The Warrior Vase is a piece of pottery that refers to the late Helladic period and is related to the Mycenaean area. It is dated to the 12th century BC, while similar motives are also found in the pottery of the 8th century. It is a krater that presents a bowl for mixing wine and water, which was considered one of the signs of civilized nations. The vase integrates armed warriors and females bidding farewell to them. The key features of this vase are a lack of landscape and setting components, which was also characteristic of the Minoan civilization (Kleiner, 2020). For example, their Harvesters Vase can be compared to the Warrior Vase. It should be stressed that both of them have simplified patterns and curvilinear forms that depict moving and armed warriors.
As for the later Greeks, there is a common trend of primitivism. The plot common in Mycenaean vase paintings depicts people on or next to a chariot in an extremely primitive way. In addition to the fact that the figures of people and horses are made extremely artless and emphatically disproportionate, one can see the bird-like heads of warriors. Likewise, an octopus was depicted in a stylized manner, which sometimes made it difficult to recognize this sea creature (Kleiner, 2020). In the times of Homer, the Aegean civilization was only in memories. There are no direct notes about the impact of the Warrior Vase on mythological stories that are created by later Greeks. However, one may suggest that the motives of this piece of pottery were put in the foundation of Greek mythology. For example, the warriors from the myths about Odysseus or Perseus can be mentioned.
Reference
Kleiner, F. S. (2020). Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western perspective, volume I (15th ed.). Cengage Learning.
