By V. M. Hillyer V. M. 希利尔（仲秋　译）

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美国著名的儿童教育家、科普作家，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的艺术史》。

BUT one kind of Greek painting has lasted， examples of which are in many museums. These are the paintings that were made on vases.

Our vases are made out of glass， china， or copper， and are usually for one purpose—to hold flowers. We dont usually paint or even decorate the outside. But Greek vases were all made out of clay and they were not used for flowers at all. They were used to hold anything liquid—water， wine， oil， ointments， perfumes—as we would use jars and jugs， bottles and bowls， cups and kettles， pitchers or tin cans. They were made in many beautiful shapes. Some were tall and thin， some were short and fat. Some had one handle like a cup， some had two handles.

Our pitchers and kettles and bowls today， whether they are made of glass or silver or china， are copies of many of the Greek vase forms. The Greeks had names for most of the shapes， and though the names are hard， you might like to learn some of them so that you may surprise your friends by calling the vases， bowls， pitchers， or dishes in your own house by their Greek names.

The kylix was a flat vase， shaped something like a fruit dish.

The askos was a low vase with a spout and a handle across the top. It was used for oil with which to fill lamps. It was， in other words， an oil can—only it was not made of tin.

The amphora was a rather fat vase with two handles on the hips.

The oinocho? was a pitcher-shaped vase.

The lekythos was a tall， thin， bottle-shaped vase with one handle.

All the better vases were painted on the outside， with pictures. The pictures were not of kings and queens. In Egypt， the kings and queens would have been pictured. In Assyria， there would have been pictures of kings. But at that time the Greeks had no royalty， and no use for kings and queens. So they painted Greek gods and Greek heroes and scenes from their fairy-tales or mythology. Many of these pictures on the vases are like illustrations in a book and are very graceful and lovely， but they do not fool you and make you think them real. To fool you， a picture has to be the same size as the person or object.

The pictures were usually in two styles. In the first style， they were painted black or dark on a reddish flower-pot or clay-color background. In the second style， the background was black and the pictures were reddish or clay-color as if the whole vase had been painted black， and then the picture scraped out so the clay-color was left to form the picture.

（尽管有许多古希腊绘画没有被保存下来，）但是有一种绘画作品却一直保存至今，而且我们可以在博物馆里看到它们，这就是希腊的花瓶绘画。

我们很少看到今天的花瓶瓶身上画有装饰图案，大多数现代的花瓶是用玻璃、瓷器或铜做成，一般仅仅用来插花。不过古希腊的花瓶都是用黏土做成的，他们的花瓶也不是用来插花，而是用来装水啊、酒啊、油啊以及药膏、香水等各种液体，功能类似今天的大小罐子、瓶子、碗、杯子、水壶、陶罐、锡罐等容器。古希腊的花瓶有各种各样的形状，非常漂亮。它们有的细细高高，有的矮矮胖胖;有的像杯子那样侧面有一个手柄，还有的呢，两侧都有手柄。

我们今天用的陶罐、水壶或碗，不管它们是否是用玻璃、银或陶瓷制成，其实都模仿了希腊花瓶的形状。古希腊人还为这些不同形状的容器取了不同的名字，尽管这些名字很难记，不过你要是学上几个希腊词语用来称呼你们家里的各种形状的容器，你的朋友们可能会为你的知识渊博而惊讶。

Kylix：一种宽口平底的容器，形状有点像果盘。

Askos：一种低矮的容器瓶，侧面有一个嘴，顶上有一个长柄，是当时用来给油灯添灯油的容器。也就是说它其实就是一种储油瓶，虽然不是用锡（或马口铁）做的。

Amphora：一种瓶身很肥大的花瓶，瓶颈上有两个手柄。

Oinochoe：一种大花瓶，形状像水罐。

Lekythos：一种细细高高的花瓶，有一个手柄，形状像水瓶。

古希腊花瓶中，所有上等的花瓶外面都画有图案。这些图画并非国王或王后，因为在古埃及，用于花瓶的装饰图画肯定是国王和王后;要是由亚述人来画，那就一定是国王了。不过那时候的希腊没有皇族，所以没有国王和王后可画，因此这些花瓶上主要画的是古希腊的神和英雄人物，还有就是古希腊童话故事或者神话故事里的场景。古希腊花瓶上的绘画就像书中的插图，都非常漂亮雅致，但不会以假乱真。想让人把画误以为真，除非画中的景物与真实的一模一样大小才行。

这些瓶罐上的图画根据颜色可以分为两种风格：第一种风格的底色是红色或陶土色，画是黑色或暗色;第二种风格的底色是黑色，而图画是红色或陶土色，看起来就像是整个瓶身先被涂成了黑色，然后在上面刻画的图画露出了原本瓶身的陶土色。

Vocabulary

ointment  n. 药膏;软膏;油膏

spout  n. （容器的）嘴

royalty  n. 王室成员

mythology  n. （統称）神话;某文化（或社会等）的神话

illustration  n. （书、杂志等中的）图表，插图

scrape  v. 刮掉;削去

scrape sth out  挖出;掘出