AMPULLA
AMPULLA (
λήκυθος,
βομβύλιος), a tall, slender, narrow-necked vessel,
furnished with a handle. The narrow neck is described by Pliny (
Plin. Ep. 4.30,
6). It was used for holding perfumes and unguents, and was generally
made of earthenware, sometimes however of leather, or of the precious metals
(
Ath. 13.584 f.; 10.451 d;
Plut. Sull. 13;
Mart.
14.110). The lekythos is found in large numbers in ancient tombs.
[For details, see
FUNUS] Its
usual
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Lekythos. (British Museum.)
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form is represented in the annexed figure. Lekythoi were in
constant use at the toilette of Greek ladies, as may be seen from their
frequent
[p. 1.117]representation on Greek vases. The
largest lekythos in the British Museum was found by Mr. Dennis in the
necropolis of Gela, and is here figured. The lekythos of a later period had
a broad base (Dennis,
Etruria, vol. i. p.
cxxiii.). The lekythos or ampulla was also used to hold the oil with which
the body was anointed after bathing or athletic exercises. For this purpose
they were regularly carried by a slave, together with the strigil, to the
baths and gymnasia, and were often suspended by a strap from the wrist
(
Ath. 10.451 d; Poll. 3.154, 10.62;
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Lekythos. (British Museum.)
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“
ampulla olearia, lenticulari forma, tereti ambitu, pressula
rotunditate,” Apul.
Flor. 1.9). As
such bottles frequently contained perfumed oils, we read of
ampullae cosmianae (
Mart.
3.82,
26). Bottles of this kind are
figured below (cf. Hermann,
Griech. Antiq. iv.3 p. 164). Such bottles were also used for holdingvinegar (
Plin. Nat. 20.152),
and wine (“
ampulla potoria,”
Mart. 14.110), especially on a journey, when
the wine or water was drunk from the bottle (
Mart.
6.35; Plaut.
Merc. 5.2, 86;
Suet. Dom. 21).
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Lekythos. (From a relief at Athens.)
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Lekythos. (From a tomb at Myra in Lycia.)
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Another common use of the lekythos was to anoint the bodies of the dead.
After the anointing had been performed, the vessels used were placed near
the body during the laying out (
πρόθεσις),
and were then buried or burned with the corpse. Large numbers of lekythoi
have been found in tombs or in a charred condition, in places where
funeral-piles had been erected. (
Aristoph.
Eccl. 538,
996,
1032; Hermann,
Griech.
Ant. iv.3 p. 364.)
The word
λήκυθος was also used, like the
Latin
ampulla, as a synonym for exaggerated
high-flown language, probably from the gurgling sound made by the oil as it
issued from the flask (cf.
Aristoph. Frogs
1200 ff.; Poll. 4.114;
Hor. Ep.
1.3,
14;
Ars
Poët. 97). The dealer in bottles was called
ampullarius, and part of his business was to cover
them with leather (
corium). A bottle so covered
was called
ampulla rubida. (Plaut.
Rud. 3.4, 51,
Stich. 2.1, 77, compared with
Festus, s. v.
Rubida.) (See
Becker-Göll,
Gallus, ii. p. 377, iii.
p. 149; Marquardt,
Röm. Alterth. vii. p. 630.) On
the use of the ampulla in the Christian church for containing the wine and
water used at the altar, and also for holding consecrated oil or chrism, see
Dict. of Christian Antiq., s.v.
[
J.H.O] [
W.S]
