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Unknown Maker, Greek

Lidded Box (Pyxis)

Maker

Unknown Maker, Greek

Culture

Greek

Title

Lidded Box (Pyxis)

Period

Geometric period

Year

ca. 760 BCE

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

clay

Geography

Place Made: Attica

Dimensions

Height: 14 cm (5 1/2 inches) (assembled)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

37.022

Type

Publications

Exhibition History

Being and Believing in the Natural World
Perspectives from the Ancient Mediterranean, Asia, and Indigenous North America
Oct 22, 2022 – Jun 04, 2023

Label copy

In ancient Greece, the rituals and objects of death and burial provided a final opportunity to display wealth, class identity, and familial pride. Luxury items such as the wine jug (oinochoe) and the lidded box (pyxis) and were particularly appropriate grave gifts.

Wealthy women used pyxides to store cosmetics or jewelry, while oinochoai were used during the symposium, a social activity attended by aristocratic men. Horses figure prominently in both vessels.

They signify wealth, as only landowners could afford them. The water birds on the wine jug suggest drinking as well as death, as the dead were believed to be thirsty.

—GB

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Greek
Lidded Box (Pyxis), ca. 760 BCE
Terracotta, black-figure
Height: 14 cm (5 1/2 inches) (assembled)
Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth 37.022

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