Pots, vases, and children's toys, are also found in tombs in various parts of Germany, some of which show decided marks of art.
In some of these are found the ashes of the dead, in others bones broken up, and so preserved.
Palaces of Homer's Heroes.--The Ceramicus at Athens.--Egyptian Pottery.--Etruscan Tombs.--Good and Bad Vases.--Age of Vases.--Various Styles.--The Archaic Style.--The Fine Style.--Beauty a Birthright.--Aspasia's House.--Names of Vases.--The Cup of Arcesilaus.--Number of Extant Vases.--Their Uses.--The Greek Houses.--Greek Women.--Greek Men.--The Hetairai.--Etruscan Vases.
The GREEK VASE has come to be a synonym for beauty of form. Not that every Greek vase is perfect--by no means--but that the Greeks had come to feel and were able to express perfection of form in it as it had not been done before, and as it has not been better done since.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--_Egyptian Kylix._]
So much interest hangs around this expression of the potter's art, that we give more space to the subject than to many other branches of the art. Keeping this perfection in mind, the manner of life of those Greeks, out of which the Greek vase grew, becomes of value, and is indeed of most interest.
How did the Greeks live, and why was the Greek vase made?
That the finest houses or palaces of the chiefs of the Heroic or Homeric period were larger, and more marked by barbaric splendor, than were the dwellings of the great in the days of Pericles, is admitted.
We give from Mr. Bryant's translation of the Iliad a brief description of Hector's return to Troy from the battle-field:
"And now had Hector reached the Scean gates And beechen tree. Around him flocked the wives And daughters of the Trojans eagerly; Tidings of sons and brothers they required, And friends and husbands. He admonished all Duly to importune the gods in prayer, For woe he said was near to many a one."
He passed onward in search of Andromache:
"And then he came to Priam's noble hall, A palace built with graceful porticoes, And fifty chambers near each other walled With polished stone, the rooms of Priam's sons, And of their wives; and opposite to these Twelve chambers for his daughters, also near Each other; and with polished marble walls, The sleeping-rooms of Priam's sons-in-law And their unblemished consorts. There he met His gentle mother on her way to seek Her fairest child Laodice."