Attic White-ground Lekythos

A young woman and a youth face each other over a low stool on this Athenian white-ground lekythos. The youth hands the woman an egg, and the scene likely depicts a family preparing for a funeral, since the woman also holds a fillet or wide ribbon in her hand. Long fillets were tied around tombstones as a part of funerary ritual. 

In the late 500s B.C., Athenian potters began to cover the natural reddish color of their pottery with a clay that turned white when fired. Initially, artists applied this technique to a variety of shapes decorated with a wide range of scenes. Just before the middle of the 400s B.C., artists began limiting the use of this technique to a specific shape--the lekythos, a small oil container used in funerary ritual--and the decoration on the vessel shifted almost exclusively to funerary scenes. This change was due to the fragile nature of the white slip, which did not wear well but served the one-time use of a funeral.