The information derived from ancient literature on the subject of the technique of Athenian vases is decidedly meagre; and naturally so. The only people who could have given us valuable data regarding technical questions were the potters themselves, and they were not writers. Outsiders knew as little of the technique of the craft as they do today. So we obtain from them only general remarks; and these on the whole bear out the points we have already made. Occasionally, however, they throw fresh light on a question, or give us information on some point on which the vases themselves cannot speak, such as the status of the ancient potters, the value placed on the vases, etc. It is important, therefore, to examine the chief references in Greek and Roman literature on this subject.
Geoponica, II, 49.
3. It is most necessary for every reason to have potters (on a farm), since we are convinced that it is possible to find potter’s clay on any land; for either on the surface, or deep down, or in out-of-the-way places on the land you will find earth suitable for making pottery.
3. Ἀναγκαιότατον δὲ καὶ κεραμέας ἔχειν πάντων ἕνεκα, πεπεισμένον ὅτι ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν κεραμικὴν γῆν, ἢ γὰρ ἐπιπολάσιον, ἢ ἐν βάθει, ἢ ἐν ἀποκεκρυμμένοις μέρεσι καὶ τόποις τοῦ χωρίου ἐπιτηδείαν γῆν πρὸς κατασκευὴν κεράμων εὑρήσεις.
The abundance of clay on Greek soil must have helped the manufacture of the many local varieties before Athens obtained the monopoly in the sixth century B.C.
Geoponica, VI, 3.
On making pithoi
1. Not all earth is suitable for pottery, but with regard to potter’s clay, some prefer the yellowish red, some the white, and others mix the two. 2. Some in judging of a well-made pithos are satisfied if, when struck, it gives forth a sharp, clear sound. 3. That, however, is not enough, but the person in charge ought to be present while the work is going on, and see to it that the clay has been well worked, and not let it be put on the wheel before the clay shows what sort of pot it will make when fired.
περὶ κατασκευῆς πίθων
1. Γῆ οὐ πᾶσα ἐπιτήδειος πρὸς κεραμείαν, ἀλλὰ τῆς κεραμίτιδος γῆς οἱ μὲν προκρίνουσι τὴν πυρρὰν τὸ χρῶμα, οἱ δὲ τὴν λευκήν, οἱ δὲ ἀμφοτέρας συμμιγνύουσι. 2. Τινὲς μὲν οὖν ἀρκοῦνται ἐν τῇ δοκιμασίᾳ τοῦ καλῶς κεκεραμευμένου πίθου, τῷ κρουσθέντα αὐτὸν ἀποδοῦναι ἦχόν τινα ὀξὺν καὶ πορόν. 3. Οὐκ ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο αὔταρκες, ἀλλὰ χρῆ τὸν κατασκευάζοντα παρεῖναι τῇ κεραμείᾳ, καὶ ὅπως ὁ πηλὸς καλῶς εἰργασμένος εἴη προνοῆσαι, καὶ μὴ πρὶν ἐᾶσαι ἐπὶ τὸν τροχὸν ἀναβιβάσαι, πρὶν τὸν πηλὸν διαδεῖξαι ὁποῖος ἔσται ὁ πίθος ὀπτηθείς.
Good potters were evidently well aware, then as now, of the importance of the right composition and consistency of their clay. It is also interesting to note that potters in modern Athens still regularly use a mixture of red and white clay (cf. p. 40, note 2).
Sophokles, Fragments, 438.
First begin to work the clay with your hands.
Καὶ πρῶτον ἄρχου πηλὸν ὀργάξειν χερσῖν.
Hesychius, Lexicon, s. v. ὀργάσαι.
ὀργάσαι: to make ready; or as is said, to knead the clay, which is to prepare it, to mix it, to wet it, to work it into a plastic mass.
ὀργάσαι· ἑτοιμάσαι, καὶ τὸν πηλὸν ὀργάσαι φασίν, ὅ ἐστιν ἑτοίμασαι, φυρᾶσαι, βρέξαι, ἀνάδευσαι.
Ὀργάσαι in other words was the Greek expression for wedging the clay and getting it ready for throwing.
Diodorus Siculus, IV, 76.
