Stamnos

Two-handled pot, with a neck and lid, showing Heracles and three other figures painted in red-figure

Attic red-figure Template:Transliteration, Template:Circa; Louvre

A Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx; plural Template:Transliteration) is a type of ancient Greek vase used to serve and store liquids. Template:Transliteration have a wide mouth, a foot, and two handles, and were usually made with a lid. The earliest known examples come from archaic Laconia and Etruria, and they began to be manufactured in Athens in the middle of the fifth century BCE.

Attic Template:Transliteration, often finely decorated, were mostly made for export to Etruria. They are often found in funerary contexts, and may have been purchased specifically for this use; in vase-paintings, they are often shown being used to mix or serve wine, sometimes with a ladle. They were painted in red-figure, in black-figure and using Six's technique, by artists including Oltos, Euphronios, Smikros, Polygnotos, the Berlin Painter and the Kleophrades Painter. Their manufacture ceased around 420 BCE, possibly due to the reduction in trade between Athens and Italy brought on by the Peloponnesian War and the failure of the Sicilian Expedition in 415–413 BCE. Local examples continued to be made in Italy, and vessels of similar shape were made in Athens into the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE).

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Template:Transliteration were sometimes thought to be associated with the god Dionysos, and occasionally named "Lenaean vases" after a claimed connection to the Dionysian Lenaea festival. This connection is now considered doubtful, since the artwork on Template:Transliteration does not seem to favour Dionysiac themes more than that of other vase-types, and the large number of exports among the known examples of Template:Transliteration makes it unlikely that they were used for religious rituals in Attica in any large number.

Characteristics

The Greek word Template:Transliteration (and its diminutive Template:Transliteration) was first applied in the nineteenth century to a pot with a wide mouth, which usually has a foot at the base and horizontal handles at its widest point. Template:Transliteration were nearly always matte glazed inside, and probably always made with a lid.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn The characteristics and measurements of Template:Transliteration are particularly variably by comparison to other Greek vase types. Similarly, the styles of decoration varied considerably, as did the shape and ornamentation of the handles.Template:Sfn

In antiquity, the term Template:Transliteration is first attested in the work of the fifth-century poet Hermippus,Template:Sfn and referred to a clay pot used to store water, wine or oil: it was a generic word equivalent to Template:Transliteration (; Template:Gloss).Template:Sfn An early fourth-century inscription from Chostia in Boeotia mentions the existence of bronze Template:Transliteration.Template:Refn

History

Metal vessel with heavy patina: we see it from the side, focusing on a handle whose two ends have been decorated with sculptures of shields.

Bronze Etruscan Template:Transliteration from Populonia, 5th century BCE

Template:Transliteration were first made during the Archaic period, in central Italy, particularly Etruria, and in the Greek region of Laconia.Template:Refn Although vases with similar characteristics (a wide mouth, two handles and a low foot) are known from Mycenaean pottery and the early Geometric period,Template:Sfn true Template:Transliteration first appeared in Attic pottery in the mid-fifth century BCE.Template:Sfn

Barbara Philippaki considers the oldest known Attic example to be the Hirsch Stamnos, painted in the black-figure technique shortly before 550 BCE:Template:Sfn Evelyn Harrison considers this a "kind of proto-Template:Transliteration",Template:Sfn and Dietrich von Bothmer calls it a "stamnoid vase".Template:Sfn Thereafter, no surviving Attic Template:Transliteration were made until around 530 BCE, when they began to be painted in the newly invented red-figure style.Template:Sfn The earliest known red-figure Template:Transliteration was made by the potter Pamphaios and painted by Oltos.Template:Sfn Other early examples were painted by Euphronios and Smikros, members of the Pioneer Group which innovated in red-figure painting at the end of the sixth century.Template:Refn

Around 500 BCE, the shape began again to be used by painters working in the older black-figure style,Template:Sfn while at least seven surviving examples were made using Six's technique, whereby red colour was superimposed upon a black-painted background.Template:Sfn Notable painters working on Template:Transliteration included Polygnotos, the Berlin Painter and the Kleophrades Painter.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration were produced in Athens until about 420 BCE,Template:Sfn though vessels of similar characteristics continued to be made into the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE).Template:Sfn

Around five hundred Attic Template:Transliteration are known, of which all but a few were found in Italy. Most surviving examples were found in Etruria, suggesting that the vase-shape was primarily made for export to the Etruscans. The end of their manufacture in Athens (Template:Circa) may have been a result of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta:Template:Sfn in particular, the failure of Athens's attempt to capture Sicily in 415–413 BCE interrupted trade between Athens and the western-Greek cities of Magna Graecia.Template:Sfn During the remainder of the fifth century and into the fourth, locally made Template:Transliteration continued to be produced in Etruria in both pottery and bronze.Template:Sfn Other examples from the fourth century were made by the native Italiote and Faliscan peoples of Italy.Template:Sfn

Function

A bearded man, elaborately dressed, with two attendants: one bows and holds a thyrsus.

Red-figure Template:Transliteration with Dionysos and his followers, 440s BCE

The early Template:Transliteration made in Italy may have been used both to mix wine and as cinerary vessels.Template:Sfn Finely decorated examples may have been intended more for display than for everyday use; they were often used as grave goods, and may have been bought specifically for this use.Template:Sfn Vases of this shape are depicted as being carried in the palm of the hand, or by the handles: Barbara Philippaki suggests that they were probably, like other similar vases, also carried on the shoulder or head.Template:Sfn

When depicted on Greek vases,Template:Efn Template:Transliteration are used for the mixing of wine.Template:Sfn They may also have been used to store or serve other liquids like water, honey, milk and oil.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn In the Greek Anthology, a collection of poems compiled from the 1st century CE, the Template:Transliteration was used as a unit of measure for wine: it seems to have been equivalent to half an amphora.Template:Sfn They are often depicted with ladles being used to serve the liquid from them, and ladles are sometimes found with them when buried in tombs.Template:Sfn

The Template:Transliteration is sometimes associated with the worship of the god Dionysos, as images of Dionysiac cult are often found painted upon Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfnm The suggestion was first made by Template:Ill in the nineteenth century, and connected to specific feasts of Dionysus by scholars including Paul Foucart, Otto Jahn and Template:Ill in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Template:Sfn Barbara Philippaki and Faya Causey-Frel, however, downplay this connection, pointing to the occurrence of other topics without obvious relevance to the god on Template:Transliteration,Template:Sfnm as well as the presence of clearly Dionysiac themes on other vase types, such as kraters, cups, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration not considered to be specifically associated with the god.Template:Sfn Template:Transliteration are sometimes known as "Lenaean vases" on the basis of a putative connection to the Lenaea, an Athenian festival of Dionysus, though Ingeborg Scheibler considers that association improbable given that Template:Transliteration both originated outside Attica and were generally sent overseas rather than used in the region.Template:Sfn

Gallery

• A monster with a woman's body (painted in white) and the heads of several dogs emerging from her groin.
  Etruscan Template:Transliteration, showing the sea-monster Scylla
• A ship, sailing left to right: a bearded man is tied tightly to the mast while winged creatures with women's faces swoop around him.
  Red-figure Template:Transliteration showing Odysseus tied to his mast while passing the Sirens, 440s BCE, British Museum
• A bearded man, holding a trident, attended upon by two women
  Template:Transliteration showing Poseidon, Amphitrite and a Nereid, Template:Circa
• Two warriors fighting with hoplite equipment: one is struck with a spear and falls back into a winged woman's arms
  Red-figure Template:Transliteration by Polygnotos: Achilles slays Memnon, who falls into the arms of his mother Eos.