A Dog-Shaped Cup Reveals Greek Parties and Influences in Southern Italy 2,300 Years Ago

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 01/05/2025 at 07:42

Updated on 01/05/2025 at 07:44

Foto: Reprodução

Be the first to react!

Spartan Dog Head Cup Showcases Greek Influence in Italian Territory in the 4th Century BC and Reveals Festive Customs and Rituals of the Time.

An object in the shape of a cup, dated to around 2,300 years ago, draws attention for its shape and function.

It is a rhyton made of terracotta designed to resemble the head of a Laconian dog — a hunting breed from Ancient Greece, now extinct.

Discovered in southern Italy, in what would be the “heel” of the Italian boot, this vessel evidences the strong presence of Greek culture in the region during the 4th century BC.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Details and Symbols on the Piece

The rhyton measures about 20 by 10 centimeters.

Its surface is covered in black glaze, with the exception of the dog’s nostrils and ears. The eyes are highlighted with diluted glaze.

At the base, there is a figure of a satyr holding a plate and a staff. This mythological creature — half man, half goat — is surrounded by decorative patterns of leaves and eggs.

The dog depicted has its snout as the base of the cup.

It represents the Laconian breed, typical of the region of Sparta. Highly valued for its hunting skills, this type of dog was frequently illustrated in works of the time, such as mosaics and tombstones.

Functions and Greek Traditions

Ancient Greeks used this type of cup at drinking parties and also in religious ceremonies. As the vessel does not have a flat bottom, it could not be placed on a table.

The origin of this shape is linked to drinking horns used in Eurasia during the Bronze Age.

Over time, the Greeks adapted the model, incorporating figures like satyrs, symbols of pleasure and drunkenness.

In addition to being used for drinking, rhytoms could also be used to pour liquids such as wine, oil, or blood in rituals, generally associated with animal sacrifices.

The piece highlights the Greek influence in southeastern Italy, then known as Magna Graecia. This region was heavily marked by Greek colonies before being conquered by the Romans in 205 BC. The rhyton with a Laconian dog head is a testament to this cultural fusion between art, religion, and everyday life.

0 Comments

most recent

older Most voted

A Dog-Shaped Cup Reveals Greek Parties and Influences in Southern Italy 2,300 Years Ago

Spartan Dog Head Cup Showcases Greek Influence in Italian Territory in the 4th Century BC and Reveals Festive Customs and Rituals of the Time.

Details and Symbols on the Piece

Functions and Greek Traditions

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

Consumers eat six times more chicken than in the 1960s, global meat supply quadruples in 60 years, and FAO report reveals the invisible cost on the plate: livestock could drive 80% of the increase in agricultural emissions over the next decade.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

Spray technology promises to shield electrical cables against severe storms and prevent blackouts caused by the weight of ice in winter.

A dredge pulled from the river mud in the United States 19 giant cannons weighing over 450 kilograms that had been forgotten at the bottom for almost 250 years and had once fired in the American War of Independence.

Construction material store starts selling modular units that resemble small houses, assembled in a few days in the backyard, as the housing crisis pushes families towards unconventional solutions in Australia.

Inventor creates a bicycle without springs and without hydraulic oil, using only powerful magnets in the suspension, and demonstrates in tests why the idea works, but still faces engineering risks and limitations.

Thousands of residents went to the Sabaneta dam to defend rivers and crops, walked 20 km, and the pressure led the President of the Dominican Republic to suspend the gold and copper project.

A Dog-Shaped Cup Reveals Greek Parties and Influences in Southern Italy 2,300 Years Ago

Spartan Dog Head Cup Showcases Greek Influence in Italian Territory in the 4th Century BC and Reveals Festive Customs and Rituals of the Time.

Details and Symbols on the Piece

Functions and Greek Traditions

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

Consumers eat six times more chicken than in the 1960s, global meat supply quadruples in 60 years, and FAO report reveals the invisible cost on the plate: livestock could drive 80% of the increase in agricultural emissions over the next decade.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

A dredge pulled from the river mud in the United States 19 giant cannons weighing over 450 kilograms that had been forgotten at the bottom for almost 250 years and had once fired in the American War of Independence.

Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter will come together in a mini alignment of planets that reaches its peak this Friday (06/12) and can be seen with the naked eye shortly after sunset in Brazil, depending on the weather forecast.

China sends ship to the bottom of the Pacific, finds rare minerals on the ocean floor, extracts 90 kg of basalt from the depths, and tests an unprecedented 10,000-meter system that performs a kind of “tomography” of the Earth beneath the sea.

CO₂ from ethanol still escapes into the atmosphere, but São Paulo is preparing a R$ 30 million project to create the first Brazilian unit dedicated to sugarcane capable of storing carbon underground.

In 30 minutes, a 25-liter pilot reactor cooks mixed plastic and transforms it into oil that recreates plastic identical to that made from fossil fuel, and the decisive test with real urban waste begins this summer in Spain.

Spray technology promises to shield electrical cables against severe storms and prevent blackouts caused by the weight of ice in winter.

A dredge pulled from the river mud in the United States 19 giant cannons weighing over 450 kilograms that had been forgotten at the bottom for almost 250 years and had once fired in the American War of Independence.

Construction material store starts selling modular units that resemble small houses, assembled in a few days in the backyard, as the housing crisis pushes families towards unconventional solutions in Australia.

Inventor creates a bicycle without springs and without hydraulic oil, using only powerful magnets in the suspension, and demonstrates in tests why the idea works, but still faces engineering risks and limitations.

Thousands of residents went to the Sabaneta dam to defend rivers and crops, walked 20 km, and the pressure led the President of the Dominican Republic to suspend the gold and copper project.