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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. (Dennis, Etruria.）
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]
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
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