Reed Painter

The flask depicts Charon, ferryman of the dead. He prepares to transport the soul of the woman standing on the bank of the river Styx. To pay Charon’s fare, a coin would be placed in a corpse’s mouth. Lekythoi filled with olive oil were popular gifts for the dead, and many were buried in tombs.

Pegasus, a winged horse, was the bearer of thunder and lightning for the Greek god Zeus. In a funerary context, the horses flying around this bronze vessel might be transporting the dead to the realm of the gods. Terracotta or hammered bronze dinoi sometimes held the ashes of the deceased.

—GB

Oil flasks (lekythoi) were common household objects used daily in cooking and bathing. They were also routinely filled with oil and buried in tombs and left as gifts to the dead. In the early 5th century BCE, a type of lekythos, the white-ground, developed specifically as a vessel destined for the grave. The term “white-ground” refers to the creamy, off-white backgrounds on which funerary scenes were painted. The scene of the ferryman Charon waiting to transport the deceased woman across the river Styx on this lekytho confirms the vessel’s intended function as a grave gift. The quiet, calm demeanors of the figures reflect the Greek classical ideals of dignity and restraint.