An investigation of black-figure Greek pottery depicting women at the fountain house

Bahl, Nicole Renee. Michigan State University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003. 1416027.

In the 6th C BCE a proliferation of vases showing groups of women at fountain houses,  focussed more on everyday themes rather than mythologicL ones.This coincides with hydraulic building projects throughout Athens under the Peisistratid tyranny, including the famed Enneakrounos.

p 4 Sometimes, women carry wreaths to place over the waterspouts. These images convey a sense of festivity or celebration to the viewer. One surviving hydria decorated with ivy survives that includes the deities Hermes and Dionysos, whose presence provides the context under which one should view the vessel.Throughout the depictions of fountain houses in the Archaic period, the frequenters are women. They generally wear the clothing of the upper-class woman, a patterned himation. Their long hair is often pulled back into a bun that falls at the nape of the neck, although occasionally it hangs down. Some vases show both hairstyles in the same image.12 There may be as few as three women at the fountain house, although usually there are at least five, sometimes as many as eight. The women always have a hydria or jug to fill, sometimes they have placed it under a spout to fill while other times they carry it in their hand or atop their head.

Women utilized water in a variety of rituals, and this use is attested to in the visual imagery. As early as the Geometric period, women were identifiable on funerary vessels because they carried hydriai representing the rites performed for the deceased. The ritual obtainment and use of water is also attested to on vessels related to marriage rites. One of the most important days of a woman's life was her wedding, and one of the most frequently referenced rituals associated with the wedding was the prenuptial bath. Water also played a significant role in the cults of Hera, Demeter, and Artemis.

p 5 The primary beneficiaries of the new water supply were the common people of Greece. The visual evidence showing women using water in ritual dating at least as far back as the eighth century b.c.e. and the continuing use of water in ritual and cult in the last quarter of the sixth century b.c.e. provide an iconographic association of women and water. This association of women with water reflects their traditional roles within the home as procurers of water, and the ancient viewer would not think of a woman getting water as a slave. Instead, she represents virtuousness.
 Additionally, the appearance and dress of the women on the vessels created around 520 suggests the women are not slaves but rather, must be citizens, as Herodotus's account also proves. Finally, the notion of complete seclusion of the female, especially during the Archaic period, represented an Attic ideal that most citizens were unable to attain in reality. All of these factors suggest that the women are indeed respectable wives anddaughters. In ancient Greece, these vessels and their imagery were accessible to almost everyone; they would have been seen in the home, the symposium, and outside the home, for ritual use or fetching water14 (although none of the hydriai used in scenes of the fountain house is decorated15). And these vases are primarily the concern of women, seemingly created for them, appealing to women's taste and reflecting their reality and some of their important roles in society.

p 13 Pausanias’s account describes its location thus: When you have entered the Odeion at Athens you meet, among other objects, a statue of Dionysos, worth seeing. Nearby is a fountain, which they call Enneakrounos, for thus they arranged it under Peisistratos. There are wells all over the city, but this is the only source. Above the fountain there are temples of Demeter and Kore ...

p21 In ancient Greece, women played important roles in religion, funerals, marriages, birth, and the maintenance of the house, or oikos. Many of the functions involved in maintaining the home appear in religious and secular rituals, including cooking, the production of woven garments, and fetching water.68 Religious activities that were important within the polls were often performed by women, and re-enforced their roles within the home. Religious and cult rites involving water provide an iconographic precedent for viewing black-figure vessels created in the last half of the sixth-century b.c.e. showing women at the fountain house.

p22 Many rituals associated with weddings, especially the prenuptial bath, emphasized fertility, and attempted to ensure it in the new couple. The scholia to Euripides' Phoenician Women tells the purpose of the bridal bath, "Bridegrooms were accustomed in days of old to bathe in the local rivers and to sprinkle themselves symbolically with water from the rivers and springs, praying for fertility in this way, since water is life-giving and productive."72 Here, water is described as life-giving and productive; these qualities are most regarded in the Attic woman - her ability to provide the oikos with a suitable heir and supply the polis with another man.

