The "Kiln" (Ancient Greek: Κάμινος, Kaminos), or "Potters" (Κεραμεῖς, Kerameis), is a 23-line hexameter poem that was variously attributed to Homer or Hesiod during antiquity, but is not considered the work of either poet by modern scholars.
[1] The poem constitutes an appeal to Athena to grant success to certain unnamed potters if they pay for the poet's song, followed by a series of curses to be enacted should they not reimburse him.
In any event, he says: "May the cups turn a fine black, and all the baskets"[7] τὰ δὲ κάναστρα τοῦ ποιήσαντος τοὺς Κεραμέας, οὕς τινες Ἡσιόδῳ προσνέμουσιν· λέγει γοῦν "εὖ δὲ μελανθεῖεν κότυλοι καὶ πάντα κάναστρα" The other witnesses to the poem all belong to the Homeric biographical tradition, and it seems that the "Kiln" was composed during the 6th or 5th century BCE as part of a lost work on Homer that predates the surviving texts.
Should the poet not profit as promised, he threatens to "invoke all of the kiln gremlins, Smasher and Crasher, Overblaze and Shakeapart and Underbake, who does this craft [pottery] much harm.
[13] γηθήσω δ' ὁρόων αὐτῶν κακοδαίμονα τέχνην.ὃς δέ χ' ὑπερκύψηι, περὶ τούτου πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπονφλεχθείη, ὡς πάντες ἐπίστωντ' αἴσιμα ῥέζειν.