Audio guide: 3134  Quick! After that guy who stole our clothes!  This amphora (or vase) is a trophy for winners of the Pan-Athens Games, a copy of the Olympics. The vase was filled with holy olive oil (Holy Olive Oil, Batman!*), which was forbidden to be taken out of Attica, the part of Greece when Athens is. Except by winning it at the games. The amphoras were in high demand in the Mediterranean and this particular one was found way out in Libya! Chariot races were huge and winners would get 140 amphoras, which contained 5,000 litres of oil! Horseback riding archery? Meh. Winners would get only 4. Curling gold medalists had to take oil to Athens because their sport was so boring*. The sports festival was all about Athena, the goddess of wisdom and learning and whom Athens was named after. What did buyers do with all that holy oil -- make pesto ravi-holy*? These games started around the time Buddha & (?) started preaching and ended about when the Chinese invented paper. This century represents the peak of a period in human history popularly known as Axial Age. This period saw the emergence of five major thought streams springing from five great thinkers in different parts of the world. Buddha and Mahavira in India, Zoroaster in Persia, Pythagoras in Greece and Confucius in China. Description. The woman you see on this particular vase is Athena herself and the naked running men are participating in a sport called Hoplitodromos -- naked soldiers racing -- make this funny, not Yum Technique. Black figure painting – this style emerged in Greece in 700 BCE and was very popular until the advent of red figure painting in 530 BCE. An artist first sketches’ figures with a charcoal or lead stick on a red clay vase and then fills the figure with a wet clay mixture called slip. When fired, slip turned black and the unpainted parts remained red. Boring fact. The amphorae for the games were ordered by the state before each Panathenaic games. They were modeled after the Olympics and were held every four years. The games and thus, amphora making, started in 566 BCE and ended in about 2nd century BCE (around the time the chinese invented paper). All in all, it lasted for 400 years! Stuff we made up: Robin never said "Holy Olive Oil, Batman!" Curling hadn't been invented. Neither had pasta. References: Pottery: Wikipedia, Louvre, Encyclopedia Britannica. Games: Wikipedia ---- This is a trophy vase (or a fancy shmnacy word -- amphora) for the winners of the Panathenaic games - a kind of copy of the Olympic games. The festival and the games were all about goddess Athena, who was a really big deal in Athens -- hence the name of the city. She was also the goddess of wisdom and learning! Now, back to the vases -- they were filled with sacred olive oil which was strictly forbidden to export anywhere outside of Attica (the continental Greek peninsula) for anyone, but the medalists of these games. Everyone around the world used the oil to cook pasta* and so it turned into a lucrative trade. This specific amphora was found in Libya, Africa! How much money you could make out of selling off sacred oil in fancy pots to hungry africans and asians depended on what kind of a sportsmen you were. Winners of the chariot race received 140 amphorae, whilst winners of horseback riding archery - only four. Curling medalists needed to give one amphorae to each spectator, cause it was just so damn boring. Black figure painting – this style emerged in Greece in 700 BCE and was very popular until the advent of red figure painting in 530 BCE. An artist first sketches’ it’s figures with a charcoal or lead stick on a red clay vase and then fills the figure with a wet clay mixture called slip. When fired, slip turned black and the unpainted parts remained red. The woman you see on this particular vase is Athena herself and the naked running men are participating in a sport called Hoplitodromos -- naked soldiers racing (yum). The amphorae for the games were ordered by the state before each Panathenaic games. They were modeled after the Olympics and were held every four years. The games and thus, amphora making, started in 566 BCE and ended in about 2nd century BCE (around the time the chinese invented paper). All in all, it lasted for 400 years! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The lady standing is Athena – the goddess of wisdom and the protector of the city of Athens, she was a really big deal there. The naked men running are sportsmen – it was common to play sports naked. This is a greek vase (or a fancy schmancy word – amphora) given as a gift to medalists of the Great Panathenaea festival sporting games. The amphorae were filled with sacred oil from sacred olive trees in Athens. This oil was strictly forbidden to export – with an exception of panathenaic medalists. So started a lucrative trade that disseminated these panathenaic amphorae and the oil all throughout the greek world and beyond - this amphora was found in Libya! Why was this olive oil so special? People used it to cook pasta!*The winner of chariot race received 140 amphorae (about 5k litres of oil) , whilst the winner of horseback riding arhery received only 4. Winners of curling matches had to give 1 vase to the spectators each cause it was so boring. Attica- the peninsular greece. The panathenaic games were going on for 400 years, till 2nd century BCE (the chinese invented paper then) what was so special about sacred oil? how big are these amphorae? approx half meter tall and 30cm wide. Black figure painting – this style emerged in Greece in 700 BCE and was very popular until the advent of red figure painting in 530 BCE. An artist first sketches’ it’s figures with a charcoal or lead stick on a red clay vase and then fills the figure with a wet clay mixture called slip. When fired, slip turned black and the unpainted parts remained red. Panathenaic amphorae – it started with the Panathenaic festival in 566 BCE, the vases were produced till 2nd century BCE. The panathenaic games were held every four years in Athens (just like the Olympic games are helf every 4 years, panathenaic games were modeled after the Olympic games) in honor of the goddess Athena. *We made this shit up, of course people didn't use it for pasta then. Duh |