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Typology of Greek vase shapes

The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic period. As Gisela Richter puts it, the forms of these vases (by convention the term "vase" has a very broad meaning in the field, covering anything that is a vessel of some sort) find their "happiest expression" in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, yet it has been possible to date vases thanks to the variation in a form’s shape over time, a fact particularly useful when dating unpainted or plain black-gloss ware.

The task of naming Greek vase shapes is by no means a straightforward one. The endeavour by archaeologists to match vase forms with those names that have come down to us from Greek literature began with Theodor Panofka’s 1829 book Recherches sur les veritables noms des vases grecs, whose confident assertion that he had rediscovered the ancient nomenclature was quickly disputed by Gerhard and Letronne.

A few surviving vases were labelled with their names in antiquity; these included a hydria depicted on the François Vase and a kylix that declares, “I am the decorated kylix of lovely Phito” (BM, B450). Vases in use are sometimes depicted in paintings on vases, which can help scholars interpret written descriptions. Much of our written information about Greek pots come from such late writers as Athenaios and Pollux and other lexicographers who described vases unknown to them, and their accounts are often contradictory or confused. With those caveats, the names of Greek vases are fairly well settled, even if such names are a matter of convention rather than historical fact.

The following vases are mostly Attic, from the 5th and 6th centuries, and follow the Beazley naming convention. Many shapes derive from metal vessels, especially in silver, which survive in far smaller numbers. Some pottery vases were probably intended as cheaper substitutes for these, either for use or to be placed as grave goods. Some terms, especially among the types of kylix or drinking cup, combine a shape and a type or location of decoration, as in the band cup, eye cup and others. Some terms are defined by function as much as shape, such as the aryballos, which later potters turned into all sorts of fancy novelty shapes.

Greek pottery may be divided into four broad categories, given here with common types:^[1]

• storage and transport vessels, including the amphora, pithos, pelike, hydria, stamnos, pyxis,
• mixing vessels, mainly for symposia or male drinking parties, including the krater, dinos, and kyathos,
• jugs and cups, several types of kylix also just called cups, kantharos, phiale, skyphos, rhyton, mastos, and jug-types oinochoe and loutrophoros,
• vases for oils, perfumes and cosmetics, including the large lekythos, and the small aryballos, alabastron, and askos.

In addition, various standard types might be used as external grave-markers (in extra-large versions, sometimes in stone), funerary urns containing ashes, or as grave goods. Several types of vase, especially the taller ones, could be made in "plastic" forms (also called "figure vases" or "relief vases") where the body was shaped sculpturally (somewhat in the manner of the modern Toby jug), typically to form a human head.

• Storage
• 
  Amphora type A, c. 520 BC.
• 
  Amphora type B.
• 
  Amphora type C.
• 
  Neck amphora, c. 520 BC.
• 
  Belly amphora, with hardly a distinct neck
• 
  Ovoid neck amphora
• 
  Nikosthenic amphora, c. 530 BC.
• 
  Nolan amphora
• 
  Panathenaic amphora, always large
• 
  Pseudo-panathenaic amphora, c. 500 BC.
• 
  Pointed amphora
• 
  Transport amphorae
• 
  Hydria-black figure type
• 
  Hydria-red figure type or Kalpis
• 
  Lebes Gamikos, for weddings, c. 340 BC
• 
  Pelike
• 
  Pithos
• 
  Stamnos, c. 480–470 BC.

• Mixing
• 
  Dinos
• 
  Bell krater, c 330 BC.
• 
  Calyx-krater, c. 510 BC.
• 
  Column krater
• 
  Volute krater
• 
  Kyathos
• 
  Psykter

• Cups
• 
  Kantharos type A
• 
  Kantharos type B
• 
  Kylix type A
• 
  Kylix type B
• 
  Band cup, with the main painting in a band low on the body. All these "cups" are covered by kylix
• 
  Droop cup
• 
  Eye-cup, painted with eyes
• 
  Kassel cup
• 
  Komast cup, Athenian black-figure, with short stem, angled "offset" lip.^[2]
• 
  Lakonian cup
• 
  Lip cup, with the main painting just below the lip; the stem and footr are lost in this example
• 
  Siana cup, Similar to Komast, with slightly longer stem, and painted on the inside.^[3]
• 
  Merrythought cup, with distinctive "wishbone" handles
• 
  Mastos, breast-shaped cup with pointed nipple base; handles optional
• 
  Mastoid cup, like a mastos but with flat base and often handles
• 
  Phiale
• 
  Rhyton, c. 430 BCE.
• 
  Skyphos, c. 740 BC
• 
  Glaux skyphos
• 
  Hermogenes skyphos

• Jugs
• 
  Oenochoe Shape 1
• 
  Oinochoe Shape 2
• 
  Oinochoe Shape 3
• 
  Oinochoe Shape 7
• 
  Olpe

• Small oil and perfume
• 
  Alabastron, small holders for oil or perfume
• 
  Amphoriskos
• 
  Pyriform Aryballos
• 
  Globular aryballos
• 
  Fancy aryballos in the form of three cockle shells, 6th century BC
• 
  Acorn lekythos
• 
  Deianeira lekythos, c. 550 BC.
• 
  Shoulder or secondary lekythos, c. 500 BC.
• 
  Standard or cylinder lekythos c.490 BCE.
• 
  Squat lekythos
• 
  Loutrophoros
• 
  "Huge" Loutrophoros, 330 BC

• Other
• 
  Askos
• 
  Epichysis
• 
  Exaleiptron
• 
  Kernos
• 
  Kothon
• 
  Lagynos
• 
  Lekane
• 
  Lekanis
• 
  Lydion
• 
  Nestoris (Trozella)
• 
  Pinax (plaque)
• 
  Phormiskos (here a terracotta model)
• 
  Plate
• 
  Fish Plate
• 
  Plemochoe
• 
  Pyxis, c. 470 BC.
• 
  Pointed pyxis
• 
  Strainer vase

• Lip styles
• 
  Flaring lip
• 
  Inverted Echinus lip
• 
  Lip in several degrees
• 
  Torus lip

• Foot styles
• 
  Disk foot
• 
  Echinus foot

• Ancient Greek art
• Black-figure pottery
• Red-figure pottery
• Greek terracotta figurines
• List of Greek Vase Painters

• Gisela M. A. Richter, Marjorie J. Milne, Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases, Metropolitan Museum of art, New York, 1935.

• Von Bothmer, Dietrich (1987). Greek vase painting. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870990845.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ancient Greek pottery by shape.

• Beazley Archive