Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/414

 Pottery. 36 1 could circulate round the table after the fashion of a loving cup ; ' yet nowhere does the poet dwell on the fact that the drinker had to drain it to the last drop before setting it down on the table in front of him. We are, then, inclined to view these funnel-shaped cups as one, perhaps the oldest, of the many forms of a SiVay aj;t(^(xu)r(XXot', for the name must have been applied to other and differently-shaped cups, to every one, in fact, provided with two handles.* As already remarked, such cups are found from the second stratum at Hissarlik up to the layer which corresponds with the end of the Mycenian period. The vases of this series Via, 441.— Jug. Aclu.il siie. are distinguished by a great variety of outline and by the position of the handles. We should weary the reader by attempting to represent, even with a unique specimen, each of the principal types of Trojan ceramics. Let us at any rate point out a dis- tinctive characteristic which returns again and again in the productions of this industry ; we allude to the more or less short handles or ears which facilitated prehension (Fig. 244).' To this ' It is also Hslbig's opinion {Das homcrische Epos). Schliemann and Helblg have shown that the same drinking-cup is indifferently called by Homer, according to the requirements of the verse, liva^ dfii^tKvtiiWui; Birrut, KintWov, and d aar. The epithet tf/ifwrui', "double-eared," that is to say "double-handled," is often affixed to aXitaoi; the better to define it.
 * Odyssey.
 * SCHUKMANN, //wS.