These replica ancient oil lamps represent lamp styles used in ancient Greece from about 300 BC to AD 200. The earliest Greek lamps were wheel made, but molding oil lamps came into use about 300 BC. The first molded Greek lamps were often rather plain, but soon began to use elaborate decoration. After the Roman period began, the lamp making industry applied the same range of artistic talents to lamp decoration as elsewhere in the Roman Empire.
Leda, in Roman mythology, was seduced by Zeus who came to her in the form of a white swan. She gave birth to the Roman demi-gods Castor and Pullox. The seduction scene of Leda with the swan was very popular in Roman art. While this is essentially a Roman lamp, its here as the body style, like the Lesbos above, is a Greco-Roman type.
A plain Roman period lamp decorated with a Greek key design on the shoulder. This is the largest lamp currently offered, but due to the extreme concave center discus, it holds comparatively little oil.
The rounded body of the Hellenistic Greek lamp has a lug on the side and an elongated spout. These lamps were common in the Greek colonies of Italy as well as the rest of the Greek world. (3.75 by 2.25)
A Greco-Roman style lamp with a nude Greek woman, possibly a hetarai, gazing upon her reflection in a hand held mirror. The shoulder is ornamented with a series of raised dots.
Another of the Greco-Roman line, this time with a lion. Nemea was a city in what is todays Korinthia province of Greece, and home to the Nemean Lion which Herakles (Hurcules) fought.