The psychedelic arrangement of those whirling colored crescents might first attract the eye, but the miniature scenes above them really hold the gaze. It might just be the perfect vase, and so small it can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. Aryballoi such as this one were specially designed for holding oil and typically included in an athlete’s kit – after his exertions he would grease up and then scrape a grimy layer of skin away with a strigil.
Different types of manly exertions are shown above the rollicking pinwheeling design, both heroic and humorous. Around the rim, pygmies battle valiantly against marauding cranes. Observing them from slim sides of the handle are Apollo and Hermes. Nearchos, the painter, was literate and proud of it: all the figures are carefully inscribed and he himself incised his own name ‘Nearchos epoiesenme’ (‘Nearchos made me’) on the handle. Speaking of the handle…
Three stippled satyrs populate the widest part forming the thumb-plate: two in profile, one frontal, and all very rude (they too are labeled with really raunchy names…too raunchy include here). Those excitable hedonists, as ever, unconstrained by Athenian social mores.