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VASES.
century beibre were rifled of their contents, which became known in Rome as nSkro-kdrinthld (Strabo, 382). Vasea were doubtless originally made for the use of the living ; but in process of time it became customary to place the more ornamental varieties in the sepulchres of the dead, and the custom led to the manufacture of ornamental vases for this special purpose (fig. 17). An exception to the rule is furnished by the Greek city of Naucratis, founded in the Delta of Egypt, apparently in the 7th century b.c., where a large number of fragments of pottery have been found in heaps near the ruins of the temples of Apollo and Aphrodite. Many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions recording the dedication of the vases to those deities (British Museum Guide, 1890, p. 188). The vases in everyday use, as opposed to those found in tombs, were much plainer: those represented in vase-paintings are almost always coloured black, without any paintings. Among
the more interesting exceptions is a beautiful
pyxis, or perfume-box, in
the British Museum (Vase
Room III, E 770), representing a lady's toilet,
with several painted vases
set about the i-oom as
ornaments, and filled, like
jardinieres, with flowers
or olive-branches (Encyc.
Brit., xix, p. 614, fig. 31;
cp. Birch, I.e., p. 354). The subjects are mainly
mythological, but are also
frequently taken from real
life, and include religious
rites, athletic contests,
dances and marriages,
funerals, and scenes from the drama. Among
the few historical subjects are Croesus on
his funeral pyre (Duruy, Hist, des Grecs, i
680), Arcesilas of Gyrene (fig. 6), and Darius
preparing to invade Greece (a large vase ip the Naples Museum).
For a long time almost all the vases discovered were found in Etruria and in South
Italy and Sicily. Most of those discovered in Etruria, although popularly known as Etruscan vases, are really of Greek manufacture. The finest of those found in Italy
