[||]  AMPHORAS Project
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Some references to amphoras in ancient Greek sources

1. Amphoras used to store wine and transport it
   • in the Odyssey:
     Telemachus going on a journey, and taking wine from the household store
     Odysseus on his voyage: ship's supplies, and the special gift of the priest of Apollo, brought by Odysseus to the Cyclops,
     Household supplies wasted by Penelope's suitors in Ithaca
   • as possessions indicative of material wealth in Aristophanes Plutus and Ecclesiazusae, contrasted by Demosthenes with the possession of glory and honour in two speeches.
   • as trade goods:
     • a lawsuit in Demosthenes over a loan on a cargo of amphoras (3000 Mendean jars proposed, 80 "sour" Koan taken) to be shipped to the Black Sea.
     • in Xenophon's Anabasis, where wine is given to Greeks in the Black Sea by Sinope and Heraclea, both amphora-manufacturing states.
2. Amphoras used to carry water
   • in Egypt in the desert, according to Herodotus;
   • water sold by the amphora at Jerusalem as an indication of drought: Josephus AJ 5.409-411, 3/4 1st AD; cited by G. M. Paul, "The Presentation of Titus in the Jewish War of Josephus: Two Aspects", Phoenix 47.1 [1993] 56-66. (Search for "amphora")
   • as a defence against fire in war, where the weight of water causes a house to collapse, described by Thucydides
3. Amphoras used for other commodities:
   • honey and oil for the funeral pyre of Patrokles in the Iliad
   • milk by the Cyclops in his cave in Euripides and in a commemorative procession by the Plateans in Plutarch
   • wine, honey, milk, and various goods, in a metaphor in Plato's Gorgias
   • slices of dolphin in Xenophon 's Anabasis salted away in amphoras
4. The amphora as a unit of measure for other containers:
   • for measuring water for the water-clock in Athenian law-courts mentioned by the orators Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines
   • to define the size of casks and wine-vats at Acragas in Diodorus
   • to define the size of a bronze vessel for human sacrificial blood in Strabo
   • to define the size of precious bowls made as state gifts to Delphi and to Croesus
5. Amphoras as the common furnishings of a Greek [well, the gods'] household in Aristophanes Peace.
6. Empty amphoras:
   • placed in a pit as a trap for cavalry in Herodotus,
   • used as a term of insult in Aristophanes Clouds
7. The baking of an amphora used metaphorically in an oracle in Herodotus about the firing of a tower in Cyrene
8. Amphoras made of other materials than plain undecorated clay:
   • A decorated Panathenaic-style amphora containing olive oil as a prize for the victor in athletic games in an ode of Pindar.
   • Stone amphoras in the cave of Naiads at the harbour in Ithaka where Odysseus landed.
   • Golden amphora provided as a burial urn for Achilles, shared by Patrokles, mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey.
   • Two amphoras, copper and wooden, used to hold the votes in Aristotle

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