The Ptolemaic Oinochoai: A Reassessment

[Unpublished; Main text last updated July 2014; URLs in footnotes updated July 2018 where possible] In reconsidering the multimedia nature, royal iconography, inscriptions, and pan-Mediterranean findspots of the Ptolemaic oinochoai, it is asserted here that the vessels served two primary and complementary functions during their object lives: they were vessels of propaganda and vessels of prestige. As vessels of propaganda, the faience oinochoai functioned as one of many material efforts initiated by the Ptolemies to radiate wealth and power throughout their sphere of influence. Based on the provenance of the “Queens’ Vases,” especially the extra-Alexandrian examples, and their overall adornment and iconography, the owners are here suggested to be the mobile, upper-class elite of the Ptolemaic court, a group including, but not limited to, the eponymous priests of Alexander and the deified Ptolemies and the priestesses of Arsinoe Philadelphus at Alexandria, a number of whom were also upper-level military officers or the daughters of military officers. As vessels of prestige, the oinochoai were likely gifted or otherwise supplied to these functionaries by the royal house, and then displayed and/or used in cult rituals during the owner’s lifetime, acting as visual signals of his or her proximity and loyalty to the Ptolemies. Finally, the vessels were buried with their owners as grave goods, thus ensuring that the prestige of the item was retained by the social group to which they were bestowed