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Terracotta pyxis (box with lid)

ca 750 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 151
This type of pyxis, a toilette box for personal objects and cosmetics, appeared in Athens around 850 BCE, based on influences from Mycenaean and Protogeometric pyxides and wooden boxes. It features a strongly curving body and a lid smaller in diameter than the box itself. A pyxis has its rim and lid pierced with two pairs of holes, probably to close it with a string. In this example (and on the pyxis 48.11.5a, b), lid and rim holes do not line up vertically, indicating that the lids and their boxes were not originally paired.

Pyxides formed part of a burial kit that was typically included in the graves of young women. A similar but much smaller pyxis with traces of a white substance inside, perhaps a cosmetic, was discovered in a wealthy woman’s grave at Eleusis in Attica.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Terracotta pyxis (box with lid)
  • Period: Late Geometric I
  • Date: ca 750 BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Attic
  • Medium: Terracotta
  • Dimensions: H. without lid 3 5/16 in. (8.4 cm)
    diameter 9 1/16 in. (23 cm)
  • Classification: Vases
  • Credit Line: Gift of Alexander Abraham, 1967
  • Object Number: 67.45a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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