FIG. 30. APULIAN AMPHORA.
(9) The Campanian amphora is derived directly from the “Nolan,” and is in fact a local adaptation, but it was chiefly manufactured at Cumae.[[543]] It generally has twisted handles, and is painted in polychrome; the proportions are somewhat more elongated than those of the “Nolan” class.
(10) A rare variety of the amphora is sometimes found in the red-figure period, with large spheroidal body and pointed base, intended to be placed in a separate stand. The conventional name of diota is sometimes given to this form, from its imitation of the pointed base of the wine-amphora.[[544]]
(11) The last variety of the amphora which calls for consideration is the wide-bellied type, usually called (on very slight authority) a pelike, πελίkη (Fig. [31]).[[545]] The name was invented by Gerhard, and has been generally adopted since, but is only to be regarded as a conventional term. This form, which swells out towards the base, and has no stem or neck, is very rarely found before the fifth century,[[546]] but is common in the R.F. period, and in the Apulian style, in which its proportions are usually more slender.
FIG. 31. SO-CALLED “PELIKE.”
The amphora when complete usually had a cover of clay, either coated with a plain black varnish or decorated with bands and patterns; it was lifted by means of a central knob. An amphora in the Berlin Museum (Cat. 1860) has a double cover, the inner one being of alabaster.
Of the other names which seem to denote vases adapted for containing and storing wine or other commodities, the most important is the Stamnos (στάμνος), used for holding wine and oil. It is mentioned by Pollux[[547]] in his list of wine-jars, and he quotes a line from Aristophanes about “a stamnos of Chian wine arriving.” The diminutives σταμνίον and σταμνάριον are also found, and Aristophanes speaks of a “small Thasian stamnos of wine.”[[548]] The amphora is defined in the Etymologicum Magnum as “a two-eared σταμνίον.” It has been generally identified with a form well known in the R.F. period, but only found in that style: a spherical jar with short thick neck and small side-handles, of which some very beautiful specimens exist (Fig. [32]). The word is still in use in modern Greek.
FIG. 32. STAMNOS.