Talos, the son of Daedalus’ sister, was brought up as a child by Daedalus, and being cleverer than his teacher, he invented the potter’s wheel.
Τῆς ἀδελφῆς τῆς Δαιδάλου γενόμενος υἱὸς Τάλως ἐπαιδεύετο παρὰ Δαιδάλῳ παῖς ὢν τὴν ἡλικίαν, εὐφυέστερος δ’ ὢν τοῦ διδασκάλου τὸν κεραμευτικὸν τροχὸν εὗρε.
Strabo, Geography, VII, p. 303.
Ephoros says that Anacharsis’ inventions were the bellows, the double-fluked anchor, and the potter’s wheel. I repeat this statement, although I am well aware that this writer is not very accurate, and especially in the account of Anacharsis, for how could the potter’s wheel be an invention of his, while Homer[61] who was of an earlier time knew of it?
Ὁ Ἔφορος ... εὑρήματά τε αὐτοῦ λέγει τά τε ζώπυρα καὶ τὴν ἀμφίβολον ἄγκυραν καὶ τὸν κεραμικὸν τροχόν. ταῦτα δὲ λέγω σαφῶς μὲν εἰδὼς ὅτι καὶ οὗτος αὐτὸς οὐ τἀληθέστατα λέγει περὶ πάντων, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἀναχάρσιδος. πῶς γὰρ ὁ τροχὸς εὕρημα αὐτοῦ, ὃν οἶδεν Ὅμηρος πρεσβύτερος ὤν;
Pliny, Natural History, VII, 198.
Coroebus the Athenian invented earthen pots, and among the inventors, the Scythian Anacharsis, or as others say, Hyperbius the Corinthian, discovered the potter’s wheel.
... figlinas (invenit) Coroebus Atheniensis, in iis orbem Anacharsis Scythes, ut alii, Hyperbius Corinthus.
Critias, Elegies, I, 12-14 (Bergk).
The child of the wheel and the earth and the kiln, the famous pottery, useful house servant, that city invented which set up the glorious trophy at Marathon.
It is natural that the ancients should have attributed the great invention of the potter’s wheel to various individuals or cities, but they themselves realized the anomaly of ascribing it to a comparatively recent period, when it was known to Homer (see below). Actual remains of wheel-thrown vases show that the wheel was known in Crete and Greece in the Early Minoan and Early Helladic III periods (before 2200 B.C.) and in Egypt in the third and fourth dynasties[62] (about 3000 B.C.).
Homer, Iliad, XVIII, 599-601.
And now they would run round with deft feet exceeding lightly, as when a potter sitting by his wheel that fitteth between his hands maketh trial of it whether it run. (Lang, Leaf and Myers.)
Plutarch, De genio Socratis, p. 588f.
One ought not to be surprised at seeing the movement of large merchant-vessels controlled by small helms, nor the whirling of the potter’s wheel moving regularly at the mere touch of the tips of his fingers.
Οὐ δεῖ δὲ θαυμάζειν ὁρῶντας τοῦτο μὲν ὑπὸ μικροῖς οἴαξι μεγάλων περιαγωγὰς ὀλκάδων, τοῦτο δὲ τροχῶν κεραμεικῶν δίνησιν ἄκρας παραψαύσει χειρὸς ὁμαλῶς περιφερομένων.
Persius, Satires, III, 23-24.
[Advice to an idle young man of good position.]
You are wet, soft clay; at this very moment you should be hastening to shape yourself on the swift wheel.
udum et molle lutum es, nunc nunc properandus et acri fingendus sine fine rota.
Hippokrates, Περὶ Διαίτης, I, Littré, VI, p. 494, §22.
Potters turn the wheel which moves neither backward nor forward and at the same time imitates the rotation of the universe, and on this same wheel as it whirls they make things of all kinds, no one of them like another, from the same materials with the same tools.
Κεραμέες τροχὸν δινέουσι, καὶ οὔτε ὀπίσω οὔτε πρώσω προχωρέει καὶ ἀμφοτέρωσε ἅμα τοῦ ὅλου μιμητὴς τῆς περιφορῆς· ἐν δὲ τῷ αὐτῷ ἐργάζονται περιφερομένῳ παντοδαπά, οὐδὲν ὅμοιον τὸ ἕτερον τῷ ἑτέρῳ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ὀργάνουσιν.
