aryballos
ARYBALLOS(ἀρύβαλλος), a vessel somewhat resembling the λήκυθος and ampulla, and, like them, used for carrying oil to the bath or palaestra. Pollux mentions it among the utensils of the bath (7.166; 10.63); but it is a mistake to identify it with the ύδρία or large jug for pouring water over the bathers : it was, indeed, larger than the ἀρύταινα (Aristoph. Eq. 1091, 1094), but the latter was a mere ladle, and the ἀρύβαλλος itself of no great size. Athenaeus describes it as a cup (ποτήριον) shaped like a purse with strings (ὡς τὰ συσπαστὰ βαλάντια i. e. with a globular body and a short and narrow neck; and adds that such purses were sometimes called ἀρύβαλλοι from this resemblance (Ath. 11. p. 783 f, following p. 466). it had a small ring or handle, just sufficient for a thong to carry it with, like the ink-bottles (otherwise different in shape) figured under ATRAMENTUMHence the name is assigned, with great probability, to the specimens of ancient pottery frequent in museums, called by the Italians vasi a palla, i.e. ball-shaped. They are chiefly found among vases of the earliest style, and were carried with the strigil to the bath. The earliest form is that in the cut No. 1, but often without a base, as in cuts 2 and 3. No. 4 represents a later form. These vessels are often richly painted with mythological subjects (Birch, Anc. Pottery, ed. 1873, p. 374).
Other derivatives from the same root ἀρύω, ἀρύτω, to draw water, ἀρυστήρ, ἀρύστιχος, ἀρύταινα, ἀρυτήρ, are sufficiently described in the lexicons.
[W.W]A small flask with a narrow neck and a broad disc-shaped mouth with a narrow aperture.
History: The earliest Protocorinthian round aryballos may be a descendent of the Mycenaean stirrup-vase. The Corinthian evolution of the aryballos can be followed clearly from the round through the ovoid to the pointed. By the end of the seventh century, the shape had been standardized and a new round form was the convention until the fifth century B.C.
The Corinthian version has a round body and generally one handle reaching from the shoulder to the edge of the flattened disc-shaped lip. This shape is rare in Athens, and a fine example of this spherical aryballos carries the signature of Nearchos. The Attic potters develop a different type of aryballos in the last quarter of the sixth century with a bell-shaped mouth, much like that of the later lekythos, and normally two handles reaching from the shoulder to the edge of the lip. In later examples there are no handles. Sometimes rather than having a spherical body, there is a flat bottom. This vessel is often shown in Attic vase painting as being suspended from the wrist of an athlete, or looped by a string and hung on the wall.
- Aristoph. Kn. 1094: used to describe a vase from which Athena pours ambrosia on the head of Demos.
- Antiphanes in Pollux 10.152: to describe a draw purse.
- Lekythos