Wine dilutionĭrinking ákratos (undiluted) wine was considered a severe faux pas in ancient Greece, enough to characterize the drinker as a drunkard and someone who lacked restraint and principle. An astute symposiarch should be able to diagnose the degree of inebriation of his fellow symposiasts and make sure that the symposium progressed smoothly and without drunken excess. The krater and how it was filled and emptied was thus the centerpiece of the symposiarch's authority. He would then assume control of the wine servants, and thus of the degree of wine dilution and how it changed during the party, and the rate of cup refills. UsageĪt the beginning of each symposium a symposiarch (συμποσίαρχος), or "lord of the common drink", was elected by the participants. Kraters were glazed on the interior to make the surface of the clay more impervious for holding water, and possibly for aesthetic reasons, since the interior could easily be seen. The modern Greek word now used for undiluted wine, krasi (κρασί), originates from the krasis ( κράσις, i.e. In fact, Homer's Odyssey describes a steward drawing wine from a krater at a banquet and then running to and fro pouring the wine into guests' drinking cups. Thus, the wine-water mixture would be withdrawn from the krater with other vessels. They were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled. ORON.At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room. Contains 47 color and 167 b/w illustrations.
What was the function of this extraordinary object? And what is the meaning of the intricate iconography? The krater is placed in its Macedonian archaeological context as an heirloom of the descendants of the man named in the Thessalian inscription on its rim, and in its art historical context as a highly elaborated, early 4th-century, version of a metal type known in Athens by about 470 B.C.
In the major repouss#195 © frieze on the body a bearded hunter is associated with Dionysian figures. On the shoulder sit four cast bronze figures: on one side a youthful Dionysos with an exhausted maenad, on the other a sleeping Silenos and a maenad handling a snake. Snakes with copper and silver inlaid stripes frame the rising handles, wrapping their bodies around masks of underworld deities.
Found in an undisturbed Macedonian tomb of the late 4th century B.C., the volute krater is a tour de force of highly sophisticated methods of bronze working.An unusual program of iconography informs every area of the vessel. “This beautifully illustrated book represents the first full publication of the most elaborate metal vessel from the ancient world yet discovered.
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