Terracotta Hydria: Kalpis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2011

Terracotta hydria: kalpis (water jar)
Recalls the Dikaios Painter

Period: Archaic

Date: ca. 500 B.C.

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta

Dimensions: H. 14 15/16 in. (38 cm) diameter 15 5/8 in. (39.7 cm)

Classification: Vases

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1921

Accession Number: 21.88.2

Description:

The Greeks always diluted their wine with water. It was the privilege of the symposiarch, who acted as master of ceremonies at a drinking party, to decide the proportion of wine to water in each krater (bowl for mixing wine and water) as the evening progressed. On this water jar, two armed youths perform a dance to flute music. Such dances imitating the motions of warfare were popular at festivals throughout Greece. The term kalpis refers to a hydria of this particular shape.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/1300...