white ground lekythos | Muses on Mount Helicon

In the ancient Greek world, the funerary lekythos was far more than a simple ceramic vessel. It was a sacred bridge between the living and the dead.

These elegant, slender oil flasks were specifically designed to hold precious perfumed oils used to anoint the body of the deceased during burial rituals. Coated in a fine white clay slip, their fired surfaces acted as a pristine canvas for painters to express grief and pathos. Deposited inside tombs as final, comforting grave gifts, these vases remain a hauntingly beautiful testament to mortality, remembrance, and a simply timeless devotion that transcends the ancient grave.

This famous lekythos, dating to ca 445 BCE, attributed to the Achilles Painter, and currently on display at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich, captures an ethereal vision of divine artistic inspiration. Found inside the grave of a young girl, the scene portrays two beautiful Muses sitting peacefully on the rocky slopes of Mount Helicon, the mythical home of the arts.

One Muse sits serenely on a rock which is clearly labelled Helicon, delicately plucking a stringed kithara. At her feet sits an attentive nightingale (αηδόνι) a bird that was celebrated as the symbol of beautiful, melancholic song and poetic inspiration. She is probably either Terpsichore (the Muse of music and dancing) or Erato (the Muse of lyric and love poetry).

The standing Muse appears completely captivated by her companion's music. Some scholars suggest she is Calliope (the Muse of epic poetry) or Clio (the Muse of history),

In this specific piece, the Achilles Painter is moving away from rigid, older two-dimensional styles, presenting both Muses in highly realistic three-quarter views. The seated Muse features a masterfully foreshortened frontal foot that creates a true illusion of depth on the curved surface of the vase. This incredible showcase of drawing skill gives the entire scene a striking sense of symmetry, making the iconography exquisitely balanced.

The technical sophistication of the brushwork is remarkable. The standing Muse wears an ultra-sheer, sleeveless chiton, which the painter rendered using a very thin, dilute glaze to give the fabric a crinkly texture. He then applied a light, transparent ocher wash over the seated Muse's upper body, revealing her arms and ankles beneath her heavy red cloak.

Between the two figures, a bold vertical inscription reads Axiopeithes kalos Alkimacho - 'Axiopeithes, son of Alkimachos, is beautiful, praising a handsome male pin-up of ancient Athens. Random graffiti like this was not unusual on Attic pottery, and helps us to date the pot.

These elegant lekythoi -oil flasks- were primarily associated with sacred funerary rituals, and would often be seen on the steps of a tomb. Scenes of transitions, departure, farewell, deep sadness and grief abound. The Muses here may even be mourning the premature loss of the young girl.

When we look at white-ground lekythoi in museums (there is a heavenly room in the National Museum in Athens, with cases full of them!), we see faded ochres, charcoal outlines, and light washes. Potters used fragile mineral pigments like cinnabar for intense vermilion red, malachite for rich green, and azurite or Egyptian blue for deep, solid blues.

After more than 2,500 years buried in the earth, these organic and mineral binders decayed, flaking away and leaving only the faint, delicate, exquisite washes we see now.

This pottery collection is produced in Greece in the workshop of the Lioulias family, with whom It's All Greek is privileged and proud to have been working since 2004. They also produce our lovely Minoan pottery and fresco pieces, and a small collection of bronzes.