Eretria XVI
Stephan G. Schmid, Drinking to Apollo. Hellenistic drinking pottery in the Sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros (in French)
Recent excavations in the Sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros in Eretria brought to light a rich assemblage of hellenistic pottery interpreted as the remains of a symposion. Several moldmade relief bowls, cups, craterisk, dinos and a jug were deposited sometime in the 2nd century BC in a well. Their contextual analysis offers a snapshot of the social and religious activities that took place in the main sanctuary of the city. The practice of symposion is analysed in a historical perspective, starting from the imporant discoveries of the Geometric period.
The study of the fine pottery, especially the moldmade bowls, allows for further considerations to be made about the process of creation and transmission of their iconography and morphology. The reprensentations on a series of “Homeric” bowls seem to be inspired by Classical to Hellenistic statuary. The vases were mostly produced on mainland Greece, probably in Northern Greece, as well as on the Ionian coast. These importations throw new lights on the commercial network that Eretria was taking part in during the Hellenistic period.
2006, 1 vol. in French with summary in English, German and Greek, 168 pages, paperback, 22 x 30 cm, numerous illustrations and plans in colour. Infolio editions, Gollion.
ISBN 2-88474-405-3
