View source for Skyphos

{{Short description|Ancient Greek vase shape; drinking cup}}
{{One source|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name          = Skyphos
| image         = [[File:Skyphos Boscoreale Louvre Bj2367.jpg|250px]]
| image2        = [[Image:Skyphos hoplite.jpg|250px]]
| image_caption = Emperor Tiberius's triumph. Silver skyphos with repoussé decoration, late 1st century BC–early 1st century AD. From the villa della Pisanella at Boscoreale, 1895.<br><br>Below: Attic skyphos depicting a [[hoplite]], {{circa|490}}–480 BC
| material      = Ceramic, glass, precious metals
| size          = 
| writing       = 
| period        = A vaseform of the [[Iron Age]]
| created       = Multiple cultures, originating predominantly in Greece and exported.
| place         = Circum-Mediterranean
| id            = 
}}

A '''skyphos''' ({{langx|grc|σκύφος}}; {{plural form}}: skyphoi) is a two-handled deep wine-cup on a low flanged base or none. The handles may be horizontal ear-shaped thumbholds that project from the rim (in both [[Corinth]]ian and [[Athens|Athenian]] shapes), or they may be loop handles at the rim or that  stand away from the lower part of the body. Skyphoi of the type called'' glaux'' (owl) have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle.

==Examples==
{{Further|Ancient Greek vase painting|Pottery of ancient Greece}}
Early skyphoi were made during the [[Geometric art|Geometric period]]. Corinth set the conventions that Athens followed. Over a long period the shape remained the same while the style of decoration changed.

Skyphoi were also made of precious metals, generally silver and gold leaf, many examples exist. One possible, well-preserved example is the [[Warren Cup]],<ref group="note">In his notes, [[John Pollini]] states that uncertainty about the correct name of many ancient drinking vessels exists, however he refers to the object with the "established classificatory term ''scyphus''", Specifically "half-oval variety of scyphus of the calix type". He cites as the "principal work" for such classifacation as: Werner Hilgers, Lateinische Gefassnamen: Bezeichnungen, Funktion und Form romischer Gefasse nach den antiken Schriftquellen, Beiheft der Bonner Jahrbucher, vol. 31 (Dusseldorf: Rheinland-Verlag, 1969). More recently: Stefanelli, 119-24, figs. 84–86.</ref> an ovoid scyphus made of silver, as described by [[John Pollini]].<ref>{{cite journal | last=Pollini | first=John |date=March 1999 | title=The Warren Cup: homoerotic love and symposial rhetoric in silver | journal=The Art Bulletin | volume= LXXXI | issue=1 | access-date=20 June 2012 | url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-54517307/warren-cup-homoerotic-love.html}}</ref> A [[Roman Empire|Roman]] skyphos of [[cameo glass]] can be seen at the [[J. Paul Getty Museum|Getty Museum]].

Comparable forms of a handled drinking cup on a base included:
*''[[Cotyla]]'', a more generic term for any cup
*[[Kantharos]]
*[[Komast cup]]
*[[Kylix]]

==Modern uses==
The word ''skyphos'' has been adopted for the purposes of [[Taxonomy|biological classification]] with regard to [[jellyfish]], which are included in the class [[Scyphozoa]] ({{literally|cup-shaped animal}}), and ''[[Sarcoscypha]]'', the scarlet cup fungus.

==See also==
* [[Black-figure pottery]]
* [[Red-figure pottery]]
* [[Boscoreale Treasure]]
* [[Geometric art]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Skyphoi}}
* [http://www.cvaonline.org/cva/projectpages/Skyphoi.htm Skyphoi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317084316/http://www.cvaonline.org/cva/projectpages/Skyphoi.htm |date=2018-03-17 }}
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0004:id=skyphos Perseus ''Encyclopedia'']: skyphos

{{Greek vase shapes}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek pot shapes]]
[[Category:Wine accessories]]