Black-figure lekythos

The decoration of the vase is not related to its use. Such scenes of daily life are usually encountered on hydrias, the vases women used to carry water from the public fountains. Fountains were social meeting places, both for women and men, who sometimes –on the pretext of being helpful– tried to sexually harass the unsuspecting ladies.

The frequent depiction of fountains and fountain monuments on Attic vases of the last decades of the 6th c. BC most probably reflects the influential role in contemporary Athenian life of famous public fountains which were constructed by the tyrant Peisistratos or the Peisistratids, as part of their populist policy. Herms were first set up in Athens by Hipparchos, son of Peisistratos, around 520 BC. They served as signposts, boundary marks or offerings.