Boeotian Red-Figured Kantharos

A favourite of Dionysus, the god of wine, this distinctive vessel was of great ritual and mythological importance to the central region of Boeotia on mainland Greece. With its delicate high--sweeping handles, deep body, and a long stem set upon a sturdy double--ringed foot, its shape is both aesthetically pleasing and functional. A certain posture of grandeur would have to be adopted in order to take a sip while holding such handles, and this is often apparent on the decoration of other vessels; a pastime of aristocratic males, drinking vessels used in the Symposium (an all male drinking party) would be decorated with scenes pertaining to the activity that was currently taking place, drinking. Decoration would often include mythological or humorous scenes to provide entertainment to the drinker, and also to provide a topic for discussion (for the Symposium was supposed to also be a platform for philosophical or political debate.) On such scenes it would most usually be a god or a hero who would be drinking from a Kantharos, while the ordinary man would drink from another vessel, the Kylix, a shallower cup set upon a long and thin stem.