CO´TYLA
CO´TYLA or CO´TULA (
κοτύλη, κότυλος,
dim.
κοτυλίσκη, κοτυλίσκος, κοτυλίσκιον),
a kind of cup, the exact shape of which is not easy to determine. That it
was of no great size is evident from the earliest use of the word in Homer
(
πύρνον καὶ κοτύλην,
“a bite and a sup,” of the smallest doles of food and drink,
Od. 15.312,
17.12; cf.
Il. 22.494).
Athenaeus, who has separate chapters on the
κότυλος (11.478 b) and
κοτύλη
(ib. d), brings together a farrago of quotations which point to no definite
conclusion. From one grammarian, Simaristus, he quotes
λεπτὸν ποτήριον,
“a small cup,” as a description of
κοτύλη: from another, Apollodorus,
ποτηρίου τι γένος ὑψηλὸν καὶ ἔγκοιλον. Of course
ὑψηλὸν need not imply any great
height; it means “of a high and narrow shape,” running to
height rather than width. The other adjective,
ἔγκοιλον, must mean “with hollow or concave
sides;” even Athenaeus would hardly describe a cup as simply hollow.
These two epithets, we shall see further on, are not without significance.
Athenaeus' other statements are more contradictory:
κότυλοι are at first “one-handled,” then they
“sometimes have handles;”
κοτυλίσκοι are little hollows in a large
dish called
κέρνος (cf. Liddell and Scott,
s. v.); then a
κοτύλη has no handle at all,
therein differing from a
κύλιξ: finally
both the
κότυλος and
κοτύλη are like a deep bath-tub (
λουτηρίψ βαθεῖ).
After this it is not surprising that modern authorities differ. Two of the
best, Panofka and Gerhard, are at issue which of two closely resembling
vessels is a scyphus and which a cotyla (Guhl and Koner, ed. 5, p. 194; the
figures p. 190, Nos. 4 and 7). Fortunately two inscribed examples help us to
a decision. One of these, found at Corfu, has been figured by Birch
(
Anc. Pott. ed. 2, p. 375), and is inscribed
ΗΕΜΙΚΟΤΥΛΙΟΝ,
|
A half Cotyla. (Birch.)
|
i.e.
῾ημικοτύλιον: the other,
found at Thespiae and now in the Louvre, calls itself
κότυλος and is here given after Pottier (ap. D. and S.). The
cup in question is about six inches in height, and its shape auswers to the
description quoted from Apollodorus,
῾υψηλὸν καὶ
ἔγκοιλον: it bears some resemblance to a
CANTHARUS but is of smaller
size. These two inscribed specimens favour the conclusion that the
ἡμικοτύλιον had one handle, the
κότυλος or
κοτύλη two; as had previously been conjectured (Panofka,
|
Cotyla. (From the Louvre.)
|
3.51, 4.50; Gerhard,
Ultime Ricerche, 28; Birch.
l.c.). The
κοτυλίσκος, it is probable,
[p. 1.560]might be
with or without handles (Gerhard,
Berlins Ant. Bildw. 1.368,
No. 46).
Cotyla (in this sense
κοτύλη only, not
κότυλος) was also a measure of capacity
among the Romans and Greeks: in Latin it was more commonly called
hemina; in Greek sometimes
ἡμίνα or
ἡμίμνα. It was
the half of the sextarius or
ξέστης, and
contained 6 cyathi, 0:274 of a litre, or nearly half a pint English
(Hultsch,
Metrol. 80 ff. 92). Sometimes, though rarely, it is
a dry measure (
κοτύλην ὕδατος καὶ δύο κοτύλας
σίτου,
Thuc. 7.87; Hultsch, p. 83).
This measure was used by physicians with a graduated scale marked on it, like
our own chemical measures, for accurately dispensing given weights of
fluids, especially oil; and in this sense was also called
τρύβλιον (Hippocr. 531, 51; Galen,
infra). A vessel of horn, of a cubic or cylindrical
shape, of the capacity of a cotyla, was divided into twelve equal parts by
lines cut on its side. The whole vessel was called
litra, and each of the parts an ounce (
uncia). This measure held nine ounces (by weight) of oil, so that
the ratio of the weight of the oil to the number of ounces it occupied in
the measure would be 9:12 or 3:4. (Galen,
de Compos.
Medicam. per Genera, 3.3; 1.16, 17; 4.14; 5.3, 6; 6.6, 8.)
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