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AN INVESTIGATION OF BLACK—FIGURE GREEK POTTERY
DEPICTING WOMEN AT THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE

 

presented by

 

NICOLE RENEE BAHL

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University

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6/01 c-JClRCJDateDuest-sz

AN INVESTIGATION OF BLACK-FIGURE GREEK POTTERY DEPICTING
WOMEN AT THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE

By

Nicole Renee Bahl

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Art and Art History

2003

ABSTRACT

AN INVESTIGATION OF BLACK-FIGURE GREEK POTTERY
DEPICTING WOMEN AT THE FOUNTAIN HOUSE

By
Nicole Renee Bahl

Under the Peisistratid tyranny, ancient Athens witnessed the construction of
numerous water systems. Vase painters, inﬂuenced by these new building projects,
created numerous black-ﬁgure vessels depicting fountain houses. Although all Athenians
were impacted by the improved water supply, women were the most affected for they
were responsible for gathering water use within the home and in ritual and cult.
Accordingly, most fountain house scenes depict women.

This thesis investigates the status of the women presented on images with
fountains. It is my contention that the women are citizens, rather than slaves or metics as
is often believed. I draw upon evidence from archaeology, iconography, literature, and

history to support this thesis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband, Mark Scheer. Without his
encouragement this thesis would not be possible. His patience and understanding
throughout the highs and lows of graduate school was integral to my success. I am
forever grateful for Mark's unending love and support.

I am especially thankful for Jan Simpson and Sue Morris in the Visual Resource
Library for their friendship, endorsements, and aid in navigating through my graduate
studies. Similarly, I am grateful to Heather and Val, my colleagues in graduate school.
And to my colleague, Meghan, you have been a constant delight throughout this process.
You have been a source of inspiration and motivation. It is an honor to be graduating
with you.

I am also indebted to all of my professors in Art History and Classical Studies.
They have provided me the background necessary to complete my degree and this thesis.
In particular, I would like to thank my committee members, Professors Susan Madigan
and William Blake Tyrrell. Professor Tyrrell provided an especially great deal of insight
for improving the ﬁnal product.

To Professor Paul Deussen, I must express my sincere gratitude. Your
enthusiasm for ancient art is incomparable. You fostered in me a passion for Greek art
that has now become my life's work. I am forever grateful for your support, patience, and

dedication throughout the years you served as my mentor.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ v
INTRODUCTION ............................ 1
CHAPTER 1

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE ATHENIAN WATER SUPPLY

UNDER THE PEISISTRATID TYRAN NY ..................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2

WOMEN'S USE OF WATER IN RITUAL AND CULT ................................. 21
CHAPTER 3
THE STATUS OF THE WOMEN DEPICT ED ................................................ 41
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 56
FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 75

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 61.195. Hydria by the Priam Painter.
c. 520-510 b.c.e. (Paralipomena 147.5BIS) ...................................................................... 60

Figure 2. Toledo, Museum of Art 1961.23. Hydria by the Priam Painter.
c. 520-510 b.c.e. (Paralipomena 147.5TER) ..................................................................... 61

Figure 3. Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum 69/78. Red-ﬁgure Loutrophoros

near the Naples Painter showing the procession carrying bathwater from the fountain
house. (AR V 1 102.2) (Paralipomena 451) ......................................................................... 62
Figure 4. Geometric Kantharos. Copenhagen 727 ............................................................ 63

Figure 5. Archeological Museum of Herakleion. Subgeometric terracotta
ﬁgurine of a mourning woman .......................................................................................... 64

Figure 6. London, British Museum B332. Hydria by the Priam Painter.

0. 520 b.c.e. (ABV 333.27) ................................................................................................. 65
Figure 7. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 01.8125. Hydria in the

Manner of the Lysippides Painter. c. 530 b.c.e .................................................................. 66
Figure 8. Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco. Hydria 3792. c. 540 b.c.e ................. 67
Figure 9. Munich, Antikensammlungen 1690. Hydria near the

Antimenes Painter. c. 520 b.c.e. (ABV 280.2) (Addenda 73) ........................................... 68
Figure 10. London, British Museum B336. Hydria by the Antimenes Painter.

c. 520 b.c.e.. (ABV 266.3) ................................................................................................. 69
Figure 11. Paris, Louvre F 296. Black-ﬁgure Hydria. c. 510 b.c.e ................................... 70

Figure 12. London, British Museum B329. Hydria by the A D Painter.
c. 515 b.c.e. (ABV334.1) .................................................................................................... 71

Figure 13. Berlin, Antikensammlung F1908. Hydria Attributed to the
Leagros Group. (Paralipomena 162.173) (ABV 365.70) ................................................... 72

Figure 14. Rome, Villa Giulia 47457. Hydria near the Nikoxenos Painter.
(Paralipomena 393) (ABV172) ......................................................................................... 73

Figure 15. Munich, Antikensammlung 1693. Hydria, Akin to the
Antimenes Painter.c.. 520 b.c.e. (ABV 280.2) ................................................................... 74

INTRODUCTION

In the sixth century b.c.e., there was a proliferation of vases that show, almost
exclusively, groups of women obtaining water at a fountain house. The inclusion of
architecture and scenes of everyday life in Athens is a shift in the last quarter of the sixth
century from the previous pottery that tended to focus on mythological themes.1 The
reason for the abundance of images at the fountain house seems to reside in the historical
building record of Athens at the time they gained in popularity. During this period,
Athens witnessed the construction of many fountain houses throughout the area, as well
as changes to previous systems. The production of these vessels peaked in the last
quarter of the sixth century. This coincides with hydraulic building projects throughout
Athens under the Peisistratid tyranny, including the famed Enneakrounos. The
improvement in the water supply to Athens was one of the most dramatic changes in
everyday life and demonstrated the government's move to provide public services, which
was met with excitement by Athenian citizens, including vase painters who created
images to celebrate this.2

Hydriai and lekythoi comprise the majority of vessels decorated with images of
women at the fountain house. The hydria, a large-bellied vase with three handles that
could weigh sixty pounds when ﬁlled, would have been used to fetch the water. The
lekythos consisted of a tall cylindrical body with a single vertical handle. Most often it

was used to hold perfumes and oils, but the shape was also popular for holding libations

 

' John Griffiths Pedley, "Reﬂections of Architecture in Sixth-Century Attic Vase-Painting," in Papers on
the Amasis Painter and His World (Malibu: The John Paul Getty Museum, 1987), p. 72.
2 Pedley, p. 77.

to be poured for the dead. When used for a funerary context, the images often depicted a
mourning ﬁgure.

Vase painters varied in their treatment of the theme of women at the fountain
house. The artists relied upon two primary formats for depicting the fountain house's
architecture. The ﬁrst involves placing the fountain house to the far right or left of the
composition. Most often a waterspout is shown in proﬁle dispensing water into a hydria
that a woman has placed upon on a block underneath. Doric or Ionic columns support the
roof that covers the waterspout, which may or may not cover the woman ﬁlling her
hydria.3 Another stylistic technique used when placing the fountain house to the edge of
the composition depicts the spout in a frontal view.4

A second technique for indicating the fountain house places the women inside the
building.5 In this treatment, spouts (usually three) run along the back wall and a spout is
shown in proﬁle on each side wall. The building's front is ﬂanked by a colonnade which
provides the artist the opportunity to show depth through the use of overlapping. The
colonnade is often comprised of Doric columns, although Ionic columns are not
unknown.6

There are two more ways the artist depicts the fountain house although they are
both quite rare. Both place the fountain house in the center of the picture plane. The ﬁrst
treatment places a wall in the center of the composition essentially dividing it into

halves.7 On each side of the wall are two inset columns behind which is a spout shown in

 

3 Compare Figure 9 and Figure 13.
“ See Figures 14 and 15.

5 Figures 1, 6, and 12.

° See Figure 6 for Ionic columns.

7 Figure 11.

proﬁle. This technique is unusual, in part, because it does not seem to reﬂect the
architecture of any fountain houses found in the Greek world. Another infrequent
depiction places a single spout in the center of the scene.8 A pedimented roof with
metOpes that is supported by two columns covers the spout but not the women.

Not only does the technique for designating the space of the fountain house vary,
but the architectural details also vary between vases. In all depictions, columns are
present indicating a roofed structure, although the roof may or may not be visible. The
roof covering the spout or spouts may be either ﬂat or gabled (indicating a pediment).
When the fountain house is set to the edge of the picture, metopes may or may not be
included.9 In contrast, when the fountain house is located across the picture plane,
metopes are shown, less frequently topped by a pediment.l0 In addition to the variation in
the roof and metopes the waterspouts often vary. The most popular type of waterspout is
a lion-head, especially when the spout is shown in proﬁle. Lion-headed spouts comprise
the majority of actual spouts found in archaeological remains. Two more popular
animals found on the vases are mules and panthers. These are less known in the
archaeological record, but not unlikely. A third type of spout seems to have no
precedence in the archaeological record—horsemen spouts. It has been suggested that
this is a type of joke played by the vase painters in an attempt to add humor to the
images. It is unclear if there is a more meaningful explanation.

Another variation in vessels showing fountain houses is the decoration of the

space. A number of vases survive that show the fountain house bedecked with ivy and

 

8 Figure 2
9 Figure 10 depicts a ﬂat roof, while that of Figure 9 is gabled.
'0 Figure 6 includes a pediment.

garlands. Sometimes, women carry wreaths to place over the waterspouts. These images
convey a sense of festivity or celebration to the viewer. One surviving hydria decorated
with ivy survives that includes the deities Hermes and Dionysos, whose presence
provides the context under which one should view the vessel.”

Throughout the depictions of fountain houses in the Archaic period, the
frequenters are women. They generally wear the clothing of the upper-class woman, a
patterned himation. Their long hair is often pulled back into a bun that falls at the nape
of the neck, although occasionally it hangs down. Some vases show both hairstyles in the
same image.‘2 There may be as few as three women at the fountain house, although
usually there are at least ﬁve, sometimes as many as eight. The women always have a
hydria or jug to ﬁll, sometimes they have placed it under a spout to ﬁll while other times
they carry it in their hand or atop their head.

Although the number of vessels depicting women at the fountain house rose
dramatically during the time of the Peisistratids' building projects, the theme was not
particularly new. Women utilized water in a variety of rituals, and this use is attested to
in the visual imagery. As early as the Geometric period, women were identiﬁable on
funerary vessels because they carried hydriai representing the rites performed for the
deceased. The ritual obtainment and use of water is also attested to on vessels related to
marriage rites. One of the most important days of a woman's life was her wedding, and
one of the most frequently referenced rituals associated with the wedding was the
prenuptial bath. Water also played a signiﬁcant role in the cults of Hera, Demeter, and

Artemis. In most of the religious rites involving water, women were the main

 

” Figure 6.
'2 See Figure 15.

participants and the dedications they left signiﬁed the use of water in religious activities.
These ritual uses of water by women reﬂected the role of women within the home as they
were the ones responsible for getting water for daily use including drinking, washing, and
rinsing.

However, scholarship concerning the status of the women depicted at the fountain
house is divided. Many authors believe that within Athens, citizen women were secluded
in the home, therefore the women depicted cannot be citizens, but must instead represent
slaves, hetairae, or metics. Others believe that the ﬁgures may indeed be citizen women
fetching water for use within the home.'3 In this study I intend to demonstrate the women
depicted are indeed citizens. The primary beneﬁciaries of the new water supply were the
common people of Greece. The visual evidence showing women using water in ritual
dating at least as far back as the eighth century b.c.e. and the continuing use of water in
ritual and cult in the last quarter of the sixth century b.c.e. provide an iconographic
association of women and water. This association of women with water reﬂects their
traditional roles within the home as procurers of water, and the ancient viewer would not
think of a woman getting water as a slave. Instead, she represents virtuousness.
Additionally, the appearance and dress of the women on the vessels created around 520
suggests the women are not slaves but rather, must be citizens, as Herodotus's account
also proves. Finally, the notion of complete seclusion of the female, especially during the
Archaic period, represented an Attic ideal that most citizens were unable to attain in

reality. All of these factors suggest that the women are indeed respectable wives and

 

‘3 Those who speciﬁcally address these images and believe they are citizens include: John Boardman,
Lauren Hackworth Petersen, and Claude Bérard. Those who believe they are not citizens: Sian Lewis,
Dyfri Williams, and Sarah Pomeroy. A third group does not comment because of the inconsistency. This
includes: Ivonne Manfrini-Aragno

daughters. In ancient Greece, these vessels and their imagery were accessible to almost
everyone; they would have been seen in the home, the symposium, and outside the home,
for ritual use or fetching water" (although none of the hydriai used in scenes of the
fountain house is decorated”). And these vases are primarily the concern of women,
seemingly created for them, appealing to women's taste and reﬂecting their reality and

some of their important roles in society.

