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[German version] A. Forms, functions, names The variety of ancient pottery (ἀγγεῖον/ angeîon; vas) results primarily from the diversity of uses, such as transport, storage, scooping, pouring, mixing of solid or fluid contents (functional shapes) and secondarily from differences of form determined by period and region (types). The functional shape indicates only the basic functional structure, which is given its concrete expression only by a type. The fixed functional characteristics of an amphora (cf. fig. A…

(ἀσκός; askós). [German version] [1] Wineskin Leather wineskin. Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) [German version] [2] Vessel type Collective archaeological term for closed vessels with stirrup handle and spout ( Vessel forms). Larger ‘sack pots’ as early as the Bronze Age; askoi in the form of birds and ducks mainly in the 8th cent. BC, also present in Etruria. Loops handles suggest flasks, pictorial representations, drinking vessels. The small, black-varnished or red-figured askoi of the 5th-4th cents. BC in the form of skins, or lenticular or ring-shaped, probably…

[German version] (ἀλάβαστρον, ἀλάβαστος; alábastron, alábastos). Slender perfume bottle without a base whose contents were accessed with small sticks ( Pottery). Examples of clay, precious metal, glass and lead have been found. Egyptian precursors, made of alabaster, imported into Greece in early times. Greek clay alabastra already around 600 BC in east Ionia; deviating from that the proto-Corinthian pouch version. Rich production of painted clay alabastra in Attica around 550-450 BC. In late classical times, larger stone alabastra served as grave decoration. Scheibler, Inge…

[German version] (ἡ πυξίς; hē pyxís). Box, round container with a lid; the Hellenistic name is derived from πύξος/ pýxos (‘box tree wood’), from which pyxides were often fashioned; the older Attic name is probably κυλιχνίς/ kylichnís. Pyxides are predominantly preserved as ceramics, more rarely made of wood, alabaster, metal or ivory. Among other things, pyxides were used for storing cosmetics and jewellery, so they were part of the life of women, the preferred motive in the red-figured style being portrayals of women's rooms; the…

[German version] The Greek custom of publicly praising someone's beauty using the epithet kalós (καλός, masc. = ‘beautiful’), less commonly kalḗ (καλή, fem.) is particularly evident in Attic vase inscriptions - made before the firing of the vessels - from the 6th and 5th cents. [1; 5]. Spontaneous graffiti [3] on vases can also be found, as well as other public kalos inscriptions (KI) [4. 22, 46-65] (schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 98). They stem from an interest in beautiful youths, also expressed in early Greek lyric poetry, and in the pederastic conventions of the time, but also in the ideal of kalo…

[German version] (ἡ ὑδρία; hē hydría). Water jug with three handles and a narrow mouth, as it is described in the inscription of the Troilus scene on the Clitias Krater (Florence, MA). The form occurs already in Early Helladic ceramics and on Mycenaean clay tablets from  Pylos (called ka-ti). The older rounded form was replaced in the 6th cent. BC, now in bronze and silver as well, by the elongated shoulder hydria and a bit later by the kalpis with continuous profile ( Vessels fig. B 11-12). Very slender hydriae still existed in the 4th cent. BC and into the Hellenistic …

[German version] (φιάλη; phiálē). In Homeric times, the term for a kettle (Lebes), basin, vessel in general. Later it was used only for a bowl without a foot and handle, which - in contrast to the Ancient Near Eastern model - was equipped with an omphalos, for better handling. An omphalos was a central concavity of the base into which a finger could be inserted from below. The use of the term phiale to indicate this shape is attested as early as the 7th cent. BC. According to literary and pictorial…

[German version] (ὁ/τὸ σκύφος; h o/tò skýphos). Tall but stable drinking cup with two handles usually attached horizontally, originally a rustic wooden beaker (Ath. 11,498-500). The synonym κοτύλη/ kotýlē is generally used as a term for a cup of no fixed typology. The capacity of a skyphos was between a kotyle [2] and a chous [1]. As a wine vessel, it is attested more frequently for komasts than for symposiasts. Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) Bibliography F. Leonard, s. v. Kotyle (1), RE 11, 1542-1546  B. A. Sparkes, L. Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery (Agora 12), 1970, 81-87,…

[German version] Modern archaeological term for the coarser ceramics in everyday use, a definition blurred by the fact that black glaze ceramics,  terra sigillata, and sometimes even painted fine ceramics were put to everyday use. However, as a pottery product, everyday crockery is clearly distinguishable from the latter three. The handle, rim, and foot profiles are less clearly defined; the outside of vessels is mostly unslipped or only thinly glazed and perfunctorily decorated. In contrast with …

[German version] (ὁ or τὸ κέρνος; ho or tò kérnos). According to Ath. 11,476f; 478d, a cult vessel with added kotyliskoi (drinking cups), which contained poppy seed, wheat, lentils, honey, oil, etc. (similar to panspermia). Kernoi were carried around in processions and their contents finally eaten by the bearers ( mystai). Kernoi with attached lights are also mentioned (sch. Nic. Alex. 217). Kernoi were used in cults of fertility and mother goddesses, especially in that of Rhea Cybele. Larger quantities of clay pots with wreaths of kotylai ( Vessels fig. E 15), which are assumed to be kerno…

[German version] In Antiquity, manufacturers of simple utilitarian pottery generally met only the local demand of their region, while finer, decorated ceramics were also intended for the transregional market. However, the latter could also stimulate the export of poorer goods. The distribution of pottery finds in many cases indicates corresponding trade links, but there are also other factors to consider: the extended find radius of Mycenaean pottery is more a reflection of the presence of Mycenae…

