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.

(Note from Elinor: I am loving this!)

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.

Made in Greece in the workshop of the Lioulias family, with whom It's All Greek is proud to have been working since 2004. They also produce the pottery collection.