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[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. …

(πίναξ/ pínax, 'board, painted or inscribed tablet'; extended meaning, 'inscription, register'). [German version] [1] (Greek 'notice-board') Notice-board, board for announcements of all kinds (Hdt. 5,49,1; Plut. Theseus 1,1). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum) [German version] [2] Athenian register of citizens ( pínax ekklēsiastikós). At Athens, the register of citizens entitled to take part in the popular assembly ( ekklēsía ) (Dem. Or. 44,35). It was kept for the 139 dḗmoi ( dḗmos [2]) by the dḗmarchos . After 338 BC, enrolment was conditional upon completion of service in the ephēbe…

(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 f…

[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…

[German version] The collective term 'vases' for Greek painted pottery (II. A.) as a special sub-genre of ceramics characterized by its often rich decoration emerged in the 18th cent. when the first vasi antichi were discovered in Campania and Etruria. Since their decoration was the task of the potter, no ancient word exists for the profession of vase painters (VP), although they could mark their work with the signature ἔγραψεν/ égrapsen ('has painted'). The first signatures of VP appear on early archaic, Cycladic and Corinthian pottery. In Athens, the earliest example is Sophilus [1] around 580 BC wit…

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[German version] Vases worked three-dimensionally using a combination of techniques; figurine vases made by coroplasts, often originating from the same moulds as the statuettes (terracottas). Precursors in Anatolia, Egypt and the Ancient Orient. Greek figurine vases of clay (birds, cattle, horses) in greater numbers from the 14th cent. BC. [1]. Vast production of ointment vessels with glazed clay painting in the 7th-6th cents. BC e.g. in Corinth [2], Rhodes [3] and Boeotia: complete figures, busts…

[German version] (ὁ κρατήρ/ ho kratḗr from κεράννυμι, keránnymi, ‘to mix’; Linear B: acc. ka-ra-te-ra). Wide-mouthed vessel for mixing water and wine, used at banquets (Hom. Od. 1,110), as well as in sacrificial rites (Hom. Il. 3,269) and religious festivals (Hdt. 1,51). Gyges, Alyattes and Croesus are supposed to have donated splendid large kraters of precious metal to Delphi. Their capacity was given in amphorae (Hdt. 1,51; 70; cf. Hom. Il. 23,741; Amphora [2]), their value measured according to weight (Hdt. 1,14; cf. Plin. HN 33,15). Supports for kraters ( hypokratērídia, hypóstata…

[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] [1] Storage and transport vessel (ἀμφορεύς; amphoreús). Two-handled, bulbous storage and transport vessel with a narrow neck. The predominant form of storage vessels in antiquity, these have survived mainly in clay, rarely in bronze, precious metals, glass or onyx. Among  household equipment regarded as undecorated ceramics for everyd…

[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…

[German version] (ἐπίνητρον; epínētron). A curved cover, wrongly referred to as ónos (ὄνος), for the protection of thighs and knees during the cleaning and combing of wool; according to Hesychius s.v., the …

[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…

(τὸ ῥυτόν/ tò rhytón). [German version] I. Object Funnel-shaped vessel for dispensing and drinking, usually ending in the head, or protome, of an animal; the name is derived from ῥύσις/ rhýsis (‘stream’) because the liquid could run out through a small hole at the bottom as long as it was not held closed [1; 2]. Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) Bibliography 1 F. von Lorentz, s.v. Rhyton, RE Suppl. 6, 643 2 W.H. Gross, s. v. Rhyton, KlP 4, 1426 f. [German version] II. Ancient Near East The only evidence of rhyta in the Ancient Near East and Egypt before the Achaemenids is in Anatolia,…

[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) Biblio…

[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) include two symmetrically arranged vertical handles on the upper part and a tall r…

[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 …

(ἀρύβαλλος; arýballos). [German version] [1] Leather bag Leather bag. Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) [German version] [2] Spherical container Technical term for spherical containers of ointment ( lekythos), worn on an athlete's wrist; they have survived in clay, faience, bronze and silver. Originating in Corinth, the form reached Sparta and Rhodes in the 6th cent. BC, and subsequently Attica. Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld) Bibliography N. Kunisch,…

[German version] Wrong term for a cauldron ( Pottery, shapes and types of;  Lebes). Scheibler, Ingeborg (Krefeld)

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