A Bride’s Preparation

This special piece of pottery was designed to fit over a woman’s thigh to protect it while she sat down to spin wool. As a woman’s tool, it appropriately carried a picture from a woman’s life: a bride being helped to prepare for her wedding by her family, friends, and servants. The inscriptions indicate that this fifth-century B.C.E. piece shows the mythological bride Alcestis, famous for sacrificing herself to save her husband and then being rescued from Death by the hero Heracles. (onos or epinetron, painted terracotta by Diosphos, Greece, Greek Civilization, 5th Century B.C. / De Agostini Picture Library / G. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman Images.)