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The karchesion of Herakles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

John Boardman
John Boardman
Affiliation:
Lincoln College, Oxford
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Extract

Athenaeus (474e) quotes the description of the karchesion cup by Kallixeinos of Rhodes, a third-century B.C. author: ‘a tall cup, slightly contracted at the middle with handles which extend down to the base’. Scholars have easily recognised in this a variety of kantharos, a cup with two vertical handles and either with a low foot or the footless sessile, both types current in Kallixeinos' day. The ordinary kantharos in its Classical form, with a stem and high-swung handles, may have derived its name, shared with the scarab beetle, from the wing-like appearance of the handles rather than from its overall similarity to a boat, which is one of the other meanings of the word (Ath. 473d–474c). It is doubtful whether Greek usage was ever very precise in these matters but ‘karchesion’ was probably reserved for the footless variety regardless of handle shape.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 99 , November 1979 , pp. 149 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1979

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References

1 Alan Johnston draws my attention to a sessile kantharos (Berlin 2621, from Nola) and one with a low foot (Breccia, E., La Necropoli di Sciathi [1912] pl. 54.109)Google Scholar, each inscribed καρ. A recent study of the shape is by Iris Love in Essays…Karl Lehmann (Marsyas Suppl. i: 1964) 204–22, and cf. Talcott, L. and Sparkes, B. A., Athenian Agora xii (1970) 116 f.Google Scholar; Hemelrijk, J. M., BABesch l (1975) 29Google Scholar. In its early history we may distinguish the broad shape, derived from north Greece in the early Iron Age, and the slim ‘depas amphikupellon’ of Anatolia (for which see now Spanos, P. Z. in IstMitt Beiheft vi 1972)Google Scholar.

2 These appear at an early date, mistaken for ships' lanterns by Loeschke, S., Bonn. Jb. cxviii (1909) 372Google Scholar; corrected in Laser, S., Hausrat (1968) 97Google Scholar. In use, but not detailed, on the Aristonothos crater, E.Pfuhl, Malerei u. Zeichnung fig. 65.

3 In Arch. Anz. 1969,382 and Studien zur nordostgriechischen Kunst (1975) 180, n. 12. Walter-Karydi, E. observes in Samos vi. 1Google Scholar 108, n. 186, that the Chians called this shape a kylix (among other things, no doubt).

4 Morrison, J. S. and Williams, R. T., Greek Oared Ships (1968) 199Google Scholar.

5 Philol. Suppl. iii 234 n. 72; and cf. Cartault, A., La Trière Athénienne (1881) 178 fGoogle Scholar.

6 Ἀρχ. Ἐφ. 1905, pl. 4 and cf. Landström, B., Ships of the Pharaohs (1970) 154Google Scholar.

7 Marinatos, S. in Gray, D., Seewesen (1974) 140Google Scholar, fig. 26, 149.

8 (1) Athens 1130, Attic black figure lekythos by the Edinburgh Painter (Haspels, E., Attic Black-figured Lekythoi [1936] pl. 29.3)Google Scholar. (2) London E 440, Attic red figure stamnos by the Painter, Siren (ARV 289Google Scholar, 1; E. Pfuhl, MuZ fig. 479; Morrison and Williams, op. cit. pl. 21e). (3) Berlin F 4532, Paestan crater (Trendall, A. D., Paestan Pottery [1936] pl. 24b, Python no. 130)Google Scholar. The artists, of course, turn the loops 90°, as they do sails, so that they appear to run fore and aft.

9 Coldstream, J. N., Greek Geometric Pottery (1968) 18Google Scholar, 50 f.

10 Fr. 141 LP; the gods use them for libations at a feast. Nem. v 52 (Péron, J., Les images maritimes de Pindare [1974] 49 ff.)Google Scholar.

11 All this is well discussed by Beazley, , especially in Etruscan Vase Painting (1947) 72 fGoogle Scholar. (whence the quotation above) and AmK iv (1961) 52 f. He also mentions a bronze example in the Thebes Museum, found on Mount Oeta, presumably from the pyre site (perhaps the cup mentioned in ADelt v [1919] parartema 30).

12 Pherecydes, , FGrH 3Google Scholar F 13. Robert, C., Die griechische Heldensage ii (1921) 612Google Scholar f., for the story and sources.

13 FGrH 31 F 16; 262 F 2.

14 Ath. 498c; FGrH 9 F 1.

15 Perhaps a Mycenaean gold or silver vessel like the gold stemlesskantharos from Mycenae Shaft Grave IV (Strong, D. E., Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate [1966] 38Google Scholar fig. 9 and cf. pl. 2b and 60, fig. 14a, a late Archaic silver cup).