Glossary Pottery and vessels
Kylix
Also called: kylikes
A shallow, two-handled drinking cup set on a stem and foot, a Greek shape that Cypriot potters also made.
The kylix was the standard wine cup of the Mycenaean and later Greek world. Its broad, shallow bowl and horizontal handles made it easy to drink from while reclining or passing it round, and it was usually served from a krater. Stemmed cups of this family were made in clay, metal and, later, glass.
Cypriot potters took up the kylix from the Aegean at the end of the Bronze Age, and it is a regular shape in Proto-White Painted pottery of the late 12th and 11th centuries BCE. Iron Age potters kept making versions of it, including painted Bichrome kylikes of the Cypro-Archaic period.
Related terms
- Krater
A large, wide-mouthed bowl or jar used for mixing wine with water before serving, usually with two handles.
- Open and closed shapes
The basic division of vessel forms: open shapes have a mouth as wide as the body, closed shapes narrow to a neck or small opening.
Where it appears
- Proto-White Painted Ware
- From Bronze to Iron: Cypriot Pottery c. 1300–950 BCE
- Lattice, Chequers and Checkerboards on Cypriot Pottery
- Pottery Shapes
- Free-Field Style: Birds, Bulls and Lotus on Cypro-Archaic Jugs
- Lotus Flowers and Lotus Friezes on Cypriot Iron Age Pottery
- Bichrome Ware
- Bowls
- Circles
- Cypro-Archaic Cyprus
- Motifs of Cypriot Pottery
- Mycenaean Imports and Local Imitations
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