Kylix (drinking cup)

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Categories: Ancient Greek pot shapes | Wine accessories | Drinkware | Pederasty in ancient Greece

For other uses, see Kylix.

Kylix by Euergides (circa 500 BC) in the British Museum, London.

A kylix (or cylix, plural kylixes or kylikes) is a type of wine-drinking cup with a broad relatively shallow body raised on a stem from a foot and usually with two horizontal handles disposed symmetrically. The almost flat interior circle on the interior base of the cup, called the tondo, was the primary surface for painted decoration in the Black-figure or Red-figure styles of the 6th and 5th century BC. As the representations would be covered with wine, the scenes would only be revealed in stages as the wine was drained. They were often designed with this in mind, with scenes created so that they would surprise or titillate the drinker as they were revealed.

Because the primary use for the kylix was at a symposium - a "drinking party", or symposion in Greek - in the ancient Greek world, they are often decorated with scenes of a humorous, light-hearted, or sexual nature that would only become visible when the cup was drained. Dionysos, the god of wine, and his satyrs or related komastic scenes, are common subjects. Scenes of heterosexual or pederastic love, sex or orgies are also often depicted. The shape of the kylix enabled the drinker to drink whilst recumbent, as was the case in the symposia.

A kylix featuring decoration showing Zeus and his eromenos, Ganymede.

The word kylix is from the Greek kulix, "cup," which is cognate with Latin calix, the source of the English word "chalice."

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Kylixes

v • d • e Pottery of ancient Greece
Wine Shapes	Krater · Kylix · Oenochoe · Skyphos · Psykter · Kyathos · Rhyton · Kantharos · Askos · Kotyle
Perfume Shapes and Wedding Shapes	Lebes Gamikos · Loutrophoros · Epinetron · Alabastron · Aryballos · Lekythos
Funerary Shapes and Cultic Shapes	Lekythos · Loutrophoros · Phiale
Storage Shapes	Amphora · Lebes · Pithos · Stamnos
Techniques	Red-figure · Black-figure · Bilingual pottery · Six's technique · White-ground
Painters	List of Greek Vase Painters · Amasis Painter · Exekias · Pioneer Group · Douris · Meidias Painter · Euphronios
Special Topics in Greek Pottery	Typology · Kalos inscription · Symposium · Corpus vasorum antiquorum · John Beazley · Panathenaic Amphorae · South Italian