The fascination of a pot shaped on a rapidly turning wheel appealed to the ancients as it does to us; and the parallelism between a pot in the making and man shaped by life is too obvious to have escaped them. Hippokrates’ remark that of the vases produced on the wheel no two are alike is characteristic of the Greek love of variety.
Ecclesiasticus, 38, 32.
So does the potter sitting at his work and turning his wheel round with his feet, who is always painstaking with his task; and all his work is done by number. He moulds the clay with his arm, and his feet. [Literal translation of the Greek text written by a Hebrew and evidently colored by his own idiom.]
Οὕτω κεραμεὺς καθήμενος ἐν ἔργῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ συστρέφων ἐν ποσὶν αὐτοῦ τροχόν, ὃς ἐν μερίμνῃ κεῖται διὰ παντὸς ἐπὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐναρίθμιος πᾶσα ἡ ἐργασία αὐτοῦ.
Ἐν βραχίονι αὐτοῦ τυπώσει πηλόν, καὶ πρὸ ποδῶν κάμψει ἰσχὺν αὐτοῦ.
This is the only place in ancient literature in which the action of the foot in wheelwork is referred to. In the second century B.C., therefore, we might assume the knowledge of the kick-wheel, though it may well have been in use long before then, since it is a simple and obvious device. Where labor, however, was cheap and plentiful, as in fifth-century Athens, a slave boy turning the wheel for the potter, whose whole strength and attention could then be expended on his work, would be preferable; and this is the manner in which wheelwork is depicted in Athenian vase paintings (cf. pp. 64 ff).
Athenaeus, XI, p. 480 c.
These kylikes are clay drinking-cups, and are so called from being turned on the wheel.
Ταῦτα δ’ ἐστὶ κεράμεα ποτήρια καὶ λέγεται ἀπὸ τοῦ κυλίεσθαι τῷ τροχῷ.
The kylix is, of course, the wheel-made vase par excellence. Nothing so light and graceful or with such a fine flow of line could be produced by handwork.
Plato, Gorgias, p. 514 e.
Is not this, as they say, to learn the potter’s craft by undertaking a pithos, ... and does not this seem to you a foolish thing to do?
Τὸ λεγόμενον δὴ τοῦτο ἐν τῷ πίθῳ τὴν κεραμείαν ἐπιχειρεῖν μανθάνειν ... οὐκ ἀνοητόν σοι δοκεῖ ἂν εἶναι οὕτω πράττειν;
Plato, Laches, p. 187 b.
For if this is your first attempt at education, you must take care lest you try the experiment, not on a Carian slave, but on your sons or the children of your friends, and let the proverb fit you which says that the potter’s art is in the pithos.
Εἰ γὰρ νῦν πρῶτον ἄρξεσθε παιδεύειν, σκοπεῖν χρὴ μὴ οὐκ ἐν τῷ Καρὶ ὑμῖν ὁ κίνδυνος κινδυνεύηται, ἀλλ’ ἐν τοῖς ὑέσι τε καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῶν φίλων παισί, καὶ ἀτεκνῶς τὸ λεγόμενον κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν ὑμῖν συμβαίνῃ ἐν πίθῳ ἡ κεραμεία γιγνομένη.
Scholiast on Plato, Laches, p. 187 b.
The proverb, “in the pithos is the potter’s art,” about those who skip the first lessons and take hold of the greatest tasks which are properly the last.
Παροιμία, ἐν πίθῳ τὴν κεραμείαν, ἐπὶ τῶν τὰς πρώτας μαθήσεις ὑπερβαινόντων, ἁπτομένων δὲ τῶν μειζόνων καὶ ἤδη τῶν τελειοτέρων.
Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum, Zenobius, III, 65.
“I learn the potter’s craft on the pithos”; a proverb upon those who skip the first lessons, and immediately attempt greater things; as if anyone who was learning to be a potter, before learning to mould plates or any other small thing, should undertake a pithos.
