CORINTHIAN AND ATTIC BLACK ‑FIGURE POTTERY IN THE PERSEPHONEION OF LOCRI EPIZEPHYRI: COMPARING TWO CERAMIC CLASSES

In our contribution in honour of Prof. Papuci, we would like to focus our attention on the evidence for Corinthian pottery in the sanc tuary dedicated to Persephone at Locri Epizephyri. The first dedications of Corinthian pottery in the sacral area are dated between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century BC, almost coinciding with the first Attic black ‑figure vases, and the first data collected seem to show how the two different classes of pottery complement each other both in cult activity and in the function of anathemata. An emblematic case is that of the Corinthian unguentaria, hundreds of which were deposited in the ‘favissa’, where there is an almost total absence of Attic black ‑figure lekythoi; on the contrary, the quantity of Attic kylikes from the mid ‑6th century BC is considerable and that of Corinthian cups negligible. The two classes thus seem to have complemented each other within the sanctuary, where they served as ritual instruments or as gifts to the goddess. This category probably included Attic and Corinthian lekanides and pyxides. It is only from Late Corinthian I onwards that Attic pottery seems to have almost completely replaced Corinthian pottery in the sanctuary, for com mercial and productivity reasons of the Corinthian Kerameikos itself, where only a few silhouette and linear kotyliskoi are documented