For other uses, see Patera (disambiguation).
In the material culture of classical antiquity, a phiale or patera (Latin pronunciation: [ˈpatera]) is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation (omphalos, "bellybutton") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, in which case it is sometimes called a mesomphalic phiale. It typically has no handles, and no feet. (A drinking cup with handles is a kylix. A circular platter with a pair of C-handles is not a patera, but a few paterae have single long straight handles.) Although the two terms may be used interchangeably, particularly in the context of Etruscan culture, phiale is more common in reference to Greek forms, and patera in Roman settings.
The form of libation called spondē is typically the ritualized pouring of wine from a jug or bowl held in the hand. The most common ritual was to pour the liquid from an oinochoē (wine jug) into a phiale. Libation generally accompanied prayer. The Greeks stood when they prayed, either with their arms uplifted, or in the act of libation with the right arm extended to hold the phiale. After the wine offering was poured from the phiale, the remainder of the contents was drunk by the celebrant.
In Roman art, the libation is shown performed at an altar, mensa (sacrificial meal table), or tripod. It was the simplest form of sacrifice, and could be a sufficient offering by itself. The introductory rite (praefatio) to an animal sacrifice included an incense and wine libation onto a burning altar. Both emperors and divinities are frequently depicted, especially on coins, pouring libations from a patera. Scenes of libation and the patera itself commonly signify the quality of pietas, religious duty or reverence.
In architecture, oval features on plaster friezes on buildings may be called paterae (plural).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patera.
^ There is no meaningful distinction between the two terms: Nancy Thompson de Grummond and Erika Simon, The Religion of the Etruscans (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 171; Gocha R. Tsetskhladze, North Pontic Archaeology: Recent Discoveries and Studies (Brill, 2001), p. 239; Rabun Taylor, The Moral Mirror of Roman Art (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 104, 269; Rebecca Miller Ammerma, The Sanctuary of Santa Venera at Paestum (University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 64, 66.
^ Katja Moede, "Reliefs, Public and Private," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), pp. 165, 168.
^ John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors," in A Companion to Roman Religion, p. 265.
^ Calder Loth (2010-10-05). "Classical comments: the patera". Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. Archived from the original on 2011-08-10.
In Greek mythology, Amazonomachy was the portrayal of the mythical battle between the Ancient Greeks and the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors. Another famous scene portrayed is that of Achilles victorious battle against Penthesilea during the Trojan war, Amazonomachy represents the Greek ideal of civilization. The Amazons were portrayed as a savage and barbaric race, while the Greeks were portrayed as a race of human progress. Amazonomachy is seen as the rise of feminism in Greek culture, what denied to us hath heaven on man bestowed. According to Josine Blok, Amazonomachy provides two different contexts in defining a Greek hero, in the 5th century, the Achaemenid Empire of Persia began a series of invasions against Ancient Greece. Because of this, some believe that on most 5th-century Greek art. Kalamis, a Greek sculptor, is attributed to designing the west metopes of the Parthenon, the west metopes of the Parthenon depict a battle between Greeks and Amazons. Despite its mutilated state, scholars generally concur that the scene represents the Amazon invasion of Attica, the shield of Athena Parthenos, sculpted by Phideas, depicts a fallen Amazon.
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC and it replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure vase painting within a few decades. Its modern name is based on the depictions in red colour on a black background. The most important areas of production, apart from Attica, were in Southern Italy, the style was adopted in other parts of Greece. Etruria became an important centre of production outside the Greek World, Attic red-figure vases were exported throughout Greece and beyond. For a long time, they dominated the market for fine ceramics, only few centres of pottery production could compete with Athens in terms of innovation and production capacity. Of the red figure vases produced in Athens alone, more than 40,000 specimens, from the second most important production centre, Southern Italy, more than 20,000 vases and fragments are preserved. Starting with the studies by John D.
Beazley and Arthur Dale Trendall, some vases can be ascribed to individual artists or schools. The images provide evidence for the exploration of Greek cultural history, everyday life, red figure is, put simply, the reverse of the black figure technique. Both were achieved by using the three-phase firing technique, the paintings were applied to the shaped but unfired vessels after they had dried to a leathery, near-brittle texture. In Attica, the normal unburnt clay was of orange colour at this stage, the outlines of the intended figures were drawn either with a blunt scraper, leaving a slight groove, or with charcoal, which would disappear entirely during firing. Then the contours were redrawn with a brush, using a clay slip. Occasionally, the decided to somewhat change the figural scene. In such cases the grooves from the original sketch sometimes remain visible, important contours were often drawn with a thicker slip, leading to a slightly protruding outline, less important lines and internal details were drawn with diluted glossy clay.
Minyan ware is a broad archaeological term describing varieties of a particular style of Aegean pottery associated with the Middle Helladic period. In the history of Aegean prehistoric archaeology, Heinrich Schliemann was the first person to coin the term Minyan after he discovered a variety of dark-burnished pottery at Orchomenos. Some of his contemporaries referred to the pottery as Orchomenos Ware, the term Minyan Ware ultimately prevailed since it romantically recalled the glorious Minyans of Greek mythology. At first, Alan Wace and Carl Blegen did not yet associate Minyan Ware with the advent of the Greeks, both archaeologists regarded the sudden appearance of Minyan Ware as one of two interruptions in the unbroken evolution of Greek pottery from the Neolithic up until the Mycenean era. Ultimately, they concluded that Minyan Ware indicates the introduction of a new cultural strain, prior to 1960, Minyan Ware was often associated with northern invaders having destroyed Early Helladic culture and introducing Middle Helladic culture into the Greek peninsula.
