Krater

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Krater discovered at the acropolis of Mycenae, depicting fully armed warriors. 1200-1100 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens

For the landform crater, see Crater.

A krater (from the Greek verb Κρατερ, meaning "to mix") was a vase used to mix wine and water. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room. They were quite large, so they were not easily portable when filled. Thus, the wine-water mixture would be withdrawn from the Krater with other vessels. In fact, Book Nine of Homer's Odyssey describes a sommelier drawing wine from a krater at a banquet and then running to and fro pouring the wine into guests' drinking cups. An interesting sidenote to this is that the modern Greek word now used for undiluted wine, krasi (κρασί), originates from this mixing of wine and water in kraters. Kraters were glazed on the interior to make the surface of the clay more suitable for holding water, and possibly for aesthetic reasons, since the interior could easily be seen.

[edit] Forms of kraters

• The column krater was invented in Corinth, but was taken over by the Athenians, where it is typically black-figure.
• The calyx krater was probably invented by Exekias in about 525 BC. The form remembers the calyx of flowers.
• The volute krater was an Attic shape that lasted through the 4th century BC
• The bell krater looks like a bell. All bell kraters are red-figure.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Kraters

• Pottery of Ancient Greece