Jar (pelike) with Odysseus and Elpenor Jar (pelike) with Odysseus and Elpenor A pelike was a ceramic container that the Greeks used as storage/transportation for wine and olive oil. As seen in the picture on the right, it had a large belly with thin, open handles. Unlike other transportation jars (like the amphora), a pelike would have a flattened bottom so that it could stand on its own. Pelikes often had one large scene across the belly of the jar with minimal distractions around. This would focus the viewers eyes to the center of the pelike which was often a mythological scene of sorts. This red-figure
Names of the Greeks Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, entered present-day Greece sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age. Homer refers to "Achaeans" as the dominant tribe during the Trojan war period usually dated to the 12th–11th centuries BC, using ""Hellenes"" to describe a relatively small tribe in Thessaly. The Dorians, an important Greek-speaking group appeared roughly at that time. According to the Greek tradition, the "Graeci" ("Greeks", , "Graikoi") were renamed "Hellenes" probably with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan war. When the Romans first encountered Greek colonists in southern Italy, they used the name Graeci for