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Pottery in Greece has a long history and the form of Greek Vase Shapes has had a continuous evolution from the Minoan period down to the Hellenistic era. As Gisela Richter puts it the forms of these vases find their “happiest expression” in the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, yet it has been possible to date vases thanks to the variation in a form’s shape over time. A fact particularly useful when dating unpainted or glazed black-ware.

The task of naming Greek vase shapes is by no means a straightforward one. The endeavour by archaeologists to match vase forms with those names that have come down to us from Greek literature began with Panofka’s 1829 book Recherches sur les veritables noms des vases grecs, his confident assertion that he had rediscovered the ancient nomenclature was quickly disputed by Gerhard and Letronne. A few surviving vases were labelled with their names in antiquity, these included a hydria depicted on the François Vase and a kylix that declares “I am the decorated kylix of lovely Phito” (BM, B450), amongst others. Also some vases are shown in use within vase paintings, this is some help in judging the descriptions of them. However much of our written information about Greek pots comes from late writers, Athenaios, Pollux and other lexicographers who described vases unknown to them and as such are often contradictory and confused. With those caveats the names of Greek vases are fairly well settled even if such names are a matter of convention rather than historical fact.

The following vases are mostly Attic, from the 5th and 6th centuries, and follow the Beazley naming convention.

Key terms

_	Foot	Lip
_	Disk	Flaring
_	Echinus	Inverted Echinus
_	_	In several degrees
_	_	Torus

Alabastron	Amphora type A, c. 520 BC.	Amphora type B.	Amphora type C.
Neck Amphora, c. 520 BC.	Ovoid neck amphora	Nikosthenic amphora, c. 530 BC.	Nolan amphora
Panathenaic Amphora	Pseudo-panathenaic amphora, c. 500 BC.	Pointed amphora	Transport amphorae
Amphoriskos	Piriform Aryballos	Globular aryballos	Askos
Band cup	Droop cup	Eye-cup	Kassel cup
Komast cup	Lakonian cup	Lip-cup	Siana cup
Dinos	Epichysis	Exaleiptron	Fish Plate
Glaux skyphos	Hydria-black figure type	Hydria-red figure type or Kalpis	Kantharos type B
Kantharos type D	Kernos	Kothon	Bell Krater, c 330 BC.
Calyx-Krater, c. 510 BC.	Column Krater	Volute Krater	Kyathos
Kylix type A	Kylix type B	Lagynos	Lebes Gamikos
Lekane	Lekanis	Acorn lekythos	Deianeira lekythos, c. 550 BC.
Shoulder or secondary lekythos, c. 500 BC.	Standard or cylinder lekythos c.490 BCE.	Squat lekythos	Loutrophoros
Lydion	Mastos	Nestoris	Oinochoe Shape 1
Oinochoe Shape 2	Oinochoe Shape 3	Oinochoe Shape 7	Olpe
Pelike	Pinax (plaque)	Pithos	Phiale
Phormiskos (here a terracotta model)	Plate	Plemochoe	Psykter
Pyxis, c. 470 BC.	Pointed pyxis	Rhyton, c. 430 BCE.	Skyphos, c. 740 BC
Hermogenes skyphos	Stamnos, c. 480–470 BC.	Strainer vase

• Gisela M. A. Richter, Marjorie J. Milne, Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases, Metropolitan Museum of art, New York, 1935.

• Beazley Archive
• Comprehensive List of Vase Shapes