 

'4 Lauren Hackworth Petersen, "Divided Consciousness and Female Companionship: Reconstructing
Female Subjectivity on Greek Vases," Arethusa 30.1 (1997), p. 50.

'5 This is common throughout vases on which the vase's shape is repeated in the decoration. For example,
symposiasts playing kottabos on kylixes play with an undecorated kylix. As well, loutrophoroi often depict
a loutrophoros that is undecorated. It may be that the vase shape itself was sufﬁcient to convey the artist's
idea and the added decoration was therefore unnecessary. Or it may be that the vase a ﬁgure carries was
too small to allow for adequate decoration.

CHAPTER 1
IMPROVEMENTS TO THE ATHENIAN WATER SUPPLY

UNDER THE PEISISTRATID TYRANNY

In ancient Greece, it was important to supply the populace with clean, drinkable
water for survival and prosperity. This helps explain why early Greek cities usually
developed at the foot of a calcareous massif. The massif provided two essential
elements: an acropolis that could be defended, and a source of water at its base.“5
Because Greece receives little rainfall, an adequate supply of water remained essential
throughout its cities. In fact, Pausanias recounts that Panopeus in Phocis could not be
designated a polis because it had, "no government ofﬁces or gymnasium, no theatre or

agora or water ﬂowing down to a fountain."l7

Thus, for an area to be deemed a true city,
the supply of water was crucial.

Athens itself was moderately well watered with three rivers passing through the
landscape: the Kephissos, Eridanos, and the Ilissos. The Kephissos was the northernmost
river, but it seems to have played little role in the water supply of Athens, unlike the
Eridanos and the Ilissos. The Eridanos was an early water source for the Athenians,

although later the stream became contaminated, and only the spring remained in use. The

Ilissos lay just outside the city walls, and its springs provided much water for Athens. Its

 

‘6 Alfred Burns. "Ancient Greek Water Supply and City Planning: A Study of Syracuse and Acragas,"
Technology and Culture 15.3 (July, 1974), p. 409.
'7 Paus. x.4.l

shady banks were described as some of the most idyllic spots of ancient Athens.I8 The
Acropolis’s rock also provided many sources of natural springs. The western half of the
base of the citadel rock has been exposed and contains no less than four separate sources
for water.'9
Public and private wells were a traditional source of water for the Athenian
population. In the area around the Athenian agora there are at least sixty-two wells which
supplied Archaic Athens with some of its water. Many of these were found in private
houses that had their own wells or cisterns to collect the rainwater. These private sources
of water were of questionable purity for drinking.20 Instead, well and cistern water was
used washing and rinsing.2| In the Archaic period, Solon provided some of the earliest
surviving legislation concerning the water supply of Athens, in which he refers to wells.
Plutarch tells of Solon's restrictions placed on private citizens concerning the digging of
wells:
Since the country has but few rivers, lakes, or large springs, and many used wells
which they had dug, there was a law made, that, where there was a public well
within a hippicon, that is, four stades, all should draw at that; but when it was
further off, they should try and procure a well of their own; and if they had dug
ten fathoms deep and could ﬁnd no water, they had liberty to fetch a hydria of six
choes twice a day from their neighbor’s for he [Solon] thought it prudent to make
provision against want, but not supply laziness. 22

The restrictions placed on citizens digging wells and the limited number of fountains may

reﬂect concern over the conservation of this important resource.23 Early in the sixth

 

'8 John M. Camp, Water Supply of Ancient Athens. (Phd. Dissertation Princeton University, 1979), p. 20.;
Plato Phaedros, 230.

'9 Camp, Water Supply, p. 20.

2° R. E. Wycheriy, How the Greeks Built Cities (New York, London: W W Norton and Company, 1976), p.
200.

2' Aristotle, Pol. 7 1330b15-l7. Bell cites Aristotle for proof of this statement; however, Lang disagrees
believing well water would be drunk, while concurring cistern water would only be used for washing.

22 Plutarch Solon 23.6

23 Burns, p. 410.

century, there were limited fountains to provide the populace water, but eventually
fountains became a more common source of water for the population of Athens than
wells.

Public water sources were such an important element in a city that they could
dictate the city's plan. In Morgantina, residential areas were based upon a rectangular
grid, the placement of which appears to have been selected based upon the location of
water sources such as springs.24 The rest of the city then developed around this natural
civic center. The location of a city’s agora, which included the central public and
religious buildings, was determined in relationship to the vicinity of the water supply,
including the fountain house.25 In Morgantina, the spring feeding an excavated fountain
house was likely the underlying factor for choosing the siting of the agora.26 The effort
that went into securing this space for the procurement of water suggests that one of the
recognized functions of the agora was providing the citizenry with water. Water sources
in an agora would be found throughout Greece, including Corinth, Athens, Priene,
Olynthos, Magnesia on the Maeander, also provide a water source in the agora.27 Most
excavated fountain houses have been found in the busiest areas of a city: near the agora,
at the gateways to the city, within temple precincts, or along the main streets that connect

the gates with the agora and the acropolis of a Greek city.28 For instance, fountains on the

 

2" Dora P. Crouch, "The Hellenistic Water System of Morgantina, Sicily: Contributions to the History of
Urbanization," American Journal of Archaeology 88 (1984), p. 355.

25 Burns, p. 409

2" Malcolm Bell, "Excavations at Morgantina, 1980-1985 Preliminary Report XII," American Journal of
Archaeology 92 (1988), p. 337.

27 Bell, p. 337; John M. Camp, Athenian Agora. Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1986), pp. 42-43.

2" Dora P. Crouch, Water Management in Ancient Greek Cities (New York, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993), p. 284.

street in Morgantina are found at the northwest corner of the agora, along the northern
wall of the theater, and in the southwest corner of the agora.29

The sixth century was a time of growth and prosperity for Athens. Under the
tyrants, parts of the city were newly built and others rebuilt. This period marked the
beginning of city planning, development of architectural styles, and major civil
engineering feats — including jetties and harbors, drainage and water systems,
enlargement of market areas, and the construction of many buildings.30 The Archaic
period in Greece demonstrates the importance that was beginning to be placed on a
steady water supply, as water supplies were improving throughout the Greek world
including: Samos, Akragas and Syracuse in Sicily, Megara, and Corinth." Athens was no
exception. In Athens, water sources were protected from exposure to open air because of
the ancient Greeks' belief that wind and water spread epidemics.32 To combat this
concern, water traveled through underground tunnels to the ancient city where it ended at
a public water source. This kept the water cooler as well as more palatable. The
Peisistratid tyranny provided Athens with her ﬁrst major public fountain house and an
elaborate aqueduct system to supply it.33 The fountain house was a public building to
which the sixth century tyrants in Athens and other Greek cities paid particular attention.
The fountain houses undoubtedly demonstrate an improvement in the water supply of

Athens. For the people living in the city, it would be much more convenient to ﬁll a jar

 

2" Crouch, Hellenistic Water, p. 355 see note 17.

3° Burns, p. 406.

3' Camp, Water Supply p. 63.

32 Bums, p. 405. See Hippokrates Airs, Waters and Places; Aristotle Pol. 7 l330a-l330b 11-14.
33 Camp, Water Supply, p. 21.

10

under a spout or dip it into a reservoir than to draw it up ten meters from a well, which
could more easily be contaminated or face the threat of a drop in the water table.34
Available water and the space in which it was contained could be used for
propaganda. The black-ﬁgure vases of women at the fountain houses may be a
demonstration of the tyranny's use of these structures as political propaganda, inﬂuencing
their popularity as a subject. London Hydria B 331 indicates the vessels may reﬂect the
political associations with the fountain houses. The hydria is inscribed with a "kalos"
name directed at Hippokrates who was part of the family of tyrants.35 This suggests that
the Peisistratid tyranny may have been successful at using the fountain houses as tools of
political propaganda, since vessels created around the time of their completion ﬂatter the
ruling family. Undoubtedly, the fountain houses built under the Peisistratids were the
result of need, but they were also installed for political reasons. Like most large public
works projects, the water systems provided employment and beneﬁted~ the common
people who constituted the political strength of the ﬁrst tyrants.36 Many tyrannies
throughout Greece, including Polykrates at Samos and Theagenes at Megara, featured
large hydraulic projects for similar reasons. However, it was the Peisistratids'
Enneakrounos fountain house that is most mentioned in antiquity, being referred to in

several ancient sources.37

 

3‘ Camp, Athenian Agora, p. 43.

35 Eleni Manakidou, "Athenerinnen in schwarzﬁgurigen Brunnenhausszenen," Hephaistos 16/17 (1998/99),
p. 66.

36 Camp. Water Supply, p. 21.

37 Alkiphron, Epist. III, 49 (13), l and 51 (15), l; Herodotos VI 137.3; Isokrates XV (Antidosis), 287;
Pausanias, 1.14.1; Plato Axiochos 3643, b, d; Pliny Natural History IV.24 and XXXI.50; Thucydides
11.15.4-5; See Camp's Water Supply Testimonia 16-41 for a more complete listing.

11

Around the same time as the Enneakrounos's completion (c. 520 b.c.e.), images of
women at the fountain house rise dramatically in their popularity as an Attic vase
painting subject. Fountain houses quickly became a popular source of imagery for
Archaic vase painters concerned with depicting contemporary Athenian life. These
fountain houses not only demonstrated an improvement in life, but also became a site of
social interaction as groups of women would congregate there to obtain water. The Priam
Painter's vessels demonstrate the celebration of the improvement in the water supply, and
he depicts the frequenters of these new public water sources.

On hydriai, such those depicted on Figures 1 and 2, the women congregate at the
fountain house, which is an important element in the composition. On the Boston hydria,
water pours from ﬁve animal-headed spouts spread out across the picture plane. On the
left is a lion-headed spout, on the right a mule-headed spout, and the three along the back
wall are panther heads. The space is divided by Doric columns, which; provide depth and
overlapping. In this scene, the architecture of the space shares the composition with the
women who frequent it. On the Toledo hydria, the covered panther-headed spout is
ﬂanked by Doric columns is in the center of the composition. The six women are
balanced to the left and right with three on each side so that the central focus is on the
waterspout and its architectural forms. The architecture of the fountain house appears
considerably smaller than that of the Boston hydria with its ﬁve spouts. The Toledo
hydria has just a single covered spout leaving the women who visit without an overhead
roof.

Because vases of women at the fountain house peaked in the years around the

Enneakrounos's completion, archaeologists have attempted to utilize painted vases in

12

conjunction with archaeological evidence to reconstruct the Enneakrounos. However,
which site, if any thus far found, is the actual Enneakrounos discussed by ancient writers
such as Thucydides and Pausanias remains unknown. The reconstruction of the
Enneakrounos is complicated because several other hydraulic installations were built in
Athens during the same period. It appears a spring named Kallirhoe was “embellished”
and then called the Enneakrounos during the Peisistratid tyranny. Some ancient authors
place the Enneakrounos near the Ilissos stream southeast of the city, other sources place it
within the city center. Still others have suggested that the name Enneakrounos did not
refer to a single fountain house, but to a water-supply system found throughout the city.
However, source citations suggest that the Enneakrounos was a single fountain house.
Herodotus and Kratinos, the ﬁfth-century comic poet, situate the Enneakrounos south of
the city.38 E. J. Owens cites other written evidence for locating the Enneakrounos south
of the city, but Pausanias sets the Enneakrounos inside the Agora.39 Pausanias’s account
describes its location thus:

When you have entered the Odeion at Athens you meet, among other objects, a

statue of Dionysos, worth seeing. Nearby is a fountain, which they call

Enneakrounos, for thus they arranged it under Peisistratos. There are wells all

over the city, but this is the only source. Above the fountain there are temples of

Demeter and Kore

The Odeion Pausanias discusses must surely be that which dominates the agora
square, and the Eleusinion has been associated with the temples of Demeter and Kore

about which he writes.40 Their sanctuary is found just east of the Panathenaic Way where

it climbs the lower slopes of the Acropolis. In his discussion of the monuments of the

 

’8 E. J. Owens, "The Enneakrounos Fountain-House." Journal of Hellenic Studies 87 (1983), p. 223.
3° Paus. 1.14.1
‘0 Camp, Water Supply, pp. 90-92.

