DOI Heft:
Nr. 11
DOI Artikel:Huddilston, John H.: The significance of Greek pottery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47723#0483
448
four years after the time of Peisistratus, all but rivalled
the splendor of the Olympian games, Amphorae of
oil from the sacred olive trees and also vases on which
the contests were represented were alloted as prizes ;
from six to one hundred and forty vases were awarded
to each winner, and no less than seven hundred vases
were distributed annually as agonistic prizes. On this
basis we can reckon for two centuries, from the middle
of the sixth Century b. c., till de middle of the fourth
Century b. c., the enormous number of 140,000 vases
designed to serve as prizes at these games. The law
was that the oil might be sold only for export, and this
fact undoubtedly accounts for Panathenaic vases hav-
ing been found in places so widely distant from Athens.
More than one hundred have been discovered, and
most of these have come to light in Italy, but they
have been found also in the Crimea and Cyrene. The
name of the Archon Eponymous occours on nine vases
between the years 367 and 313 b. c. The latter is the
last date recorded by a Panathenaic vase, and this as-
sures us that even after Alexander’s time the Athenians
did not cease to celebrate their great festival, and to
maintain the sacred tradition of Athena, protectress
of their city; incleed, it was many centuries after the
fall of political Greece that the virgin goddes forsook
her Acropolis and magnificent temple to make room
for Santa Sophia.
*) In excavations on the Island of Delos, the English found a mosaic
in which a Panathenaic vase is figured. The date assigned the mosaic is
187—186 c b. There is, therefore, a probability that the festival was still
celebrated in the second Century b C.; this is a very interesting point, and
has been ably discussed by Cecil Smith in the Annual of the British
School at Athens, 1896—97.
four years after the time of Peisistratus, all but rivalled
the splendor of the Olympian games, Amphorae of
oil from the sacred olive trees and also vases on which
the contests were represented were alloted as prizes ;
from six to one hundred and forty vases were awarded
to each winner, and no less than seven hundred vases
were distributed annually as agonistic prizes. On this
basis we can reckon for two centuries, from the middle
of the sixth Century b. c., till de middle of the fourth
Century b. c., the enormous number of 140,000 vases
designed to serve as prizes at these games. The law
was that the oil might be sold only for export, and this
fact undoubtedly accounts for Panathenaic vases hav-
ing been found in places so widely distant from Athens.
More than one hundred have been discovered, and
most of these have come to light in Italy, but they
have been found also in the Crimea and Cyrene. The
name of the Archon Eponymous occours on nine vases
between the years 367 and 313 b. c. The latter is the
last date recorded by a Panathenaic vase, and this as-
sures us that even after Alexander’s time the Athenians
did not cease to celebrate their great festival, and to
maintain the sacred tradition of Athena, protectress
of their city; incleed, it was many centuries after the
fall of political Greece that the virgin goddes forsook
her Acropolis and magnificent temple to make room
for Santa Sophia.
*) In excavations on the Island of Delos, the English found a mosaic
in which a Panathenaic vase is figured. The date assigned the mosaic is
187—186 c b. There is, therefore, a probability that the festival was still
celebrated in the second Century b C.; this is a very interesting point, and
has been ably discussed by Cecil Smith in the Annual of the British
School at Athens, 1896—97.