A skyphos (; : skyphoi) is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim (in both

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

ian and

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

shapes), or they may be loop handles at the rim or that stand away from the lower part of the body. Skyphoi of the type called'' glaux'' (owl) have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle.

Examples

Early skyphoi were made during the

Geometric period Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages and a little later, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the t ...

. Corinth set the conventions that Athens followed. Over a long period the shape remained the same while the style of decoration changed. Skyphoi were also made of precious metals, generally silver and gold leaf, many examples exist. One possible, well-preserved example is the

Warren Cup The Warren Cup is an ancient Greco-Roman silver drinking cup decorated in relief with two images of male same-sex acts. It was purchased by the British Museum for £1.8 million in 1999, the most expensive single purchase by the museum at that ...

,In his notes,

John Pollini John Pollini (born October 15, 1945 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American art historian, archeologist, and educator. A scholar of Ancient Rome, Pollini is the USC Associates Professor of Art History at the University of Southern California. C ...

states that uncertainty about the correct name of many ancient drinking vessels exists, however he refers to the object with the "established classificatory term ''scyphus''", Specifically "half-oval variety of scyphus of the calix type". He cites as the "principal work" for such classifacation as: Werner Hilgers, Lateinische Gefassnamen: Bezeichnungen, Funktion und Form romischer Gefasse nach den antiken Schriftquellen, Beiheft der Bonner Jahrbucher, vol. 31 (Dusseldorf: Rheinland-Verlag, 1969). More recently: Stefanelli, 119-24, figs. 84–86. an ovoid scyphus made of silver, as described by

. A

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

skyphos of

cameo glass Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by cameo glass engraving or etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored backgro ...

can be seen at the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

. Comparable forms of a handled drinking cup on a base included: *''

Cotyla :''The cotylae are also features on the proximal end of the radius and of the ulna in birds.'' In classical antiquity, the ''cotyla'' or ''cotyle'' () was a measure of capacity among the Greeks and Romans: by the latter it was also called ; by ...

'', a more generic term for any cup *

Kantharos A kantharos (; ) or cantharus () is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, probably originates in metalwork. In its iconic "Type A" fo ...

Komast cup The Komast cup (also Comast cup) is a cup shape at the beginning of the development of Attic drinking cups. Komast cups were widespread especially in Ionia and Corinth. Like other vase painters of the time, the Attic painters were under strong in ...

Kylix In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix ( , ; ; also spelled ''cylix''; : kylikes , ) is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under ...

Modern uses

The word ''skyphos'' has been adopted for the purposes of

biological classification In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are give ...

with regard to

jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...

, which are included in the class

Scyphozoa The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, referred to as the true jellyfish (or "true jellies"). The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word '' skyphos'' (), denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the ...

(), and ''

Sarcoscypha ''Sarcoscypha'' is a genus of ascomycete fungus and a type genus of the family Sarcoscyphaceae. Species of ''Sarcoscypha'' are present in Europe, North America and tropical Asia. They are characterised by a cup-shaped apothecium which is often b ...

'', the scarlet cup fungus.

Notes

References

External links

Skyphoi

Perseus ''Encyclopedia''
skyphos {{Authority control Ancient Greek pot shapes Wine accessories

Examples

Modern uses

See also

Notes

References

External links