13

Agora, Pausanias places it between the Odeion and the Eleusinion. Since the discovery
of an appropriately datable fountain house in the southeast corner of the Agora, known as
the Southeast Fountain House, Pausanias’s suggestion has become stronger."1 Isokrates
and Alkiphron also imply the fountain house was found within the center of the city. 42
Alkiphron says the Enneakrounos was situated in the Kerameikos district, thus including
the Agora.

However, the account of Thucydides confuses the picture. Thucydides gives the
most detailed account of the fountain house and refers to its former name, situating it
south of the Acropolis:

Before this the city consisted of the present citadel and the district beneath it

looking rather towards the south. This is shown by the fact that the temples of the

other deities, besides that of Athena, are in the citadel; and even those that are
outside it are mostly situated in this quarter of the city, as that of the Olympian

Zeus, of the Pythian Apollo, of Earth, and of Dionysus in the Marshes, the same

in whose honor the older Dionysia are to this day celebrated in the month of

Anthesterion not only by the Athenians but also by their Ionian descendants.

There are also other ancient temples in this quarter. The fountain too, which, since

the alteration made by the tyrants, has been called Enneakrounos, or Nine Pipes,

but which, when the spring was open, went by the name of Kallirhoe, or

Fairwater, was in those days, from being so near, used for the most important

ofﬁces. Indeed, the old fashion of using the water before marriage and for other

sacred purposes is still kept up."3
Thucydides describes the Enneakrounos as one of the other monuments south of the
Acropolis. In his account, the fountain was so-named the Enneakrounos only when the

Peisistratids fashioned it with nine spouts. Previously, it was known as Kallirhoe.44 Pliny

draws a similar parallel with the Enneakrounos as Kallirhoe."5 Plato places the Kallirhoe

 

4' Owens, p. 224.

‘2 Alkiphron, Epist. III, 51 ( 15), 1; Isokrates, XV Antidosis, 287.
‘3 Thucydides, II.15.3-5.

4" Camp, Water Supply, p. 92.

‘5 Pliny. Natural History, IV, 24.

14

along the banks of the Ilissos River suggesting the Thucydidean Enneakrounos is located
at the spring of Kallirhoe, south of the Acropolis near the bed of the Ilissos. If
Thucydides' observation is accurate, the Southeast Fountain House is not the
Enneakrounos. Hence the fountain called Enneakrounos by Pausanias and Thucydides
cannot be the same building.“ Thucydides is usually a careful and accurate witness, and
he wrote within one century of the construction of the building. Thus, he should know its
location. Also, Thucydides is supported by other ancient sources, including Herodotus
and Kratinos.47 In addition, the implication in the sources of an abundant supply of water
better suits the Ilissos area. But, despite extensive excavations near the Olympieion and
the Ilissos, a suitable building has not been found. However, abundant springs ﬂowed
into the bed of the river until recent times. Owens believes it is possible Thucydides was
correct and the original Enneakrounos was situated southeast of the city in the vicinity of
the Ilissos, but the building had been destroyed by the late ﬁfth century, and by the
middle of the fourth century b.c.e., its name had been transferred to another Peisistratid
fountain house in the city center. As a result, by the time Pausanias visited Athens, the
original site of the fountain house had been forgotten.48

Using Pausanias's account, the Southeast Fountain House of the Agora seems a
likely candidate for the Enneakrounos. The Southeast Fountain House lies on the right of
the Panathenaic Way as one climbs from the Odeion to the Eleusinion. It is located just
west of the Panathenaic Way and just east of South Stoa I. It contains the earliest

pipeline found in the Athenian Agora lying beneath the primary east-west road of the

 

4" Camp, Water Supply, p. 92.
‘7 Owens, p. 224.
‘8 Owens, p. 225.

15

square and dating to the last part of the sixth century b.c.e., during the Peisitratid
tyranny.49 It is difﬁcult to recover the original Archaic structure because it has been
altered and remodeled, as well as quarried for building materials from the fourth to
eleventh centuries. However, enough remains to establish securely its function as a
source of water. Here, a narrow trench was dug in the earth and the pipes were laid from
east to west. Several private houses were destroyed to create the 6.8 by 18.2—meter
rectangular fountain house that included a large central chamber and smaller ones at
either end.50 The central area, which is 4.9 by 9.2 meters, is largely destroyed. Nothing
of the original ﬂoor or wall remains, but the shallow beddings for the north and south
walls provide indications of the original plan.5 I If the basins were not symmetrically
arranged, it is possible that the nine spouts were not symmetrical, which makes
Pausanias’s account accord with the Southeast Fountain llouse.52
The chambers at each end provide more clues to the original structure, especially
the waterprooﬁng and drainage, which prove the space was used for water basins. Each
of the basins measures 3.2 by 5 meters, and they are similar, with the exception of the
ﬂoor level of the western basin, which is one step lower than that of the eastern basin.

From the drainage and waterprooﬁng, it is certain that water was supplied to the two

areas at each end of the large central area. The foundations suggest the western basin

 

‘9 Mabel L. Lang, Waterworks in the Athenian Agora. Agora Picture Book No. I I (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1968), np.; The dating of the Southeast Fountain House to the Archaic period is based
upon the use of the hard grayish limestone, the Z clamp, and the polygonal jointing of the construction,
which are similar to the Old Athena temple on the Acropolis and the early temple of Dionysos below the
theater, dating the building to the second half of the sixth century B.C.E..; Camp, Water Supply, p. 85.

5° Camp, Athenian Agora, p. 42.

5' Camp, Water Supply, p. 74.

52 Camp, Water Supply, p. 91.

16

functioned as a tank from which water could be drawn over a parapet, while the eastern
chamber was entered and a woman would ﬁll her hydria by holding it under the spout.53
The building was a long rectangle in plan with its entry from the north. At either
end was a shallow basin Water was delivered to a point in the middle of the
back wall by a terra-cotta pipeline the water was conveyed in channels in the
thickness of the wall to supply a series of spouts, doubtless in the shape of animal
heads. The overﬂow was carried off in an underground terra-cotta pipeline in a
northeast direction to be used elsewhere.54
This is the best-documented fountain to have a natural ﬂow being supplemented by water
from elsewhere, and a natural basin articulated by formal architecture.55 H. A.
Thompson's The Athenian Agora continues:
Deep exploration around the archaic fountain house has shown, moreover, that the
ground water is close to the surface of this area at all seasons, so that there may
well have existed in early times a simple freeﬂowing spring destined to be
replaced, as the needs of the community grew, by a capacious fountain house fed
by a pipeline from some distant source.56
Despite the excavations at the site, several aspects of the restoration of the
Southeast Fountain House remain unknown, in particular, the upper part of the building's
architecture.” Because the Southeast Fountain House is often believed to be the
Enneakrounos, attempts have been made to reconstruct the fountain house based upon
reproductions found on painted pottery. The archaeological remains suggest that a step
course across the front of the building on the north side existed, which would include a

columnar facade. Columnar facades are consistent with the images found on Attic black-

ﬁgure hydriai that are dated to the same period. Almost all of these hydriai show

 

53 Camp, Athenian Agora p. 42.

5‘ H. A. Thompson, The Athenian Agora: A Guide to the Excavation and Museum. Third edition. Athens,
1976.p. 97.

55 Crouch, Water Management, p. 295.

5" Thompson, p. 97.

57 Camp, Water Supply, p. 76.

17

columned buildings, but the images are not consistent to help describe a particular
fountain house.58 The columns found on the hydriai are both Doric and Ionic, some
include a pediment, others do not. This demonstrates the impossibility of reconstructing
beyond a speculative judgment the actual fountain houses of Athens based upon
representations created by vase painters. The architecture of the Southeast Fountain
House's interior space also remains unresolved. And again, the vase paintings vary
widely in this respect. It remains unclear whether one stood in the lobby and drew water
over a parapet, or whether one entered the basin area and drew water directly from spouts
in the well. However, it may be that the two basins of the fountain houses varied in this
respect.59 This may provide an explanation for the arrangement of the nine spouts
between two catch basins."0

Instead of faithfully reproducing the Enneakrounos, the artists applied the
elements consistent with the fountain houses to create an image that suggests these Attic
structures without speciﬁc references to the actual building. Black-ﬁgure vases that
feature fountains show the type where hydriai are ﬁlled under spouts, instead of dipped
into the water; this is logical, as it would be difﬁcult visually to depict the latter.“ If
water was procured by dipping the vase, the water would not be visible, and the ﬁgure’s
actions would be illegible since the vase would be hidden. This is a likely reason the
basin type of fountain is excluded from visual representations, as we know of basin types

of fountains built during the rule of the tyrants,62 including the basins at the Southeast

 

58 Camp, Water Supply, p. 77.

59 Camp, Water Supply, p. 77.

6° Owens, p. 224, Thompson, pp. 32-3.

6' B. Dunkley, "Greek Fountain-Buildings Before 300 BC," The Annual of the British School at Athens 36
(1935-1936), p. 153.

(’2 Dunkley, p. 153.

18

Fountain House. Similarly, vase painters use both lion-headed and mule-headed spouts
in their reproductions. Both types of animal-head spouts were utilized during the period
so their presence is accurate, but they are not consistently applied based upon the
architecture depicted. The vase painters transmitted an idea of the architecture, not an
actual picture of the space. What we have instead is an interpretation of the architecture,
the space and those who visit.

D. Levi believes that the Enneakrounos built by the Peisistratids was not a single
fountain house with nine spouts, but instead refers to nine separate fountain houses found
throughout the city.63 Instead of translating "krounos" as spout, he reads it as "source".
He also cites a passage in Statius,64 which he interprets as a reference to the
Enneakrounos as a series of separate spaces. If he is correct, one can then assume that
the different images on vase paintings are in celebration of the Enneakrounos system, and
that is why they vary widely between images. However, only in Statius does it appear
that we have a literary account for a system, and not a single, speciﬁc building. Because
there is little evidence, Levi's interpretation of a system has lost favor. But, while the
famed Enneakrounos may be only a single location, we do know of a variety of other
water projects throughout Athens at the same time of its construction. This helps explain
the widely varying architectural features in the fountain houses on vase paintings.

The increase of images of women at the fountain has been temporally connected
with the increase in public fountains during this period, demonstrating the improvement

in Athens as a result of the Peisistratids' building projects. The construction of the

 

"3 D. Levi, ‘Enneakrounos’, Annuario, 39/40, n.S. 1961-1962, pp. 149-171.
6‘ Statius Thebaid XII, 629-633. It reads, "These tribes were sent by Salamis, those by Ceres' town Eleusis,
to the savage combat, their plows hung up; they too were sent whom Kallirhoe encloses with water nine

19

fountain houses and aqueducts was one of the most celebrated achievements of the
Peisistratid tyranny, and as such, the Southeast Fountain was pointed out to Pausanias
(1.14.1) as the "famous" Enneakrounos built by the tyrants.65 _ By building these famed
fountain houses, the tyrants demonstrated themselves as champions of the people.66 The
scenes of women at the fountain house without any mythological connotations may have
attempted to show the "common good" of the tyranny directed at the people, and the
vessels may directly refer to the building of the Enneakrounos by the tyrants.67

The vases depicting fountain houses are unlikely to represent only the
Enneakrounos. Instead, they appear to represent the availability of water throughout the
city afforded by the tyrants. The vase paintings correspond to our limited archaeological
remains in various sites, and provide clues to the people who would frequent them,
namely the women of Athens. The Athenian women were closely associated with water,
and most beneﬁted from the fountain houses found throughout Athens,vand that is why

they ﬁgure predominantly in images of fountain houses.

 

times wandering, and Elisos who, knowing of the rape of Orithyia, concealed the Getic love upon his
banks.

65 T. Leslie Shear Jr., "Tyrants and Buildings in Archaic Athens," in Athens Comes of Age: from Solon to
Salamis: papers of a symposium sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Princeton Society,
and the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, (Princeton: Archaeological Institute of
America, 1978), p. 11.

"6 Shear, p. 11.

67 Pedley, p. 70.

20

CHAPTER 2

WOMEN'S USE OF WATER IN RITUAL AND CULT

In ancient Greece, women played important roles in religion, ﬁmerals, marriages,
birth, and the maintenance of the house, or oikos. Many of the functions involved in
maintaining the home appear in religious and secular rituals, including cooking, the

production of woven garments, and fetching water.68

Religious activities that were
important within the polls were often performed by women, and re-enforced their roles
within the home. Religious and cult rites involving water provide an iconographic
precedent for viewing black-ﬁgure vessels created in the last half of the sixth-century
b.c.e. showing women at the fountain house.

