THE NESTORIAN GOBLET.
Homer's description of this Nestorian goblet fully answers to the vase before us, except that the former is much larger and has four handles, each with two pigeons, instead of only two handles, each with but one pigeon, as our engraving shows. The Nestorian goblet had two bottoms, and so has our goblet, because it is impossible to understand by "two bottoms" anything else than the bottom of the goblet and the bottom of its foot. The usual explanation of the Nestorian goblet, as having an upper and a lower cup (the form also attributed to all the Homeric δέπα ἀμφικύπελλα), is altogether erroneous. A goblet of such a shape would have only one bottom common to its two cups, and it could not, therefore, answer the requirements of the Homeric description. Further, as such a double goblet could at all events be filled only on one side at a time, there would be no raison d'être for the two cups in opposite directions. Besides, whenever a goblet with wine is presented by one person to another, Homer clearly always means it to be understood that it is a δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον, namely, that it is double-handled, and that, being presented with the one handle, it is received by the other. I may mention, besides, that no goblet with an upper and a lower cup has ever yet been found, while I found twenty differently-shaped goblets with two handles at Troy, and a large number of double-handled goblets at Mycenæ, all of which can be nothing else than δέπα ἀμφικύπελλα.
Athenæus[316] lays great weight on the explanation of the Nestorian goblet, as given by a certain Apelles, who maintained that it was nothing else than a goblet with a foot, on two sides of which latter were soldered two bands (of metal), which had a common base, and stood vertically not far from each other. These bands reached to above the mouth of the goblet, and were bent over and joined again in one sole piece, which was soldered to the rim. Apelles maintained that by the four handles of the Nestorian goblet, Homer could mean nothing else than these handles, which were properly but two, but were called four, in consequence of being divided. Thus, as there were only two pigeons at the juncture of each of those two metal bands, the Nestorian goblet had in all only four pigeons. This explanation of Apelles very nearly answers to the shape of the goblet before us.
I would also suggest that the shape of the Nestorian goblet may be imagined as perfectly similar to the goblet before us, because this really has four handles; namely, the two horizontal ones, on which the pigeons lie, and the two lower ones which are produced by the thick vertical straps, which join them at the foot. If so, the only difference would be that Nestor's goblet had one more pigeon on each of these double handles. But the question is what that goblet was made of. Probably it was of wood and studded with gold nails; because, if it had been of gold or some other metal, it is difficult to suppose that it could have been studded with gold nails.
SPLENDIDLY ORNAMENTED CUP.
I further picked up in this tomb the beautiful large golden goblet represented by No. 347. It has a broad handle, which is attached to the rim and body by three pins with large flat heads. The outside of the goblet is divided by vertical lines into seven compartments, in each of which is represented, in magnificent repoussé work, a flower which fills the whole space between the rim and the bottom. I found in this tomb still another large golden goblet with splendid repoussé ornamentation, but, by a mistake quite inexplicable, it has not been photographed.
No. 347. A large Gold Cup. Sepulchre IV. Size 4:5.