FIG. 144. MAEANDER (ATTIC, ABOUT 480 B.C.).
A similar form of maeander prevails on the vases of Southern Italy (except in Campania); it is found on the krater, amphora, lebes, kotyle, etc., and is almost invariable. But there is one unique variety which is occasionally found on the great Apulian kraters, as on F 278 in the British Museum; the type is that of the pattern in Fig. [144], but the maeander is represented in perspective, being painted in white on the black, the shaded edges left in the colour of the clay.
Of patterns akin to the maeander, the so-called swastika or hook-armed cross, 16
swastika occurs in panels on the Geometrical vases, but subsequently it is only found as a ground-ornament in the field, as frequently at Naukratis, in Rhodes, and elsewhere. It is, strictly speaking, to be regarded as a fragmentary piece of maeander, without any of the symbolical meaning which it bears in the art of northern nations, with whom it was the emblem of the Scandinavian god Thor. Another pattern, 16
maeander or 16
maeander which may be called a variety of the maeander, is frequently found as a continuous border on early vases, such as the Phaleron and Proto-Corinthian wares, and occasionally in the B.F. period.