Trinkets, artistic items, and decorative household goods from Syria, Phoenicia, Phrygia, and Assyria began arriving on the Greek mainland, and the people took to the exuberant oriental style which featured fantastic animals like the griffin, a winged lion. The conservative Greek art scene was given a shot of energy and vividness; designs from the natural world, like acanthus leaves, trailing vines, the dot rosette, and exotic fruit abounded. 

However, the traditional Greek concepts of symmetry and line were still maintained, creating a blend of Eastern life and liveliness within rigid boundaries of Greek art conventions.  It is this reluctance to give up the Greek art conventions that keeps the vases quite geometric and symmetrical with bands of repeating patterns.  But the overall stiffness of the Geometric style, which was severely limited in potential, easily gave way to the increased animation and rounded lines of the Corinthian style.

  The Corinthian style utilized color more frequently than its predecessor, the Geometric.  The color added additional depth and feeling of movement to the figures.  The technique of incising the outlines and detail lines within a figure also allowed the terracotta color of the vase to show through, thus adding an additional dimension to the vase art.

This vase represents a wonderful example of Corinthian style. The neck of the ceramic uses the busts of three women as decorative handles. The piece is probably a mixing bowl for wine with water, and the original can be found in the ancient Corinth museum and dates back to 6^th century B.C.