Cotyla

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The cotylae are also features on the proximal end of the radius and of the ulna in birds.

In classical antiquity, the cotyla or cotyle (Gr κοτύλη) was a measure of capacity among the Romans and Greeks: by the former it was also called hemina; by the latter, τρυβλίον and ἡμίνα or ἡμίμνα. It was the half of the sextarius^[1] or ξέστης, and contained six cyathi, or nearly half a pint English.^[2]

This measure was used by physicians with a graduated scale marked on it, like our own chemical measures, for measuring out given weights of fluids, especially oil. A vessel of horn, of a cubic or cylindrical shape, and of the capacity of a cotyla, was divided into twelve equal parts by lines cut on its side. The whole vessel was called litra, and each of the parts an ounce (uncia). This measure held nine ounces (by weight) of oil, so that the ratio of the weight of the oil to the number of ounces it occupied in the measure would be 9:12 or 3:4.^[2]

Nicolas Chorier (1612-1692) observes that the cotyla was used as a dry measure as well as a liquid one, from the authority of Thucydides, who in one place mentions two cotylae of wine, and in another two cotylae of bread.^[3]

The name is also given to a type of ancient Greek vase broadly similar in shape to a skyphos but more closely resembling a kantharos.

References

↑ From the Carmen de ponderibus et mensuris we have the following:
"At cotylas, quas si placeat dixisse licebit

Eminas, recipit geminas sextarius unus"
↑ 2.0 2.1 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray.
↑ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "^{article name needed}". Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (first ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.

v t e Pottery of ancient Greece

Wine vessel shapes	Dinos Kotyle Krater Kyathos Psykter Rhyton Skyphos

Tableware	Eye-cup Kantharos Kylix Oenochoe Olpe Patera Pinakion

Perfume, oil, and wedding shapes	Alabastron Aryballos Askos Lebes Gamikos Lekythos Loutrophoros Lydion Pyxis Stirrup jar

Funerary shapes and cultic shapes	Kernos Lekythos Loutrophoros Phiale

Storage shapes	Amphora Hydria Kalathos Kalpis Lebes Pelike Pithos Stamnos

Utilitarian ceramics	Chuta Epinetron Luchnos Situla

Techniques	Bilingual pottery Black-figure Bucchero Red-figure Six's technique Three-phase firing White-ground

Styles	Ancient Greek vase-painting styles

Potters and Painters	List of Greek potters List of Greek vase painters List of Little Masters Name vase

Museums noted for pottery	Athens Basel und Ludwig Berlin Bodrum British Edinburgh Getty Heraklion Louvre Thera Ure Vatican Walters

Writers and books	Adolf Furtwängler Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Dietrich von Bothmer Edmond Pottier John Beazley John Boardman Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae

Special topics in Greek pottery	Frying pans Kalos inscription Nikosthenic amphora Panathenaic amphora Symposium Typology

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