archaicwonder:Greek Black-Figure Warship Dinos, 510-500 BCA dinos is a round-bottomed vessel with a
archaicwonder:Greek Black-Figure Warship Dinos, 510-500 BCA dinos is a round-bottomed vessel with a broad neck for mixing wine and water. On the inside of the neck are five ships in black lacquer against the background of the fired clay. In the stern of each ship, which is in the form of a swan’s head, sits the helmsman while the rowers, whose heads can be seen along the sides, raise and drop their oars rhythmically. The prows (in the form of the head of a dolphin) cut threw the waves. When the dinos was filled with wine it would have seem as though the ships were sailing on a real sea and revelers might recall the words of Homer, who described the sea as “the colour of wine”. The 6th-century BC Attic vase-painter produced a witty composition on a subject easily comprehensible to a people who had spent the 8th to 6th centuries sailing the seas, taking and settling new territories to broaden the borders of their lands. -- source link