| Ancient Greek pottery is frequently signed, | | | | Sphinx usually had the head of a man and the body, |
| sometimes by the potter or the master of the | | | | legs, feet and tail of a lion. The Greek Sphinx usually |
| pottery, but only occasionally by the painter. | | | | had the head of a woman and according to Greek |
| Hundreds of painters are however, identifiable by | | | | literature, lived on a high rock outside of the city of |
| their artistic personalities, where their signatures | | | | Thebes. The Great Sphinx that stands at Giza near |
| haven't survived they are named for their subject | | | | the Great Pyramid in Egypt is 240 feet long and |
| choices, as "the Achilles Painter", by the potter they | | | | approximately 66 feet high and is one of the most |
| worked for, such as the late Archaic "Kleophrades | | | | famous monuments in the world. |
| Painter", or even by their modern locations, such as | | | | The ancient Greeks were the firs to develop a |
| the late Archaic "Berlin Painter". | | | | democratic way of life. More than 200 years age, |
| For 200 years the Corinthians sold their pottery all | | | | they started the idea that every citizen should take |
| over the Greek world, and Corinth became a wealthy | | | | an active part in Government, historians regard them |
| and busy trading center. In metalworking and | | | | as the founder of western civilization. Greek |
| pottery, the work was very hard. The potters could | | | | civilization was far more advanced than any other |
| be found in a part of Athens known as the | | | | historians were. Orators, philosophers, and poets |
| Kerameikos, or Potters' Quarter. They acquired their | | | | were Greek. The Greeks were the first to study |
| clay from the quarries at Cape Colias, six miles from | | | | botany, geometry, medicine, physic and zoology on a |
| the city. They mixed it with ochre or vermilion to | | | | scientific basic. They also held the first athletic games. |
| color it yellow or red, and turned it on simple wheels. | | | | The ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes, and |
| The molded articles were then dried in the sun and | | | | their land Hellas. They never formed a national |
| specialized painters decorated them by hand. The | | | | government, but a common culture, religious, and |
| Sphinx, an imaginary creature of ancient myths, is | | | | language united them. Greeks called anyone whose |
| most remembered for the riddle given to her by the | | | | active language was Greek a Hellene, even if he did |
| Muses, "What creature has only once voice walks | | | | not live in Greece, and anyone not speaking Greek a |
| sometimes on four, sometimes on three, and | | | | barbarian. Greek civilization developed on a rocky, |
| sometimes on two, and is weakest when it walks on | | | | mountainous peninsula that juts onto the |
| four? "Man!" She often sat perched on Mount Phicium, | | | | Mediterranean Sea from southeastern Europe, and on |
| asking each passing person a riddle. If they answered | | | | the Islands in the nearby sea. The people of each |
| her wrong, she would eat them. It is also believed | | | | plain and island formed an independent community |
| that The Sphinx leaped to her death when she asked | | | | called a city-state. No city-state had enough good |
| Oedipus a riddle and was given the correct answer. | | | | land to support its entire people. Communities |
| The Egyptians, Greeks and peoples of the Near East | | | | quarreled with one another instead of uniting. Athens |
| all had stories about such a creature. The Egyptian | | | | and Sparta became the most famous city-states. |