| Ancient Greek pottery is frequently signed, | | | | given the correct answer. The Egyptians, Greeks |
| sometimes by the potter or the master of the | | | | and peoples of the Near East all had stories about |
| pottery, but only occasionally by the painter. | | | | such a creature. The Egyptian Sphinx usually had |
| Hundreds of painters are however, identifiable by | | | | the head of a man and the body, legs, feet and |
| their artistic personalities, where their signatures | | | | tail of a lion. The Greek Sphinx usually had the |
| haven't survived they are named for their subject | | | | head of a woman and according to Greek |
| choices, as "the Achilles Painter", by the potter | | | | literature, lived on a high rock outside of the city |
| they worked for, such as the late Archaic | | | | of Thebes. The Great Sphinx that stands at Giza |
| "Kleophrades Painter", or even by their modern | | | | near the Great Pyramid in Egypt is 240 feet long |
| locations, such as the late Archaic "Berlin Painter". | | | | and approximately 66 feet high and is one of the |
| Corinth once made pottery decorated without | | | | most famous monuments in the world. |
| any paint. Instead a watery clay mixture was | | | | The ancient Greeks were the firs to develop a |
| used. When the pot was fired in a kiln, the areas | | | | democratic way of life. More than 200 years age, |
| painted with clay mixture turned black. Unpainted | | | | they started the idea that every citizen should |
| areas turned a light brown or reddish brown color, | | | | take an active part in Government, historians |
| depending on the type of clay. | | | | regard them as the founder of western civilization. |
| For 200 years the Corinthians sold their pottery all | | | | Greek civilization was far more advanced than |
| over the Greek world, and Corinth became a | | | | any other historians were. Orators, philosophers, |
| wealthy and busy trading center. In metalworking | | | | and poets were Greek. The Greeks were the |
| and pottery, the work was very hard. The | | | | first to study botany, geometry, medicine, physic |
| potters could be found in a part of Athens known | | | | and zoology on a scientific basic. They also held |
| as the Kerameikos, or Potters' Quarter. They | | | | the first athletic games. |
| acquired their clay from the quarries at Cape | | | | The ancient Greeks called themselves Hellenes, |
| Colias, six miles from the city. They mixed it with | | | | and their land Hellas. They never formed a national |
| ochre or vermilion to color it yellow or red, and | | | | government, but a common culture, religious, and |
| turned it on simple wheels. The molded articles | | | | language united them. Greeks called anyone |
| were then dried in the sun and specialized painters | | | | whose active language was Greek a Hellene, even |
| decorated them by hand. The Sphinx, an | | | | if he did not live in Greece, and anyone not |
| imaginary creature of ancient myths, is most | | | | speaking Greek a barbarian. Greek civilization |
| remembered for the riddle given to her by the | | | | developed on a rocky, mountainous peninsula that |
| Muses, "What creature has only once voice walks | | | | juts onto the Mediterranean Sea from |
| sometimes on four, sometimes on three, and | | | | southeastern Europe, and on the Islands in the |
| sometimes on two, and is weakest when it walks | | | | nearby sea. The people of each plain and island |
| on four? "Man!" She often sat perched on Mount | | | | formed an independent community called a |
| Phicium, asking each passing person a riddle. If | | | | city-state. No city-state had enough good land to |
| they answered her wrong, she would eat them. It | | | | support its entire people. Communities quarreled |
| is also believed that The Sphinx leaped to her | | | | with one another instead of uniting. Athens and |
| death when she asked Oedipus a riddle and was | | | | Sparta became the most famous city-states. |