Helladic

9.29 Palaikastro Octopus Vase (Scala/Art Resource)

The most important style of pottery to emerge from Early Bronze Age Greece was Minyan Ware, first discovered by Schliemann at the ancient city of Or-chomenus and named after the city's mythical king Minyas. This style first appeared in Early Helladic III and is some of our best evidence that a new people arrived in Greece at this time, probably the Greeks themselves (see chapter 4). Minyan Ware came in two fabrics—gray and yellow—both of which had several shapes that were angular in overall appearance. It is likely that these items in clay replaced items in metal and that the angular, metallic shape was kept from the previous items. The most distinctive attribute of Minyan Ware is its soapy-to-the-touch feel.

From c. 1700 b. c.e. through the Late Bronze Age, Greek potters mostly followed Minoan potters in design and style, and thus much Helladic pottery resembles Minoan pottery of the same period. In contrast to the Minoans, however, the Bronze Age Greeks preferred repetition and symmetry in their art, as opposed to the more "flowing" Minoan compositions. For example, the Marine style, when translated into the Mycenaean style, showed small nautili arranged in a static, symmetrical pattern.

Although the Mycenaeans may have been dependent on the Minoans for pottery decoration, they did develop several new shapes of clay vessel. One of these was the Palace-style jar, which originally appeared in Greece around 1450 b. c.e. and thence at Knossos around 1400. These storage vessels measured around 80 cm high, with wide mouths for ease of access and handles for ease of transportation. The decoration of the Palace jars typified the relationship between Minoan and Mycenaean art: Both Marine and Floral styles appeared, but they tended to be symmetrical and static on the Mycenaean jars.

9.30 Jug with Grass from Phaistos (Nimatallah/Art Resource)

A second Mycenaean-style vessel was the goblet. In the fifteenth century, the Ephyrean goblet became popular, featuring a very deep cup, a short neck, two handles (a helpful feature, given how much wine they could hold), a round base, and a symmetrical motif on either side of the bowl. In later periods, the bowl became shallower, the neck lengthened, and the painted decoration became more stylized.

Eventually, the bowl became almost flat, to the point that one might imagine a new generation of teetotalers. This longnecked, shallow-bowled Mycenaean goblet was the direct forerunner of the later Greek kylix.

A pictorial style featuring scenes of everyday life appeared at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age. The most famous example of this style is the Warrior Vase from Mycenae (see Image 9.31), on which a woman in a house is shown waving farewell to a line of men in armor, presumably heading off to war. This style was short-lived in Greece: Once the Bronze Age ended, representational painting on pottery mostly disappeared for centuries.