A catalogue of sculpture in the Department of ... - Warburg Institute

SEPULCHRAL EELIEFS. 297of the archaic period, and which are more or less ofreligious or ritualist significance.Vases.—The Sepulchral Vases, which are representedeither in relief or in the round, are a common form ofmonument at Athens, and are connected with the observancespaid to the dead. These vases which are sometimeslekythi, and sometimes amphorae or hydriae, may bedecorated with patterns, or with subjects in relief, suchas appear on other sepulchral stelae. They probably areto be traced from the vessels of pottery in which offeringswere brought, to be poured out as libations on the tomb.Compare below the account of the " Sepulchral Banquet."There is ancient authority for the view that the vaseindicates an unmarried person. Eustath. on II. xxiii.,141, p. 1293 : KOLTOis Trpo ydfxov Se TeXevrwcrtv rj \ovTpo(f)6po