Marriage was perhaps one of the most important events of a woman's life. A
number of vessels survive that refer to the wedding and the importance of bearing
children, and many of these focus on the role of women in the ceremonies and their
experiences. Hydriai, especially those from the last half of the sixth century, comprise
most of the surviving vases dealing with weddings. Vases dealing with weddings are
believed to be decorated for women and represent their experience because weddings are
such an important part of a young woman's life, and because the images themselves deal
with rituals of the wedding ceremony that are their particular concern. One of the most
important of these rituals centered upon water.

Both the bride and groom took nuptial baths before the wedding. Bathing before

the wedding was made ceremonial. The water was drawn from a prescribed source

 

68 Pierre Brulé. La F ille d'Athénes (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1987), pp. 99-115.

21

according to local custom, either a river or spring. This explains why Klytemnestra
brings bath water from home when Agamemnon summons Iphigeneia to Aulis for
marriage.69 Thucydides tells us (2.15.5) in Athens, on their wedding day, the bride and
groom were given nuptial baths using water gathered at the Kallirhoe spring,70 This
source was used for other religious ceremonies as well. And some fountain house scenes
name the spot "Kallirhoe." "The people in those days used to use this spring for all
purposes since it was so close to them, and from this ancient habit of theirs is derived the
custom of using it for ceremonies before marriage and in other religious ceremonies."
The vessel that carried the sacred water came to be known as a loutrophoros; it is a tall
vase with a high, funnel-shaped neck, a slender body and a ﬂaring mouth. The literal
translation of loutrophoros means "someone who carries the bathwater" - that someone
was always a woman."

Many rituals associated with weddings, especially the prenuptial bath,
emphasized fertility, and attempted to ensure it in the new couple. The scholia to
Euripides' Phoenician Women tells the purpose of the bridal bath, "Bridegrooms were
accustomed in days of old to bathe in the local rivers and to sprinkle themselves
symbolically with water from the rivers and springs, praying for fertility in this way,
since water is life-giving and productive."72 Here, water is described as life-giving and
productive; these qualities are most regarded in the Attic woman - her ability to provide

the oikos with a suitable heir and supply the polis with another man. The goal of

 

(’9 John H. Oakley and Rebecca H. Sinos, The Wedding in Ancient Athens (Madison: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 1993), p. 15.

7° Oakley & Sinos, p. 15.

7' Rush Rehm, Marriage to Death: The Conﬂation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 14

72 Oakley & Sinos, p. 15., scholia line 347.

22

marriage was the production of legitimate heirs; therefore, fertility was an important
element for a successful marriage. In this way, water becomes an important element for a
Greek woman to fulﬁll her roles in society, for if she was not fertile (the male is assumed
to be so), her husband could divorce her for failing to produce a suitable heir. One thinks
here of the Danaids in the underworld forced to ﬁll continually a leaking pithos for the
murder of their husbands. The water that leaks out symbolizes their rejection of marriage
and therefore fertility.73 Water, itself connected with fertility and marriage rituals, is part
of their punishment, and represents that which they denied.

In Attic vessels showing marriage ceremonies, the bridal bath is a popular
depiction. Most show the procession either going to or returning from the Kallirhoe, the
fountain house where the Athenians gathered water for sacred occasions. This
iconography is found as early as the Proto-Attic period, but is especially predominant in
red-ﬁgure vases from the Classical period (see Figure 3). This loutrophoros shows the
procession carrying bathwater from the fountain house. The artist has included a woman
carrying a loutrophoros which holds the water. Behind her, the bride's mother carries the
torch as part of the wedding procession. Scenes showing the bride's bath are far more
common than those that show the bridegroom's (although they are not unknown).

Wedding scenes in the black-ﬁgure technique occur most often on amphorae and
hydriai, both of which are used to hold liquids, the former wine, and the latter water
suggesting both the nuptial bath and feasting. By the middle of the ﬁfth century,

wedding scenes were more popular on loutrophoroi and lebetes gamikoi, which often

 

73 Giulia Sissa, Greek Virginity Trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University
Press, 1990), 171.

23

depict rituals." Loutrophoroi frequently represent the procession to draw water, with the
ﬁgures themselves carrying a loutrophoros. This is a popular motif utilizing the "vessel
on the vessel," whereby the vase itself reveals the occasion of its use.75

The only context in which the loutrophoros was used was the marriage ceremony,
and as a result the shape itself was used in dedications and for gifts surrounding the
wedding day. Many loutrophoros fragments have been found in the sanctuary of
Nymphe at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis where they may have been dedicated
following the ritual bath. In other instances, brides are presented with a loutrophoros at
their epaulia. The popularity of this ritual in the visual history of the Greeks demonstrates
the important role women played in marriages. Similarly death was another area in
which women were closely connected and played an important and public role in Attic
society. In fact, marriage and death are inextricably linked in the Greek mentality with
many of the rituals being similar. Rituals for both weddings and funerals often shared
elements with each other, and both included the use of water.

Loutrophoroi were also given as grave offerings for women who died before
marriage, which demonstrates the association the Attic Greeks made between weddings
and deaths. To illustrate their use in funerary practice, these vessels often show a woman
mourning who sometimes holds a loutrophoros. The grieving woman recalls the ritual
bath before the laying out of the body, which is also the only "nuptial bath" the dead girl

will ever take.76 Unmarried men who died in battle were also dedicated loutrophoroi on

 

7‘ Rehm, p. 30 see note 3; Robert Franklin Sutton, Jr. The Interaction Between Men and Women Portrayed
on Attic Red-Figure Pottery. Phd. Dissertation; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1981),
pp. 164-215; Webster 1972, pp. 105-08.

7’ Rehm, pp. 30-31.

7° Rehm, p. 31 see note 7.

24

occasion. The vases typically show a cavalry battle in front of a tomb with a fn'eze below
showing a funeral procession. The iconography tells of the young man's death in battle,
while the vase shape alludes to the married life he will never know.77

The women were responsible for the fertility ritual prior to the marriage for both
the bride and the bridegroom. The numerous representations of women holding
loutrophoroi obtaining water clearly represent this ritual because the shape is associated
solely with marriages, as well as funerals for one who dies unwed. The subject's
popularity on vases, as well as the fact that the vessel is left at the grave for an unwed
deceased, conﬁrms that the ritual was one of the more important elements of the marriage
ceremony.

The ritual bathing of a bride before her wedding was similar to the washing of a
body in funerary ritual. In both weddings and funerals, women washed the body with
sacred water. The women of the house washed the body of the deceased, although if
death was imminent, as in the case of Socrates and Alcestis, the dying person may have
done this himself or herself. As in weddings, the washing of the body prepared the dead
for a rite of transition from one stage of life to the next. Euripides' Supplices
demonstrates that the activity of washing the dead is a role for women, as Theseus is
"feminized" by his washing of the corpses of the recovered Argives.78

The earliest ﬁgurative Greek art following the Dark Ages focused on funerary
practices and women's use of water in ritual. Early Geometric vessels show women and
men lamenting the dead. These early images involving death also make reference to the

use of water by women in funerary rites. Late-Geometric vessels, including a kantharos

 

7’ Rehm, p. 31.
’8 Rehm, p. 27.

25

in Copenhagen (Figure 4), show women carrying water for the deceased in ritual
lamentation.79 The central composition shows a man being devoured by lions. This
derives from Oriental images that used man-eating lions to symbolize the power of the
gods. By the Greek Geometric Period, lions were keres, spirits who carried men to their
graves.80 The artist shows the death at the same time as the funerary games (left of the
death scene) and at the same time as the funerary rituals (the right side). The
juxtaposition of different time frames is typical of the Geometric artist.81 The youth to
the right of the lions plays the lyre for the dancing, a ritual in the Cult of the Dead. While
next to him, two women holding sprigs each carry a full hydria, which is assumed to be
ﬁlled with water to be poured at the grave of the deceased. In comparison with other
vessels, we know that the ﬁgures are female because of the activities in which they
partake in other images. For example, in a sub-Geometric grave, a ﬁgurative vessel
(Figure 5) was found on which a woman carries a hydria on her head while she beats her
breast in a traditional gesture of mourning. The water she carries is part of the libations
to be poured for the deceased in the rite of the hydrophoria, a regular feature in the cult
of the dead.82 This is another ritual use of water by women in funerary practice.

Already in the Geometric Period, women are depicted in art with water.
Geometric artists were concerned with creating scenes that were legible to viewers, so it
seems likely that the women carrying hydriai were an important element of funerary

practice during this time, and this would be a clear indication of the activities presented

 

7" Bernhard Schweitzer, Greek Geometric Art trans. Peter and Cornelia Usbome (London: Phaidon, 1971),
p. 188; Erika Diehl, Die Hydria (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1964), p. 128.

8° Schweitzer, p. 55.

8' Anthony Snodgrass, Homer and the Artists. Text and Picture in Early Greek Art (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), pp. 55-66.

82 Diehl, p. 130.

26

for the viewer. These early images are rare, but suggest an iconographic formula is
present in which women are readily identiﬁable in funerary scenes because they carry a
hydria. The use of water by women in ritual is not only limited to rites of transition, but
is a common feature in cult practice as well.

The processions of women carrying water as part of the lamentation for the
deceased gave rise to the festival of the Hydrophoria during the Anthesteria.83 This took
place on the third day of the festival when women collected water for the dead who had
been killed in Deukalion's ﬂood, and poured the water into the earth's crack where the
water of that ﬂood disappeared.“ Pausanias85 describes the chasm where honeycakes are
given to the deceased, which would also be the place where girls with hydriai walked to
pour in the water.86 "In the sanctuary of the Olympian Earth there was a cleft in the
ground where, it was said, the water from Deukalion's ﬂood had ﬂowed away; here the
water which had been carried along was poured." The religious activity of the
Hydrophoria featuring women pouring water for the dead mirrors their traditional activity
in funerals, and provides a religious context for examining images of women carrying
water on hydriai.

The relationship of women at the fountain house and the Hydrophoria for which
they gather water is most evident on a hydria in London (Figure 6). This vase shows
three well-dressed women, each holding a vessel to get water at a fountain house

surrounded by ivy. A pediment supported by Ionic columns covers the fountain house.

 

83 Diehl, p. 130.

8" Erika Simon, Festivals of Attica. An Archaeological Commentary (Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 1983), p. 99.; Ludwig Deubner Attische Feste (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1962), p. 113.; H. W.
Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977), p. 117.

85 1.18.7

8° Diehl, p. 130-34.

27

On each side a woman ﬁlls her hydria from a lion-headed spout ﬂanked on one side by
Dionysos and on the other by Hermes. This hydria corresponds to the Anthesteria when
the ﬁrst day focused on the opening of the new wine, which was the realm of Dionysos,
and the last (third) day when the dead were on earth belonging to the realm of Hermes. It
was on the third day that the women would pour water into the crack in the earth from
Deukalion's ﬂood. The water was important for this ritual, but also had a double meaning
during the festival of the Anthesteria during which the new wine was opened and drunk,
as water would again be necessary for mixing with the wine. The fountain house is
bedecked with garlands, a popular motif found in vase painting to emphasize a festival,
and this iconography occurs on other hydriai depicting women at a fountain house. The
inclusion of sprigs, garlands, and elaborate clothing is used by vase painters to suggest
that the scene has been elevated in importance beyond the common activity into
something more important than the everyday.87 The Anthesteria has been associated with
this vase because it is a festival that includes both Dionysos and Hermes, as well as
involving a ritual act using water.88 The inclusion of the gods on London hydria B 332
makes clear that the scene involves religion and ritual, but even without their presence,
we see the decoration of the fountain house indicating to us a sacred occasion, rather than
the everyday activity of fetching water. This religious rite is not clearly alluded to on
other vases, but this hydria provides visual evidence for women's use of water in cultic
rites, as in funerary rites.

The earliest vases showing women carrying hydriai in cult date to near 540. In

these scenes the focus is not on a fountain house, well, or the act of getting water.

 

87 Sutton Interaction, p. 37.
8“ Diehl, p. 132.

28

Rather, the subject is the women who carry the water (Figures 7 and 8). On these hydriai,
well-dressed women (indicated by the decorative details on their elaborate clothing) carry
full vases on their head (indicated by the fact that the hydriai stand upwards, rather than
on their side) in a processional queue. This procession is indicative of ritual activity, as
seen on Geometric vessels.89 Usually, processions on Attic pottery depict a marriage or
funerary rite. Ritual is also evidenced through the attributes of the women in the images,
such as dress and posture.90 (Later ﬁgures will become more relaxed and converse). The
Boston Hydria shows little interaction between the ﬁgures, as they all face the same
direction with a full hydria. The orderly nature of the scene suggests that this is not a
daily fetching of water, but something more solemn as they are carrying their water to a
particular place. On both of these early vessels, the subject is the women carrying water,
as the fountain is not shown on either vase.

