Description
White Earthenware pitcher with handle in oinochoe shape. Olive boughs hand painted by Celia Thaxter.
Greek Inscription translates to: for the sleepless eye of the Morian Zeus beholds it, and the greyeyed Athena
from Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. "it"= the grey-leafed olive, nurturer of children.
In an 1882 letter to Annie Fields Celia Thaxter wrote:
Yesterday I was able to paint an olive pitcher for Mr. Ware, and he sent me such a beautiful inscription in Greek to put on it, and that made me think of you...Do you know what it means? That my olive trees are the special care of Zeus, "watched by the eye of olive-guarding Jove and by gray-eyed Athena." Isn't it charming? And won't Alice Howe like it on her bowl?...
p. 125, Letters of Celia Thaxter.