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The <em>loutrophoros</em>, a tall-necked water vessel, served two main purposes in ancient Athens. In life, it carried sacred spring water for ceremonial pre-marriage baths. After death, it marked the tomb of an unmarried person, as if to account for that not experienced in life. Often, as here, it has no bottom, permitting offerings to flow through to the grave. Both the precise shape of this vase—a two-handled loutrophoros-amphora rather than a three-handled loutrophoros-hydria—and its depiction of the deceased suggest the commemoration of a departed man (rather than a woman). The iconography is entirely funerary, with multiple mourning figures shown: four women on the neck; six women surrounding the corpse on its bier; and three men making farewell gestures. The inscriptions near some of the mourning women do not spell out real words but may represent their sorrowful cries.
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- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- fe9337def425fa16
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- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 108979
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
{
"id": "108979",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Black-Figure Loutrophoros-Amphora (Ritual Water Vessel): Prothesis (Laying out of Corpse), Mourners",
"description": "The <em>loutrophoros</em>, a tall-necked water vessel, served two main purposes in ancient Athens. In life, it carried sacred spring water for ceremonial pre-marriage baths. After death, it marked the tomb of an unmarried person, as if to account for that not experienced in life. Often, as here, it has no bottom, permitting offerings to flow through to the grave. Both the precise shape of this vase—a two-handled loutrophoros-amphora rather than a three-handled loutrophoros-hydria—and its depiction of the deceased suggest the commemoration of a departed man (rather than a woman). The iconography is entirely funerary, with multiple mourning figures shown: four women on the neck; six women surrounding the corpse on its bier; and three men making farewell gestures. The inscriptions near some of the mourning women do not spell out real words but may represent their sorrowful cries.",
"date": "c. 500 BCE",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1927.145",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q60757789"
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"Ceramic"
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"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.145/1927.145_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 43.5 cm (17 1/8 in.)",
"cul": [
"Greek, Attic"
],
"accession": "1927.145"
}
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Document identity
{
"localId": "108979",
"label": "Black-Figure Loutrophoros-Amphora (Ritual Water Vessel): Prothesis (Laying out of Corpse), Mourners",
"core": "obj",
"dtoType": "object"
}
Document source metadata
{
"id": "108979",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Black-Figure Loutrophoros-Amphora (Ritual Water Vessel): Prothesis (Laying out of Corpse), Mourners",
"description": "The <em>loutrophoros</em>, a tall-necked water vessel, served two main purposes in ancient Athens. In life, it carried sacred spring water for ceremonial pre-marriage baths. After death, it marked the tomb of an unmarried person, as if to account for that not experienced in life. Often, as here, it has no bottom, permitting offerings to flow through to the grave. Both the precise shape of this vase—a two-handled loutrophoros-amphora rather than a three-handled loutrophoros-hydria—and its depiction of the deceased suggest the commemoration of a departed man (rather than a woman). The iconography is entirely funerary, with multiple mourning figures shown: four women on the neck; six women surrounding the corpse on its bier; and three men making farewell gestures. The inscriptions near some of the mourning women do not spell out real words but may represent their sorrowful cries.",
"date": "c. 500 BCE",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1927.145",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q60757789"
],
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],
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"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.145/1927.145_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.145/1927.145_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 43.5 cm (17 1/8 in.)",
"cul": [
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"accession": "1927.145"
}
Document source extras
{
"tec": "ceramic",
"tombstone": "Black-Figure Loutrophoros-Amphora (Ritual Water Vessel): Prothesis (Laying out of Corpse), Mourners, c. 500 BCE. Greek, Attic. Ceramic; overall: 43.5 cm (17 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund, 1927.145",
"collection": "GR - Greek",
"didYouKnow": "Mourning figures wrap all the way around this vessel, even beneath the handles.",
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Beazley Archive. n.d. <em>Beazley Archive Pottery Database</em>. Oxford: Beazley Archive.",
"page_number": "BAPD 761",
"url": "http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/6D81F758-62EB-41E4-929A-E27B31947A72"
},
{
"citation": "The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d.",
"page_number": "P3582",
"url": "https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16028coll9/id/29226"
},
{
"citation": "Howard, Rossiter, \"Two Greek Vases.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 14, no. 6 (1927): 99-101.",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137032"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 74",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n78"
},
{
"citation": "\"Accessions.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 15, no. 2 (Feb. 1928): 35-37.",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25137102"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 26",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n20"
},
{
"citation": "Greater Cleveland Social Science Program. T<em>he Human Adventure, I: Ancient Civilization</em>; Teachers' Guide. Grade Five. 1965.",
"page_number": "Vol. 1, p. 164"
},
{
"citation": "Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. <em>Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum.</em> Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.",
"page_number": "p. 11, Pls. 15-16",
"url": "http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/browseCVARecord.asp?id={6D81F758-62EB-41E4-929A-E27B31947A72}&startRef="
},
{
"citation": "Finkenstaedt, Elizabeth. \"Mycenaean Mourning Customs in Greek Painting.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 60, no. 2 (1973): 39-43.",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152469"
},
{
"citation": "Folsom, Robert Slade. <em>Attic Black-Figured Pottery. </em>Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press, 1975.",
"page_number": "pl. 34"
},
{
"citation": "Immerwahr, Henry R. A <em>Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (</em>CAVI). [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998.",
"page_number": "no. 3201, p. 790"
},
{
"citation": "Pedrina, Marta. <em>I gesti del dolore nella ceramica attica (VI-V secolo a.C.)</em>: per un'analisi della comunicazione non verbale nel mondo greco. Venezia: Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 2001.",
"page_number": "fig. 46, p. 269."
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1927.145",
"creditline": "The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-29 05:49:41.512000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.145/1927.145_print.jpg",
"sourceId": 108979,
"dept": "Greek and Roman Art",
"coll": "GR - Greek",
"med": "ceramic",
"thumbnail_url": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
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