URCEUS
URCEUS (dim.
urceolus) was a name applied to
any sort of jug
with one handle (
Mart. 11.56,
14.106, &c.), used for pouring. Hence in Hor.
A.
P. 22 the urceus is selected as the shape essentially different from
the amphora. It is often mentioned as used for pouring water into another
vessel (Cato,
Cat. Agr. 10;
Plin. Nat. 19.71), but in this sense is
sometimes distinguished as
urceus aquarius
(Cato,
Cat. Agr. 13;
Gel.
10.24). In this use it is equivalent to the
πρόχοος or
πρόχους, which
was used as a water jug or ewer [see
PELVIS], of which a cut is given from Dennis's
Etruria. The smaller kind of urceus aquarius served this
purpose. The urceus or urceolus was also used for serving the
calda or
frigida at
table (
Mart. 14.105), or, like the
οἰνοχόη, for wine (Plaut.
Mil.
3.2, 18). A common shape of the
οἰνοχόη is
here given, but there are other forms; sometimes an older
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Prochous. (Dennis.) Oenochöe. (Dennis.)
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shape, less rounded or bellying (see Baumeister,
Denkm. fig. 2102), sometimes with a more pronounced spout and
a base suggestive
of a pyxis. This in Birch is called an
ἐπίχυσις [
EPICHYSIS]; and it is probable that it should be distinguished
alike from the ordinary oenochöe and prochous. The oenochoe was
used in the symposia, like the totally different cyathus, for dipping wine
from the crater and pouring it into the cups, as we see on the vase-painting
in Panofka, Pl. 34.2, for which purpose a jug of the above shape would be
unsuitable.
To these purposes of the urceus and urceolus must be added the sacrificial
use; for Varro says that the
capis used for
wine at sacrifices under the
ritus Romanus was
an urceolus [see CAPIS; SIMPULUM]. Its shape is
seen in the annexed coin of the gens Pompeia. The
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Coin with capis and lituus on the obverse.
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material of the urcei and urceoli was not only earthenware (as in
Hor.
l.c.), but also copper or bronze (Cato,
l.c.;
Juv. 10.64; Mayor
ad
loc.) and silver (
Dig. 34,
2,
21).
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
