These kylikes are clay drinking-cups, and are so called from being turned on the wheel.
Ταῦτα δ’ ἐστὶ κεράμεα ποτήρια καὶ λέγεται ἀπὸ τοῦ κυλίεσθαι τῷ τροχῷ.
The kylix is, of course, the wheel-made vase par excellence. Nothing so light and graceful or with such a fine flow of line could be produced by handwork.
Plato, Gorgias, p. 514 e.
Is not this, as they say, to learn the potter’s craft by undertaking a pithos, ... and does not this seem to you a foolish thing to do?
Τὸ λεγόμενον δὴ τοῦτο ἐν τῷ πίθῳ τὴν κεραμείαν ἐπιχειρεῖν μανθάνειν ... οὐκ ἀνοητόν σοι δοκεῖ ἂν εἶναι οὕτω πράττειν;
Plato, Laches, p. 187 b.
For if this is your first attempt at education, you must take care lest you try the experiment, not on a Carian slave, but on your sons or the children of your friends, and let the proverb fit you which says that the potter’s art is in the pithos.
Εἰ γὰρ νῦν πρῶτον ἄρξεσθε παιδεύειν, σκοπεῖν χρὴ μὴ οὐκ ἐν τῷ Καρὶ ὑμῖν ὁ κίνδυνος κινδυνεύηται, ἀλλ’ ἐν τοῖς ὑέσι τε καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῶν φίλων παισί, καὶ ἀτεκνῶς τὸ λεγόμενον κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν ὑμῖν συμβαίνῃ ἐν πίθῳ ἡ κεραμεία γιγνομένη.