Odysseus and the Sirens, Greek Pottery, Hand made replica, Red Figure Stamnos, 21cm

STAMNOS 21cm

Red figure circa 500-480 B.C.
‘Odysseus and the Sirens’

The Stamnos is a vessel used by the ancient Greeks to store liquids and also to mix wine.
A scaled down reproduction of the antiquity painted by ‘the Siren Painter’ and housed in London’s, British Museum.

Depicted is Odysseus and the Sirens and the other side depicts Eros, Pothos, and Himeros who were messengers of Zeus, flying over the sea.As Odysseus sailed back to Ithaca, after the end of the Trojan war, some of the gods kept placing obstacles in front of him to delay his return home.

The singing Sirens were one of these obstacles. They would sing and squeal, and this would cause men to crash their ships in the rocks of the narrow passage where they would wait.

Odysseus overcame this obstacle by having his men put wax in their ears so they couldn’t hear the Sirens and he tied himself to the mast of his ship without wax in his ears to hear their singing but not be able to influence his men.