LEBES
LEBES (
λέβης), in Greek usage a
sort of kettle made of copper or iron, and put over the fire to cook (
Il. 21.362). Buchholz says, “smaller
than a tripod” (
Homerische Realien, 2.100), and
that is perhaps true of the Homeric times, but that later it was not
necessarily small may be seen from Thucydides,
4.100, where the huge caldron used in the siege of Delium is a
λέβης. It was also used as the basin
for washing the hands of guests at dinner, which were held above the silver
λέβης while water was poured over them
from a jug (
Od. 1.137), and even of so large
a vessel as the bath in which Agamemnon was killed (
Aesch. Ag. 1129). Pausanias (
5.10.4) speaks of
λέβητες overlaid with gold set on the corners of the temple roof
at Olympia: in the Tragedians it occurs as an urn for holding ashes (
Aesch. Ag. 444, &c.): in
Hdt. 6.58, a
λέβνς
is beaten like a kettledrum
[p. 2.14]by Spartan mourners, and
in the same way the
λέβητες at Dodona were
sounded, whence Virgil borrows his conventional epithet
Dodonaci
lebetes. The
λέβης, like the
τρίπους, was a common prize at Homeric
games (
Il. 23.259), so much so that
αἰτίζων ἀκόλους οὐκ ἄορας οὐδὲ
λέβητας (
Od. 17.222) merely
means “a beggar with no ambition beyond it for heroic
contests.” The general conclusion from all this is, that the size
varied, but the material was always metal: in shape it was rounded at the
bottom, so that sometimes it was supported or suspended when it was over the
fire, but sometimes it had feet and is called
λέβης
τρίπους (Aesch.
Fr. 1). From this
metal
λέβης of common use, the
lebes shape was adopted for pottery: for examples, see FICTILIA.
The Cretan
λέβης (in Gortyna Insc.) was a
stater stamped with a
lebes (cf.
βούς,
Aesch. Ag. 36): examples of this coin of the
5th and 4th cent. are found (Svoronos,
Bull. Corr. Hell.
1888). The
lebes in Latin seems to have been
merely a poetical word borrowed from Greek poets.
[
G.E.M]
