexualism is less frequently discussed in Ancient Greece with obscure

paintings on vases or potteries except for Sappho, a 7th Century female poet, who is known

for her lyric poetry. Sappho is a controversial poet because her sexual orientation is

ambiguous. According to reports, Sappho was married to Cercylas, an immensely rich

businessman from Andros and they had a daughter.3

called you

filled your mouth with plenty

girls, fine gifts

love song, the keen-toned harp

an old woman’s flesh

hair that used to be black

knees will not hold

stand like dappled fawns

but what could I do?

no longer able to begin again

rosy armed Dawn

bearing to the ends of the earth

——————————————————
3. Maarit Kivilo, “Sappho”, Early Greek Poet’s Lives: The Shaping of the Tradition
(Leiden: Brill, 2010).
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nevertheless seized

the cherished wife

withering is common to all

may that girl come and be my lover

have loved all graceful things

and this Eros has given me, beauty and light of the sun.

This poem was written by Sappho within the Archilocos Sappho Alkman that was

translated from Davenport Guy (Guy, 1984), which revealed the possibility of her thought to

be a female homosexual. In Ancient Greece, female homoeroticism was rarely illustrated

through poets and some textual recordings, so the true sexual orientation of Sappho is an

attractive topic and study that a lot of scholars concentrate on it.

1.2 Vase Painting

Fortunately, even though texts cannot reflect female homosexuality in Ancient

Greece, the unique paintings on vases and potteries will reveal some sexual scenes

imaginatively. Compared with the relationship between same-sexual and heterosexual, the

painting about female homosexuals is illustrated by eye contact, obscure physical touch, for

instance, can be defined as sexual behaviors rather than directable erotetic images.

——————————————————
.
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Figure 1: Red-figure cup, fragments. Women exchanging gifts. Douris

Leipzig T 550. Courtesy Institut für Klassische Archäologie und Antikenmuseum. (Sorkin,

114)

Figure 1 represents a gift-exchanging circumstance between females for a flower and

an egg on Douris cup fragments. Giving gifts is common and happening among male-female

or male-male such as the gift of cock or hare, merely female-female. Presents can be seen as

love tokens between them, so people infer that giving flowers or eggs is a kind of love gift

among women which shows that the women in Douris fragments are homosexually

manifested ambiguously.4

——————————————————
4. Sorkin and Auanger, “Excavating Women’s Homoeroticism in Ancient Greece”,
113-114
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Figure 2 a, b, c

Black-figure pyxis. Mississippi University Museum 1972.3.72. Courtesy of the

University Museums, University of Mississippi Cultural Center (Sorkin, 132)

Those three figures as a combination that reflects a contrast between three sexual

groups, heterosexual, male, and female homosexual, which all fulfill eroticism. Figure 2a

shows an intercrural sex behavior scenario between men couples obviously, and a hetero

couple facing each other with eye contact in Figure 2b. Noteworthy, in Figure 2c, two women

face-to-face standing under and sharing a mantle.5 To compare with three images on one

black-figure pyxis, the last one can be supported as female homosexuality given that Figures

——————————————————
5. Sorkin and Auanger, “Excavating Women’s Homoeroticism in Ancient Greece”,
130-132
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2a and 2b indicate erotic behaviors. I think the mantle which means ‘invisible situation’

shades the eroticism happening on females, therefore, other people on pyxis cannot observe

the behavior under the mantle.

Overall, based on Sappho’s poetry imply her potential sexual orientation, the giving

of gifts, and sharing of the mantle on the vase painting can all represent that female

homosexuality is not concentrated on or respected by the general population. Greeks focus on

males because they have the power and authority to take responsibility for the country.

Females, in ancient times, are always ignored or neglected so that none care about them as

well as their sexual orientation.

2. Manufacturing Technique

As I mentioned the examples before, female homosexual images are painted in black-

figure and red-figure at most, so that can be correlated to the manufacturing techniques of

vases and potteries which reflects the hands-on capabilities of Ancient Greek people in the

Attic period, which is the technique of pottery reached its highest refinement during the later

sixth and earlier fifth century, although there is no direct ancient account of pots-making

processes, the remaining several kilns, and terracotta plaques with brief illustrations of potters

working can be found to analyze how Greeks manufactured potteries and vases.6

2.1 Standard processes

The standard steps to make potteries are simple and easy to conduct. For instance, dug

the clays locally and piled them in the yard thus leaving it to weather. After that, washed the

clays and mixed them with water, therefore, waiting for evaporation depending on the Greek

climate then kneading the clays. Next, potters took a lump of clays and centered it on his
—————————————————
6. R. M Cook Decd, “Techniques”, Greek Painted Pottery (United Kingdom:
Routledge, 1997), 231.
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wheel then assembled the dry clays in several sections (neck, body, foot) and luted

thin solution clay to connect the parts.7

2.2 Firing

Either Black-figure or Red-figure, both possess gloss, which is one of the fascinating

techniques used by firing, a significant process within the operation. Given that the clays in

Greek contained ferric oxide so the color is reddish, which can be a natural pattern to make

red-figure or black-figure pottery according to the conditions in the kiln.8 Mentioning kilns,

which can provide direct evidence about process-firing from ideal material for pottery’s

fabrics and paint layers. Besides, the fuel consumed efficiency and temperature versus time

statistics can be referenced by evaluating the temperature range of pottery’s firing in kilns.9

‘Glaze’, which is importantly used for making pottery look more glossary by natural illite

clays of fine quality because of the quartz that contains celadonite. This clay was useful for

the pot itself and in a more refined colloidal solution for the paint and other surfaces to be

shinier.

