Cup in Gnathia style
| Measures | h 6,2; ø edge 7,8; ø foot 3,5 |
| Place and chronology | Salentino - Tomb. 25. Second half of the 4th century BC |
In the symposium ritual the drinking cups were the elegant and prestigious kylix, the skyphos, the kotyle, or more rarely and in later times, the kàntharos, the cup with high handles linked to the cult of the god Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman world).
The term symposium (drinking together) indicates the convivial meeting characterized by drinking wine which followed the evening meal.
Therefore, it was the final part of a banquet organised on different occasions: the meeting of comrades-in-arms or factions, the celebration of a private feast, the extension, reserved for a small group, of a public holiday or of a religious ritual and even the simple desire for recreation and entertainment.
The skyphos-cup is a variant of the skyphos, from which it is distinguished by its lower and flattened shape.
