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.
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.