bronze replica ancient Greek boat on a marble base

Hephaistos would be amazed by the craftsmanship and quality of this wonderful collection!

These superb bronze pieces are cast in Greece using the traditional lost wax method. As nothing is mass-produced, there will inevitably be slight variations in texture, patina, and colour. No two pieces are ever the same. If mounted, the base is of black marble.

Please note that there may be a variation of some millimetres in the dimensions of the base from time to time, and that accessories such as spears, tridents or javelins may vary in length or height! If you need precise dimensions and weight, email me!

If you need a piece to fit a very specific space, or if you want me to take a photo of a couple of pieces so you can pick the one you want, I will do so with pleasure.

Every piece is deliciously tactile.

It's All Greek is so grateful and so proud to have been working closely with the Semitekolo family foundry since 1999. It has been a privilege and a joy to handle, live with, to photograph and describe these gorgeous pieces, before passing them on to passionate and grateful customers all over the world.

If you already own one of these pieces, cherish it!

Boats are everywhere in the art, literature, and mythology of ancient and modern Greece! The land is a puzzle of coastlines and islands, so the boat wasn't an option, but a means of survival and communication. Trade, colonisation, diplomacy, war, and piracy of course, depended on ships.

In mythology, they are everywhere too.

Odysseus' ship.... symbolising intelligence, endurance, and the fragile line between civilisation and chaos

Theseus' ship raises questions of memory, identity, and continuity....

Jason's Argo evokes heroic co-operation, exploration and divine-human intervention

The boat often marks the transition between home and away, between life and death, and between the known and the unknown.

Miniature boats appear as votive offerings, especially in coastal sanctuaries. There's also a strong conceptual overlap between the journey by sea, and the journey of the soul.

Not to forget Charon.... His boat becomes one of the most enduring metaphors in Greek thought: death as a final voyage. The idea of crossing water into the afterlife - across the river Styx or the river Acheron - escorted by Charon, and sometimes Hermes, is fundamental.

In modern Greek culture, the boat represents emigration and the diaspora, war, exile, and refugee crossings. Hope mixed with danger. The boat is a liminal space that embraces both longing and uncertainty, skill and resilience.

Greek ritual years went hand in hand with the seafaring calendar: Spring marked the reopening of the sailing routes, Autumn the thanksgiving for safe return. Winter.....the ritualised absence of sailing.

In modern Greece, a boat is not just a 'vehicle'. It's a 'second home', a family inheritance, a moral responsibility. Small fishing boats are often treated almost like people - they're named, talked to, repaired with huge care, mourned if lost. On the feast of the Theophaneia (Epiphany) on January 6th, priests bless the waters, boats sound horns, throw wreath, and sometimes a crucifix is cast into the sea to be retrieved by whomever! New boats are named and blessed at this time.

In ancient art, ships were often portrayed with eyes (ophthalmoi - ancient Greek; matia - modern Greek) on the prow. The eye helped the ship see its way and to avoid danger..... At night, the sea erases landmarks, the horizon disappears, time feels suspended. An eye on the prow under the watchful light of Selene, the Moon, feels vigilant, awake, and liminal...

The boat is never safe. Neither is a life.