SCYPHUS
SCYPHUS (
σκύφος), a drinking cup
with two straight handles on the rim, much deeper than the
κύλιξ or
calix and
of ruder shape, as may be seen from the woodcut below. It was said to be the
cup of Heracles, both as more rustic in form and as holding more, while the
CANTHARUS is given to the more refined Dionysus (
Macr.
5.21;
Athen. 11.500
a;
Serv. ad Aen. 8.288; cf.
Plut. Alex. 75). This tradition agrees with
the fact that it is consistently ascribed by Greek writers to peasant life
and the use of herdsmen and shepherds (
Athen. 11.498 f, g;
Od.
14.112;
Eur. Cycl. 390; Theocr.
1.143), and represented as originally of wood,
faginus (
Tib. 1.10,
8);
δουράτεον (Athen.
l.c.), “ingens ligneum poculum” (Serv.
l.c.). The material was changed to earthenware
(
Athen. p. 500 a), and then to
silver (Varr. ap.
Gel. 3.14;
Cic. Ver. 4.14, 32), or even gold (ib. 4.24, 54), and in Latin we find it a drinking
cup at the tables of the rich, having lost its rustic character (Hor.
Od. Ep. 1.27, &c.), but no doubt retaining its
shape as in the
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Ordinary Scyphus. (Dennis.)
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annexed cut. The example given by Marquardt (
Privatleben,
p. 652) is nearly the same, but the sides are
straighter.
 |
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Later form of Scyphus. (Dennis.)
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Dennis gives as a later and more elaborate form a scyphus with incurved
handles (
Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, i. cix.).
[
G.E.M]
