CERAMIC WARE. 229 



from the manufacture of real porcelain (China ware), or in- 

 deed any variety of white pottery, they were in one sense 

 more determined potters than the world has seen. Nor will 

 this be marvelled at when we come to reflect upon their con- 

 dition and necessities. Firstly, they loved good wine; and 

 had no glass bottles to keep it in. The resource was vessels of 

 earthenware. Then, the art of cooperage does not seem to 

 have been well understood and followed. Of casks they had 

 few, or none, and pari ratione tubs. Hence, the want of those 

 had to be supplied by enormous jars, called by the Greeks 

 c pithons,' vessels identical with the Spanish wine ollas of the 

 present day ; and of which some magnificent specimens were 

 displayed in the Hyde-park Exhibition of 1851. Enormously 

 large these Greek pithons must have been, considering that 

 the tub of Diogenes was really no tub at all, but a gigantic 

 earthenware pot. The pithon house of Diogenes must have, 

 at the least, been large enough for two, if not three. History 

 testifies that the lovely Phryne frequently called upon the 

 philosopher and the probability is, I fancy, that she would 

 hardly have done SQ without the escort of some discreet 

 duenna. There is nothing peculiar in this platonic affection 

 between a genius like Phryne and a philosopher like Diogenes. 

 He was not married, I believe ; but had he been, a tete-a-tete 

 with a clever young lady would have seemed in no wise in- 

 consistent with the usages of ancient Greece. 



Socrates, though so great a philosopher, sometimes pre- 

 ferred the society of clever young Grecian ladies to that of 

 Xantippe his wife. In fact, the social relations of the ancient 

 Greeks were peculiar, and would not be tolerated nowadays. 

 The marrying ladies were never accomplished ; mere house- 

 wives, no more. They remained at home to keep things in 

 order, and make the pies and puddings. Poetry, music, paint- 

 ing, all suchlike delightful accomplishments, were restricted 

 to the unmarrying young ladies, who did not live with their 

 mammas. Under these circumstances it was not only a neces- 