The Cult of the Dead may be referenced on Munich hydria 1690 (Figure 9). Six
women with hydriai are shown gathering water. An Ionic column supports a roof to
cover the horse-headed spout where a woman ﬁlls her hydria. Behind her two women
face each other, one carries a full hydria while the other who holds branches carries an
empty hydria. Behind these two is a group of three women again with both full and
empty hydriai and one woman carrying branches. The noticeably large branches recall
the Geometric kantharos (Figure 4) with women holding branches carrying hydriai on
their heads. These boughs featured in funeral practices. The Geometric kantharos and its
funerary context is also recalled through the decoration below the main scene that shows

two lions attacking a bull. If not funerary, the women may be obtaining water for use in a

 

8" Diehl, p. 132.
9° Manakidou p. 55.

29

sacriﬁcial ceremony. Twigs were used to sprinkle water before acts of puriﬁcation. The
nature of the festivities is unknown, but the decoration of the fountain house suggest it is
part of a ritual or festival, and the vase is created in recognition of this. This is one of the
earliest images of ritual that includes the fountain house in the scene. Also, it is an early
image that has women seeming to interact with each other in a more relaxed fashion. The
iconographic precedent of women carrying water in a procession for ritual dating as far
back as the Geometric Period and the inclusion of sprigs that elevate the scene provide
the primary evidence that these scenes are not showing daily activity.

Erika Diehl and Eleni Manakidou believe the Antimenes Painter drew upon the
traditional scenes of the Cult of the Dead on London hydria B 336 (Figure 10). Although
given less space, the fountain house is again set to the left and features an Ionic column
supporting the roof that covers a single lion-headed spout. However, in contrast to the
Munich hydria (Figure 9) the woman ﬁlling her hydria is not covered by the roof. On the
London hydria, well-dressed women ﬂanked by nonsense inscriptions alternate directions
and hydriai: one has a full hydria while the next is empty. The ﬁgures face each other
with pronounced arm and hand gestures which Diehl and Manakidou believe indicates
dancing or traditional movements.9| Erika Diehl believes the arm and hand gestures
represent dancing that took place at the Cult of the Dead.92 However, given the lack of
ritual references (such as branches) it appears that the Antimenes Painter has actually
attempted to show interaction between the visitors to the newly created fountain house.

Many later (c. 510 b.c.e.) black-ﬁgure Archaic hydriai representing religious

occasions pay greater detail to the architecture of the fountain house. This is made clear

 

9' Manakidou, p. 53-4.
92 Diehl, p. 130.

30

through the inclusion of garlands, wreaths, or twigs that decorate the fountain house.
Paris hydria F 296 and London hydria B 329 (Figures 11 and 12 respectively) show
women decorating a fountain house. The Paris hydria dedicates the central portion to the
wall of the fountain house that appears to have inset Doric columns, although there is no
indication of a roof, one assumes its presence is simply excluded from the representation.
On the left wall is a mule-headed spout and on the right a lion-headed spout. Underneath
each spout is a series of blocks on which two women each rest their hydria and upon
which each places one foot. Behind each of the women ﬁlling her hydria are three more
women with both full and empty hydriai. This Paris hydria is especially busy with eight
elaborately dressed women at a fountain bedecked with ivy and garlands, as the woman
just right of center appears to be carrying a wreath to decorate the lion-headed spout.

The London hydria (Figure 12) also shows a fountain house bedecked with vines
with women decorating the spouts. This time the fountain house provides indication of
the roof which is held up by four Doric columns. Four women are at the fountain house,
although the scene has ﬁve hydriai supported on blocks. The left, right and center spouts
are lion-headed. While the other two spouts on the back wall are rare—horsemen spouts.
The right horseman spout is also being decorated with a wreath. A woman hangs a
wreath around the lion-headed spout on the left. Through the decoration of the fountain
house, the women make the source of the water sacred for use in religious ceremonies.
The celebration on these vases decorated with garlands and wreaths may recall one of
several Athenian festivals that involve the use of water by women.

The most important religious festivals included women, at times excluding males,

such as the Thesmophoria, and many signiﬁcant religious roles were held by women. At

31

religious events, it was acceptable for women of all social levels to venture outside of the
home, especially if the religious activity emphasized their roles as childbearers.93 In fact,
women would leave the seclusion of their homes to visit religious shrines that could be
quite far from their own home. Many of these experiences involve the ritual use of water,
including the Eleusinian Mysteries, which was one of the most important religious
ceremonies for the ancient Greek.

At the conclusion of the Eleusinian Mysteries, two vessels were ﬁlled, probably
with water, and then overturned, one towards the west and one towards the east, while to
the sky one cried "rain!" and to the earth "conceive!"—in Greek a play on words: hye -
kye.94 The same words were engraved on a fountain, illustrating the importance of the
source of water used in ritual. Because crops required water to ﬂourish, it reasons that it
became associated with fertility. Women were responsible for many rituals that were
concerned with the growth of crops because water was associated with fertility and life-
giving, which was likened to a woman's own fertility.

Other festivals that featured women also attested to the likening of water with
women, evidenced by the predominant use of water in these celebrations. During the
Panathenaia, girls called hydrophoroi would carry water in a hydria for use in sacriﬁce;
this was a feature common in public sacriﬁce.95 Also as part of the Panathenaia, women
at the head of the Panathenaic procession carry hydriai and phialai for the water that

would be used for libations to be poured for those who died in Marathon.96 This

 

93 Nancy Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece (Baltimore, London: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1994), p. 24.

9" Walter Burkert, Greek Religion Trans. John Raffan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 73.
95 Walter Burkert, Homo Necans. The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacnﬂcial Ritual and Myth. Trans.
Peter Bing (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1983), p. 137.

96 Simon, p. 59.

32

obviously is not the activity depicted on these vases where the women carry jugs because
the Battle of Marathon occurs much later. But the festival highlights the use of
processions of women carrying hydriai for libations to the dead in a larger context, not
just the Anthesteria, and it may have been a common feature across cult practice.

In the cults of Hera, Artemis, and Demeter, water was used in rituals associated
with women.97 This is particularly true in the case of Hera, who had a longstanding
tradition of water in her rites (especially in Argos and on Samos—the centers of cult
worship dedicated to her)"8 Charles Waldstein found hundreds of miniature hydria at
Hera's sanctuaries during his excavations.99 And near the temple to Hera at Argos, J. L.
Caskey found approximately 900 such miniature hydriai dated from the seventh through
the sixth centuries.100 These miniature hydriai were dedicated to various female gods, but
are most abundant in the cults of Artemis, Hera, and Demeter.101 Sanctuaries dedicated to
Demeter have revealed a great number of miniature hydriai and terracotta ﬁgurines of
women carrying hydriai. This reﬂects their role in the mystery cults of Demeter in which
the ritual pouring out of water was associated with salvation.102 These miniature hydriai
dedicated by women reﬂect the hydrophoroi festivals in which the Greek women

partook.

 

97 Susan Guettel Cole, "The Uses of Water in Greek Sanctuaries," Early Greek Cult Practice. Proceedings
of the Fifth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 26-29 June, I 986 Ed. Robin Hagg,
Nanno Man'natos and Gulldg C. Nordquist (1986), p. 161.

98 Cole, p. 163.

99 Charles Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum I, (Boston, 1902), p. 100 ff.

'00 J. L. Caskey and P. Amandry, "Investigations at the Heraion of Argos, 1949," Hesperia 21 (1952), p.
175 ff., 197 ff.

'0' Cole, p. 164.

'02 Christopher A. Faraone, "Salvation and Female Heroics in the Parodos of Aristophanes' Lysistrata,"
Journal of Hellenic Studies cxvii (1997), p. 51.

33

In cults that include the use of water, sanctuaries were often equipped with water
sources. The water system at the Argive Heraion is believed to be for ritual use relating
to the myth of Zeus and Hera's marriage, most speciﬁcally Hera's wedding bath, as it was

said that girls brought baths to Hera.”3

And the miniature hydriai found at the sanctuary
may have been associated with this ritual acting out of Hera's bridal bath. Demeter also
had provisions for water in her sanctuaries where it appears that hydriai and hydrophoroi
were popular dedications to her, suggesting an association with the need of water for
agriculture, which was possible because of her, again emphasizing fertility made possible
via water.104 Similarly hydriai have been found dedicated to Artemis at Brauron,
Ephesos, and Sparta, and there is evidence of hydrophoroi at Didyma, Patmos, Samos,
and Lousoi.‘05 Notably, these sanctuaries of Artemis are the places where young girls
were involved in ritual activity.“ Artemis was particularly important in caring for
female children, and at the time of their marriage, dedications were made to her before
the girl made the transformation into wife.

Given the hot, dry climate of Greece, water was extremely important to the
ancient Greeks, and it became an important element of their religion. In semiarid lands,
cool springs were identiﬁed with nymphs and accorded divine honors. And in the ancient
Greek city of Morgantina, many religious objects were found at the fountain house,
suggesting the fountain house itself was a site of religious importance. These objects are

datable to the third century b.c.e., when the spring was likely a focal point of a cult, and

include fragments of terra-cotta busts of Persephone, and a pinax decorated with three

 

”’3 Cole, p. 164; Based upon ancient lexicographers Hesych. s.v.
'0‘ Cole, pp. 163-64.

"’5 Diehl, p. 199-201.

'0" Cole, p. 164.

34

music-making nymphs.”7 Many sources of water throughout Greece were a focus of
ritual and cult, and the nymphs thought to inhabit these springs were worshipped and
celebrated.

In Greek cult, nymphs were the female divinities Poseidon left to guard the water
he sent to the earth's surface, like Amymone. These ﬁgures, seeming to scoop water
from its sources and give it to humans, were responsible for the water that was gathered
at the fountain house.” These female deities, believed to provide the populace with
water, echo the role of women in ancient Greece, as nymphs parallel a Greek woman's
life.109 The nymphs were often given names of the source that they were believed to
inhabit, and were themselves worshipped at these spots. The divinities responsible for
the water supply of Greek cities were feminine, since water — its obtainment and many
ritual uses - was closely related to the sphere of women. These nymphs were celebrated
for providing the Athenian citizens with clean, cool water for drinking, and water used in
rituals had to be procured from a source that was free ﬂowing and thus associated with
these deities. Eleni Manakidou believes that the elevation of fountain house scenes with
the inclusion of garlands and wreaths represents the conﬂation of the sacred with the
profane. And these women, in carrying out the daily activity of fetching water, often
brought gifts to and decorated the fountain house as a way of celebrating the nymph
divinities.”0 Fresh spring water, its sources, and the fountain houses that supplied it were

often associated with divinities, although the celebration of them on a regular basis

 

'07 Bell p. 333.

'08 Diehl, p. 201.

"’9 Jennifer Larson, Greek Nymphs. Myth, Cult Lore. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), See
especially 3.2 "Nymphs, Goddesses, and the Female Life Cycle, pp. 100-120.

”0 Manakidou, p. 58.; This suggestion would most likely also be supported by Christiane Sourvinou-
Inwood, "Early Sanctuaries, the eighth century and ritual space: Fragments of a discourse." in Greek

35

remains speculation. Her suggestion is, however, strengthened by Berlin hydria F1908
and Rome hydria 47457 (Figures 13 and 14). In these images, women gather water at a
fountain house decorated with garlands and inhabited by deer. The Berlin hydria pays
less attention to the articulation of the architecture of the fountain house. It is a covered
lion-headed spout supported by an Ionic column. Under the spout is a block on which a
hydria has been placed. In contrast, the Rome hydria gives greater space to the
architecture of the fountain house, which is comprised of a panther-headed spout covered
by a roof supported by a Doric columns. Under the spout is a series of blocks on which
the ﬁrst woman has placed her vessel while ﬁlling. The inclusion of deer may serve to
highlight the naturalness of the scene, and allude to these nymph divinities who guard the
natural world. Deer were often associated with Artemis in the mythological tradition,
and the nymphs were her companions, which may serve to highlight the women at the
fountain house decorated with ivy.

The black-ﬁgure vessels showing women at the fountain house involved in some
sort of religious activity are curious because in most cases there is no clear indication of
the divinity being worshipped. (The most notable exception is London Hydria B 332
[Figure 6], on which the inclusion of Hermes and Dionysos illuminates the context within
which one should view the hydria). However, other images of women at a fountain
house bedecked with garlands and carrying sprigs do not include a divinity's presence,
nor do inscriptions locate the participants. This could provide clues to the location of the
ﬁgures as well as the events. Because of this, I believe there are two likely explanations.

