Chapter XXI

.). A wicker-covered λαγυνος was known as a πυτίνη.[557]

Another form of the same class is the κάδοs, with its diminutive καδίσκος, which is represented by the Latin _situla_, or bucket, the latter word being the one usually employed by archaeologists. It is a form easily to be recognised in Greek art, but is more usually found in metal-work, _e.g._ in Etruscan and Italian bronzes, than in pottery.[558] The painted situlae, of which a few late examples from Italian tombs exist, are obviously direct imitations of the metal buckets, and in some cases actually have movable bronze handles attached. The situla appears to have been used not only for keeping wine in the cellar, but for serving it up at banquets[559]; the word is also used by Aristophanes for a voting-urn and a well-bucket.[560] In Latin the uses were probably distinguished, _cadus_ denoting a wine-jar, _situla_ a water-bucket. Athenaeus obviously goes astray in regarding it as a drinking-cup.

A vase which was used almost exclusively for carrying water was the =Hydria=, as is implied by its name (ὑδρία, from ὕδωρ). Its most essential characteristic is the possession of three handles, a large one at the back for carrying when empty, and two small horizontal handles at the sides for carrying when full. The shape of the body varies at different periods; in the B.F. period the shoulder is flat and marked off by a sharp angle from the body (Fig. 34); but about the beginning of the fifth century this is replaced by a form with more rounded outline and smaller handle at the back, generally known for the sake of distinction as a _kalpis_ (Fig. 35). In the earlier variety (of which some R.F. examples are known) there are always two subjects, one forming a frieze on the shoulder, the other treated more in the manner of a metope on the body; they are invariably enclosed in frames or panels, as on the “black-bodied” amphorae. Sometimes a third subject in the form of a frieze of animals is added below. In the earlier stages of the B.F. period this form is seldom found, except in a class known as the “Caeretan hydriae,” distinguished (as far as concerns their shape) by their round, plump body, as also by the florid character of their ornament and curious treatment of subjects (p. 353). These vases were closely copied by the Etruscans. The _kalpis_ form sometimes occurs with black figures, but only in small late specimens, chiefly found in Rhodes. In the vases of Southern Italy the _kalpis_ is fairly popular, but the body is more cylindrical and the foot higher.

[Illustration: FIG. 34. HYDRIA.]

Any doubt that might have existed as to the identification of the ὑδρία is solved by the appearance of the word inscribed over the pitcher which Polyxena dropped in her flight from Achilles, on the François vase. In a scene very common on B.F. hydriae, which represents women drawing water at a fountain, this form of vase is invariably depicted. The word seldom occurs in Greek literature, but Kallimachos speaks of καλπίδες placed on the roof of the Parthenon (?) at Athens, not, he says, by way of ornament, but as prizes of wrestlers.[561] Hence the idea was conceived by Panofka that Panathenaic prize-vases were of this form.

[Illustration: FIG. 35. KALPIS.]

Pollux (x. 74) thinks that the hydria was also a wine-vase, and suggests its identity with the πλημοχόη, a vase with broad base used in the Mysteries; but Athenaeus[562] implies that this was used for pouring, and it must therefore have been some kind of jug. The κάλπις is actually identified with the ὑδρία by Aristophanes, as may be seen by a comparison of two lines in the _Lysistrata_.[563] From a passage in Isocrates[564] it would appear that the hydria was used as a voting-urn or ballot-box, but the κάδος was more generally used for this purpose. That the amphora was also so used we know from Athenian coins.

The next class to be considered is that of vases employed for mixing wine and water for drinking, for which the generic name is that of κρατήρ (from κεράννυμι, “I mix”). Before discussing this form, however, allusion must be made to a vessel which is variously described as a _hydria_ or a _krater_, and is therefore a link between the two varieties; it was at any rate pre-eminently a water-jar, and was known as a κρωσσός (connected with Fr. _cruche_ = Eng. “crock”). We have no indications of its form except that it had two handles[565]; Pollux (viii. 66) ranks it with the ὑδρία and κάλπις as a water-vessel.[566] It was also used for holding ashes,[567] and Plutarch enumerates it among the vessels in the bath of Darius.[568] Of the same character was perhaps the ἀρδάνιον or ἀρδάλιον, described as a water-pot.[569] Athenaeus also mentions a πρόαρον, or wooden vessel of the krater type, as used in Attica.[570]

