Why You Should Care About Ancient Greek Pottery: The Octopus Vase
The Best Greek Vase You Will Ever See, And Its Rather Interesting Context
After enjoying writing about the Cycladic Hedgehog, I have decided to do a followup. If you have not read that article, do not worry! Allow me to introduce another of my favourite vases, which is quite possibly my favourite artefact of all time. To those with a bit more knowledge on the Greek Bronze Age, this vase will likely be quite familiar. I won’t pretend it is quite as niche as the Cycladic Hedgehog is either, but nonetheless I believe it holds enough charm and interesting backstory to merit equal amounts of discussion.
We return to the National Archaeological Museum at Athens. Can you tell it might be my favourite museum? On this occasion, we do not veer off into a quiet side hall void of tourists, but squeeze through the crowd in the first hall past the ticket stand. We weave between groups and cases filled with bronze age treasures, skirting past the infamous ‘mask of Agamemnon’ and the plentiful treasures of Mycenae and Knossos. Just before we reach the end of this hall, a display case on the right catches our eye. The rest of the room glitters with gold and bronze, yet here stands a collection of ceramics. They aren’t covered in precious metals, or painted with bright colours like a set of nearby frescoes. In fact, they don’t need to be. They stand alone in the crowd, charming black designs on simple fired canvases. This is the cabinet of the Marine Style vases, and in the centre towers the best of them all.
Dipping into The Marine Style
Glancing at a marine style vase, I believe it is easy to see how I fell in love with them. The simplistic, exaggerated form of the octopus displayed shows both a love and an appreciation for nature. The style is almost cartoon-like, and the charm makes it surpass its age. It feels as though it could have been made in the last few decades, let alone 3000 years ago. But it was made over 3000 years ago, with the marine style dating to 1500-1450 BCE in Crete, and continuing on the greek mainland for a while longer. Furthermore, it is not a sudden standalone instance of surprising modernity. The abstract depiction of sea-life is closely related to prior Minoan styles, which depict native flora in a similar charm. It is easy to look at it and laugh, and I would like to imagine the same reaction over 3 millennia ago.
A splash of cultural context
We have established that this vase is not a unique instance of an amusing octopus. These vases have been found in a variety of sites across Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, and I would like to explore their rise and spread in a little more detail. The time period they were created is a truly significant one in the bronze age world for which I must briefly go off topic to discuss.
The complex Minoan palace society is fascinating and well beyond my expertise to summarise, but encapsulates an advanced and influential group of settlements on Crete. Think Daedalus and Minos from Greek Mythology, because it is this same Minos who gives his name to the civilisation. It is heavily debated among scholars how accurately the Minoan society is depicted in mythology, but the core elements are present: A maritime empire and a wealthy Crete being a centre of wealth before falling to mysterious and debated circumstances, though earthquakes and invasion are both on the cards.
In fact, there is archaeological evidence of one such event at around 1450BCE, and keen-eyed readers will notice that the pottery style is cut short then too. Furthermore, pottery styles normally last hundreds of years, whereas this one only lasts in Crete until this date. A coincidence?
Thankfully, the style does not die here, but instead takes the leap to the mainland. The Bronze Age mainland Greeks, better known as the Mycenaeans, took to the style like birds to air, or maybe like an octopus to water. It turns out they loved it too, and tried their best to continue it to varying degrees of success. These are varyingly criticised as flat and lifeless in many early cases, but a key feature is the shift in subject matter. The octopus, which had been popular before, becomes a central feature to the style. Although, some pots make us question if the artist has ever seen an octopus. Classifications often place the Mycenaean adoption of marine style in its own category, or subcategory, with the general sea-life becoming decor to the focus on the octopi/octopuses/octopodes (now is not a time for the debate of the plural of octopus, though I may write on this in future).
The keen eyed readers from earlier may notice that I have not discussed the actual vase I opened on, and have spent an awfully long time discussing everything else. The reason for this is not that I went on a tangent (though this could be debated), but rather that the vase in question is not Minoan. This is what makes it all the more interesting to me, as it is a Mycenaean imitation of the style.
Found in a tholos or ‘beehive’ tomb in Argive Prosymna, it is not a work of the masters of the marine style on Crete. So, I have spent so long praising them and it is all for nothing? This is absolutely not the case, but to me it adds an extra layer of depth. The Minoan civilisation was reaching a height in trade and growth as this style developed. The Mycenaeans were starting to find their feet and become a strong presence in in the eastern Mediterranean. This pottery style represents a trade of cultures, and a handing of the torch. Both groups were reliant on the sea for their prosperity, and this vase represents that relationship. It shows a fondness and a humour. The sea was important, bringing wealth like these very pots, yet it also was clearly respected and loved with a cheeky sense of humour.
Sources and Further Reading:
R. Higgins, World of Art: Minoan and Mycenaean Art Revised Edition, (London, 1986)
R. W. Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete, (Oxford, 1962)
C. F. Macdonald, Knossos, (London, 2002)
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/aegean-art1/minoan/a/octopus-vase
https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/30/archival_objects/677939
I love those vases - they make me smile - thank you for the good read! I hope I will be in Greece soon again.