crater
crater, a mixingvessel, wine-bowl, punch-bowl (poet.)
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
in epistola quam [Dionysius ] rescripsit Tito pontifici interroganti quae sapientiae domus, quis ~er et qui cibi ejus et potus
~er vel canna,canne ‥, ~era,eardefæt
disci, crateres, cuppe sint sorde carentes
tunc crateram sumens humilius
habet unum ~era in proprietate
tradidi ‥ eisdem ‥ unam ~eram argenti nomine seisine
de eisdem bonis ‥ predict’ Ricardo [sic ] posui in plenariam possessionem †et [? l. per ] deliberacionem unius ~eri argenti
hic ~er, hec †cateria,a pese
tres ~eras planas vocatasflat pecis cum j coopertorio
j crathera sine cooperculo cum armis cujusdam domini sculptis in fundamento
dedit et †catarram sive vas perpulchrum ex aurichalco in usum lustralis aquae et benedictae circumferendae cum aspersorio
quod ‥ illi ‥ qui gutteras versus eandem aquam [] exeuntes habent ~eras versus aquam ‥, ita quod fimi causa aresti sive impedimenti ~erarum illarum ‥ transire minime possent, ‥ facere ‥ debent le fosse Ebor’
j tripodem cum uno crattero
- 1. mengvat, mengkruik; (poët.) oliekruik;
- 2. (poët.; postklass.) kloof, afgrond; (vulkaan)krater;
- 3. (Plin. Min.) waterbekken, bassin.
Crater vel Cratera, fiala, etc.ex Isidor. Origin. lib. 20. cap. 5. sect. 3. et lib. 16. cap. 16. sect. 13.
Et ibi stant in lecto 15. Crateres aurei cum oleo, ardentes diu noctuque.eadem notione apud Paulum Silentiarium. Vide Descriptionem ædis Sophianæ a nobis editam cum Cinnamo n. 58.Ἀργύρεοι κρατῆρες ,
voragine
♢ acc. -ērem e -ēra, acc. pl. -ēras.
- , κρατήρ, a mixingvessel, wine-bowl, punch-bowl (poet.): Sistitur argento crater, O.: vertunt crateras aënos, V.: urnae capax, holding three gallons, Iu. — A bowl: fuso crateres olivo, V.—The Bowl (a constellation), O.
CRATER(κρατήρ) was the large bowl used at feasts for mixing the wine for the whole company. There can be little doubt that it is as old as communal life, with its common ceremonies and common feasts; so that we are not surprised to find it among the oldest people and in the most remote age of each nation. From Assyria (Perrot and Chipiez, 2.410), Cyprus (the crater of Amathus), Persia (Ath. 514), we hear of colossal specimens which were used generally in religious rites, and which bear evidence that even at the time of their own construction the crater had already had a long history. But specially, among the Greeks, we find the κρατὴρ in Hesiod (Op. 744) and Homer, made of silver (Od. 9.203) and with a gold rim (Od. 4.616), and sometimes of gold (Il. 23.219). The prize Achilles offered for the foot-race was a silver crater, elaborately wrought, holding six measures, nor was any in the whole world able to surpass it in beauty, cunningly wrought as it was by Sidonians (Il. 23.740). During the Homeric feasts the κρατὴρ used to stand at the far end of the men's hall, at the left-hand side near the ὀρσοθύρη (Od. 22.332 sqq.; and Buchholz, Hom. Real. 2.2, 164). The manner of its use at festivals will be found treated of under CENA
In historical times we find it belonging to every class, rich (e. g. Alexis, 119, Kock; Juven. 12.44) and poor (Ar. Eccl. 677; Mart. 12.32, 12); and used also in religious cult, where it is generally mentioned in connexion with σπονδαί (Aesch. Cho. 291; Dem. Lept. 505.158), thus referring to the drinking which followed the libation. So, too, in general festivals we hear o the gods ordering κρατῆρες to be set up in the streets (Dem. Mid. 531.53; Macart. 1072.66); and the crater was used at funerals (Verg. A. 6.225) and in the mysteries (κρατηρίζων, Dem. de Cor. 313.259). And so we find craters were a most common kind of dedication in the temples (e.g. C. I. G. 8; Orelli, 1541), and they are often mentioned as such by Herodotus: for example, the six golden ones dedicated by Gyges, each weighing 5 talents (1.14); the gold one weighing 8 1/2 talents 12 minae, and the silver one holding 600 μετρηταὶ which Croesus dedicated at Delphi (1.51). The monstrous crater carried in the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Athen. 199 b) held the same quantity, and was elaborately adorned with figures about the handles and base, and round the middle ran a band of gold with precious stones (cf. λιθοκόλλητον in Eratosth. ap. Athen. 495 a). Other highly-adorned craters are mentioned in Hdt. 1.70, 4.152-Z2; cf. also Ov. Met. 13.681sqq. These great public vessels used to be employed for mixing wine in on the occasion of festivals, e. g. the Theophania at Delphi (Hdt. 1.51), and of important state ceremonials, e. g. contracting peace and alliance with another state (4.152). In Virgil (Aen. 9.346) we read of a man hiding behind a crater. These examples show the enormous size, the costly material, and the elaborate ornamentation of some of these vessels; but craters were of all sizes, from these gigantic public ones down to domestic ones holding a few pints. And as the latter were often humble in size, so too they were often humble in material. We find them of wood (the πρόαρον is a κρατὴρ ξύλινος, Athen. 495 a), horn (Mart. 12.32, 12), clay (Ov. Met. 8.639). Craters were used chiefly for wine, but also for other libations (Soph. O. C. 472; Verg. A. 5.68). We hear of special kinds with distinct names from places, e. g. Lesbian (Hdt. 4.61), Argive (Hdt. 4.152), Laconian (Athen. 198 d); and from individuals, e. g. Thericlean (Alexis, 119, Kock). For the latter see CALIXBut archaeologists agree that we have not sufficient evidence to identify these different species with the different kinds of craters which have come down to us. The most ordinary shapes of the crater are the following. It will be seen that they had a neck of varying size, a broad body, and a base; also two handles, which were sometimes high up and vertical, and adorned with flutings, sometimes horizontal and nearer the base.
