The Aineta aryballos is an Ancient Greek aryballos (a small, spherical flask or vase), made between approximately 625 and 570 BCE in the city of Corinth in southern Greece. Approximately 6.35 centimetres (2.50 in) in both height and diameter, it was intended to contain perfumed oil or unguent, and is likely to have been owned by a high-class courtesan (hetaira) by the name of Aineta. The vase's illegal sale to the British Museum in 1865 led to the prosecution of its seller, the Athenian professor and art dealer Athanasios Rhousopoulos, and exposed his widespread involvement in antiquities crime. The vase is inscribed with a portrait, probably that of Aineta, who is named in the inscription on the vase. The aryballos is likely to have been found in a grave, probably that of Aineta. In 1877, Rhousopoulos was fined for selling the vase in contravention of Greek law. The case represented a relatively rare successful use of state power against the illegal trade in Ancient Greek artefacts. (Full article...)
... that, near the ending of the 2005 interactive storytelling video game Façade, two characters portrayed through AI chatbots ask the player for relationship advice?
... that Aquilegia vulgaris was associated with a fertility goddess in ancient Greece, symbolized sacredness for Flemish painters, and was an omen of death in Hamlet?
... that Edwin Rist stole hundreds of rare birds to make into fishing lures?
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
