Picturing Death in Classical Athens : The Evidence of the White Lekythoi (Cambridge Studies in Classical Art and Iconography)

Book Description
The Attic white lekythoi, funerary vases long appreciated for their beautiful polychrome images, evoke the style of lost classical wall and mural paintings. This richly illustrated volume closely examines the four major types of scenes: domestic pictures; the mythological conductors of the soul; the prothesis (wake); and visits to the grave. John Oakley analyzes these pictures in context, documenting relationships between the "rites of passage," Athenian history, and the changing perceptions of death in fifth-century Athens.


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This is the first in-depth study of the pictures found on Attic white lekythoi. These funerary vases, placed in and on Athenian graves, have long been appreciated for their beautiful polychrome images that evoke the style of lost classical wall and mural paintings. The most important visual source for classical Greek funerary customs, they exhibit a range of subject matter, most of it connected with death. This illustrated volume closely examines the four major types of scenes: domestic pictures, the mythological conductors of the soul, the prothesis (wake), and visits to the grave. In addition to analysis of the iconographical development of each type, it places these pictures in their historical, social, cultural, archaeological, and literary contexts, documenting relationships between the "rites of passage," Athenian history, the changing perceptions of death in fifth-century Athens, and funerary epigrams and laments.


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