The =Krater= is distinguished from the amphora by its larger body, wider mouth, and smaller handles. It was often placed on a stand, called ὑποκρατήριον, or ὑποκρατηρίδιον,[571] which was either of pottery or metal such as bronze. This either took the form of a hollow cylindrical base, painted with subjects, or of an elaborately moulded stem with egg-and-tongue and other patterns.[572] It is constantly mentioned in Homer, but the kraters standing in the halls of the great palaces, as in that of Odysseus, were made of gold or silver. It is on the average the largest of all Greek vases (except the pithos), some of the later Apulian specimens (of which F 278 in the B.M. is one) reaching a height of about four feet; the ordinary examples have a capacity of three or four gallons. The names Argolic, Lesbian, Laconian, Corinthian, and Thericleian are applied to it by various ancient authors.[573]

In the different fabrics of Greek pottery it takes several distinct forms, to which convenient descriptive names have been given by Italian dealers, and some attempt has been made to identify names given by classical authors as forms of the krater, but without any success. The Italian names, however, which will be mentioned in due course, are somewhat cumbersome for English use.

Among Mycenaean vases there is a variety almost confined to Cyprus, to which the name of krater may fairly be given.[574] Its chief characteristics are a wide spheroidal body, hardly contracted at the neck (which in some varieties is non-existent), flat vertical side-handles, and a high stem. We hardly meet with this form again until the end of the Corinthian style, when it suddenly leaps into popularity.[575] The form in which it appears recalls, though it can hardly be imitated from, the Mycenaean krater, but the stem disappears, and the body is in section about two-thirds of a circle.[576] It is clearly a local invention, and on the evidence of finds at Syracuse, its first appearance may be traced to the first half of the seventh century. Its distinguishing feature, however, is in the handles, each of which is composed of two short vertical bars, sometimes meeting in an arch, supporting a flat square piece formed by a projection from the flat broad rim, which is generally decorated. From the columnar appearance of these handles, the type has received the name of _vaso a colonnette_, which at all events is a more accurate description than the name κελέβη which, first proposed by Gerhard, has been generally employed by archaeologists, on what grounds it is not clear. This word, as described by Athenaeus, is clearly intended to imply a _drinking-cup_ of some kind[577]; he quotes from Anakreon (_frag._ 63, Bergk), who speaks of drinking its contents at one draught (ἄμυστιν). On the other hand he quotes the authority of Pamphilos for identifying it with the θερμοπότις, or “water-heater,” a kind of kettle. The probability is that it was a general and loosely-employed word.

[Illustration: FIG. 36. KRATER WITH COLUMN-HANDLES.]

The column-handled krater is also found in the Naukratis wares of the sixth century, as well as in the imitations of Corinthian fabrics in which the Campana collection of the Louvre is so rich; the clay, style, and inscriptions of the latter clearly show their Corinthian origin, apart from the form. This krater is often decorated with friezes of figures (as in the famous Amphiaraos krater, p. 319). In the few existing Attic examples with black figures the subjects are in framed panels. This form, after dying out before the end of the sixth century, is revived towards the middle of the fifth in the later R.F. fabrics, but in a much altered form, which gives greater prominence to the columnar character of the handles. The neck is higher and narrower, and the handles consequently lengthened, the square tops being much diminished, and the body also takes a narrower and straighter form. In the fabrics of Southern Italy this development is even more strongly marked, and the elongated neck is adorned with an ivy-wreath in a panel; this type enjoyed some popularity both in Apulia and Lucania. The system of panel-decoration is employed throughout in all these cases.

[Illustration: FIG. 37. VOLUTE-HANDLED KRATER.]

The only other form of krater found in the B.F. period—and that but rarely—is that known as _volute-handled_ (_a rotelle_), from the large handles reaching above the lip and curved round in a scroll (Fig. 37). It has an egg-shaped body and large neck. The best and earliest example is the François vase (p. 370), from which it may be clearly seen that the form is derived from the columnar-handled krater. The British Museum also possesses a fine example signed by Nikosthenes, with a design in a frieze on the neck (B 364). The same shape and method of decoration appear in some fine examples of the severe R.F. style (cf. B.M. E 468, 469). During the R.F. period, two entirely new forms of krater suddenly appear, known respectively as the _vaso a calice_ and the _vaso a campana_, or “calyx-krater” and “bell-krater”; the former is first used by Euphronios.[578] These names give a very accurate description of the forms, the one being like the opening calyx of a flower, the other like an inverted bell (Figs. 38, 39). In each the lip projects above the body, the neck having entirely disappeared, while the handles of the calyx-krater drop to the lower part of the vase, and those of the bell-krater are attached horizontally to the sides. Both types of handle are evidently adapted to carrying full vessels, like the side-handles of the hydria. The name of ὀξύβαφον was given by Gerhard[579] to the bell-krater, again without any real authority, and probably owing to an error, from finding the name scratched underneath one example. Comparison, however, with similar inscriptions (see

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