Humour

Well, I though that we could need a smile before leaving the classical period. This cup from around 480 Bc should provide that.

A classical Vessel

This is a beautiful example of a red-figure vessel from around 420-410 Bc. Notice that the style changed (the change stared already around 530 Bc) in the late archaic age from black figures on red background (simply called black-figure) and in the classical period was red-figure much more popular. Compare to this vessel posted a few weeks ago.

The motif of today's vessel is simple enough - a satyr (obviously excited) chasing after a woman, a quite common motif.

Great drains

Not only art and culture flourished during the classical period - we also find technical improvements such as the great drains (dating from the early 5th century Bc), seen here, in the agora. The drain itself was, as in many other cases, originally a river, a common phenomena in the ancient world. It may be noted that many of the rivers that once crossed the Athenian plain still are being used in this manner.

Herm

I cannot date this piece but it is a of a type common through out the classical period. A Herm is a statue in the shape of the plain pillar with a (normally erected) penis and a head on the top - the head is broken of here but it is easy to imagine how it once looked.

The specific use of these pillars are still debated but they are generally considered to be boundary markers.

So called Air godess

I want to present this piece before moving on, as it has been identified as an air goddess. I do not know what this identification comes from and I want to highlight how difficult it can be to say exactly what the motif of a statue is. Some Gods have very easily recogniziable attributed, some less easily noticeable traits but after that, we move into a very dark realm of educated guesses and interpretations. Even so, there are typologies and series that makes identifications that seems like miracles possible.

Niobid

Niobi was a woman in Greek mythology who boasted about how she had 14 children compared to Leto, a daughter of two titans, who only had two - Apollon and Artemis. The twin gods wasn't too happy about this and decided to kill Niobis children (the Niobids), Apollon shoting the seven sons and Artemis the seven daughters. This sculpture from 440-430 Bc show us one of these Niobids right before her death.

Torso of Apollo

This piece, dating to ca 425 Bc, is part of a what used to be a statue of Apollo. Notice the feminine traits and shapes - it is sometimes difficult to determine if it is the male god or a female deity.

A Diadoumenos

This Diadoumenos (A youth tying a band around his head after an athletic victory) is a Roman copy of an earlier Greek original in bronze (ca 430 Bc) by Polykleitos. It is unfortunately common that bronze statues only survive like this, as Roman copies in marble (this one in pentelic marble)- yet again we should appreciate that we they survive at all!

A Kleroteria

This is a Kleroteria, a device used in ancient Greek (read: Athens) to randomly select judges for trials.

IT was working as follows; Each slot was filled with a bronze ticket (pinakla) that was carried by citizens that were eligible for jury duty. Then on top right of the machine would a funnel be places with black and white balls - these would, in random order, fall down through a tube. They were then to be released one by one, a white one indicating that the row it represented would be serve as judges for the day, a black one that they wouldn't.

Themistocles

There once was a curious custom in Athens called "ostracism". Ostracism was a process where. once a year, one citizen could then be exiled for a period a 10 years without loosing his citizenship of property - it was a safety measure against power hungry and ambitious politicians. The name derives from Ostrakon which means shard of pottery since this was the material that you wrote a name on.

All these pieces of ostraka spells one single name: Themistocles - a leading Athenian exiled in 472 or 471.