During much of the age of the great statesman Perikles (the later fifth century B.C.), Athens was embroiled in a long and bitter civil war. Weary of fighting, Athenians increasingly rejected the depictions of battle scenes on pottery in favor of peaceful motifs of heavenly gardens with young, playful divinities. Most popular was Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty and the antithesis of war. Very common at this time were pyxides, small containers for perfume and cosmetics, whose use might transform the average Athenian housewife into the love goddess herself.