[German version] (ἡ λήκυθος; hē lḗkythos). Greek generic term for ointment and oil vessels of various shapes and sizes with a narrow opening, also comprising the alabastron and aryballos ; based on schol. Pl. Hp. mi. 368C, today in particular a term for Attic funerary vessels from the 6th and 5th cents. BC that contained aromatic oil donations and were a popular gift for the dead ( Vessel, shapes and types of fig. E 3). As the white-ground lekythoi grew bigger, small insets for saving oil became common in the 5th cent. Around 400 BC, a group of Attic monumental clay lekythoi obviously formed th…

(ὁ λέβης; ho lébēs). [German version] [1] Large cauldron Large cauldron, a bronze vessel used from the Mycenaean period to heat water and cook meals, in Homer aside from the phiale and trivet a popular prize ( Prizes (games)) (Hom. Il. 9,122; 23,267; 613; 762), also made of precious metal. The addition ápyros (ἄπυρος) describes either new lébētes or those used as kraters. Bronze kettles decorated with protomes from the 7th-6th cents. BC that can be removed from the stand go back to Oriental models (Griffin cauldron). Aside from these splendid cauldro…

[German version] (ὁ/ἡ λάγυνος; ho/ hē lágynos). Wine bottle with handle, wide flat body, high narrow neck and sealable mouth (see Vessels, shapes and types of, fig. B 10). A Hellenistic type of vessel prevalent up to and into the Imperial period. Every participant in the lagynophória (λαγυνοφόρια), a Dionysiac street festival in Alexandria, brought along a lagynos for his share of wine (Ath. 7,276a-c). Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) Bibliography G. Leroux, L., 1913 F. v. Lorentz, s.v. L., RE Suppl. 6, 216f. R. Pierobon, L. Funzione e forma, in: Riv. Studi Liguri 45, 1979, 27-50 S. I. Rotro…

[German version] I. Introduction, origins, social position The potter (κεραμεύς/ kerameús, Lat. figulus) carried out his artistic work at the potter's wheel and in the creation of clay patrices (prototypes), models and sculptural ornamentation, though the profession included production processes such as mining and preparing the clay, painting, firing and selling the products. Despite at times enjoying good economic circumstances, the potter’s position in society remained modest; in Athens he was ranked amongst the thêtes , zeugîtai or metics ( métoikos …

[German version] (ὁ ψυκτήρ; ho psyktḗr). Vessel made of clay or bronze for keeping wine cool. Occasionally double-walled craters and amphoras served this purpose in the 6th cent. BC. In about 530 BC a mushroom-shaped psykter was invented in Athens (Pottery, shapes and types of, ill. C 8) and was subsequently manufactured in numerous red-figure workshops (Oltus, Euphronius [2], Euthymides). Its earlier forms are considered to be black-figured jugs and amphoras with cylindrical hollow feet. The style continued until c. 470 BC (Pan painter). Pictorial representations most com…

[German version] (στάμνος/ stámnos). Storage jar for wine, oil, etc.; mercantile inscriptions point to the pelike (Pottery, shapes and types of, fig. A 8); today an archaeological term for a bulbous lidded vessel with a recessed neck and handles on the shoulders (Pottery, shapes and types of, fig. C 6). First instances in Laconia and Etruria in the Archaic Period, adopted in Athens around 530 BC, in the 5th cent. almost exclusively exported from there to Etruria. Depictions on red-figured stámnoi show it as a central wine vessel in a Dionysian women's festival, though th…

[English version] Die griech. Sitte, mit dem Epitheton kalós (καλός, mask. = “schön”), seltener kalḗ (καλή, fem.), die Schönheit einer Person öffentlich zu preisen, ist v.a. in - bereits vor dem Brand der Gefäße aufgebrachten - attischen Vaseninschr. des 6. und 5. Jh. v.Chr. faßbar [1; 5]; daneben gab es spontane Graffiti auf Vasen [3] und andere öffentliche L. [4. 22, 46-65] (schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 98). Sie wurzeln in einem auch aus der frühgriech. Lyrik sprechenden Interesse an der schönen Jugend und in den päderastischen Konventionen der Zeit, aber darüber hinaus auch im Ideal der ka…

[English version] Weinkannen des Typus 3 (Gefäßformen; Chus), in Athen beim Wettrinken am Choentag der Anthesterien verwendet. Nicht sicher identisch mit bemalten Tonkannen gleicher Größe, deren Bildthemen frei gewählt sind. Besser abzugrenzen die um 400 v.Chr. zahlreich produzierten kleinen Ch. (H 5-15 cm). Ihre Kinderbilder weisen auf Quellen, die von den Choen als wichtigem Einschnitt im Leben des Kindes sprechen (IG II/III2 13139, 1368 Z. 127-131). Einige Festszenen deuten zudem auf Kinderriten am Choentag. Kleine Ch. dienten wohl als Kindergabe zum …

[English version] (ὁ oder τὸ κέρνος). Nach Athen. 11,476f; 478d ein Kultgefäß mit angefügten Kotylisken (Näpfen), die Mohn, Weizen, Linsen, Honig, Öl u.ä. (nach Art einer Panspermie) enthielten. K. wurden in der Prozession umhergetragen, ihr Inhalt zuletzt von den Trägern (Mysten) verzehrt. Auch K. mit aufgesteckten Lichtern werden erwähnt (Sch. Nik. Alex. 217). Verwendet wurden K. in Kulten von Fruchtbarkeits- und Muttergottheiten, bes. der Rhea Kybele. Größere Mengen von Tonschüsseln mit Kotylen…