Lebes gamikos

LEBES GAMIKOS


The Lebes gamikos is a bowl, with handles and lid, attached to a stand and used to carry the bridal bath. Also known as a nuptial lebes, the Greek name means "marriage bowl." Literary evidence justifies correctly calling a vessel with this shape lebes gamikos.
It served the same purpose as the loutrophoros in wedding rituals, to bring the bridal bath. It appears in the first quarter of the sixth century and it continues down to the middle of the fourth century B.C. It appears in South-Italian wares until the end of the fourth century B.C.
Beazley believed that the artist Sophilos (580-570 B.C.) decorated the first lebes gamikos, bearing the wedding procession of Helen and Menelaos.


LEBES GAMIKOS 1

Type 1 : The bowl is small and deep, curving in sharply at the shoulder, and has a distinct neck with an overhanging lip. It is joined (forming one piece) to a tall flaring stand. There are a pair of high, upright handles on the shoulder, and the bowl usually has a domed cover topped by a tall stemmed handle.
LEBES GAMIKOS 2

Type 2 : A bowl with handles and lid, no neck, and low moulded foot. It has the shape of a flaring stand lebes but on a low foot. The bowl is small and deep, curving in sharply at the shoulder.