Ἐν πίθῳ τὴν κεραμείαν μανθάνω: Παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν τὰς πρώτας μαθήσεις ὑπερβαινόντων, ἁπτομένων δὲ εὐθέως τῶν μειζόνων. Ὡς εἴ τις μανθάνων κεραμεύειν, πρὶν μαθεῖν πίνακας ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν μικρῶν πλάττειν, πίθῳ ἐγχεροίη.
The fact that there was a Greek proverb on the folly of attempting large vases before a thorough knowledge of the craft has been acquired, shows how common was the realization of the difficulty of the task.
Plutarch, Quaestiones conviviales, II, p. 636 c.
Polykleitos the modeler said that the work is most difficult when the clay stands the test of the nail (?).
Πολύκλειτος ὁ πλάστης εἶπε χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τοὔργον, ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γένηται.
If we interpret this passage as referring to a potter, and ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι γένηται as meaning when the stage has been reached that the clay is hard enough to be scratched with the nail, this may possibly be an allusion to turning; which may well be called the most difficult process of pottery making. But this interpretation is very uncertain. The passage is usually taken as referring to the sculptor’s last touches on a clay model for a bronze statue.
Geoponica, VI, 3 (4).
4. Potters do not use the wheel for all pithoi, but only for the small ones. The larger ones they build up day by day, placing them on the ground in a warm room, and thus make them large.
4. Οὐ πάντας δὲ τοὺς πίθους ἐπὶ τὸν τροχὸν ἀναβιβάζουσιν οἱ κεραμεῖς, ἀλλὰ τοὺς μικρούς. τοὺς μέντοι μείζους χαμαὶ κειμένους ὁσημέραι ἐν θερμῷ οἰκήματι ἐποικοδομοῦσι, καὶ μεγάλους ποιοῦσιν.
Pollux, Onomasticon, VII, 164.
164. That around which those who make pithoi put the clay and shape it—this wooden core is called κάναβος.
164. Περὶ δὲ ὃ οἱ τοὺς πίθους πλάττοντες τὸν πηλὸν περιτιθέντες πλάττουσι, τοῦτο τὸ ξυλήφιον κάναβος καλεῖται.
Such hand-built ware does not, of course, include the large painted kraters and amphorai of Athenian make; for these have all the ear-marks of wheel-thrown pottery. Wooden cores are still used today in the making of cement forms. Since the clay cement shrinks upon drying and the wood does not, care must be taken to prevent the former from cracking. The wooden core is therefore made in collapsible form. A wedge is made in the center and a core built around it. When the work is finished the wedge can be drawn out and the sides of the core will fall in.[63]
Geoponica, VI, 3 (5).
5. The firing is no small part of the potter’s craft. Not too little or too much fire should be built under the pots, but just enough.
Οὐ μικρὸν δὲ τῆς κεραμίας ἐστὶ μέρος ἡ ὄπτησις· δεῖ δὲ μήτε ἔλαττον, μήτε πλέον, ἀλλὰ μεμετρημένως τὸ πῦρ ὑποβάλλειν.
Vita Herodotea λβ = Epigrammata Homerica, 14.
(Text of T. W. Allen, in Oxford University Classical Texts.)
Some potters, seeing him [Homer] setting out the next morning while they were building a fire in a kiln of fine pottery, called him to them, knowing that he was a poet, and they bade him sing, promising to give him some of the pottery and whatever else they had, and Homer sang to them the following poem, which is called the “Kiln”:—
“If you will give me a reward I will sing to you, O potters. Come hither, Athena, and stretch thy hand over the kiln, and may the kotyloi blacken well and all the ... and may they be well baked, and receive the price due to their value, many being sold in the market, and many in the streets. May they gain much.... But if you turn to shamelessness, and choose falsehood, then I summon the destroyers to fall upon the kiln, Crasher and Smasher and Unquenchable and Shatterer and Fierce Conquerer, who would bring many evils upon this craft ... and may the whole kiln be thrown into confusion, while the potters lament loudly. As a horse’s jaw eats greedily, so may the kiln devour all the pottery within it, making it brittle. Come hither, Circe, daughter of the sun, skilled in drugs; bring malignant poisons, afflict the men and ruin their work. Let Cheiron bring hither many Centaurs, both those who escaped the hands of Herakles, and those who perished. Let them harshly smite the work and smite the kiln, and may the men themselves see these grievous deeds with lamentations. But I shall be happy when I see their unlucky craft. And the man who peeps over, may his whole face burn on account of this, so that all may know how to do what is right.”
