The Ancient Wine Cup Belonging to Athenian Statesman Pericles

Of the 7 names inscribed successful the cup, the 1 that jumps retired is Pericles, for that was the sanction of 1 of the astir celebrated Athenians ever to live. Credit: Ministry of Culture

A vino cupful believed to beryllium to ancient Greek person Pericles discovered successful 2014 is the item of the Epigraphical Museum successful Athens.

The cupful was discovered successful an past tomb during excavations for the foundations of a caller gathering successful Kifissia in northern Athens.

Pericles was calved successful Athens successful 495 BC. He was 1 of the most eminent and revered figures of past Greece, arsenic helium reigned during the Golden Age of Athens. He died of the plague successful 429 BC during a Spartan siege.

Measuring 8 centimeters successful height, the cupful was recovered breached up into 12 fragments. It was achromatic some wrong and out, had 2 handles, and was comparatively thin.

When archaeologists pieced the fragments backmost together, they were astonished to spot six names inscribed connected the broadside of the cup. These names were legible but lone erstwhile the cupful was turned upside down.

Whoever had engraved the names onto the cupful had archetypal turned it upside down, arsenic if it had conscionable been washed and acceptable speech to dry.

Credit: Ministry of Culture

Seven names inscribed connected the Pericles vino cup

That idiosyncratic besides enclosed the names successful a box. From apical to bottom, the names read: “Aristides, Diodotos, Daesimos, Arriphron, Pericles, Eukritos.” On the basal is 1 much name, Drapetis. There are frankincense 7 names successful all.

Of the 7 names, the 1 that jumps retired astatine america is Pericles, for that was the sanction of 1 of the astir celebrated Athenians to ever live.

He was an annually elected wide whose oratory skills inspired and influenced Athenians until his death. This was captured astir dramatically successful Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War. He is the 1 who came up with the thought of the gathering programme connected the Acropolis successful Athens, which included the Parthenon and Phidias’ statue of Athena.

Nineteenth-century coating by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian person Pericles delivering his celebrated ceremonial oration earlier the Assembly. Philipp Foltz, Public domain

Based connected his household tree, we cognize that Pericles had an older member and a gramps some named Arriphron, which is different rather a uncommon name. On this cup, Pericles and Arriphron are listed 1 supra the different similar brothers should be.

Archaeologists are “99 percent” definite that the cupful was utilized by the Athenian person and that Ariphron was Pericles’ elder brother.

“The sanction Ariphron is highly rare,” Angelos Matthaiou, caput of the Greek Epigraphic Society, told the paper Ta Nea. “Having it listed supra that of Pericles makes america 99 percent definite that these are the 2 brothers.”

Wine cupful utilized successful a symposium

The cupful was apt utilized successful a vino symposium erstwhile Pericles was 20 years old, and the six men who drank from it engraved their names arsenic a memento, Matthaiou said.

It is not hard to ideate that these 7 men attended specified a enactment and that 1 of them, possibly Drapetis, took a cupful arsenic a souvenir erstwhile the evening came to an end.

Perhaps aft the party, 1 of them engraved the names onto the cupful arsenic a keepsake. The men’s names wrong the container look to person been written by a azygous individual, but the sanction connected the bottom, Drapetis, by was apt written by idiosyncratic else.

This uncommon and important uncovering is displayed astatine the Epigraphical Museum successful Athens.

The depository is located successful the Plaka territory of Athens successful the vicinity of the Acropolis and different large archaeological sites. It houses a immense postulation of inscriptions from past Greece, ranging from mundane documents to monumental texts.

The Pericles cupful is 1 of the astir fashionable exhibits successful the museum, and it offers a unsocial accidental to spot an entity that whitethorn person been utilized by 1 of the astir important figures successful past history.