Greek Vases - At the heart of each Roman Mystery there is at least one Greek vase...

(from The Pirates of Pompeii)

Painted in black glaze on the bottom of the cup's wide flat bowl was an elegant ship with a white sail and a tiny white dolphin on its prow. The potter had painted a man reclining in the ship, completely filling it up. This figure wore a garland on his head and in his hand he held a wine cup.

Flavia studied the kylix for a moment and then held it up so that Pulchra, Jonathan and Lupus could see, too.

'It's Dionysus, the god of wine, isn't it?' said Pulchra.

'Clever girl,' said Felix with a smile. 'But tell me, what's unusual about the scene?'

'The fact that there's an enormous grapevine
growing up the mast?' suggested Jonathan.

above right: 'Dionysus and the Pirates' This superb vase is also a kylix - an elegant wine-cup specifically for dinner parties. It is also Athenian but was executed in the older 'black figure' technique around the year 535 BC.

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