Tῇ δὲ εἰσαύριον ἀποπορευόμενον ἰδόντες κεραμέες τινες κάμινον ἐγκαίοντες κεράμου λεπτοῦ, προσεκαλέσαντο αὐτόν, πεπυσμένοι ὅτι σοφὸς εἴη· καὶ ἐκέλευόν σφιν ἀεῖσαι, φάμενοι δώσειν αὐτῷ τοῦ κεράμου καὶ ὅ τι ἂν ἄλλο ἔχωσιν. ὁ δὲ Ὅμηρος ἀείδει αὐτοῖς τὰ ἔπεα τάδε ἃ καλέεται Κάμινος·
This is a good picture of the havoc that may happen in a kiln.
Hippokrates, Epidemia, IV, 20; Littré, V, p. 160.
The man who fell down from the potter’s oven, since a cupping-glass was not applied immediately, suffered from an internal inflammation and on the twentieth day grew worse.
Ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ κεραμέου ἴπνου καταπεσὼν, ᾧ οὐ προσβλήθη αὐτίκα σικύη, ἐκαύθη ἔσω, καὶ εἰκοστῇ ἐπαλιγκότησεν.
This reminds us of the men we see climbing on the kilns in the representations on Corinthian pinakes (p. 76).
Pollux, Onomasticon, VII, 108.
It was the custom for bronze casters to hang something ridiculous in front of their furnaces, or to mould something upon them, in order to avert envy. These were called βασκάνια.
Πρὸ δὲ τῶν καμίνων τοῖς χαλκεῦσιν ἔθος ἦν γελοῖά τινα καταρτᾶν, ἢ ἐπιπλάττειν, ἐπὶ φθόνου ἀποτροπῇ. ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ βασκάνια.
Such devices to avert the evil eye would apply equally to pottery kilns, as we know from actual representations (cf. pp. 64 f.). It is natural that the vagaries of a kiln should be ascribed by the superstitious ancients to supernatural forces.
Inscriptiones Graecae, II, 1, 546.
Be it decreed by the senate and people of the Ioulietai concerning the representations of the envoys from Athens, that the export of miltos shall be to Athens, and to no other place from this day forward; if anyone exports it to any other place, his ship and its cargo shall be confiscated and a half shall be given to the informer; ... If the Athenians decree any other regulations for the guarding of the miltos they shall be valid.
(Ἔδ)οξεν τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ τῷ Ἰουλιητῶν, περὶ (ὧν οἱ παρ’ Ἀθηναίων λέγουσι, δεδόχθα)ι τῇ βούλῃ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ τῷ Ἰουλιητῶν, εἶναι τὴ(ν ἐξαγωγὴν τῆς μίλτου Ἀθήναζε), ἄλλοσε δὲ μηδαμῇ ἀπὸ τῆσδε τῆς ἡμέρας. ἐὰν δέ τι(ς ἄλλοσε ἐξάγῃ, δημόσια εἶναι τ)ὸ πλοῖον καὶ τὰ χρήματα τὰ ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ. τῷ δὲ φήν(αντι ἢ ἐνδείξαντι εἶναι τὰ ἡμίσεα) ... (ἐὰν δέ τι ἄλ)λο ψηφίζωνται Ἀθηναῖοι περὶ φυλακῆς τῆς μίλ(του ... κύρια εἶ)ναι ἃ ἂν Ἀθηναῖοι ψηφίζωνται.
Inscriptiones Graecae, II, 1, 546.
Theogenes moved: be it decreed by the senate and people of the Koresians, concerning the representations of the envoys from Athens, the export of miltos shall be to Athens ... as it was before; and in order that the decrees of the Athenians and Koresians concerning miltos may be valid, it shall be exported in a ship which they shall designate and in no other ship ... the tax of two per cent shall be paid to the collectors by those engaged in the trade.