p 24 Loutrophoroi were also given as grave offerings for women who died before marriage, which demonstrates the association the Attic Greeks made between weddings and deaths. To illustrate their use in funerary practice, these vessels often show a woman mourning who sometimes holds a loutrophoros. The grieving woman recalls the ritual bath before the laying out of the body, which is also the only "nuptial bath" the dead girl will ever take.7

p 28 The earliest vases showing women carrying hydriai in cult date to near 540. In these scenes the focus is not on a fountain house, well, or the act of getting water.

p 32 Many religious events, it was acceptable for women of all social levels to venture outside of the home, especially if the religious activity emphasized their roles as childbearers.93 In fact, women would leave the seclusion of their homes to visit religious shrines that could be quite far from their own home. Many of these experiences involve the ritual use of water, including the Eleusinian Mysteries, which was one of the most important religious ceremonies for the ancient Greek.At the conclusion of the Eleusinian Mysteries, two vessels were filled, probably with water, and then overturned, one towards the west and one towards the east, while to the sky one cried "rain!" and to the earth "conceive!"—in Greek a play on words: hye - k y e 94 The same words were engraved on a fountain, illustrating the importance of the source of water used in ritual. Because crops required water to flourish, it reasons that it became associated with fertility. Women were responsible for many rituals that were concerned with the growth of crops because water was associated with fertility and lifegiving, which was likened to a woman's own fertility.

p33 In the cults of Hera, Artemis, and Demeter, water was used in rituals associated with women.97 This is particularly true in the case of Hera, who had a longstanding tradition of water in her rites (especially in Argos and on Samos— the centers of cult worship dedicated to her).98 Charles Waldstein found hundreds of miniature hydria at Hera's sanctuaries during his excavations.99 And near the temple to Hera at Argos, J. L. Caskey found approximately 900 such miniature hydriai dated from the seventh through the sixth centuries.100 These miniature hydriai were dedicated to various female gods, but are most abundant in the cults of Artemis, Hera, and Demeter.101 Sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter have revealed a great number of miniature hydriai and terracotta figurines of women carrying hydriai. This reflects their role in the mystery cults of Demeter in which the ritual pouring out of water was associated with salvation.102 These miniature hydriai dedicated by women reflect the hydrophoroi festivals in which the Greek women partook.

p 34

In cults that include the use of water, sanctuaries were often equipped with water sources. The water system at the Argive Heraion is believed to be for ritual use relating to the myth of Zeus and Hera's marriage, most specifically Hera's wedding bath, as it was said that girls brought baths to Hera.103 And the miniature hydriai found at the sanctuary may have been associated with this ritual acting out of Hera's bridal bath. Demeter also had provisions for water in her sanctuaries where it appears that hydriai and hydrophoroi were popular dedications to her, suggesting an association with the need of water for agriculture, which was possible because of her, again emphasizing fertility made possible via water.104 Similarly hydriai have been found dedicated to Artemis at Brauron, Ephesos, and Sparta, and there is evidence of hydrophoroi at Didyma, Patmos, Samos, and Lousoi.105 Notably, these sanctuaries of Artemis are the places where young girls were involved in ritual activity.106 Artemis was particularly important in caring for female children, and at the time of their marriage, dedications were made to her before the girl made the transformation into wife.

p38 Greek mythology provides the earliest evidence that images of women at the fountain house are indeed citizen women, and that these vessels continue a longstanding tradition of women as providers of water for the home. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter, disguised as Doso, goes to a public well. While here, she comes across women of the city and there gained employment in a home. The daughters of Metaneira come to the well as part of their work to gather water for the home where they meet Demeter/Doso and offer her work. This aspect of the story becomes an important component in the Eleusinian mysteries. Within the sanctuary at Eleusis was the Kallichoron Well where the initiates danced while the goddess sat nearby on the Mirthless Rock.112 And in Greek art, the rock on which Demeter sat while at the wellbecomes part of the iconographic formula. In the Hymn, no men are present at the well; rather women performing traditional duties frequent this area. This is also documented in a now lost part of the Homeric Iliupersis in which Polyxena is at a fountain house when Achilles ambushes Troilos. This is a popular subject in black-figure vases. The depiction usually includes Polyxena at the fountain house with a broken hydria lying at her feet. Apart from Troilos, additional figures are rarely shown with her at the fountain house.