Depas
（
δέπας). A cup with two handles, frequently mentioned by
Homer. It seems to have been a generic term, like
ποτήριον.
It was used in libations, and was usually of gold (
Il. xxiii. 196 Il., xxiv. 285, etc.)
but later of earthenware. The term is
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Depas. (Dennis, Etruria. ）
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applied to the golden bowl or boat in which the sun floated back from west to east
during the night (
Fr. 8 Bergk). As a specific term it was probably applied to
cups of a bowl-like shape, and is therefore identified by Panofka and Dennis with the form
given in the above illustration.
The word is frequently used in Homer with the epithet
ἀμφικύπελλον (
Il. i. 584), which has given rise to much discussion. It was, however,
probably a double-cup, with a bottom half-way up, like a dice-box. That this was the form of
the cup is inferred from a passage of Aristotle (
Hist. An. ix. 40), where he
describes the cells of bees as having two openings divided by a floor, like the
ἀμφικύπελλα. No specimen is known to exist.
