and bowl (_phiale_) is
invariable.

But their most important use, and that to which their preservation is
mainly due, was in connexion with funeral ceremonies. They were not
only employed at the burial, but were placed both outside the tombs
to receive offerings, and inside them either to hold the ashes of the
dead or as "tomb-furniture," in accordance with Greek religious
beliefs in regard to the future life. Several classes of vases are
marked out by their subjects as exclusively devoted to this purpose,
such as the large jars found in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens, which
were placed outside the tombs, the white Athenian _lekythoi_ of the
5th and 4th centuries B.C., and the large _krateres_ and other vases
of the 4th century B.C. found in the tombs of Apulia and other parts
of southern Italy. Their use as cinerary urns was perhaps more
restricted, at all events as regards the painted vases, though the
custom is well known and is referred to in literature from Homer
downwards. In "Mycenaean" times coffers ([Greek: larnakes]) of clay
were used for this purpose, especially in Crete, where fine painted
examples have been found; but of Greek pottery of the best periods
there are but isolated instances.

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Part of vase from Naucratis with dedication
to Apollo.]

The diagrams in fig. 15 show the principal shapes characteristic of
Greek pottery in all but the earliest periods, when the variety of
form was as yet too great to permit of more than the vaguest
nomenclature; each form has its conventional name appended. These
shapes may be classified under the following heads: (1) Vases in which
food or liquids were preserved; (2) vases in which liquids were mixed
or food cooked; (3) those by means of which liquids were poured out or
food distributed; (4) drinking-cups; (5) other vases for the use of
the table or toilet. Thus we have the _pithos_ and _amphora_ for
storing wine, the _krater_ for mixing it, the _psykter_ for cooling
it, the _kyathos_ for ladling it out, and the _oinochoe_ or _prochoos_
for pouring it out; the _hydria_ was used for fetching water from the
well. The names and forms of drinking-cups are innumerable, the
principal being the _kylix_, _kotyle_, _kantharos_, _rhyton_
(drinking-horn) and _phiale_ (libation bowl). The _pyxis_ was used by
women at their toilet, and the _lekythos_, _alabastron_ and _askos_