A Water Jug Spills the Tea

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Announcer: This is a Getty Podcast.

Host: What covers over seventy one percent of the earth’s surface, but is a huge challenge to carry home? It’s water!

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Welcome to If Objects Could Talk, a podcast where art and artifacts get to leave the museum vault and tell their side of the story. Thanks for joining us as we bring objects into the light!

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How long does it take you to get a sip of water? Maybe it’s the time it takes to walk to the kitchen and turn on the sink. [tap water running] Or the time it takes to go from the classroom to the hallway water fountain. [voices in a hallway] Or maybe you’ve already got a water bottle in arm’s reach. [popped lid, then voice says “ahh”]

We all need water to survive, so as people built towns and cities, we had to find ways to bring water along with us. Today’s object was one tool people used for that. It’s a special type of Greek water jug called a hydria. [gurgling water]

Like many others from this period, this water jug was painted with a beautiful scene.

[Greek music begins]

This time, with three women, wearing a kind of draped tunic called a “chiton.” [women laugh] They’re getting ready, holding jewelry, mirrors, and other objects.

Lucky for us, one of these ladies is dying to spill.

Woman on the Hydria: [pouring water] Rumor has it, you’re interested in some ancient gossip. [women laugh]

Well, get yourself a glass and come on over, Sugar, because we might be on a water jug, but we’re here to spill the tea.

First up, get a good look at us! [voices say “wow”] We’re on a type of vase called a “hydria” which ancient Greeks used to carry water around. [pouring water]

Back before indoor plumbing, it was the only way to stay “hydria-ated.” [snared drum hits, then crickets]

Alright—tough crowd. Look, if you’re gonna be rude, you can go. We’ve got plenty to gossip about amongst ourselves. There are three of us ladies painted on this hydria, after all. [voices say “uh huh”]

I’m the one who has had the luxury of sitting for the past two thousand, four hundred years, ever since we were made back in Athens, Greece. The women on either side of me? They had to stand this entire time.

[aside] Do you ladies need a water break?

Other Woman: Nah, we’re good. Thanks, Doll.

Woman on the Hydria: Our hydria was probably used for special occasions, such as festivals or when company came over. [people chatting] Sort of like having special plates for Thanksgiving instead of using your everyday set.

Our hydria is a little smaller than a volleyball. That's smaller than your regular, everyday hydrias, which had to be large to make sure you weren't running to the water fountain a hundred times a day. [footsteps, water glug, more footsteps]

Some hydrias are twice our size! [child says “wow!”] We're also more decorated than everyday Hydrias, which were usually just plain clay. Our hydria is mostly painted black, except for us, the three figures, that are a gorgeous red color. [twinkle sound]

How did the Greeks make us so striking? Honey, it’s all about terracotta. [crowd saying “oooh”]

Terracotta means “baked earth” and the earth around Athens had a lot of iron oxide in it. The iron gives our vase a distinctive red color.

To add decoration, pottery workers painted with a mixture of clay and water called “slip.” The slip was barely visible when it was first added on. But never underestimate the power of turning up the heat!

As potters carefully heated and cooled their creations, trapping and releasing oxygen and smoke, the slip would react differently from the unpainted areas of the pottery. As a result, the unpainted areas would stay red, while the painted areas would turn a stunning shade of black. [harp chord]

For generations, Athenian potters would leave the backgrounds red and use slip to paint figures in black. But one day, about two thousand, five hundred years ago, some unknown artisan had an idea! [voice says "ah ha!"]

Instead of painting the figures and leaving the background red, this potter decided to reverse it.

Soon, the new style took over, and terracotta was decorated with the background in black, while the figures remained in red. [applause]

And that’s how we’re styled, Darling. Like the look? You can try it yourself. What would it be like to draw a picture only by coloring the background? And what would you choose to depict?

Greek potters painted everything from epic mythological heroes [swords and battle sounds] to mundane scenes of daily life [dice, group chatter].

Now, the picture might be the first thing that catches your eye about our vase, but keep looking and you’ll also notice three distinct handles. Two stick out on the sides and one sticks out on the back. The two side handles were used to hold the Hydria while filling or carrying water, while the back handle made it easier to pour the water out. [pouring water]

Now, where might that water come from? Some people might journey to a nearby river. [rushing water] Others might find a natural spring that came up from the ground. [gentle bubbling water] Over time, Greeks developed basic plumbing, and were able to transport the water from the countryside [hammering] to a communal fountain in a town or city! To protect these fountains from the weather, they would sometimes build covered pavilions—think big stone columns holding up a simple roof.

These buildings were called “fountain houses.” And, Honey, it was very important work, carrying water from a fountain house back home.

It’s easy to forget these days, when you can just turn on a tap in the kitchen, just how often we use water. Not to mention, how much water we all use!

