DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0513
GRAPHIC AND POLYCHROME VASES. 465
Greece they are brief and simple; merely recording the name, pro-
fession, age, and parentage. They usually begin with, EvQbcfre ksitcu
o $ov\c$ rov Qsou,—" Here lies the servant of God."
It is generally supposed that the Athenians,1 following theiEgyp-
tian custom, used to place a piece of money in the mouth of the
dead, as payment to Charon. I therefore expected to find a coin in
every sepulchre, and was careful in searching for it; but I discovered
only one, which was of copper. It was badly preserved, and the
impression could not be discriminated. I inquired of other persons,
who had opened some hundreds of tombs, by whom they had seldom
been found; and those that were.found, were the silver Athe-
nian oboli, with the head of the Minerva on one side, and the owl,
and inscription AGE, on the other.
Had the price of admission to the infernal regions been of great
value, we might conclude that those who buried the dead some-
times deprived Charon of his fare. Suidas2 gives the name of Aa-
voly.v\ to the piece of money that was paid to Charon.
The scarcest kind of terra cotta vases found in Greece are the
graphic and the polychrome. By the former denomination those
are signified, upon which the figures are merely outlined. I saw one
of this kind with the figure of a winged female carrying a crown;
below which was inscribed KAAH. The colour of the vase is nearly
white.3
On some vases, particularly those of the highest antiquity, the
figures are painted with the two colours of black and dark red ; but
the polychrome, or many-coloured vases, are principally found in the
island of iEgina, and are composed of all the different colours which
the subject requires; but these are the scarcest of all.4
1 Aristoph. in Ran. Lucian, de luctu, and others.
* Lexicon, vol. 1. p. 508. 3 See the plate.
4 There is one in the collection of Sir Henry Englefield, found at iEgina by Sir Wil-
liam Gell.
VOL. 1. 3 o
Greece they are brief and simple; merely recording the name, pro-
fession, age, and parentage. They usually begin with, EvQbcfre ksitcu
o $ov\c$ rov Qsou,—" Here lies the servant of God."
It is generally supposed that the Athenians,1 following theiEgyp-
tian custom, used to place a piece of money in the mouth of the
dead, as payment to Charon. I therefore expected to find a coin in
every sepulchre, and was careful in searching for it; but I discovered
only one, which was of copper. It was badly preserved, and the
impression could not be discriminated. I inquired of other persons,
who had opened some hundreds of tombs, by whom they had seldom
been found; and those that were.found, were the silver Athe-
nian oboli, with the head of the Minerva on one side, and the owl,
and inscription AGE, on the other.
Had the price of admission to the infernal regions been of great
value, we might conclude that those who buried the dead some-
times deprived Charon of his fare. Suidas2 gives the name of Aa-
voly.v\ to the piece of money that was paid to Charon.
The scarcest kind of terra cotta vases found in Greece are the
graphic and the polychrome. By the former denomination those
are signified, upon which the figures are merely outlined. I saw one
of this kind with the figure of a winged female carrying a crown;
below which was inscribed KAAH. The colour of the vase is nearly
white.3
On some vases, particularly those of the highest antiquity, the
figures are painted with the two colours of black and dark red ; but
the polychrome, or many-coloured vases, are principally found in the
island of iEgina, and are composed of all the different colours which
the subject requires; but these are the scarcest of all.4
1 Aristoph. in Ran. Lucian, de luctu, and others.
* Lexicon, vol. 1. p. 508. 3 See the plate.
4 There is one in the collection of Sir Henry Englefield, found at iEgina by Sir Wil-
liam Gell.
VOL. 1. 3 o