Stamnos

A (; plural ) is a type of ancient Greek vase used to serve and store liquids. have a wide mouth, a foot, and two handles, and were usually made with a lid. The earliest known examples come from archaic Laconia and Etruria, and they began to be manufactured in Athens in the middle of the fifth century BCE.

Attic , often finely decorated, were mostly made for export to Etruria. They are often found in funerary contexts, and may have been purchased specifically for this use; in vase-paintings, they are often shown being used to mix or serve wine, sometimes with a ladle. They were painted in red-figure, in black-figure and using Six's technique, by artists including Oltos, Euphronios, Smikros, Polygnotos, the Berlin Painter and the Kleophrades Painter. Their manufacture ceased around 420 BCE, possibly due to the reduction in trade between Athens and Italy brought on by the Peloponnesian War and the failure of the Sicilian Expedition in 415–413 BCE. Local examples continued to be made in Italy, and vessels of similar shape were made in Athens into the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE).

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were sometimes thought to be associated with the god Dionysos, and occasionally named "Lenaean vases" after a claimed connection to the Dionysian Lenaea festival. This connection is now considered doubtful, since the artwork on does not seem to favour Dionysiac themes more than that of other vase-types, and the large number of exports among the known examples of makes it unlikely that they were used for religious rituals in Attica in any large number.

Characteristics

The Greek word (and its diminutive ) was first applied in the nineteenth century to a pot with a wide mouth, which usually has a foot at the base and horizontal handles at its widest point. were nearly always matte glazed inside, and probably always made with a lid. The characteristics and measurements of are particularly variably by comparison to other Greek vase types. Similarly, the styles of decoration varied considerably, as did the shape and ornamentation of the handles.

In antiquity, the term is first attested in the work of the fifth-century poet Hermippus, and referred to a clay pot used to store water, wine or oil: it was a generic word equivalent to (; ). An early fourth-century inscription from Chostia in Boeotia mentions the existence of bronze .

History

were first made during the Archaic period, in central Italy, particularly Etruria, and in the Greek region of Laconia. Although vases with similar characteristics (a wide mouth, two handles and a low foot) are known from Mycenaean pottery and the early Geometric period, true first appeared in Attic pottery in the mid-fifth century BCE.

Barbara Philippaki considers the oldest known Attic example to be the Hirsch Stamnos, painted in the black-figure technique shortly before 550 BCE: Evelyn Harrison considers this a "kind of proto-", and Dietrich von Bothmer calls it a "stamnoid vase". Thereafter, no surviving Attic were made until around 530 BCE, when they began to be painted in the newly invented red-figure style. The earliest known red-figure was made by the potter Pamphaios and painted by Oltos. Other early examples were painted by Euphronios and Smikros, members of the Pioneer Group which innovated in red-figure painting at the end of the sixth century.

Around 500 BCE, the shape began again to be used by painters working in the older black-figure style, while at least seven surviving examples were made using Six's technique, whereby red colour was superimposed upon a black-painted background. Notable painters working on included Polygnotos, the Berlin Painter and the Kleophrades Painter. were produced in Athens until about 420 BCE, though vessels of similar characteristics continued to be made into the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE).

Around five hundred Attic are known, of which all but a few were found in Italy. Most surviving examples were found in Etruria, suggesting that the vase-shape was primarily made for export to the Etruscans. The end of their manufacture in Athens () may have been a result of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta: in particular, the failure of Athens's attempt to capture Sicily in 415–413 BCE interrupted trade between Athens and the western-Greek cities of Magna Graecia. During the remainder of the fifth century and into the fourth, locally made continued to be produced in Etruria in both pottery and bronze. Other examples from the fourth century were made by the native Italiote and Faliscan peoples of Italy.

Function

The early made in Italy may have been used both to mix wine and as cinerary vessels. Finely decorated examples may have been intended more for display than for everyday use; they were often used as grave goods, and may have been bought specifically for this use. Vases of this shape are depicted as being carried in the palm of the hand, or by the handles: Barbara Philippaki suggests that they were probably, like other similar vases, also carried on the shoulder or head.

When depicted on Greek vases, are used for the mixing of wine. They may also have been used to store or serve other liquids like water, honey, milk and oil. In the ''Greek Anthology'', a collection of poems compiled from the 1st century CE, the was used as a unit of measure for wine: it seems to have been equivalent to half an amphora. They are often depicted with ladles being used to serve the liquid from them, and ladles are sometimes found with them when buried in tombs.

The is sometimes associated with the worship of the god Dionysos, as images of Dionysiac cult are often found painted upon . The suggestion was first made by in the nineteenth century, and connected to specific feasts of Dionysus by scholars including Paul Foucart, Otto Jahn and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Barbara Philippaki and Faya Causey-Frel, however, downplay this connection, pointing to the occurrence of other topics without obvious relevance to the god on , as well as the presence of clearly Dionysiac themes on other vase types, such as kraters, cups, and not considered to be specifically associated with the god. are sometimes known as "Lenaean vases" on the basis of a putative connection to the Lenaea, an Athenian festival of Dionysus, though Ingeborg Scheibler considers that association improbable given that both originated outside Attica and were generally sent overseas rather than used in the region.

Gallery

File:Louvre-Lens - Les Étrusques et la Méditerranée - 385 - Paris, musée du Louvre, DAGER, K 416 (Stamnos) (A).JPG, alt=A monster with a woman's body (painted in white) and the heads of several dogs emerging from her groin., Etruscan , showing the sea-monster Scylla
File:Odysseus Sirens BM E440.jpg, alt=A ship, sailing left to right: a bearded man is tied tightly to the mast while winged creatures with women's faces swoop around him., Red-figure showing Odysseus tied to his mast while passing the Sirens, 440s BCE, British Museum
File:Painter of the Yale Lekythos - ARV 657 2 - Poseidon with Nereid and Amphitrite - Nereus with Nereids - Würzburg MvWM L 518 - 02.jpg, alt=A bearded man, holding a trident, attended upon by two women, showing Poseidon, Amphitrite and a Nereid,
File:MAAC stamnos of Polygnotos with Achilles and Memnon.jpg, alt=Two warriors fighting with hoplite equipment: one is struck with a spear and falls back into a winged woman's arms, Red-figure by Polygnotos: Achilles slays Memnon, who falls into the arms of his mother Eos.

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Explanatory notes

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{{Greek Vases

Ancient Greek pot shapes