Rhyton

: rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table; in other words, a cup.

Many vessels considered rhytons featured a wide mouth at the top and a hole through a conical constriction at the bottom from which the fluid ran.

Smith points out[4] that this use is testified in classical paintings and accepts Athenaeus's etymology that it was named ἀπὸ τῆς ῥύσεως, "from the flowing".

Ventris and Chadwick restored the word as the adjective *kera(h)a, with a Mycenaean intervocalic h.[8] Rhyta shaped after bulls are filled through the large opening and emptied through the secondary, smaller one.

Vertically designed rhyta, like those modeled after boars, required another hand to cover the primary opening and to prevent the liquid from spilling as the vessel was filled.

One of the oldest examples of the concept of an animal figure holding a long flat ended conical shaped vessel in hands was known to be discovered from Susa, in Southwestern Iran, in Proto Elamite era about 3rd millennium BC, is a silver figurine of a cow with body of a sitting woman actually offering the vessel between both her bovine hoofs.

After a Greek victory against Persia, much silver, gold, and other luxuries, including numerous rhytons, were brought to Athens.

The ornate and precious rhyta of the great civilizations of earlier times are grandiose rather than ribald, which gives the democratic vase paintings an extra satirical dimension.

He describes the satyrs at the first trampling of the grapes during the invention of wine-making by Dionysos: Károly Kerényi, in quoting this passage,[13] remarks, "At the core of this richly elaborated myth, in which the poet even recalls the rhyta, it is not easy to separate the Cretan elements from those originating in Asia Minor."

The connection to which he refers is a pun not present in English translation: the wine is mixed (kerannymenos), which appears to contain the bull's horn (keras), the ancient Greek name of the rhyton.

Following an oracle of Rhea, the Cretan mountain goddess, Dionysus hollows out the hole and tramples grapes in it, dancing and shouting.

Rhyton with death of Orpheus from Vassil Bojkov collection
Silver rhyton with goat protome and death of Orpheus , c. 420 –410 BC, housed in the Vassil Bojkov Collection , Sofia , Bulgaria. The horn in a continuous and graceful curve makes a right-angled bend. Its lower two thirds are covered by flutes with arc-shaped upper tips. A figural scene below the flaring rim represents the murder of Orpheus. The musician is the central figure, fallen to his right knee, flanked by three attacking Thracian women. He holds a six-string lyre on his right hand and with his left one, wrapped in his mantle, a knobbed wooden stick, with which he tries vainly to protect himself. [ 1 ]
Roman fresco from Herculaneum demonstrating the use of a rhyton , c. 50 BC
Marble table support adorned by a group including Dionysos , Pan and a Satyr ; Dionysos holds a rhyton (drinking vessel) in the shape of a panther; traces of red and yellow colour are preserved on the hair of the figures and the branches; from an Asia Minor workshop, 170–180 AD, National Archaeological Museum, Athens , Greece