CADUS
CADUS (
κάδος), a large vessel
usually of earthenware; indeed the Ionians used the word to denote any
earthenware jar. (Clitarchus ap.
Ath. 11.473
b). It was most frequently used, like the
amphora, to keep wine in (Archilochus ap.
Ath. 11.483 d' after it had been drawn from the
dolium, and especially wine which was conveyed
across the sea, such as Chian. (
Hdt. 3.20;
Ath. 11.473 b; Hor.
Od.
3.19,
5;
Verg. A. 1.195;
Plin. Nat. 14.
§ § 96, 97, “vini Falerni amphoras, Chii cados
distribuit,” 36.59.) Other kinds of produce stored in
cadi were honey (
Mart.
1.55,
10), oil (
id. 1.43, 9;
Plin. Nat.
15.33), figs (ib. 82), beans (
id.
18.307), and salt fish (ib. 308), and sometimes plants were grown in them
(
id. 27.14, 25.160).
Its use connects it with the
amphora, and in
early Attic an
ἀμφορεὺς was called
κάδος (Pollux, 10.71; cf.
Aristoph. Birds 1032, Schol.:
κάδους ἀμφορικούς). It may be concluded then
that it resembled the
amphora in shape: its
lower part, however, was ovoid, for in
Aristoph. Peace 1258 (cf. Schol.) the helmets are to be turned
into
κάδοι by the addition of handles.
Plato (
Rep. 10.616 D) speaks of
οἱ
κάδοι οἱ εἰς ἀλλήλους ἁρμόττοντες: Pliny (
Plin. Nat. 27.14), of the
turbines cadorum. Again
κάδος is used to denote the well bucket (
γαυλός, ὑπαντλεῖν) in
Aristoph. Eccl. 1002 ;
Eur. Cycl.
33, Schol.; Hesych. and Suid. s. v.
γαυλός;
Ath. 3.125 a,
 |
|
Cadus, well-bucket. (Bottari.)
|
11.590 f: we may therefore identify its shape, when thus used,
with that of the
situla in the accompanying
woodcut from Bottari,
Scult. e Pitt. sagre di Roma, pl.
xxiii. (ap. D. and S.) But this shape is obviously not adapted to its
ordinary use of a vessel for storing wine, for which purpose it was closed
by a lid (Archilochus,
l.c.) or by cork (
Plin. Nat. 16.34), and must have had a
narrower mouth.
Κάδος is used in
Aristoph. Birds 1030,
1053, in place of the more usual
καδίσκος, to denote the urn used in
ballots [
PSEPHUS].
The word is used (Priscian,
de Pond. et Mens. 84) as an
equivalent of the Attic
amphora or
μετρητής, a measure containing twelve
χόες or about nine gallons English. From this
and its various uses we may conclude that it was a vessel of large
dimensions; indeed, in a comic writer (ap.
Ath.
11.781 f) we read of
κάδοι larger
than a man. Hence it is only in passages of comic exaggeration that it is
spoken of as a drinking vessel. (
Id. 10.431 f;
11.472, 473, 503, b, c).
Cadi were made not only of earthenware, but also
of onyx (
Plin. Nat. 36.59), of ophites
(ib. 158), and of gold (
Ath. 13.590f).
[
J.H.F]
