To the use of vases in connection with athletic games we have already alluded in discussing Pindar’s mention of the Panathenaic amphorae; it is, of course, likely that other forms of vases were also given as prizes or presented to young men on special occasions, such as entering the ranks of the ἔφηβοι or being married, but we have no evidence of such customs.
FIG. 15. CHILD PLAYING WITH JUG (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Vases were also used as toys, as is proved by the discovery of many little vases, chiefly jugs, in the tombs of children at Athens, on which are depicted children playing at various games.[[462]] They are too small to have served any other purpose, and as similarly shaped jugs appear among the toys used by the children in these scenes, it is reasonable to suppose that they were playthings. No doubt some of the more unusual shapes were made with the same end, such as vases in the shape of animals or fruit, or the aski (p. [200]), which contained little balls and were used as rattles.
We have already hinted at the purely decorative use of vases as domestic ornaments, in which capacity they were often placed on columns; there is, however, no hint of this in ancient authors. But that it was customary in Greece and Italy, at all events in the later period (i.e. after the Persian Wars), seems to be indicated by the practice which obtains with the larger vases of executing only one side with care, while the other exhibits an unimportant and badly painted design (generally three boys or men wrapped in mantles). It is natural to suppose that the carelessly executed side was not supposed to be seen, owing to the fact that the vase was intended to be placed against a wall. Some of the large round dishes of Apulian fabric seem to have been intended for hanging up against a wall, on the same principle.[[463]]
The question which next arises is that of the extent to which vases were used for religious and votive purposes. Here, however, with one exception noted below, we derive little aid from a study of the painted vases themselves, in spite of the frequency of mythological subjects. But inasmuch as many instances are known of offerings of metal vases in the temples of the gods, it can hardly be doubted that painted vases served the same purpose for those who could only afford the humbler material. It was at one time supposed that the large vases painted for a front view only, of which we have just spoken, were destined for this purpose; but as they are mostly found in tombs, this can hardly be the case.
Of late years, however, much light has been thrown upon this question by means of scientific excavations. On many temple-sites which have been systematically explored, such as the Acropolis of Athens or Naukratis in the Egyptian Delta, enormous numbers of fragments of painted vases have been found which are clearly the remains of votive offerings. It was a well-known Greek custom to clear out the temples from time to time and form rubbish-heaps of the disused vases and statuettes, sometimes by digging pits for them; and thus these broken fragments, rejected from their apparent uselessness, have from these very circumstances been preserved to the present day to cast a flood of light on many points of archaeology. At Naukratis many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions in the form of dedications to Apollo (Fig. [16].) or Aphrodite, according to the site on which they were found. At Penteskouphia near Corinth a large series of early painted tablets, with representations of Poseidon and inscribed dedications, were found in 1879 (p. [316]), and illustrate the practice of making offerings in this form, mentioned by Aeschylos.[[464]] Tablets painted with figures and hung on trees or walls are not infrequently depicted on red-figured vases, the subject generally implying their votive character.[[465]] Fig. [17]. represents a youth carrying a tablet of this kind.
FIG. 16. RIM OF VASE FROM NAUKRATIS WITH DEDICATION TO APOLLO (BRIT. MUS.).
