Black-figure lekythos by the Malibu Painter, with representation of athletes cheering a rider and his galloping horse at their victory in the games, while chiton-clad adjudicators observe the event. Equestrian contests were held in the hippodrome and included chariot races and horse races. The latter were classed as races for mature horses (keletai) and races for foals (poloi). The jockeys rode bareback –without saddle (ephippion)– holding the reins and whip. The races for keletai were introduced first into the programme of the Olympic Games, in the 33rd Olympiad (648 BC). The representation on this Attic lekythos is possibly related to the horse races held as part of the celebration of the Great Panathenaia, which the tyrant Peisistratos established in Athens in 566 BC. Lekythoi were a creation of Attic pottery workshops in the first quarter of the 6th c. BC and continued to be produced until the end of the 5th c. BC. They were used as perfume containers, mainly by women, but also in mortuary rituals. According to a scholium (comment) in Plato’s Hippias Minor, “the Athenians named lekythos a vase with which they brought aromatic oils to the dead”. They smeared the dead with expensive unguents and frequently placed such perfumes beside the corpse in the prothesis (lying in state), in order to purify and refresh the atmosphere in the house. Eventually, the perfume vases were deposited in the grave together with the deceased.