(Θεογ)ένης εἶπεν. δεδόχθαι (τ)ῇ βο(υλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ τῷ Κορησίων. περὶ ὧν λέγουσι οἱ παρ’ Ἀθη)ναίων, εἶναι τῆς μίλτου τὴν ἐξ(αγωγὴν Ἀθήναζε ... κ)αθάπερ πρότερον ἦν. ὅπως δ’ ἂν κύρια ἦ(ι τ)ὰ ψηφίσματα (... Ἀθηναίων κ)αὶ Κορησίων τὰ περὶ τῆς μίλτου, ἐξάγειν ἐμπλοίῳ ὧ(ι ἂν ... ἀποδείξωσιν, ἐν ἄλλῳ) δὲ πλοῖῳ μηδενί ... (τελ)εῖν δὲ τὴν πεντηκοστὴν τοῖς πεντηκοστολόγοις τοὺς ἐργαζομένους.
It is interesting to learn how important miltos (red ochre) was to the Athenians. We know that it was used in building for the dressing of stones[64]; and if the appearance of one of the chief articles of commerce of Athens, viz. the pottery, was dependent on it (cf. pp. 53 ff.), it is natural that stringent provisions should be made for its acquisition and monopoly.
Pliny, Natural History, XXXV, 12 (43), 152.
The addition of red ochre or moulding in red clay is the invention of Butades.
Butades inventum est rubricam addere aut ex rubra creta fingere.
Suidas, Lexicon, s. v. Κωλιάδος κεραμῆες.
Potters of Kolias: Kolias, a place in Attica where vases are moulded. It is said that of all the kinds of clay that are brought to the wheel (and the wheel on which vessels are shaped is meant), that is, of all the clay fit for making vases, the clay of Kolias is the best, so that it is also dyed with miltos.
Κωλιάς, τόπος τῆς Ἀττικῆς, ἔνθα σκεύη πλάττονται, λέγει οὖν ὅτι ὅσοι ἐπὶ τροχοὺς φέρονται (τροχὸν δὲ τὸν σκευοπλαστικὸν λέγει) τουτέστιν, ὅσαι πρὸς σκευοπλασίαν ἐπιτήδειαι, πασῶν ἡ Κωλιάδος κρείσσων· ὥστε καὶ βάπτεσθαι ὑπὸ τῆς μίλτου.
Isidorus, Etymologiae, XX, iv, 3.
It is said that pottery vases were first invented in the island of Samos, being made of clay and hardened by fire, whence comes the term Samian vases. A later invention was to add red ochre and to make pottery of red clay.
Fictilia vasa in Samo insula prius inventa traduntur, facta ex creta et indurata igni; unde et Samia vasa: postea inventum et rubricam addere et ex rubra creta fingere.
The significance of these passages has already been discussed on pp. 53-59.
Pollux, Onomasticon, VII, 161 ff.
162. Aristophanes says that a clay vinegar jar has leprosy, instead of saying that it is moist (sweats?).
Λεπρᾶν δὲ κεράμειον ὀξηρόν, ἀντὶ τοῦ μυδᾶν, Ἀριστοφάνης λέγει.
This appears to refer to the fact that unglazed ware (and even painted Athenian pottery is unglazed in parts) becomes moist when filled with liquid, on account of its porosity.
Isokrates, De Permutatione, 2.
As if one should have the insolence to call Pheidias, who made the statue of Athena, a statuette maker, or to say that Zeuxis and Parrhasius had plied the same trade as that of the painters of pinakes.
Ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις Φειδίαν τὸν τὸ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἕδος ἐργασάμενον τολμῷη καλεῖν κοροπλάθον, ἢ Ζεῦξιν καὶ Παρράσιον τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχειν φαίη τέχνην τοῖς τὰ πινάκια γράφουσιν.
Aristophanes, Ekklesiazousai, 995 f.
Old Woman. Who is this?
Young Man. The man who paints lekythoi for the dead.
Γρ. οὗτος δ’ ἔστι τίς;
Νεανίας. ὃς τοῖς νεκροῖσι ζωγραφεῖ τὰς ληκύθους.
Plutarch, Life of Numa, 17.
So, distinguishing the whole people by the several arts and trades, he formed the companies of musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners, braziers, and potters (A. H. Clough).
