Skip to main content
Collections Menu
SAM'S collection
Oil or Perfume Container:  Lekythos
Oil or Perfume Container: Lekythos

Oil or Perfume Container: Lekythos

Dateca. 500 B.C.
Maker Greek
Label TextThis lekythos, a special flask for perfumed oil, is decorated in the black-figure style with a type of scene that was very popular in the later half of the sixth century B.C.E. On it we see the mythical followers of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine, engaged in a drunken dance with stylized vines and clusters of grapes in the background. Two satyrs are shown, each with human legs and feet, horse tails and ears, as well as snub noses and wild hair. Often ithyphallic, satyrs are usually shown in Greek art making music, dancing, working at wine-making, as well as pursuing and raping animals or women. As such they symbolize the effects of immoderate drinking, a type of behavior that is certainly to be avoided by the guardians of Plato's just city ('Republic' 398d). Also shown here is a maenad, another demoniac votary of Dionysos, a wild drunken woman who typically makes music, dances, and rips asunder animals and occasionally humans. She is wearing a chiton and a himation as well as a wreath on her head. Her features, once rendered in added white paint, are now lost. Added reddish purple paint, however, survives on the folds of her drapery as well as on the tails and beards of the satyrs.
Object number70.100
Exhibition HistorySalem, Oregon, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Perfumes and Potables: Precious Pieces from the Ancient Mediterranean, August 28, 1999 - October 30, 1999
Credit LineNorman and Amelia Davis Classical Collection
Dimensions7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm) Girth: 2 5/16 in.
MediumCeramic with paint (black-figure ware)
Oil or Perfume container:  Alabastron, Lotus Flowers
Greek
ca. 600 B.C.
Object number: 63.67
White Ground Lekythos (oil or perfume container)
Greek
ca. 420 B.C.- 400 B.C.
Object number: 70.101
White Ground Lekythos, (oil or perfume container)
Greek, Attica
ca. 480 - 323 B.C.
Object number: 47.62
Cup:  Kylix
Greek
ca. 550 -525 B.C.
Object number: 70.98
Kylix (Lip Cup)
Greek
ca. 550 B.C.
Object number: 65.107
Lekanis (Kylix) with Lid
Greek
375 B.C. -350 B.C.
Object number: 70.96
Oil Jar:  Lekythos
700-500 B.C.
Object number: 70.124
Hydria (water jar)
Nausicaa Painter
ca. 450 B.C.
Object number: 68.6
Black Figure Kyathos (ladle)
Greek
525-500 B.C.
Object number: 64.127
Greek
ca. 600 B.C.-500 B.C.
Object number: 69.98
Terra sigillata jug
Greek
2nd century B.C.
Object number: 67.71