Pre-visit worksheet
Name
Greek pots
Some of the shapes you will see in the museum, with their Greek names:
Amphora – container for wine
Krater – mixing bowl for wine and water
Hydria – water container
Kantharos – cup
Lekythos – oil container
Skyphos – cup
Oinchoe – wine jug
Kylix – cup used at a party
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How pots were used
Hi! My name is Nikos and I am 12 years old.
I live in the city of Athens in Greece, and I am
a slave owned by a rich man. When my master
gives a drinking party for his friends it is my
job to serve the wine.
First I go to the store-room and fetch an
full of our thick sweet wine. Then I go to the well in the courtyard and fill
a
with water. I take both of these into
the dining room together with the big
.
When the party starts, I pour some wine into the
,
then add about twice the amount of water. I fill an
with the mixture by dipping it into the
then I take the
around the guests and fill
everyone’s cup from it. My master always drinks out of his favourite
which has beautiful pictures painted on it.
His friend Oinodokos insists on using a big
because he says that way he gets more to drink!
,
Greek scenes
The pictures below are both taken from real Greek drinking cups.
Describe each scene as fully as you can.
Who you think these people might be?
What are they doing?
What objects are using?
The person on the left is
The two people are
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Greek pot descriptions
Now that you know how some pots were used, try to match
each Greek name below with the correct English description
by drawing a line between them. One has already been done
to help you.
Hydria
a shallow drinking cup
Pelike
a jug for wine
Kantharos
a jug for oil
Pyxis
a deep drinking cup with horizontal handles
Kylix
a jar for storing liquids
Lykhnos
a large jug for water
Skyphos
a bowl for mixing wine and water
Krater
a pot for make-up
Oinchoe
a deep drinking cup with vertical handles
Amphora
an oil lamp
Lekythos
a jar for storing wine, liquids and grains
What objects do we use today to do some of the jobs listed above ?
What are our versions of these objects made of ?
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Black-figure pot decoration
After potters made the pots out of clay, painters decorated
them with all kinds of pictures using a shiny black glaze.
At first they used the black-figure method:
1. Paint the
outline of
a figure on
to the clay.
2. Fill it in
to form a
solid black
silhouette.
3. Incise
(scratch)
lines into it
to give the
details of
the picture.
To help you understand the black-figure
method fill in this pot using wax crayons:
1. Draw an outline of a figure.
2. Fill in the outline with a pale colour.
3. Cover the figure with black.
4. Incise through the black to the light
colour beneath with a cocktail stick.
The natural colour of Greek clay is
a reddish colour known as terracotta.
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Red-figure pot decoration
Later, the painters used the red-figure method:
1. Paint the
outline of
a figure on
to the clay.
2. Fill in the
background,
with a dark
colour
leaving the
space within
the outline
empty.
3. Paint the
lines on to
it to give
the details
of the
picture.
Fill in this pot to help you understand
the red-figure method:
1. Draw the outline of a figure.
2. Fill in the background outside the
outline, leaving the figure empty.
3. Paint lines on to the figure to
give it detail.
Why do you think the red-figure
method replaced the black-figure
method ?
Archaeology
Thousands of broken Greek pots have been found by archaeologists,
and have to be glued carefully back together. Try out your archaeological
abilities by fitting together the pieces of pottery below.
Can you work out what is shown in the picture ?
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