"White-on-Red" Ware pithos with Lid (Main view (side showing Polyphemos and the Greeks))

A scene from The Odyssey, by the Greek poet Homer, decorates this lidded Etruscan pithos or large storage vessel. Odysseus and his men were trapped in the cave of Polyphemos, a Cyclops who was devouring them one by one. In order to escape, the Greeks got the giant drunk and then put out his single eye with a sharpened stake.

The myth of Odysseus was extremely popular in Etruria. Here, the unknown artist has placed a large amphora between the Greeks and Polyphemos as a reference to the wine that Odysseus tricked the giant into drinking. He also emphasized the force of the attack by showing the Greeks leaning forward as they drive in the stake. On the back of the vase a pair of horses and a lion with its prey, a small deer, hanging from its mouth are interspersed with odd-looking plants.

Pithoi were used for the storage of both liquids and dry goods. They were often sunk into the ground to make their contents more easily retrievable. Such a purely utilitarian role does not agree with the elaborate decoration of this vessel. Some scholars believe that ornate pithoi, such as this one, may have had a funerary function.