If a skilful potter had made the vessel smooth and rounded and well baked, like some of the fine two-handled jars which hold six choai—if he should ask us about such a vessel as this, we should be obliged to agree that it was beautiful.
Εἴπερ ἡ χύτρα κεκεραμευμένη εἴη ὑπὸ ἀγαθοῦ κεραμέως λεία καὶ στρογγύλη καὶ καλῶς ὠπτημένη, οἷαι τῶν καλῶν χυτρῶν εἰσί τινες δίωτοι, τῶν ἓξ χοᾶς χωρουσῶν, πάγκαλαι, εἰ τοιαύτην ἐρωτῴη χύτραν, καλὴν ὁμολογητέον εἶναι.
Pliny, Natural History, XXXV, 161.
At Erythrae in the temple there are shown today two amphorai consecrated on account of their thinness, a pupil and a teacher having contested as to which of them could draw the clay thinner.
Erythris in templo hodieque ostenduntur amphorae duae propter tenuitatem consecratae discipuli magistrique certamine, uter tenuiorem humum duceret.
Amphis, Ampelourgos, I.
Meineke, Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum, III, p. 302.
There is no sweeter solace in life for human ills than craftsmanship; for the mind, absorbed in its study, sails past all troubles and forgets them.
Οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν ἀτυχίας ἀνθρωπίνης