Lastly, a peculiar semi-cylindrical vessel, closed at one end and open down the side (Fig. [61].), was for a long time a puzzle to archaeologists, but its use was finally determined by its appearance in a vase-painting.[[730]] It is there held by a seated woman, fitted over her knee and thigh, and was used while spinning to pass the thread over. The name of these objects is given by Pollux (vii. 32) as ἐπίνητρον or ὄνος (“the donkey”). Several of them are painted with spinning scenes, and the vase-painting alluded to above is curiously enough on a vase of this form.
There is a type of vase, of which two or three varieties occur, which, from its general likeness to a wine-skin, is usually styled Askos. It does not, however, appear that there is any direct authority for this, at least in literary records; where the word does occur, it always denotes a leather skin, such as is sometimes depicted on the vases, carried by a Seilenos or Satyr. It is, however, a convenient expression, and there is no other recorded term which can on any grounds be associated with this type.
FIG. 62. ASKOS.
The earliest examples, which date from the middle of the R.F. period, have a flat round body with convex top, and a projecting spout (Fig. [62]); the handle is sometimes arched over the back to meet the spout, or else takes a separate ring-like form.[[731]] They are usually decorated with two small figures, one on each side. In the vases of Southern Italy a new form appears (Fig. [63]), chiefly found in Apulia, in which the resemblance to a wine-skin is much more apparent, the tied-up pairs of legs being represented by the spout or a projection. The handle is usually arched over the back, and the pouch-shaped body sometimes assumes an almost birdlike form.
FIG. 63. APULIAN ASKOS.
A variety which is also common in Southern Italy is made of plain black ware, and is not painted but has a subject in relief in a medallion on the top[[732]]; the handle is ring-shaped[[733]] and the form generally resembles the variety first described, except that the body is flat on the top, and convex below, with a base-ring (Fig. [64]). It seems probable that these vases were used for holding oil for feeding lamps, and consequently they are generally known by the Latin name of guttus, or “lamp-feeder” (see pp. [211], [503]). Whether the painted aski were used for the same purpose is doubtful; those, however, with the large body seem to have been intended for other purposes, especially as they often have a strainer inserted in them. Some indeed appear to have been used as rattles, and still contain small balls or pebbles, placed within them for that purpose. On the whole, however, it seems more convenient to reckon the ἀσκοί with the oil-vases.[[734]]
FIG. 64. SO-CALLED “GUTTUS.”