Krater

Ancient Greek vessel used for diluting wine with water. It usually stood on a tripod in the dining room, where wine was mixed. Kraters were made of metal or pottery and were often painted or elaborately ornamented. In Homer's "Iliad" the prize offered by Achilles for the foot race at Patroclus' funeral games was a silver krater. The Greek historian Herodotus describes many enormous and costly kraters dedicated at temples or used in religious ceremonies. Kraters are large with a broad body and base and usually a wide mouth. They may have horizontal handles placed near the base or vertical handles rising from the shoulder. Among the many variations are the bell krater confined to red-figure pottery shaped like an inverted bell with loop handles and a disk foot; the volute krater with an egg-shaped body and handles that rise from the shoulder and curl in a volute (scroll-shaped form) well above the rim; the calyx krater the shape of which spreads out like the cup or calyx of a flower; and the column krater with columnar handles rising from the shoulder to a flat projecting lip rim. Some were fitted with a strainer.

Originally a vessel for the mixing of wine with water, the normal custom in antiquity. In the study of classical Greek vases, the term is usually applied to a fairly large vessel with deep round bowl and wide mouth, standing on a broad base. The classification is normally subdivided into four types: column crater, volute crater, calyx crater and bell crater, which take their names from the characteristic shape either of the handle or of the body of the vase.