Ἦν δὲ ἡ διανομὴ κατὰ τὰς τέχνας, αὐλητῶν, χρυσοχόων, τεκτόνων, βαφέων, σκυτοτόμων, σκυτοδέψων, χαλκέων, κεραμέων.
Plato, Euthydemos, 301, c, d.
What, said he, is the business of a good workman? Tell me, in the first place, whose business is hammering?
The smith’s.
And whose the making of pots?
The potter’s.
And who has to kill and skin and mince and boil and roast?
The cook, I said.
And if a man does his business, he does rightly?
Certainly.
And the business of the cook is to cut up and skin, you have admitted that?
Yes, I have, but you must not be too hard upon me.
Then if some one were to kill, mince, boil, roast the cook, he would do his business, and if he were to hammer the smith, and make a pot of the potter, he would do their business (Jowett).
Οἶσθα οὖν, ἔφη, ὅτι προσήκει ἑκάστοις τῶν δημιουργῶν; πρῶτον τίνα χαλκεύειν προσήκει, οἶσθα;—Ἔγωγε· ὅτι χαλκέα.—τί δέ, κεραμεῦειν; κεραμέα.—τί δέ, σφάττειν τε καὶ ἐκδέρειν καὶ τὰ μικρὰ κρέα κατακόψαντα ἕψειν καὶ ὀπτᾶν;—Μάγειρον, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ.—Οὐκοῦν ἐάν τις, ἔφη, τὰ προσήκοντα πράττῃ, ὀρθῶς πράξει; Μάλιστα.—Προσήκει δέ γε, ὡς φῄς, τὸν μάγειρον κατακόπτειν καὶ ἐκδέρειν; ὡμολόγησας ταῦτα ἢ οὔ;—Ὡμολόγησα, ἔφην, ἀλλὰ συγγνώμην μοι ἔχε—Δῆλον τοίνυν, ἦ δ’ ὅς, ὅτι ἄν τις σφάξας τὸν μάγειρον καὶ κατακόψας ἑψήσῃ καὶ ὀπτήσῃ, τὰ προσήκοντα ποιήσει. καὶ ἐὰν τὸν χαλκέα τις αὐτὸν χαλκεύῃ καὶ τὸν κεραμέα κεραμεύῃ, καὶ οὗτος τὰ προσήκοντα πράξει.
Justinus, Historiae Philippicae, XXII, 1, 1 and 2.
Agathocles, the tyrant of Sicily, who succeeded to the great power of the elder Dionysius, came into the splendor of a kingdom from a humble and base family. And too, being born in Sicily of a potter, he had a boyhood not more honorable than his origin.
Agathocles, Siciliae tyrannus, qui magnitudini prioris Dionysii successit, ad regni maiestatem ex humili et sordido genere pervenit. Quippe in Sicilia patre figulo natus non honestiorem pueritiam quam principia originis habuit.
Much has been written about the lowly status of Greek potters,[65] and the above references bear out this general idea. The craft of pottery was evidently placed on a par with other trades, and all such manual work was not considered a worthy occupation of free-born citizens, and left mostly to the metics, or non-citizens. We know this not only from texts and inscriptions on stone, but also from the non-Attic forms of the names of the potters, as well as the inscriptions on the vases which frequently show non-Attic spellings. It would be absurd, however, to infer that all pottery was as contemptuously regarded as the rough little tomb lekythoi[66] and the pinakes referred to by Aristophanes and Isokrates. And this is borne out by the following references.
Plato, Hippias Maior, p. 288 d.
If a skilful potter had made the vessel smooth and rounded and well baked, like some of the fine two-handled jars which hold six choai—if he should ask us about such a vessel as this, we should be obliged to agree that it was beautiful.
Εἴπερ ἡ χύτρα κεκεραμευμένη εἴη ὑπὸ ἀγαθοῦ κεραμέως λεία καὶ στρογγύλη καὶ καλῶς ὠπτημένη, οἷαι τῶν καλῶν χυτρῶν εἰσί τινες δίωτοι, τῶν ἓξ χοᾶς χωρουσῶν, πάγκαλαι, εἰ τοιαύτην ἐρωτῴη χύτραν, καλὴν ὁμολογητέον εἶναι.
Pliny, Natural History, XXXV, 161.
