The rippling water of the sea

There is a repeating pattern in between the tentacles. Are they shells, waves, or ripples? It is hard to say, but it certainly does add to the oceanic impression of the jar. The sea was an important element of Mycenaean life: the Mycenaeans relied on the waters for their trade and contacts. The sea was also important on an ideological level, although its exact meaning for the Mycenaeans is unfortunately hard to ascertain. Marine-inspired art is underrepresented in the overall repertoire that has been excavated, and no literary sources of the time survive that could illuminate some mentality regarding the waters inland or the sea. Finds of ship models made from clay, sometimes in tombs, hint at a ritual or symbolic importance of the ocean to the Mycenaeans. In general, ancient peoples maintained an ambivalent relationship with the sea. On the one hand it was seen as benevolent, calm and a provider of food and life, but on the other the sea could be treacherous and a place of death, as expressed in the Odyssey when Odysseus is dangerously dragged along by violent waves: ‘[he] was crushed by the sea’ [Hom. Od. 5.451]. The sea was not just another realm, but an enactor, a force of its own, for better or for worse. See Berg 2013, ‘The Potter’s Wheel in Mycenaean Greece: A Reassessment’, in: Giampaolo Graziadio et al (eds.), Φιλική Συναυλία Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology for Mario Benzi , Oxford, 1-2. The sea also represented life, death and rebirth. So to depict the ocean does not seem strange, if only to serve as filler for the empty space to avoid the Mycenaean horror vacui (‘fear of emptiness’).Doi 2006, The octopus style: A study of octopus-painted Aegean pottery of 12th-11th centuries B.C.E., its regional styles, development and social significance (Doctoral thesis, University College London), 93. If we want to determine the meaning of this nautical pattern, the Minoan antecedents are not helpful. Because of the more naturalistic style that prevailed in Minoan cultural expressions, the Minoans did not use such arcs and abstract lines, as they favored more faithful renditions of the world around them. So, this kind of patterning was typically Mycenaean. But let’s take a closer look at the pattern. Maybe they are not shells, waves or ripples after all…