Reading Comp. No. 2, quest. 6

In general, during this time period Grecian women were thought of as the property of their husband, or father (if not married). Their main roles were to bear children, and to take care of the home. Men held all the paying jobs, so it is most likely that the craftsmen that made these urns were men. We can also see male superiority depicted on both of these urns. In the red figure urn, we can see this as the women takes or hands the man’s weapons to him as he sits relaxed in a chair. In the drawing of an urn, this can be seen again in the fact that the woman standing behind the man who is sitting.

Both of these urns depict sacrifices being made to gods. We can tell that they are gods’ form the laurel branches used as a boarder, and on both heads of the men. The laurel was one of the sacred trees associated with the gods. In the red figure urn, trophies in the form of weapons and a shield are being presented to the god, which appears to be Apollo. In the drawing of an urn, a man wearing a lion skin appears to be making a sacrifice from the hunt to Zeus. He has evidently reached the step that requires him to take off the skin of the sacrificed beast. We can tell it is Zeus because the deity appears holding a scepter with an eagle on it.

We also know from Grecian culture that urns were used during sacrifices to collect the ashes from the burned offerings. Sacrifices were a ritual deconstruction and reconstruction of the being offered sacrifice. This placing of the ashes in urns symbolized this reconstruction of the sacrifice in another living thing just like it.