Caskey found that the Black or Argive variety of Minyan Ware was a version of the Early Helladic III Dark slipped and burnished pottery class. Therefore, Minyan Ware was present in Greece since between 2200 and 2150 BC, there is nothing particularly northern regarding the ceramic progenitors of Minyan Ware. The exception, entails the spread of Minyan Ware from central Greece to northeastern Peloponnese, there is uncertainty as to how Minyan Ware arrived in Greece or how it was indigenously developed. Minyan Ware is a form of monochrome burnished pottery produced from fine or moderately fine clay. Varieties of Minyan Ware entail Yellow, Gray, open forms such as goblets and kantharoi are the most common shapes in all types of Minyan Ware. Goblets and kantharoi are technically evolved versions of the Bass bowl, Gray Minyan Ware, has angular forms that may reflect copies of metallic prototypes. However, such a theory is difficult to substantiate given the fact that objects from the Middle Helladic period are rare.
Minoan pottery is more than a useful tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. The extremely fine palace pottery called Kamares ware, and the Late Minoan all-over patterned Marine style are the points of the Minoan pottery tradition. The traditional chronology for dating Minoan civilization was developed by Sir Arthur Evans in the years of the 20th century AD. His terminology and the one proposed by Nikolaos Platon are still generally in use, for more details, see the Minoan chronology. Evans classified fine pottery by the changes in its forms and styles of decoration, Platon concentrated on the episodic history of the Palace of Knossos. A new method, fabric analysis, involves geologic analysis of coarse, the resulting classifications are based on composition of the sherds. A brief introduction to the topic of Early Minoan pottery is stated below and it concentrates on some better-known styles but should not be regarded as comprehensive. A variety of forms is known, the evidence is certainly open to interpretation, and none is decisive.
Early Minoan pottery, to some extent and possibly evolved from, many suggest that Minoan civilization evolved in situ and was not imported from the East. Its other main feature is its variety from site to site, Studies of the relationship between EM I and FN have been conducted mainly in East Crete. There the Final Neolithic has affinities to the Cyclades, while both FN and EM I settlements are contemporaneous, with EM I gradually replacing FN, EM I types include Pyrgos Ware, called Burnished Ware. The major form was the chalice, or Arkalochori Chalice, in which a cup combined with a stand could be set on a hard surface without spilling. As the Pyrgos site was a shelter used as an ossuary. This type of pottery was black, grey or brown, and burnished, another EM I type, Incised Ware, called Scored Ware, were hand-shaped, round-bottomed, dark-burnished jugs and bulbous cups and jars. Favored decor was incised line patterns, horizontal or herring-bone and these pots are from the north and northeast of Crete and appear to be modelled after the Kampos Phase of the Grotta-Pelos early Cycladic I culture.
Pietas, translated variously as duty, religiosity or religious behavior, devotion, or filial piety, was one of the chief virtues among the ancient Romans. It was the distinguishing virtue of the founding hero Aeneas, who is given the adjectival epithet pius throughout Virgils epic Aeneid. The sacred nature of pietas was embodied by the divine personification Pietas, cicero defined pietas as the virtue which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations. The man who possessed pietas performed all his duties towards the deity and his fellow human beings fully and in every respect, Pietas erga parentes was one of the most important aspects of demonstrating virtue. Pietas extended toward parents in the sense of ancestors, and was one of the principles of Roman tradition. Pietas as a virtue resided within a person, in contrast to a virtue or gift such as Victoria, however, allowed a person to recognize the divine source of benefits conferred. The first recorded use of pietas in English occurs in Anselm Bayly’s The Alliance of Music, Pietas can be arranged in this order from the most important to the least, The gods, your city, your family, and lastly yourself.
You should take in mind that pietas includes knowing your place in this scale, Pietas was represented on coin by cult objects, but as a woman conducting a sacrifice by means of fire at an altar. In the imagery of sacrifice, libation was the act that came to symbolize pietas. Pietas is first represented on Roman coins on denarii issued by Marcus Herennius in 108 or 107 BC, Pietas appears on the obverse as a divine personification, in bust form, the quality of pietas is represented by a son carrying his father on his back. Pietas is among the virtues that appear frequently on Imperial coins, one of the symbols of pietas was the stork, described by Petronius as pietaticultrix, cultivator of pietas. The stork represented filial piety in particular, as the Romans believed that it demonstrated family loyalty by returning to the same nest every year, as such, a stork appears next to Pietas on a coin issued by Metellus Pius. Pietas was the presence in everyday life that cautioned humans not to intrude on the realm of the gods.
Pelike by a painter of the Tarrytown Group; Eros, a woman with a harp and a youth with a fawn; circa 320/310 BC.
Rhyton in the shape of an African's head, circa 320 BC. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles.
Denarius of Herennius, depicting Pietas and an act of pietas.
Flavia Maximiana Theodora on the obverse, on the reverse Pietas holding infant to her breast.
White ground, Attic, c. 460, Apollo pours a libation, detail.