It should be clear by now that treating depictions of religious activity on vases as
evidence for actual practices needs to be done with great care. The images provide an
immediacy lacking in textual material, yet at the same time our understanding of
details depends in large part on texts, which raises the danger of circularity in our
discussions. We must be extremely careful not to ignore contexts or problematic
elements of imagery, and not to focus only on elements we think we understand. The
stamnoswith the sacrificial scene on it discussed above is a case in point.
Thestamnosdiscussed earlier with a depiction of the aftermath of a sacrifice on it
was certainly made in Athens, though it was found in an Etruscan tomb along with
anotherstamnoswith a nearly identical scene on it. The sacrificer on ourstamnosis
named with a Greek inscription, Archenautes, which may be the name of an Athenian
citizen, but the similar figure on the otherstamnosis named Diomedes, who is more
likely the epic hero. The Nike hovering above in both scenes hints at a larger-than-life
context. We have no idea why the painter included the names on objects made for
export, or what the names meant to the Etruscans or for that matter to Athenians.
While these questions may not affect our understanding of the details of the sacrifice
in Athens, they should nonetheless give us pause.
Funerary Imagery
The absence of religious imagery in funerary art, where one might expect to find it, is
particularly notable. Some of the earliest representations of human figures in Greek
art, on Attic geometric vases, ca. 750 BC, show mourners in ritual funerary contexts,
and there is a continuous tradition of such representations on through the fifth
century. Most often the figures mourn beside a body that lies in state (prothesis)or
they accompany the body as it is conveyed to the tomb (ekphora). What is lacking,
from the beginning to the end of the series, is any reference to deities or to hope of an
afterlife. The same is true of sculpted grave reliefs, which become particularly numer-
ous after about 430 BC. The focus is on the importance of the deceased and the
perpetuation of his or her memory in this world.
In this context another type of Attic vase that came to be used explicitly as
funerary ware should be mentioned. As early as 500 BC, Attic potters were experi-
menting with a technique called ‘‘white ground’’ in which the surface of the vase was
covered with a white slip on which figures were painted, early on in black-figure,
then in outline, and later still with colors added: reds, browns, yellows, and later
greens, blues, and mauves. Some vase-painters experimented with the technique on
cups and kraters, but by the middle of the fifth century it was restricted primarily to
le ̄kythoi, oil jars that were buried in graves with the body or later placed on the tomb
as dedications. Almost all of these white-figure funeraryle ̄kythoihave been found in
Attica or in Eretria on the nearby island of Euboea; they were rarely an export item,
and thus their imagery and function can be seen as distinctly Attic. The white slip
and added colors are delicate and easily damaged, and it has been suggested that
such an impermanent technique is appropriate for tombs, where they would have
been seen only briefly (Boardman 1989:130). After about 400 BC they ceased to be
produced.
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