A peplophoros female holding a basket with offerings approaches a grave marked by a stele. The scene is watched by a young man who wears a purple chlamys and a brimmed hat (petasos), and holds a spear (in the type of the peripolos, a lightlyarmed ephebe doing his military service in the border areas of Attica). White lekythoi appeared around 470 BC and continued to be produced until 400 BC, exclusively for funerary use. The white ground was achieved by coating the surface of the vases with a very fine slip of white clay (with kaolin), which took on the distinctive hue after firing. This delicate technique lent itself to decoration with vibrant colours. This vase is attributed to the Woman Painter. The iconography of white lekythoi provides important information about the funerary monuments of the period, particularly the stelai and the columns that marked the graves. The one depicted here is set on a three-stepped base and crowned by an Ionic capital and acanthus leaves. Most of the lekythoi with funerary scenes show relatives of the deceased visiting the grave. The women carry large panniers (kanones) containing paraphernalia for mortuary cult, such as unguentaria, fillets, wreaths etc. Sometimes, there is a figure standing by the grave, who observes the event enacted, as in this example. Such figures are considered as portraying the dead.