Up for a little experiment?

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Do you think you can calculate how much water you use in a day?

I sure hope you’ve flushed the toilet. [flushing sound] That’s about 2 gallons of water right there—each time!

Taken a shower? [shower runs] That might be between 15–20 gallons. And then of course there’s all the water that’s used by drinking or cooking or cleaning dishes! [washing sounds] Now, can you imagine having to carry every gallon of water you used? [grunting]

Honey, my arms are tired just thinking about it. [yawns]

But it wasn’t all bad news. For some women, getting water had a silver lining. [chatter begins] Society expected Greek women and girls to stick close to home. So while getting water from a fountain house was a daily chore...it was also a social occasion!

In the days before podcasts, FaceTime, and social media, if you wanted to know what was what, you had to get it straight from the source. [chatter ends]

In fact that reminds me—did you hear what happened between Helene and Anastassia? No? Oh my goddess, well...

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Helene and Anastassia were daughters of two rival potters in Athens. Groups of craftsmen usually worked in the same area of town. In Athens, potters were in the Kerameikos district near the edge of the city. You’d think that two families living in the same part of town, working in the industry might have enough in common that they would become friends, but no such luck.

Whether it was fear over losing customers or professional jealousy, feuds popped up constantly. [yelling, glass and pottery breaks] In fact, a Greek proverb about rivalries used potters as its metaphor! Even the philosopher Aristotle wrote about “Potter against Potter.” And I assure you, he was not talking about wizards...

All this to say, while potters were known to be competitive, Helene and Anastassia did not share their fathers’ spite. [Women laughter] They had met as children while their mothers gathered water, and were now just old enough to go themselves. They tried to time their trips so they could play and talk together while walking back from the fountain house. [chatting and footsteps]

But then, a whole week went by without Helene seeing Anastassia even once!

Hey, look, life gets busy; you know how it is. It was the week of the festival, after all! At least, that’s what Helene told herself the first time Anastassia didn’t show. But after a few days, Helene started to get worried that Anastassia was avoiding her. [voice says “hmm”]

That day, Helene went to the fountain house twice: once for the day’s regular water with her large hydria, and then a second time with us to pick up extra water for celebrating with. There was still no sign of Anastassia. As Helene waited in line for water from the fountain house with other girls and women, she looked down sadly at the hydria in her hand...and she saw us! [harp chord]

Yes, that’s right. The three of us, red-figures on black, all chatting with each other. And Helene realized that she shouldn’t make assumptions, when she could just ask.

Okay, she couldn’t ask about Anastassia outright. Word might get back to her father about the friendship with his rival’s daughter, and then where would they be? But the power of gossip is real—and really important. Helene squared her shoulders and charged into the fountain house to make small talk.

To get the hot goss she needed, Helene first needed to lend a sympathetic ear...or hand. [water running and chatting] She joined with two young women discussing a new play by Sophocles. She held a toddler as the mother filled her water jug and chatted about the cost of wool. She listened to a servant complain about how many parties her employers wanted to have that winter. And then, as Helene was helping an elderly woman carry her hydria home, Helene got the gossip she really needed.

The elderly woman was Anastassia’s grandmother! And she was only there because Anastassia had twisted her ankle the week before. Anastassia would be alright, but she was not supposed to get out of bed at all for twenty days. This was the newest cure recommended in a recent book by the trendy doctor Hippocrates. Maybe you’ve heard of him—does the Hippocratic Oath ring a bell? [bell rings]

Anyway, Helene breathed a sigh of relief. [voice says “phew”]

Anastassia wasn’t mad at her after all! That night, Helene came up with a plan to see her friend.

[Energetic Greek music begins]

Helene made sure to go on multiple trips to the fountain house again the next day. When she saw Anastassia’s grandmother there, she offered to carry the old woman’s water again, and this time, got to sneak in and see her bedridden friend for a short time. [door opens] We were placed on a small table [thuds] and watched the two friends as they caught up on a whole week’s worth of gossip. [laughter and chatting] There’s nothing like an in-person hang, is there?

They decided then and there to find a way to temper their fathers’ rivalry so they wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore. But that’s a story for another time.

Phew, am I parched from all that chatting. Anyone have some water? Hello? [door opens] Anyone?

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Host: I hope you enjoyed learning about Greek pottery and water! Join us next time when a spirited Satyr gem does his thing. [goat bleats]

To see photographs of the hydria and learn more, visit our website at Getty dot edu slash podcasts.

This episode was written by Claire Hupy and produced by Zoe Goldman. Hailey Wu Chow voiced our hydria figure. Theme music, mixing and sound design by Alexandra Kalinowski. Christopher Sprinkle is executive producer.

Special thanks to curators Ken Lapatin, Judith Barr, Hana Sugioka, and David Saunders.

Catch you next time!

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