All in all, pottery-making is a complicated process in ancient times because there

were no technological supports, machines, computers, artificial intelligence, and the internet,

for example. Based on the lack of technology condition, Ancient Greek people still make

pottery and vases by the original methods (painting, firing, and hands-making), which reveals

that either hands-on competence, artistic talents, or brain intelligence both crucial in Ancient

Greek society that textual evidence cannot directly prove.

——————————————————————
7 & 8. R. M Cook, “Techniques”, 231
9. Richard Jones, “The Decoration and Firing of Ancient Greek Pottery: A Review of
Recent Investigation”, Advances In Archaeomaterials (KeAi, 2021), 71,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aia.2021.07.002
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3. Economic Development

The high quality of potteries and vases with delicate designs on those everyday

objects is a dominant source to generate finance in Ancient Greece, hence increasing the

whole economic situation. Pottery and vase have a variety of applications, such as a container

for wine, olive oils, and barley, decorating houses, and vessels for drinking as well as eating.

Those extensive uses in Ancient Greece bring an opportunity for exportation and transaction

between other countries to earn high profits.

According to the records of trade in Ancient Greece, the exportation of painted vases

declined in the fourth century with only about 500 people working in the production at a

prosperous time. In Beazley (1963), vases were exported to Spina in Italy as artifacts rather

than commodities for a large amount of Attic red-figure as a turning point as well as 1,022

vases cataloged from Spina.10 After that, beginning around 600 BC, Athens became the

primary exporter of pottery from the Greek mainland. Based on this phenomenon, a total of

50,000 painted vases should be manufactured for local and export consumption each year in

Athens, which was advised by a scholar. So, during the seventh century, Athens's Corinthian

pottery was the most prolific due to the growth of the black-figure painting technique.11

Except for the direct evidence of trade about pottery, some lateral evidence through

the growth trend contains wheat, wine, and olive oil all lead to the economic development in

Ancient Greece simultaneously because the increase of those crops same as rising pottery’s

——————————————————————
10. Takeshi Amemiya, “The Athenian Economy of the Fifth and Fourth Century”, In
Economy and Economics of Ancient Greece (Taylor and Francis: Routledge, 2007), 85.
11. Waslh Justin St P, “Greek Pottery at Home and in the West”, Consumerism In the
Ancient World Imports and Identity Construction (New York: Routledge, 2014), 225
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selling numbers that rely on the vessels can be useful for the crops, and hence,

enhancing the financial income in this country. For example, olive oil is exported to the

Black Sea, which is a region without growing olives.12

As a result, Greeks' living standards soared considerably between 800 and 300 BC,

and per capita consumption during that period rose between 150% and 200%.13 Connected

with the large exportation of painting potteries in the seventh century, which can justify that

the vases and potteries contributed to the society lots with high proportion. Economic

development needs to be observed for a long time and truly happened from the period,

therefore can be recorded to notice the trends between centuries that the texts cannot reveal.

Conclusion

To sum up, everyday objects in Ancient Greece can reflect some social aspects that

transcend textual evidence, especially pottery and vase. These kinds of objects reveal the

female homosexuality status and situation in Ancient Greece, which is not respected and

focused, despite a famous poet, Sappho, also faced neglect for her sexual orientation. In

addition, techniques for making pottery like firing, as well as indicate that people who lived

in Ancient Greece encompass artistic traits and highly hands-on capabilities to paint the

images on the vessels. Finally, depending on the gorgeous painting vases and the good

quality of the pottery, both bring Ancient Greece’s economy to the next level higher than

before to ensure the Greek people’s living standards and well-being. The three main ideas

correlated with each other to manifest the social phenomenon that cannot be demonstrated by

books, newspapers, and other textual applications.

——————————————————
12. Amemiya, “The Athenian Economy of the Fifth and Fourth Century”, 85.
13. Ian Morris, “Economic Growth in Ancient Greece”, Journal of Institutional and
Theoretical Economics (Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG, 2004), 736.
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Bibliography

**Decd**, R. M Cook. 1997. “Techniques.” Essay. In Greek Painted Pottery, 3rd ed., 231–
40. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Amemiya, Takeshi. 2007. “The Athenian Economy of the Fifth and Fourth Century.” Essay.
In Economy and Economics of Ancient Greece, 1st ed., 62–114. Boca Raton, FL:
Taylor and Francis, an imprint of Routledge.

Courtesy Institut für Klassische Archäologie und Antikenmuseum

Guy, Davenport. 1984. Archilochos Sappho Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh
Century B.C. Estados Unidos de América: The Regents of the University of Califotnia.

Jones, Richard. 2021. “The Decoration and Firing of Ancient Greek Pottery: A Review of
Recent Investigations.” Advances in Archaeomaterials 2 (2): 67–127.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aia.2021.07.002.

Kivilo, Maarit. 2010. “SAPPHO.” Essay. In Early Greek Poets' Lives: The Shaping of the
Tradition, 167–200. Leiden: Brill.

Mississippi University Museum 1972.3.72

Morris, Ian. 2004. “Economic Growth in Ancient Greece.” Journal of Institutional and
Theoretical Economics 160 (4): 709–42. https://doi.org/10.1628/0932456042776050

P., Walsh Justin St. 2014. “Greek Pottery at Home and in the West.” Essay. In Consumerism
in the Ancient World Imports and Identity Construction, 1st ed., 132–69. New York:
Routledge.

Plantzos, Dimitris, and Tyler Jo Smith. 2012. “Greek Decorated Pottery I: Athenian Vase-
Painting.” Essay. In A Companion to Greek Art, 1:39–61. Malden, MA: Wiley-
Blackwell.

Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin, and Lisa Auanger. 2002. “Excavating Women’s Homoeroticism
in Ancient Greece.” Essay. In Among Women from the Homosocial to the Homoerotic
in the Ancient World, 106–66. Austin: University of Texas Press.