DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0026
6
EARLY PROTOCORINTHIAN VASE-PAINTING
illustrates various early examples of the shape. It is interesting that the
aryballos changed comparatively little in Crete throughout the course of
several centuries. The earliest Protocorinthian shape is directly derived
from Crete (compare fig. 3 and pi. 1, i),1 but it was not long before a new
character was given to the vase. Simple 'mathematical' forms, whether in
vase-shapes or in vase-painting, passed out of fashion, and the spherical
aryballos was gradually transformed into a subtler ovoid form, just when
orientalizing motives were begin-
ning to undermine the tradition of
'mathematical' design.
It is sometimes said that the round
aryballos is a development of the
stirrup-vase,2 but the shape, as our
illustrations show, has a very much
longer history than the stirrup-vase,
and though it often appears in Crete
and Cyprus in a two-handled form,
FlG. 3. Cretan aryballoi: a, protogeometric (Oxford it is obviously a shape with an en-
AE 278, from Psychro); b, geometric Candia 1429, tirely independent history; the iron-
from Knossos. age type £g_ ^ is derived directly
from the later bronze age, which in its turn inherited the shape from a much
earlier period.
The primitive ovoid vase from Syracuse pi. i, 2, which was found in the
as the monuments show, the round aryballos was
the regular oil flask, not a scent-vase, but the
absence of earlier athletic scenes of the kind required
makes it impossible to tell whether this use goes
further back. It certainly does not seem to fit the
character of many Protocorinthian aryballoi, which
are often far too small and too delicate to be used for
anything but scent. The vases illustrated on pis. i and
3, for example, can scarcely have been part of an
athlete's equipment. The early Corinthian aryballos
no. 486 still smelt strongly of scent when found.
If the aryballos was a scent vase in the early
archaic period, it is easy to see why it should have
been a prevalent shape in the Creto-Cypriot region.
For this part of the Aegean area must always have
been in touch with those parts of the Asiatic main-
land where perfumes and spices of all kinds were
produced—Syria, Palestine, Caria, Cilicia, &c. (see
Blumner, Gewerbliche Tatigkeit p. 25 and ff.).
It was only when the mainland came into commer-
cial contact with these parts, doubtless through the
medium of the Greek East, that there would be any
use for vases of this type. The trade, once estab-
lished, must have been almost a Corinthian mono-
poly. There are a few Attic aryballoi of geometric
style (e.g. Praktika 1911, 118; M. M. Bull. 1927,18;
A.M. 1918, pi. 4,1: cf. p. 52) but no other mainland
fabrics made aryballoi in the seventh century, and
very few did so in the sixth. Whether Corinthian
aryballoi and alabastra were exported containing
scents or unguents, it is impossible to say. The
vases were exported, and the scents were exported;
the former certainly, the latter probably, from
Corinth. It would be natural to save space by filling
the vases, and simple to stop them with wax; they
would travel as well filled as empty. We know that
at one period Corinthian scent was greatly in demand
(Pliny, N.H. xiii, 2,1: cf. Barth, Corinthiorum Com-
mercii et Mercaturae Particula 37-8).
1 The examples here illustrated happen to be foot-
less, but a type with a small foot, as in Protocorinthian,
is quite common in Crete (see, for example, C.V.A.
Oxford, fasc. ii, where parallels for the Protocorin-
thian handle-form will also be found).
2 Pfuhl, A.M. 1903, 160 ff.; Johansen p. 19.
EARLY PROTOCORINTHIAN VASE-PAINTING
illustrates various early examples of the shape. It is interesting that the
aryballos changed comparatively little in Crete throughout the course of
several centuries. The earliest Protocorinthian shape is directly derived
from Crete (compare fig. 3 and pi. 1, i),1 but it was not long before a new
character was given to the vase. Simple 'mathematical' forms, whether in
vase-shapes or in vase-painting, passed out of fashion, and the spherical
aryballos was gradually transformed into a subtler ovoid form, just when
orientalizing motives were begin-
ning to undermine the tradition of
'mathematical' design.
It is sometimes said that the round
aryballos is a development of the
stirrup-vase,2 but the shape, as our
illustrations show, has a very much
longer history than the stirrup-vase,
and though it often appears in Crete
and Cyprus in a two-handled form,
FlG. 3. Cretan aryballoi: a, protogeometric (Oxford it is obviously a shape with an en-
AE 278, from Psychro); b, geometric Candia 1429, tirely independent history; the iron-
from Knossos. age type £g_ ^ is derived directly
from the later bronze age, which in its turn inherited the shape from a much
earlier period.
The primitive ovoid vase from Syracuse pi. i, 2, which was found in the
as the monuments show, the round aryballos was
the regular oil flask, not a scent-vase, but the
absence of earlier athletic scenes of the kind required
makes it impossible to tell whether this use goes
further back. It certainly does not seem to fit the
character of many Protocorinthian aryballoi, which
are often far too small and too delicate to be used for
anything but scent. The vases illustrated on pis. i and
3, for example, can scarcely have been part of an
athlete's equipment. The early Corinthian aryballos
no. 486 still smelt strongly of scent when found.
If the aryballos was a scent vase in the early
archaic period, it is easy to see why it should have
been a prevalent shape in the Creto-Cypriot region.
For this part of the Aegean area must always have
been in touch with those parts of the Asiatic main-
land where perfumes and spices of all kinds were
produced—Syria, Palestine, Caria, Cilicia, &c. (see
Blumner, Gewerbliche Tatigkeit p. 25 and ff.).
It was only when the mainland came into commer-
cial contact with these parts, doubtless through the
medium of the Greek East, that there would be any
use for vases of this type. The trade, once estab-
lished, must have been almost a Corinthian mono-
poly. There are a few Attic aryballoi of geometric
style (e.g. Praktika 1911, 118; M. M. Bull. 1927,18;
A.M. 1918, pi. 4,1: cf. p. 52) but no other mainland
fabrics made aryballoi in the seventh century, and
very few did so in the sixth. Whether Corinthian
aryballoi and alabastra were exported containing
scents or unguents, it is impossible to say. The
vases were exported, and the scents were exported;
the former certainly, the latter probably, from
Corinth. It would be natural to save space by filling
the vases, and simple to stop them with wax; they
would travel as well filled as empty. We know that
at one period Corinthian scent was greatly in demand
(Pliny, N.H. xiii, 2,1: cf. Barth, Corinthiorum Com-
mercii et Mercaturae Particula 37-8).
1 The examples here illustrated happen to be foot-
less, but a type with a small foot, as in Protocorinthian,
is quite common in Crete (see, for example, C.V.A.
Oxford, fasc. ii, where parallels for the Protocorin-
thian handle-form will also be found).
2 Pfuhl, A.M. 1903, 160 ff.; Johansen p. 19.