Bathing Women/Eros

This vessel is a cloisonné (Pyxis) with lid that serves to store jewelry or cosmetics. The shape of the vessel is likely to be traced back to wooden role models, which is evidenced, among other things, by the grip of the lid, which seems to be turned out to be insensitive. The top of the lid, as well as the side areas below the handle, has a plant pattern. The abdominal pattern shows two women on the front during the bath: the unclothed woman on the left, who turns her back to the observer, holds a large tuch-shaped robe, which she just puts on or off. The woman on the right in the picture is crouching on a narrow elevation, while she wrestles her hair’s wet strands with her hands. Their depiction is based on the famous statue of the bathing aphrodite of the Greek sculptor Doidalses (see: Object No. 6). Above her head her robe can be seen as lying on the back wall of a room. Both the robe and the framing bridges, which are supposed to represent pillars, visually convey that the scene takes place inside a building. On the back, a winged Eros can be seen, who put his right foot on a postament. The connection between the two abdominal images - Bad and Eros - points to the ritual wedding bath that the Greek bride is carrying out on the eve of marriage. As a custom, the wedding pool is particularly common in Athens, but also in other Greek landscapes. As a result, the book is likely to be understood as a container for wedding gifts or is a grave addition that is given to an unmarried deceased woman so that she can complete the wedding in the Hereafter. (Archaeological Museum of the EMU Münster)