DEPAS
DEPAS (
δέπας), a cup with two
handles, frequently mentioned by Homer, seems to have been a generic term,
like
ποτήπριον (Asclepiades, ap.
Ath. 11.24,783 a, who says it is the same as
the
ἄλεισον). It was used in libations,
and was usually of gold (
Il. 23.196,
24.285, &c.), but later of
earthenware (
Anth. Pal. 4.333). The term is applied to the
golden bowl or boat in which the sun floated back from west to east during
the night (Stesich.
fr. 8 Bergk; Aesch.
fr. 66 Dind.; and other quotations ap.
Ath. 11.469 e, f). As a specific term it was
probably applied to cups of a bowl-like shape, and is therefore identified
by Panofka and Dennis with the form given in the annexed cut.
Depas is frequently used in Homer with the epithet
ἀμφικύπελλον (
Il. 1.584,
6.220), which has given rise to much
discussion. It was, however, probably a double-cup, with a bottom half-way
up, like a dice-box. That this was the form of the cup is inferred from a
passage of Aristotle (
Hist. An. 9.40), where he
describes the cells of bees as having two openings divided by a floor, like
the
ἀμφικύπελλα (Buttmann's
Lexilogus, s. v.). Cups of this kind have been found in
the cemeteries of Bologna, but the Homeric cups had two handles, while these
have none (Dennis,
Etruria, ii. p. 515).
Mr. Dennis points out that the golden cups which Schliemann found at
Hissarlik and Mycenae, and which are figured in his works, are probably
instances of the simple depas, but not of the
ἀμφικύπελλον, if the previous explanation of the form of
the latter is correct (Dennis,
Etruria, i. p.
cxix.; Schliemann,
Troy, p. 326,
Mycenae, pp. 231, 234).
[
W.S]
