, “I am a prize from the games at Athens”; on the other, a man driving a biga, or two-horse chariot. The date is usually considered to be about 560 B.C. It was rightly identified by the early writers as one of the prize-vases described by Pindar in the passage we have quoted elsewhere (p. [132]), and was the means of identifying many other vases similarly painted and inscribed, but found on other sites, as belonging to the same class. A considerable number of vases found on Greek soil, mostly at Athens, were published by Stackelberg in 1837,[[84]] but little was done for many years in the way of systematic excavation. The National Museum was opened shortly after the declaration of Greek independence, and assisted by royal benefactions. The law forbidding the export of antiquities has now been in force for many years, but unfortunately has had a bad as well as a good effect, in that the vendors of surreptitious finds are wont to give imaginary accounts of the circumstances of their discoveries, in order to screen themselves.
To give anything like a description of the vases found at Athens would be useless here, where so many classes are illustrated by the finds; it may, however, be worth while to note a few of the most typically Athenian groups of pottery. (1) Earliest in date are the Dipylon vases, which were found outside the gate of that name, and have from their conspicuous character given a name to a whole class. They are, however, fully treated of in Chapter [VII]. (2) The numerous fragments of vases found on the Acropolis, which can all be dated anterior to 480 B.C., include many exceedingly beautiful and unique specimens of the transitional period of vase-painting, some having black, some red figures.[[85]] Although in few cases anything more than fragments have been preserved, yet these fragments are enough to show that the originals were masterpieces surpassing even the finest examples from the Italian cemeteries. They will, it is to be hoped, shortly be made known to the world by means of an exhaustive catalogue. (3) The white lekythi, discussed at length elsewhere (Chapter XI.), besides forming a class by themselves, are specially remarkable as being almost peculiar to Athens. It is not, however, certain that they were not made also at Eretria, where many fine ones have been found of late years; but otherwise none have been found outside Attica, with the exception of a few importations to Cyprus, Locri in Italy, or Sicily. (4) A group of late R.F. vases of the “fine” style, mostly of small size and sometimes with polychrome decoration. The drawing is free and graceful, but tends to carelessness; the subjects are drawn chiefly from the life of women and children. Some of the smaller specimens were no doubt actually children’s playthings.
Elsewhere in Attica vases have not been numerous. Eleusis has yielded some interesting fragments,[[86]] including a plaque of about 400 B.C., with an interesting representation of the local deities, found in 1895; at Marathon the grave of the fallen warriors has been recently explored, and was found to contain both B.F. and R.F. vases, but none of particular merit.[[87]] The find was, however, important, as illustrating Greek methods of burial. The tombs of Phaleron are important, as having yielded a special class of early vases which are known by the name of the site.[[88]] These Phaleron vases combine in an interesting manner the characteristics of the Geometrical and Rhodian or Oriental styles, being akin to the so-called Proto-Corinthian. The beehive tombs at Menidi and Spata and other tombs at Haliki, near Marathon, have yielded Mycenaean pottery of the usual types, and an instructive find of early Geometrical pottery has been made at Aphidna.[[89]] There are vases in the museums of Athens and Berlin of various dates, to which the following provenances are assigned: Alike, Alopeke, Hymettos,[[90]] Kephissia, Cape Kolias,[[91]] Pikrodaphni,[[92]] Peiraeus,[[93]] Sunium,[[94]] Thorikos,[[95]] Trakhones,[[96]] Vari,[[97]] Velanideza, and Vourva, the two latter near Marathon.[[98]] Megara[[99]] has produced little beyond specimens of a class of late bowls with designs in relief, sometimes known as “Megarian bowls,” but more probably of Boeotian origin (see p. 53).
Corinth, as a centre of the manufacture of vases, occupied in early times a position in Greece only second to Athens. Down to the first half of the sixth century it actually seems to have held the pre-eminence; but after the rise of Athens it sank altogether into obscurity, and ceased to produce any pottery at all after about 520 B.C. But we know from Strabo[[100]] that the fame of Corinthian wares still existed in Roman times, for in the days of Julius Caesar the tombs of the new Colonia Julia were ransacked for the vases which were the admiration of the rich nobles of Rome. The expression used by Strabo, ὀστράκινα τορεύματα, seems to imply that these were probably specimens of the later relief-ware which did not become popular in Greece before the fourth century, but then gradually ousted the painted fabrics.
Corinth, like Athens, claimed the invention of pottery and of the wheel; it was also one of the supposed centres of the origin of painting in Greece. We read, moreover, that when Demaratos fled thence to Italy he took with him two artists named Eucheir and Eugrammos, who doubtless helped to develop the art of vase-making in Etruria. The vases found here are nearly all of the early archaic and B.F. periods, from the so-called Proto-Corinthian wares down to ordinary B.F. fabrics. The Mycenaean and Geometrical styles are practically unrepresented, but occasional finds have been made of Attic B.F. and R.F. vases. With these exceptions all were actually made at Corinth, as is shown in many cases by the inscriptions in the local alphabet painted upon the vases.
The earliest discovery, and in some respects one of the most remarkable, was the vase known as the Dodwell pyxis (see p. 315), which was acquired by that traveller in 1805, and is now at Munich. In 1835 a large number of vases were found by peasants at Chiliomodi, the ancient Tenea,[[101]] one of which represented Herakles and the Centaur Nessos; most of these are now at Athens. In 1843 Ross[[102]] records the discovery of over a thousand at various sites, on the Isthmus and at or near Tenea, and ever since that time tomb-digging has been carried on without intermission. The best collections of Corinthian vases are those at Athens, Berlin, and the British Museum. But the most noteworthy find at Corinth has been that of the series of plaques (πίνακες) or votive tablets discovered at Penteskouphia in 1879, most of which are now at Berlin. They are all of votive character, and come from the rubbish-heap of a temple of Poseidon; most of them are painted with figures of and inscribed with dedications to that deity, and they belong to the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.[[103]] The British Museum possesses a R.F. “pelike” from Solygea, near Corinth, and isolated finds are also recorded from Sikyon.[[104]]
Turning to the adjoining state of Argolis, we find three sites of special importance in early times—Mycenae, Tiryns, and Argos. Of these the two former had ceased to have any importance in historic times, but this is amply compensated for by the wonderful discoveries of the Mycenaean period.[[105]] At Mycenae large quantities of painted pottery were found in the six shaft-tombs in the Agora, five of which were excavated by Dr. Schliemann; outside the Acropolis, and possibly belonging to a later period, was found the remarkable vase with figures of warriors marching.[[106]] The finds at Tiryns were chiefly fragmentary, but at Nauplia, where considerable quantities were found, there were some fragments with painted designs of chariots like the vases from Cyprus (p. [246]).[[107]] Mycenaean pottery has also been found at Asine,[[108]] and the site of the Heraion at Argos, recently excavated by the American School, has yielded an exhaustive series of fragments of pottery, representative of nearly every known fabric from Mycenaean times down to the best Greek period. They have not as yet been published, but may be expected to yield important results. Other occasional finds are reported from Argos, including a curious archaic vase with a representation of Herakles and Kerberos.[[109]] At Kleonae, on the northern frontier of the state, was found a Corinthian vase signed by Timonidas, and there are vases from Hermione in the museum at Athens.[[110]]
In the rest of the Peloponnese finds of painted vases have been exceedingly rare. The Berlin Museum possesses a B.F. vase found at Megalopolis,[[111]] and isolated finds are also recorded from Magoula in Laconia and Amyklae near Sparta.[[112]] At Olympia painted vases were very rare, but several different fabrics from the Proto-Corinthian downwards are represented by fragments.[[113]]