A kantharos (; ) or cantharus () is a type of ancient Greek
cup
A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...
used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in
Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, probably originates in metalwork. In its iconic "Type A" form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words ''kotylos'' (κότῦλος, masculine) and ''kotyle'' (κοτύλη, feminine) are other ancient names for this same shape.
[.]
The kantharos is a cup used to hold
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
, probably both for drinking and for
ritual
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
use in
libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an Sacrifice, offering to a deity or spirit, or in Veneration of the dead, memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of Ancient history, antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures t ...
s and
offerings. The kantharos seems to be an attribute of
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...
, the god of wine, who was associated with
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...
and
fertility
Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...
.
As well as a banqueting cup, they could be used in pagan rituals as a symbol of
rebirth or resurrection, the
immortality
Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some species possess "biological immortality" due to an apparent lack of the Hayflick limit.
From at least the time of the Ancient Mesopotamian religion, ancient Mesopotamians, there has been a con ...
offered by wine, "removing in moments of ecstasy the burden of self-consciousness and elevating man to the rank of deity".
[Elderkin, Kantharos: Studies in Dionysiac and Kindred Cult, 2–6.]
Gallery
File:Bucchero kantharos Terme.jpg, Bucchero
Bucchero () is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin ''poculum'', a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish ''búcaro'', or the Portuguese ' ...
kantharos (Latial culture
The Latial culture ranged approximately over ancient Old Latium. The Iron Age Latial culture is associated with the processes of formation of the Latins, the culture was likely therefore to identify a phase of the socio-political self-consciousne ...
, 830–730 BC)
Image:Geometric kantharos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8501.jpg, Geometric
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
funerary kantharos (Attica
Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...
, BC)
File:Kantharos sphinxes Louvre CA1339.jpg, Black-figure
Black-figure pottery painting (also known as black-figure style or black-figure ceramic; ) is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th a ...
kantharos with sphinxes
A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, the haunches of a ...
(Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...
, BC)
File:Boeotian kantharos Louvre MNC670.jpg, Black-glaze kantharos with Boeotian inscription (Thespiae
Thespiae ( ; ) was an ancient Greek city (''polis'') in Boeotia. It sits at the foot of Mount Helicon and near right bank of the Thespius River (modern name Kanavari River).
Thespiae was a Boeotian state sporadically involved in the military fe ...
, 450–425 BC)
File:Janiform kantharos Louvre H44.jpg, Side view of janiform kantharos with Heracles
Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...
and woman (480–460 BC)
File:Satyr kantharos Met 27.122.9.jpg, Satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr (, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( ), and sileni (plural), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. ...
side of a janiform kantharos by Aison (420 BC)
File:Canthare argent MAN St Germain.jpg, Silver kantharos (Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
, present-day Alise-Sainte-Reine
Alise-Sainte-Reine () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France.
Geography
Alise-Sainte-Reine is located some 17 km southeast of Montbard and 50 km northwest of Dijon. The D905 ...
, latter 1st century BC)
File:Head-Kantharos of a Female Faun or Io (?) LACMA 50.8.25.jpg, Iliupersis Painter (Southern Italy
Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions.
The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...
, active 375–350 BC), Head-Kantharos of a Female Faun or Io (?), red-figure pottery
Red-figure pottery () is a style of Pottery of ancient Greece, ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay.
It developed in A ...
File:Canthare janiforme 01.JPG, Janiform kantharos, Etruscan pottery
Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 10th and 1st centuries BC. From around 750 BC it was heavily influenced by Greek art, which was imported by the Etruscans, but always retained distinct charact ...
, second half of the 4th century BC
File:Canthare janiforme 02.JPG, Kantharos Janus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (''Ianu ...
. Kantharos plastic double head: satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr (, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( ), and sileni (plural), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. ...
head (shown here) and female head, group Chiusi
Chiusi ( Etruscan: ''Clevsin''; Umbrian: ''Camars''; Ancient Greek: ''Klysion'', ''Κλύσιον''; Latin: ''Clusium'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy.
History
Clusium (''Clevsin or Camars'' in Etruscan) ...
, 2nd half of the fourth century BC. BC, terracotta
Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
.
File:Kantharos BM CAT Vases E786.png, kantharos, made in Athens, BC, British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
See also
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Kylix
In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix ( , ; ; also spelled ''cylix''; : kylikes , ) is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under ...
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Rhyton
A ''rhyton'' (: ''rhytons'' or, following the Greek plural, ''rhyta'') is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table; in other words, a cup. A ...
*
Ancient Greek vase painting
Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispr ...
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Pottery of ancient Greece
Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispro ...
References
External links
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{{Greek vase shapes
Ancient Greek pot shapes