At Erythrae in the temple there are shown today two amphorai consecrated on account of their thinness, a pupil and a teacher having contested as to which of them could draw the clay thinner.
Erythris in templo hodieque ostenduntur amphorae duae propter tenuitatem consecratae discipuli magistrique certamine, uter tenuiorem humum duceret.
Amphis, Ampelourgos, I.
Meineke, Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum, III, p. 302.
There is no sweeter solace in life for human ills than craftsmanship; for the mind, absorbed in its study, sails past all troubles and forgets them.
Pindar, Nemean Odes, X, 35, 36.
And in earthenware baked in the fire, within the closure of figured urns, there came among the goodly folk of Hera the prize of the olive-fruit (Myers).
γαίᾳ δὲ καυθείσᾳ πυρὶ καρπὸς ἐλαίας ἔμολεν Ἥρας τὸν εὐάνορα λαὸν ἐν ἀγγέων ἕρκεσιν παμποικίλοις.
Simonides, Fragments, 155 (213) (Bergk).
And he won five garlands in succession at the Panathenaic games, amphorai full of oil.
That finely executed pottery was held in high esteem is evident from the remarks of Plato, Pliny, and Pindar; and there certainly could be no more enthusiastic eulogy of craftsmanship than Amphis’ beautiful lines. Moreover, the fact that clay vases were used as prizes at the most important games at Athens certainly points to considerable and wide-spread appreciation of them.
Ktesias ap. Athenaeus, p. 464 a.
And Ktesias says, “Among Persians he whom the king wishes to insult uses pottery vessels.”
Καὶ γὰρ Κτησίας “παρὰ Πέρσαις” φησίν, “ὃν ἂν βασιλεὺς ἀτιμάσῃ, κεραμέοις χρῆται”.
Plutarch, Life of Galba, 12.
When he was dining with Claudius Caesar he stole a silver cup, and Caesar, finding it out, invited him to dinner again on the next day, but ordered his servants to bring out and put before the guest nothing silver, but everything of pottery.
Δειπνῶν δὲ παρὰ Κλαυδίῳ Καίσαρι ποτήριον ἀργυροῦν ὑφείλετο. πυθόμενος δὲ ὁ Καῖσαρ τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ πάλιν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ δεῖπνον ἐκάλεσεν, ἐλθόντι δὲ ἐκέλευσεν ἐκείνῳ μηδὲν ἀργυροῦν, ἀλλὰ κεράμεα πάντα προσφέρειν καὶ παρατιθέναι τοὺς ὑπηρέτας.
Tibullus, Elegies, I, 1, 37 f.
Come, ye gods, nor scorn the gifts from a poor man’s table, from clean pottery vessels.
Juvenal, Satires, III, 168.
[Even a poor man] is ashamed to dine off pottery dishes.
fictilibus cenare pudet—
Martial, Epigrams, XIV, 98.
We advise you not overmuch to despise Arretian vases: Tuscan earthenware was luxury to Porsena (W. E. Ker).
Lucian, Prometheus, 1.
Then you say I am Prometheus? If, Sir, it is because I too work in clay, I recognize the similarity and acknowledge that I am like him, nor do I refuse to be called a potter.
Οὐκ οὖν Προμηθέα με εἶναι φῄς; εἰ μὲν κατὰ τοῦτο, ὦ ἄριστε, ὡς πηλίνων κἀμοὶ τῶν ἔργων ὄντων, γνωρίζω τὴν εἰκόνα καί φημι ὅμοιος εἶναι αὐτῷ, οὐδ’ ἀναίνομαι πηλοπλάθος ἀκούειν.
Athenaeus, XI, p. 482 b.
(Repeated by Macrobius, Satires, V, 21, 10.)
They placed a krater for the gods, not of silver nor set with stones, but of clay from Kolias.
Κρατῆρα γὰρ ἵστασαν τοῖς θεοῖς, οὐκ ἀργυροῦν οὐδὲ λιθοκόλλητον, ἀλλὰ γῆς Κωλιάδος.
Though the Persians and the Romans set great store by metal vases and regarded clay vases as fit only for a poor man’s table, the Greeks had no such feelings, as we learn from Athenaeus and from innumerable vase paintings of banquets.