First, it seems possible that the celebration is in honor of the nymphs who we know were

 

Sanctuaries: New Approaches Ed. Nanno Marinatos and Robin Hagg (London and New York: Routledge,
1993), pp. 1-17.

36

the focus of ritual activity, in particular at the sanctuary of Nymphe at the base of the
Acropolis. The inclusion of animals perhaps alludes to the natural setting of the water's
source, which would be associated with nymphs, or Artemis. The lack of an
iconographic formula may have been discemable to an ancient viewer accustomed to
seeing the area of the fountain house as being under the protection of nymphs, and thus
they are the divinities celebrated. A second possibility is that the decorators generally
were unconcerned with depicting or celebrating a particular occasion, but instead
highlighted the role of women in festivals that involved the ritual use of water. The
speciﬁcs of the festival were less important than the familiarity of the ritual act of the
women who we assume would be the primary consumers of such vases.“'

In all of these Archaic images involving ritual activity at the fountain, men are not
present. Men did utilize water in religious activity (it was always used for puriﬁcation
and cleansing in sacriﬁces and ritual), but its procurement by a man is not emphasized.
Instead, the subject reveals itself in scenes that appeal to women, and on shapes that are
associated with women - especially the hydria, the vessel used for obtaining water. In
these early images, the women are the focus of the composition; the fountain house itself
is not shown. Later it is set apart from the center and indicates the space where we ﬁnd
the women, rather than emphasizing the architecture of the fountain so that the activities
dominate.

Shortly after 520 b.c.e., images of women at the fountain house change. The
images no longer represent ritual, but instead women are at the fountain obtaining water

for the home. Simultaneously, ritual images, especially for marriage ceremonies,

 

”' By the sixth century, there is evidence that women were consumers of vases as indicated by the increase
in genre scenes that showed aspects important to their own lives, particularly marriage festivities.

37

continue to document women fetching water. The earliest images of women at the
fountain house, carrying water, and using water make reference to its use in religion and
ritual by women. These images around 540 that show women carrying hydriai in a
procession, as well as London Hydria B 332 (Figure 6), and the images of decorated
fountain houses are part of the tradition of women using water in funerary cult practices.
These rituals derived in part from women's association with fertility and life-giving,
which are qualities associated with water. There is no problem identifying the women
involved in ritual activity as citizens, but as the imagery changes, their status is
questioned. Can these women involved in the secular act of obtaining water seemingly
for use within the home be of citizen status or is it more likely that slaves would fetch
water for the home?

Myth attests to the fact that women were responsible for procuring water for use
in the home. Greek mythology provides the earliest evidence that images of women at
the fountain house are indeed citizen women, and that these vessels continue a long-
standing tradition of women as providers of water for the home. In the Homeric Hymn to
Demeter, Demeter, disguised as Doso, goes to a public well. While here, she comes
across women of the city and there gained employment in a home. The daughters of
Metaneira come to the well as part of their work to gather water for the home where they
meet Demeter/Doso and offer her work. This aspect of the story becomes an important
component in the Eleusinian mysteries. Within the sanctuary at Eleusis was the
Kallichoron Well where the initiates danced while the goddess sat nearby on the

Mirthless Rock.”2 And in Greek art, the rock on which Demeter sat while at the well

 

"2 Kevin Clinton, "The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis." in Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches
Ed. Nanno Marinatos and Robin Hagg (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 118.

38

becomes part of the iconographic formula. In the Hymn, no men are present at the well;
rather women performing traditional duties frequent this area. This is also documented in
a now lost part of the Homeric Iliupersis in which Polyxena is at a fountain house when
Achilles ambushes Troilos. This is a popular subject in black-ﬁgure vases. The
depiction usually includes Polyxena at the fountain house with a broken hydria lying at
her feet. Apart from Troilos, additional ﬁgures are rarely shown with her at the fountain
house.

Another mythological story, the Danaids, tells of women's association with water.
According to the tradition, Danaos invented the digging of wells,“3 and had ﬁfty
daughters, one of whom is Amymone. She was sent to ﬁnd water by her father. In her
search, a satyr tries to rape her. She calls upon Poseidon who eliminates the satyr, and
sleeps with her instead. Poseidon then strikes the ground with his trident, creating the
Springs of Lema, and the River Amymone. Hesiod relays the story, when he tells that
Argos was waterless until the Danaai watered the land.“" The myth becomes particularly
prevalent in the ﬁfth century with Aeschylus's satyr play, Amymone, which became a
popular subject in red-ﬁgure vase paintings.”5

Amymone is a source name for a river and a spring formed because of her union
with Poseidon. In Greek religious tradition, water was a symbol of fertility, and the
divinities who inhabit these spaces of fresh water are women. Amymone is an example
of this fusion of women and water as are her sisters, the Danaids. The Danaids, less

Amymone and Hypermestra, are forced to marry; following their marriage, the Danaids

 

”3 Ken Dowden, Death and the Maiden: Girls' Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology (London; New York:
Routledge, 1989), p. 148.

”“ Dowden, p. 152.

”5 Dowden, p. 151.

39

murder their husbands.”6 In the fourth century b.c.e. a tradition develops wherein they
are made to carry water forever in leaking vessels in the underworld, a Sisyphean
punishment for their refusal of marriage. Although it is unknown until the fourth century,
this becomes a popular subject on Apulian vases and in later literature. However, it is
noteworthy that these women are doomed to serve a punishment that forces them to carry
out an everyday task over and over, unable to complete it because they rejected marriage.
The mythology of Polyxena, Demeter/Doso, the daughters of Metanaira, and
Amymone attest to the role of women in Greek society as procurers of water for the
home, as is also elaborated from cult and ritual. Apart from their daily activities, women
of all social classes utilized water in ritual and cult roles, which was important for Attic
women, and provided their most visible role in the society. However, these rituals
derived from a woman's responsibility within the home, and echo their work. The black
ﬁgure hydriai showing women at the fountain house conversing with each other while
they ﬁll their jugs became a very popular motif for vase painters of the period. In
contrast to the earlier emphasis given to the women in the composition, the images now
depict the women in a single row with their vessels, which they have just ﬁlled, are
ﬁlling, or are waiting to ﬁll. In some instances, the women dominate the composition
with the architecture of the fountain house being subsidiary, while in other instances
neither the architectural features of the fountain house nor the women depicted dominate
the scene; instead, the two share the composition. In all, the artists make clear the space
the women inhabit and their activities while giving the viewer a sense of camaraderie, as

the women gesticulate and converse.

 

"6 Hypermestra is forced to marry, but she is excepted because she does not murder her husband.

40

CHAPTER 3

THE STATUS OF THE WOMEN DEPICTED

Images of the fountain house existed before the PeisiStratid tyrants began building
public fountains, but the scenes were mythological, showing Achilles pursuing Troilos,
such as on the Francois vase. Around 540 b.c.e., there was a shift. Instead of
mythological characters being represented, women are shown in what appears to be ritual
activity involving the use of water. These scenes of ritual activity then give rise to a daily
activity. Achilles, Polyxena, and Troilos continue to be a subject of vase painting, as
does ritual, but most fountain house scenes take an interest in the daily lives of the
citizens as the artists depict the building projects happening around them. The new water
sources built under the Peisistratid tyranny impacted the everyday life of Athenian
citizens, and Attic vase painters represent this through their depictions of women
frequenting fountain houses. Although many scholars believe that respectable women
would not visit the fountain because of its public location, the vases suggest otherwise.
The women shown appear to be citizens through their dress, adornment, and from what is
known of the historical record.

Because of the belief that Athenian women were for the most part secluded within
the home, scholarship concerning images of women at the fountain house in the sixth-
century black-ﬁgure technique has recognized the difﬁculty in assigning a status to the
women presented. Analyses tend to reﬂect the authors' position regarding the seclusion
of women in the home in Attic society. There are those who believe that women did have
some freedom outside the home, and fetching water was indeed part of a woman's role,

and therefore, the women represented are respectable Athenian citizens. Others,

41

believing that women were isolated in the home, assume the ﬁgures are not wives, except
in the examples of ritual activity at the fountain house, but instead must represent slaves,
hetaerae, or metics. The ﬁnal group of commentators believes that we cannot determine
the identity of these women because the evidence is conﬂicting: i.e. the citizen women of
ancient Athens are supposed to be secluded, but it appears they fetched water.

Looking at a stereotypical image such as the Toledo hydria (Figure 2), it is
unlikely given their posture and dress that the women depicted are slaves. The women on
the vases of this period are too richly adorned to be slaves or lower class citizens.”7 The
dress and adornment of the ﬁgures is consistent with most of the black-ﬁgure scenes
showing women involved in activity that does not indicate a slave status. In addition,
slaves' hair was usually kept short,l '8 but all of the women shown have longer hair pulled
back. And during the period in which the greatest numbers of these vessels were created,
slaves were shown as attendants to other ﬁgures, not in isolation.‘19 Given the
Peisistratids' political stance as champions of the people (in part because of the improved
water supply), it is unlikely to have received as much notice if the beneﬁciaries were
slaves who were sent on the errand.

Apart from the iconography, Herodotus documents that the women presented in
these images are citizens of Athens. He states in Book VI, chapter 137:

But the Athenians themselves say that their reason for expelling the

Pelasgians was just. The Pelasgians, they say, issued out from their

settlement at the foot of Hymettus and dealt wrongfully with the

Athenians in these ways: neither the Athenians nor any other dwellers in

Hellas had as yet servants at that time, and their sons and daughters
resorted to the Nine Wells for water; and whenever they came, the

 

”7 Eva C. Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens (New York: Harper & Row,
1995), p. 235.

"8 Sarah Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves (New York: Schocken Books, 1975), p. 83.

"9 Sian Lewis, "Slaves as Viewers and Users of Athenian Pottery," Hephaistos 16/17 (1998/99), p. 82.

42

Pelasgians maltreated them out of mere arrogance and pride. Nor yet were
they content with so doing, but at last were caught in the act of planning to
attack Athens. The Athenians, by their own showing, dealt so much more
rightly than the Pelasgians, that when they might have killed them, caught
plotting as they were, they would not do so.
Thus, Herodotus explains that the sons and daughters of Athenian citizens were fetching
water because they did not have house slaves.‘20 He then implies that the Athenian
citizens of Herodotus's time did own slaves who would be responsible for obtaining the

water. '2‘

This provides evidence for a change in the status of the women at the fountain
house, which also becomes evident in the visual imagery.

Slaves' numbers peaked in the Classical period, in the time between the Persian
and Peloponnesian wars. However, the numbers are more difﬁcult to assess for the
Archaic period. In late red-ﬁgure vases, including Louvre CA 2587, it is clear that the
women are Thracian slaves, identiﬁable by their tattooed arms and necks and short
hair.‘22 However, this vase is very late in the theme of women at the fountain house. In a
period that had a marked increase in slaves as consumers of painted pottery, this is the
only vase that clearly attests to female slaves fetching water. Apparently, the vase
painters took a familiar subject and included in it the clear mark of the slaves. Given the
increase of the slave population in later years and Herodotus's account, it seems likely

the job originally done by citizen women fell to slaves, and in so doing fell out of favor

as a subject relatively quickly.'23

 

'30 It is curious that Herodotus included sons in this account. There is a lack of evidence in the visual
history, mythological tradition, and literature to demonstrate males at a fountain house for the purpose of
collecting water. When they are found at a fountain in the visual history, they are washing under the
spouts.

'2' Lise Hannestad, "Slaves and the Fountain House Theme," in Ancient Greek and Related Pottery:
Proceedings of the International Vase Symposium in Amsterdam 12-15 April 1984, ed. H. A. G. Brijder
(Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Series, 1984), p. 254.

'22 Hannestad, p. 254.

'23 Hannestad, p. 255.

43

Literary texts written well into the fourth-century suggest that citizen women, not

‘24 As a result, it was

just slaves, went to the fountain house and conversed in groups.
possible for men to intrude upon the space, as attested by ancient authors, such as by
Aristophanes. Fetching water involved social interactions, gossip, and the potential for a
"chance encounter" at the fountain. For this reason, slave girls may have been sent by
those who could afford slaves. '25 Because some may have sent slaves, many scholars
conclude women at the fountain in these black-ﬁgure scenes probably represent slaves
although neither the iconography nor the historical record supports it. The women in the
vases under discussion are well dressed, and do not appear as slaves or hetaerae, though it
is possible they were citizens unable to afford a slave or who chose to fetch the water
themselves. But, the prevalent association of women with water in ritual and cult
suggests the duty was traditional. Therefore, it is likely that some women would uphold
the tradition and maintain responsibility for collecting water within the oikos. This
explains why a woman such as Lysistrata would be at the fountain house.

