ATTRIBUTED TO THE WORKSHOP OF ASTEAS AND PYTHON, CIRCA 350 B.C.

The lebes gamikos, literally “marriage bowl,” is a ritual vessel used in wedding ceremonies. Athenian examples, often with a high separately-made base, were presented to brides as a wedding gift (see p. 225 in E.D. Reeder, Pandora, Women in Classical Greece). The shape was adopted in the west, and appears in all of the major pottery-making centers of South Italy and Sicily, where they sometimes have elaborate lids composed of superimposed units, as seen here. On one side of the body of the present example is Eros and on the other a seated woman. Above the lekanis-like lid is a smaller lebes, one side with a profile female head, and the other, an owl, a rare appearance (A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum, p. 131, mentions only one other example). Surmounting the smaller lebes is a knobbed lid.