These are the principal kinds; but perhaps we may class under the head of κρατὴρ those large round-bottomed vessels which approached in form to the δῖνος, and which were of the shape of the old mixers of more simple times. The word crater [CANTHARUS] is also used of basins for catching the water discharged by fountains (Plin. Ep. 5.6, 23, and probably H. N. 35.156). It does not appear to have been ever applied to a drinking vessel; but we find κρατηρίσκος in this latter sense (Athen. 478 c).
The crater often had a support which was called ὑποκρατήριον, ὑποκρατηρίδιον, or ἐπίστατον. These are frequently mentioned in dedications; see Boeckh in C. G. 8, p. 20. In Herod, 1.25 it is of iron; and in 4.152 three brasen kneeling Colossi, seven cubits high. A Latin inscription of 169 A.D. (Orelli, 1541) mentions a crateram argyrocorinthiam cum basi sua et hypobasi marmorea; and another (Henzen, 5801) tells of a crater cum basi bicipite. Subjoined are two woodcuts to illustrate the ὑποκρατηρίδιον.
Further, the word κρατὴρ is applied to chasms in the ground (Soph. O. C. 1593, and Jebb ad loc.): e. g. the geysers of the Palici at Syracuse (Macrob. Sat. 5.19). Compare the dark mountain lake called the Devil's Punchbowl at Killarney. The name of Crater was also given to the Sinus Cumanus or Bay of Naples (Cic. Att. 2.8, 2); compare Cothon at Carthage. Crater, too, was a constellation (Ov. Fast. 2.226).
Besides the works mentioned under CALIXsee Pottier in Daremberg and Saglio.
[L.C.P](κρατήρ; Ionic κρητήρ; Lat. crater or cratera, from κεράννυμι, “to mix”). A vessel in which the wine, according to the custom of the ancients, who very seldom drank it undiluted, was mixed with water, and from which the cups were filled. In the Homeric Age the mixture was always made in the dining-room by heralds or young men (κοῦροι). The use of the vessel is sufficiently clear from the expressions so frequent in the poems of Homer: κρητῆρα κεράσασθαι—i. e. οἶνον καὶ ὕδωρ ἐν κρητῆρι μίσγειν: πίνειν κρητῆρα, “to empty the crater”; κρητῆρα στήσασθαι (cratera statuere), “to place the filled crater near the table”; κρητῆρας ἐπιστέφεσθαι ποτοῖο, “to fill the craters to the brim.” The crater, in the Homeric Age, was generally of silver, sometimes with a gold edge, and sometimes all gold or gilt. It stood upon a tripod, and its ordinary place in the μέγαρον was in the most honourable part of the room, at the farthest end from the entrance, and near the seat of the most distinguished among the guests. The size of the crater seems to have varied according to the number of guests, for where their number is increased a larger crater is asked for. It would seem, at least at a later period (for in the Homeric poems we find no traces of the custom), that three craters were filled at every feast after the tables were removed. According to Suidas, the first was dedicated to Hermes, the second to Charisius, and the third to Zeus Soter; but others called them by different names; thus the first, or, according to others, the last, was also designated the κρατὴρ ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος, “the crater of the good genius,” κρατὴρ ὑγιείας and μετανιπτρίς or μετάνιπτρον, because it was the crater from which the cups were filled after the washing of the hands. There were special craters named from places, e. g. Lesbian, Laconian, Argive (Herod.iv. 152).
Craters were among the first things on the embellishment of which the ancient artists exercised their skill. Homer mentions, among the prizes proposed by Achilles, a beautifully wrought silver crater, the work of the ingenious Sidonians, which, by the elegance of its workmanship, excelled all others on the whole earth. In the reign of Croesus, king of Lydia, the Lacedaemonians sent to that king a brazen crater, the border of which was all over ornamented with figures (ζώδια), and which was of such an enormous size that it contained 300 amphorae. Croesus himself dedicated to the Delphic god two huge craters, which the Delphians believed to be the work of Theodorus of Samos, and Herodotus was induced, by the beauty of their workmanship, to think the same. It was about Ol. 35 that the Samians dedicated six talents (the tenth of the profits made by Colaeus on his voyage to Tartessus) to Heré, in the shape of an immense brazen crater, the border of which was adorned with projecting heads of griffins. This crater, which Herodotus calls Argive (from which we must infer that the Argive artists were celebrated for their craters), was supported by three colossal brazen statues, seven yards high, with their knees closed together.
The number of craters dedicated in temples seems everywhere to have been very great. Livius Andronicus, in his Equus Troianus, represented Agamemnon returning from Troy with no less than 3000 craters, and Cicero says that Verres carried away from Syracuse the most beautiful brazen craters, which most probably belonged to the various temples of that city. But craters were not only dedicated to the gods as anathemata, but were used on various solemn occasions in their service. In sacrifices the libation was always taken from a crater; and sailors, before they set out on their journey, used to take the libation with cups from a crater and pour it into the sea. The name crater was also sometimes used as synonymous with σιτλίον, situla, a pail in which water was carried.
The Romans used their crater or cratera for the same purposes for which it was used in Greece; but the most elegant specimens were, like most works of art, made by Greeks. See caelatura.
- offerings cast into: Paus. 3.23.9