The Burgon vase is the earliest known

Panathenaic amphora Panathenaic amphorae were the amphorae, large ceramic vessels, that contained the olive oil given as prizes in the Panathenaic Games. Some were and high. This oil came from the sacred grove of Athena at Akademia. The amphorae which held it had ...

, dating to around 560 BC, and the

name vase In classical archaeology, a name vase is a specific "vase"In the study of ancient Greek pottery a "vase" is a general term covering all pottery shapes. whose painter's name is unknown but whose workshop style has been identified. The painter is co ...

for the ancient Greek painter of the Burgon Group. Today it is on display in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

.British Museum Collection
/ref> The 61 cm high vase is short and squat, with a very low mouth and short neck. The handles are close to the body and small. The foot is tiny in proportion to the vase. The

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

was uncovered in 1813 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and is named after

Thomas Burgon Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

(1787–1858), a merchant of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

, who brought it to England and sold it to the museum. It was discovered full of bone fragments, having been used as a funerary urn. The back side of the vase was seriously damaged by a pick-axe during the excavation.

Description

The vase is painted in the

black-figure style Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common bet ...

with images of the Greek goddess

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

, a flying

siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisc ...

and an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, as well as a two-horse chariot. Athena is facing to the left. She wears a helmet with a low crest; its main section resembles a cap. The left arm swings a spear with a very carefully illustrated tip. The clothing of the goddess consists of a long sleeveless

peplos A peplos ( el, ὁ πέπλος) is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by circa 500 BC, during the late Archaic and Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down a ...

belted at the waist. The diploidion – a part of the peplos whipped over the shoulders – is decorated with a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

, while the skirt itself is decorated with a vertical band, which consists of full squares, and with a hem. Athena's feet are placed apart, firmly on the ground line. The

aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

' border of snakes is represented by two large writhing snakes and one peeping up over her shoulder. The shield which Athena bears with her right arm, bears a

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

facing to the left. Left of Athena is the inscription, written from right to left, ΤΟΝΑΘΕΝΕΘ(Ε)ΝΑΘΛΟΝΕΜΙ ("I am (one) of the prizes from Athens") in sixth-century BC orthography. On the back side of the vase there is a beardless, seated charioteer wearing red clothing. His feet on a running board, he drives a two-horse chariot to the right. He holds the

rein Reins are items of horse tack, used to direct a horse or other animal used for riding. They are long straps that can be made of leather, nylon, metal, or other materials, and attach to a bridle via either its bit or its noseband. Use for ...

s in his right hand and the ''kalaurops'' (staff with bells), to goad the horse on. The shape of the wheels, with only two spokes and two reinforcing struts extending perpendicular to them resembles the bronze wheel from

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

. On the unornamented neck there is a siren on the front and an owl on the back, both with their wings held in exactly the same posture.

References

Bibliography

Peter Oluf Brøndsted Peter Oluf Brøndsted (17 November 1780 – 26 June 1842), Danish archaeologist. He was a professor and rector at the University of Copenhagen. Brøndsted was the first Danish scholar who was involved in archeological work in Greece. Biograph ...

; William Roger Hamilton;

John Burgon John William Burgon (21 August 18134 August 1888) was an English Anglican divine who became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876. He was known during his lifetime for his poetry and his defence of the historicity and Mosaic authorship of Gen ...

: Mémoire sur les vases panathénaïques: adressé, en forme de lettre à M. W. R. Hamilton, Firmin Didot frères, Paris 1833. * Georg von Brauchitsch, ''Die panathenäischen Preisamphoren'', Teubner: Leipzig, 1910, pp. 6–8
online
{{Greek amphorae Archaeological discoveries in Greece Panathenaic amphorae Ancient Greek and Roman objects in the British Museum 1813 archaeological discoveries