Inscriptions found on some of the vases have also been discussed in relationship
to the status of the women presented on black-ﬁgure vases. But again, the conclusions
reﬂect the lack of agreement regarding the women on the vases. Friedrich Bechtel
discusses some of the names inscribed near the ﬁgures found on the hydriai. The names

126

include Rodon, Kyane, and lope—names of noble Athenian women. Boardman states

that the names inscribed on the fountain house scenes are a good source "for the familiar

 

‘24 Claude Bérard, "The Order of Women," in A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient
Greece, ed. Claude Bérard (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 95. Hannestad, p. 252.; Elaine
Fantham, H. P. Foley, N. B. Kampen, S. B. Pomeroy, and H. A. Shapiro, Women in the Classical World:
image and text (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 108-09.; Petersen, pp. 40-41.

'25 Pomeroy, p. 72.

'26 Friedrich Bechtel , Die Attischen F rauennamen nach ihrem Systeme Dargestellt (Gottingen, 1902).

44

names of Athenian girls."127 Dyfri Williams, however, disagrees and suggests that the
women are hetaerae, believing that the names are those of women who may have danced
or played at parties of the pot's owner. An example is Rhodopis who was a famous
hetaira of the sixth-century.128 lope he reads as a Lydian word for 'hither', which would
correlate to her job,129 but this association lacks adequate proof. Williams' suggestion
implies a male audience, although hydriai do not usually depict images aimed at men.
These conﬂicting opinions demonstrate the lack of agreement among scholars in
assigning status to the women presented. Although there is nothing in the names or
iconography establishing the women are hetaerae or slaves, the belief persists because of
the notion of the seclusion of women in Attic society. But, some of the evidence is
questionable.

In the sixth-century, Solon distinguished between respectable women and
prostitutes. Solon's laws attempted to diminish the problems women may cause by
limiting their inﬂuence, and their appearance in public.130 However, citizen women who
were less wealthy went to work as washerwomen, woolworkers, vendors, or sellers of

textiles and garlands, nurses, and midwives.”'

None of this work provides the security of
the seclusion of the home, but it does indicate the different social levels of citizens within
Athens. Engaging in this type of work indicated a family's lower social level, but it in no

way means that those forced to do such work did not have full citizen rights. For the

citizens that were less well off, seclusion within the home would not be possible as they

 

'27 John Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, (London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd., 1974), p. 206.
'28 Dyfri Williams, "Women on Athenian Vases: Problems of Interpretation," in Images of Women in
Antiquity ed. Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt (London and Camberra: Croom Helma, 1983), p. 105.
'29 Williams, p. 105.

'30 Pomeroy, p. 57.

'3' Pomeroy, p. 73.

45

could not afford slaves to do the work necessary to maintain the home. Seclusion
represents an ideal in Attic society, not necessarily a reality. The scholarly debate
centering around the notion of seclusion of women assumes citizen women were all of
equal levels, thus the deﬁnitions used are gross exaggerations from the reality of many
citizens, and they often rely upon evidence that primarily dates to the Classical age while
most of the images we have date to the Archaic age.

Because we lack a female perspective, classicists studying the role of women in
ancient Mediterranean societies are forced to rely upon the writings of male authors who
forward their own perception of reality, and thus lead classicists to make diverse
assumptions. J. Gould has written about the seclusion of women, "False assertions are
characteristic of this particular ﬁeld of enquiry."132 The topic is fraught with problems as
each side utilizes data that support its own opinions. Those who argue against the
complete seclusion of the female rely upon tragedy and archaeology; the others utilize
orations and some philosophical and historical literature; both sides use comedy, but in
different ways.'33

The ancient association of men=outdoors:women=indoors is present in traditional
Mediterranean societies today.I34 Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood used modern
anthropological data of Mediterranean societies to address seclusion in ancient Greece.

Although this approach has inherent biases, it does provide an ideological system with

 

'32 J. Gould, "Law, Custom, and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens."
Journal of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980), p. 39.

'33 H. S. Versnel, "Wife and Helpmate. Women of Ancient Athens in Anthropological Perspective," in
Sexual Asymmetry : Studies in Ancient Society, ed. J. Blok and P. Mason (Amsterdam: Gieben, 1987), p.
63.

'3‘ D. Cohen, "Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens," Greece and Rome 36
(1989), 5.

46

which to compare. ‘35 Sourvinou-Inwood demonstrated, " [the] relationship to the lived

reality and normative ideality of the observed society is problematic."136

Anthropologists
studying modern Mediterranean societies have noted the difference between ﬁrst-hand
observations and relying upon personal accounts that have a tendency to be subjective to
the informant's conscious and unconscious relationship to perceived reality.I37 These
modern societies continue to associate women with the indoors, which is in contrast to
the reality of the society. Similarly ancient Athenians may have ideally sought seclusion
for the women, but this did not necessarily reﬂect the reality of life. The "binary

Systemnl38

used in describing Greek women in antiquity is that the male is outside and the
female inside, tarrying away in the oikos for the betterment of the polis. However,
religion proves this binary, either/or system fails to reﬂect accurately what we do know
about ancient society in the public sphere. Religion was an important facet of the public
polis; thus the system is questioned because of the importance placed on this sphere that
belongs to women, and in which they play an important and very public role.I39

When fetching water, the women "cross social boundaries,"140

entering into the
public sphere. But, looking at other evidence of ancient Athenian society demonstrates

this is not the only example of women leaving the home. Women of all social levels

played some public roles in Archaic Athens including festivals, marriages, and funerals.

 

'35 Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Male and Female, Public and Private, Ancient and Modern," in
Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, ed. Ellen D. Reeder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996),
p. 112.

'3" Sourvinou-lnwood, p. 111.

'37 Cohen, p. 4.

'38 Sourvinou-lnwood, p. 112.

'39 Women's power in religion is evidenced not only by their public role in cult rituals, but also by their
various priestth and dedications and their patronage. Most of these dedications and acts of patronage
date to the Archaic and Hellenistic age, "when the polis system was in the state of development or changing
again." Uta Kron, "Priesthoods, Dedications and Euergetism: What Part Did Religion Play in the Political

47

In contrast to the Classical period, it is likely that in the Archaic period women had a

'4' Women were not

more public role in funerals, marriages, and caring for cults.
expected simply to lament the dead but they also were responsible for caring for the
deceased after the burial, including visiting the grave and providing offerings
continually.I42 It was a woman's responsibility to visit the tombs of deceased family
members to whom she would bring offerings and tie sashes around the stelai.143 These
activities, along with women's attendance at the funerary oration by Perikles, and visits to
sanctuaries such as Artemis at Brauron and the Sanctuary of the Nymphe at the foot of
the Acropolis, require entering into the public sphere of the male.144 To fulﬁll these
roles, a woman must have had some freedom of movement outside the home as opposed
to the perceived seclusion of females in Athens. Plutarch tells of Athenian women who
came to the Acropolis "on the pretext of admiring the works of art," and similarly,
Euripides refers to women visiting Delphi admiring the monuments.'45 We know that
women left the home to attend weddings and funerals, visit male family members in
prison, as well as assist their neighbors in childbirth, which certainly would not be the

only time they would see these neighbors.I46 It is possible that in leaving the home for

such purposes a woman would wear a veil to be somewhat inconspicuous when venturing

 

and Social Status of Greek Women?" in Religion and Power in the Ancient Greek World. Proceedings of
the Uppsala Symposium 1993. Ed. Pontus Hellstrom and Brita Alroth (Sweden, 1996), pp. 139-182.

”0 Keuls p. 235.

'4' Fantham, p. 96.

"2 Fantham, p. 96.

”3 Ellen D. Reeder, "Women and Men in Classical Greece," in Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, ed.
Ellen D. Reeder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 21.

'“ Reeder, p. 21.

"5 Reeder, p. 21.

"6 Demand, p. 23.

48

outside of the home,'47 but these activities all require a woman to enter into male/public
space.

D. Cohen has questioned the modern association that separation equals seclusion.
It is, "ideologically determined texts like Andromache's speech or Xenophon's portrayal
of the ideal wife," that perpetuate the notion of complete seclusion of the female.M8
Ideology is not the same as reality. "Law codes are never automatic guides to the actual
behavior of a society and behavioral norms are likely to have varied from class to

"I

class. 49 These opinions provide a framework for thinking about the seclusion of
women in ancient Athens. The ancients probably desired seclusion for the female but in
reality, this was not possible all of the time and they would have ventured outside the
home for a variety of activities; one of which may have been fetching water.

Versnel believes that rather than being kept in complete seclusion, women were
"neighborhood-bound." '50 Instead of venturing all over the city, they would stay near
their house and neighbors. This establishes their presence at their neighbors to assist in
childbirth that would be part of friendships developed through other visits.ls ' The
women obtaining water at the fountain could be seen as staying near their home as there
were public fountains throughout Athens built by the tyrants. If this is correct, a woman
at the fountain could expect to see her neighbors as they partake in their daily activities

and here would have the chance for socializing with people she knew. He believes the

negative picture painted of women in literature does not automatically correlate to a

 

”7 Reeder, p. 21.

”3 Cohen, pp 6-7.

”9 Sarah C. Humphreys, The Family, Women, and Death (London: Routledge, 1983), p. 35.
'50 Versnel, p. 65.

‘5' Demand, p. 23.

49

uniform judgment of all women; the data presented conﬂicts and is inconsistent,
demonstrating instead an "ambivalent" attitude toward women and their activities.'52

Although the fountain house is outside, the fountain house is essentially a female
world, despite the fact that the nature of the task involves leaving the home, and we may
see the fountain as an extension of the interior chores of the Athenian woman. The task
does not necessarily involve interaction with men along the way, and Archaic vase
painters suggest women are the primary users and visitors of the fountain house, as males
are almost always excluded from the black-ﬁgure scenes.

Plato's Meno (71e) discusses a woman's arete as coming from her role inside the
house. Thus she can gain honor for her work in this sphere.153 Fetching water at the
fountain house is one of the earliest female "domestic" tasks shown on pottery.154
Obtaining water is the only activity that could be considered a "chore" that is represented
on black-ﬁgure. Similarly, preparing food was clearly a daily activity in ancient Athens
for women, but it is rarely depicted. On the rare red—ﬁgure vases on which cooking
appears it is associated with festivals in which women play a predominant role.‘55 It is
unlikely that images of women at the fountain were so popular simply because the scene
was particularly interesting or appealing to women. Fetching water must have been a
repetitive and arduous task that was not particularly remarkable in everyday life, and as

such it seems these vases must have had another appeal for women.

 

'52 Versnel, pp. 66-67, Gould; M. Arthur,. "Early Greece: The Origins of the Western Attitude Toward
Women," Arethusa 6 (1973), p. 26.

'53 Sourvinou-Inwood, pp. 112-113.

'5‘ Lewis, p. 71.

'55 Sian Lewis, The Athenian Woman: an Iconographic Handbook (London; New York: Routledge, 2002),
pp. 67-71.

50

Amy Richlin (1992 xiv) states in her critique of Michel Foucault's The History of
Sexuality:

"Foucault states early on that he sees his history as that of the desiring subject,

who is male; women ﬁgure in these pages only as objects, and that rarely...Insofar

as this is a history of sexuality at all, it is a history of male sexuality, and a partial

one at that...l can only say that when I read these books I sense not consciousness

but silence, a failure to ask where women's subjectivity was."
The view of reality of the ancient woman's life has always been one guided by a male-
constructed ideology, with little to no mention of female subjectivity.'5" Men no doubt
created the vases showing women at work, but that does not mean that the vases reﬂect
only a male perspective or, as Eva Keuls contends, that they were designed to appeal to a
man's sexual desires. Rather, it is quite likely that men created these vessels
(predominately hydriai for the purpose of this study) for a female audience and for

women's use in maintaining the oikos and for ritual use.‘57

Unfortunately the history
surrounding women of the ancient world is rooted in a male history making it difﬁcult to
recover the way women saw themselves, society, or their place in society. Claude Bérard
argues, "although produced by men, the images painted on the vases transmit a much
more complex vision of female realities . . . [than] . . . the stereotyped image, created by
Attic writers to contrast their women with the girls of Sparta."

Petersen believes women:

chose, purchased, and utilized vessels with the aforementioned images,

which would have reminded them of their own experience as they

completed their various tasks. At the same time, scenes of industrious and

virtuous females also helped to reinforce the ideological framework of

patriarchy. In other words, the pleasurable images of female toil work
well with patriarchal propaganda and notions of female virtue. Perhaps

 

"6 Petersen, p. 37.
‘57 Petersen, p. 37; Bérard 1989.

51

Sutton said it best when he described the nuptial scenes as images of
persuasion.158

In this assessment, she contends that the images on the vessels decorated with women
performing various tasks, like fetching water and wool working, exist to depict a virtue
in the patriarchal society. Paeonia, the fantasy woman desired by Herodotus,
simultaneously carried water and wove. The ancients praised women for these two
tasks.‘59 Regardless of social status, women were expected to weave at home. Though
this was not for proﬁt, it marked virtue in a woman, and industriousness (in other words,
kept her out of trouble). Likewise, fetching water was a feminine occupation, even if
women who could afford slaves sent them for daily water, all women still were
responsible for obtaining water for rituals that include religious ceremonies, such as the
Hydrophoria, and secular ceremonies, such as obtaining water for the bridal bath.
Within the context of the virtue of women's work, there is a sense of pride in the
work the women do on these vases, and that in these images they ﬁnd a sense of female
companionship. This is especially true in the images of women at the fountain, where
the women are shown conversing with each other in an animated fashion, suggesting a
social scene and a chance to be with friends, just as men seem to have been choosing
vessels that depicted symposia. Webster sees the vases of women at the fountain as a
feminine counterpart to scenes of athletes.160 In this interpretation, then, women can be
seen as partaking in their daily activities, and the scene is expected to be somewhat

familiar to them and part of their daily conscious. If these vases do appeal to a female

 

‘58 Petersen, p. 44.

‘59 Eva Keuls, "The Sex Appeal of Female Toil." The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient
Athens. (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), p. 232.

“’0 T. B. L. Webster, Potter and Patron in Classical Athens (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.,), p. 61.

52

subjectivity, then it would be because these women saw in the images a reﬂection of
their own reality and life. Certainly images of women in antiquity created by men
reﬂect the male centered ideology of the culture. Women were expected to subscribe to
the ideals of the male, and conform for the good of the state. However, images of
women do not automatically present notions that make women uncomfortable or
unhappy. Certainly, women must have sought pleasure within their deﬁned cultural
roles. The Antimenes Painter, the Priam Painter, and the Leagros Group decorated a
number of these black-ﬁgure scenes showing groups of women at the newly constructed
fountain house with an emphasis on the architecture of the space. While their interest in
the subject may have been motivated by the architecture of the new building projects,
the images allude to what would be expected in reality: women come with empty hydriai
and leave with full ones. While the painter may have simply been reﬂecting society, a
woman may have a different, more complex impression of the scene depicted.

Vases with women at the fountain house seem to appeal to a female subjectivity
and appear to be designed with women's sensibilities in mind.'6' It seems likely that
female-female relationships existed, and were an important part of life and therefore
would be presented on the hydria showing women.162 Bérard has questioned the
assumptions surrounding the users of these vessels and their purpose. He asserts
respectable wives used hydriai and loutrophoroi. And if it is not citizen women depicted,
then in the home, respectable wives only used undecorated pots or their pots were

depicted with scenes of hetaerae. The likelihood that hydriai were decorated for women

 

“" Bérard, p. 89; R. F. Sutton Jr., "Pornography and Persuasion on Attic Pottery," in Pornography and
Representation in Greece and Rome ed. Amy Richlin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 28.
"’2 Petersen, pp. 45-49.

53

and in relation to their experiences, rather than for a male audience and in relationship to
the sexuality of its decorator can be related to the use of pottery decorated with nuptial
imagery. These marriage vases both decorated the home, recalling the wife's wedding,
and were used in marriage rituals. Loutrophoroi and hydriai with nuptial imagery
represented the experiences of women when they are married and the vessel re-enacts
many of the events, such as the procession and gift-giving, epaulia. Because of the
opportunity for socializing at the fountain house, the activity of fetching water may have
appealed to the ancient woman seeking a chance for interaction, and as a result, the
vessels depict not a chore, but a female experience. Burns states, " . . . for as the agora
and the gymnasium were the meeting places for men, the fountain house was the informal
social center for the women."'63 Burns suspects there was not popular pressure for a
greater number of fountain houses distributing water following Solon's conservation
measures because the Athenian women would not have wanted to give up their daily
walk to the fountain, which provided an opportunity to meet friends and gossip.“

On hydriai showing women in various stages of ﬁlling and emptying their hydriai
at a fountain house, the scene appears as a social occasion for the women, as the women
seem to converse with each other informally.I65 An example is Munich hydria 1693
(Figure 15) again showing a woman waiting for her hydria to ﬁll under a simple lion-
headed spout. As she does so, the four women with empty hydriai have formed groups
and are conversing. Similarly dressed women waiting to ﬁll their hydriai, which is made

explicit by the one hydria that is being ﬁlled by the woman on the far left, pair off. This

 

“'3 Burns, p. 406.

'6‘ Burns, p. 410.

"'5 Fantham, p. 107-08.; Camp, pp. 43-44 also comments on the fountain house as a social center where
women could escape the conﬁnes of the home.

54

time a group of four has formed in the central part of the image suggesting the decoration
is less about the fountain house and importance of water, but it is about the interactions of
the women who visit, and perhaps purchase these vases. For the women viewing these
vessels, they demonstrate scenes of female friendship within the constructs of the
patriarchal society, but the women would read the images as being about their social
networks together. '66

Before new public fountain houses were built, many private houses in the center
of Athens were destroyed, and along with them family-owned wells were ﬁlled in
between 570 and 550 BC to make way for the Agora. '67 As a result, a woman who
would normally privately draw water from a well in her courtyard now had to venture
into the public sphere to accomplish the same task. Because the women were venturing
out into this male space, it is possible there would be a perceived threat by the male
citizenry of Athens. However, the benign scenes presented near the time of the
completion of the Enneakrounos suggest this is women's work, and it is safe for a wife or
daughter to venture out into public space to perform this traditional duty.168 Later red-
ﬁgure scenes will present a different theme when women at the fountain house or well
are often shown alone with a male interrupting the scene, seeming to "ambush" the

women at the fountain and suggest a threat.

 

"’6 Petersen, pp. 44, 53.

'67Shear, pp. 4-5.

”’8 Pedley, p. 72. Secs decorated pottery of the last quarter of the sixth century to focus on more daily,
contemporary concerns, as well as ﬁnding some elements of political propaganda.

55

CONCLUSION

In the later black-ﬁgure tradition, and especially early red-ﬁgure vessels that
move into the Classical period, pursuit scenes become a popular motif,169 their rise in
popularity beginning around 475.I70 This trend becomes evident in images of women at
the fountain houses. No longer are the images stately with scenes of ritual or respectable
women, but instead the women become the target of male advances. During this period
the ideal of seclusion may have been greater than in earlier times.l7l As a result, most
Attic vase painting shows respectable women indoors except for wedding processions.

There are trends that explain the increased sexuality in scenes depicting women at
the fountain house. Firstly, there is an increase in sexual images in vases during the time
the red-ﬁgure technique became popular. Secondly, the vessels were no longer created
for a female audience, but rather a male audience. The vessels that are most commonly
used for these scenes are no longer hydriai and lekythoi, but rather kylixes and skyphoi.
These vessels would frequently be used during the all-male drinking parties, symposia.
Thirdly, it is possible that one would no longer expect to ﬁnd a respectable wife at the
fountain. The ﬁfth century saw an increase in the slave population and many slaves may
have been sent to the fountain during this period that placed a greater emphasis on the
ideal of seclusion. It is unclear whether Lysistrata's presence at the fountain conﬁrms or
denies this fact. Clearly, Lysistrata was at the fountain house suggesting moderately
prosperous wives would gather water. However, the chorus's account of the events

actually may highlight why a wife would be kept away (lines 325-332):

 

“‘9 Reeder, p. 339.

'70 Andrew Stewart, Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1997), p. 170.
'7' Fantham, p. 102.

56

We started early but might be latezwe had to ﬁll our pitchers. The well
was jammed, we got delayed by slaves and pushy bitches, shouting,
shoving, smashing pots, banging heads and raising knots. Now we're here
with pitchers ﬁlled to keep our friends from being grilled.
So while Lysistrata is at the fountain house, the chorus also’attests to the presence of
slaves with whom they must deal, conﬁrming Herodotus's account of slaves obtaining
water during this period.

During the Classical period, images of respectable women with water returned to
the traditional roles of women in ritual, speciﬁcally the nuptial bath. Most of the
decorated images are loutrophoroi. Another popular source of imagery during the
Classical period is also a pursuit scene: Poseidon pursuing Amymone. This became
popular following Aeschylus's play, Amymone. In the play, Amymone carries her hydria
in search of water. Poseidon rapes her, but provides the Lema Spring for her to ﬁll her
hydria. Rather than suggesting Amymone was accosted, the story follows in a long line
of mythological pursuit scenes.I72 Amymone is most often seen as a willing bride and
her hydria functions as the vessel for her bridal bath.I73 Amymone's story is a
mythological parallel to marriage for a Greek bride. Also during this period, the myth of
the Danaids' punishment makes its ﬁrst appearance attesting to the continued association
of women with water even if it is less likely that a respectable woman would be fetching
water at a public source.

While women in the Classical period were still responsible for rituals involving

the use of water in funerals, marriages, and religious rituals (especially those connected

with Demeter, Hera, and Artemis), it is less clear that they were responsible for the daily

 

'72 Reeder, p. 352.
'73 Reeder. p. 352.

57

gathering of water within the home. As sexual scenes and scenes of pursuit became more
popular in vase painting, and the Athenians desired greater seclusion for their wives, it is
no longer obvious who would be the frequenters of the fountain house. During this
period, the vase painters are interested in a chance for an encounter at the fountain house.
The architecture provides the framework within a traditional genre scene rather than
being interested in the architectural setting as it was during the construction of fountain
houses under the Peisistratid tyranny.

However, the scenes created near the completion of the Enneakrounos depicted
citizen women. Women were the primary users of the vase shapes decorated with groups
of women at the fountain house and the scenes appealed to their own experiences. The
women shown do not display any features identifying them as slaves or hetaerae, but
instead accord with images of respectable Athenian wives. The concurrent images of
ritual at the fountain house derived from traditional iconography attest to the virtuousness
of the women depicted. The activity they perform is traditional. Water represented
fertility—this is the most important role women played in ancient Greece. The vases of

this everyday activity re-enforce this interpretation.

58

FIGURES

59

 

Figure 1. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 61.195. Hydria by the
Priam Painter. c. 520—510 b.c.e. (Paralipomena 147.5BIS)

60

 

I

Figure 2. Toledo, Museum of Art 1961.23. Hydria by the Priam Painter.
c. 520-510 b.c.e. (Paralipomena 147.5TER)

61

 

Figure 3. Karlsruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum 69/78. Red-ﬁgure Loutrophoros
near the Naples Painter showing the procession carrying bathwater from the
fountain house. (ARV 1102.2) (Paralipomena 451)

62

 

Figure 4. Geometric Kantharos. Copenhagen 727.

63

 

Figure 5. Archeological Museum of Herakleion. Subgeometric terracotta
ﬁgurine of a mourning woman.

 

 

 

Figure 6. London, British Museum B332. Hydria by the Priam Painter.
c. 520 b.c.e. (ABV333.27)

65

     

/// II \x\\ ‘

 

 

Figure 7. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 01.8125. Hydria in the Manner of the
Lysippides Painter. c. 530 b.c.e.

66

 

Figure 8. Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco. Hydria 3792. c. 540 b.c.e.

67

 

Figure 9. Munich, Antikensammlungen 1690. Hydria near the
Antimenes Painter. c. 520 b.c.e. (ABV 280.2) (Addenda 73)

68

 

Figure 10. London, British Museum B336. Hydria by the Antimenes Painter.
c. 520 b.c.e. (ABV 266.3)

69

 

Figure 11. Paris, Louvre F 296. Black-ﬁgure Hydria. c. 510 b.c.e.

7O

 

Figure 12. London, British Museum B329. Hydria by the A D Painter.
c. 515 b.c.e. (ABV 334.1)

71

 

3'

WW?

_9.@A ‘ t

Figure 13. Berlin, Antikensammlung F1908. Hydria Attributed to the
Leagros Group. (Paralipomena 162.173) (ABV 365.70)

 

72

 

Figure 14. Rome, Villa Giulia 47457. Hydria near the Nikoxenos Painter.
(Paralipomena 393) (ABV 172)

73

K

 

Figure 15. Munich, Antikensammlung 1693. Hydria, Akin to the
Antimenes Painter.c.. b.c.e. (AB V2802)

74

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