Happy #WorldDonkeyDay! Here are the perfect party cups to celebrate with…
The Donkey-Head Drinking Vessels of Ancient Greece
Ceramic animal-head rhyta and similar drinking cups created by Attica potters were popular novelty items in Classical Greece (c. 480-323 BCE). These amusing mugs gave users the appearance of wearing an animal mask while drinking. As the mount of Dionysus, the god of both wine and theatre, rhyta in the form of donkey heads were especially favored for drinking parties:
…donkeys were used as pack, riding, and draft animals and were considered emblematic of “low-class” rowdiness, a comedic counterpart to the noble horse. The donkey served as Dionysos’s mount and could be symbolic of the loss of decorum that comes with drinking too much wine (including a lack of sexual inhibition). Aristocratic banqueters played at (temporarily) enacting the identity of the lower-class “other” by unleashing their inner raucous donkey: when lifted to drain the final drops, a vessel decorated with a donkey head made the drinker appear to be braying.
– Harvard Art Museums
Below are some of the best-preserved examples of these donkey-head drinking vessels from museums worldwide.
Gallery
Rhytons Without Bases
Some animal-head rhytons were intentionally made without bases so that the drinker would have to consume the contents in full before setting them down!
Rhyton in the Shape of a Donkey Head
Attributed to the Painter of London E 55 (Manner of Douris)
Greek, Attica, Athens, 480-470 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
20 × 9.3 cm (7 1/8 × 3 5/8 in.); Diam.: 9.3 cm (3 5/8 in.)
Art Institute of Chicago 1905.345
Attributed to The Brygos Painter
Greek, Attica, Athens, c. 480 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
Length: 25.4 cm (10 in.), Diameter: 12 cm. (4 3/4 in)
MFA Boston 03.787
Attributed to The Bordeaux Painter
Greek, Attica, c. 460-450 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
Diameter: 8.85 cm; Height: 19.65 cm
British Museum 1856,1226.51
[photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]
Rhyton
Greek, Attica, c. 450 – 400 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
Height 19.0 cm; Diameter 10.1 cm
Medelhavsmuseet, Stolkholm NM Ant 1692
Rhytons with Bases
Other examples did include a base, for those who preferred to sip their drink in a more leisurely manner.
Attributed to the Painter from Brussels R 330
Greek, Attica, c. 450 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
Height: 17cm; Width: 17.4cm; Diameter: 8.9 cm
Musée du Louvre Cp 3561
Greek, Attica, Athens, c. 440-430 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
Height: 25cm; Width: 18cm; Diameter: 12.5 cm
Musée du Louvre Cp 3555
Donkey-Head Rhyton
Attributed to the Painter of the Naples Hydriskai
Greek, Attica, Athens, c. 440-420 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
H 19.8 cm
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Musei Vaticani Inv. 16529
[photo: Dan Diffendale via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]
Donkey-Ram Dimidiated Vessels
Below are two examples of a design trend introduced later in the 5th century BCE: dimidiated (half-and-half) double animal heads!
Above:
Fragmentary Terracotta Rhyton
Attributed to the Manner of the Sotades Painter
Greek, Attica, c. 460-450 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
H. 5 in. (12.7 cm) x L. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York 06.1099
The predilection for vases in figural form continued throughout the fifth century B.C. During the middle of the century, the workshop of the Sotades Painter was the most active and creative source. Whereas head vases, occasionally with two heads conjoined, were popular in the 490s and 480s, the next generation of artists introduced the conceit of combining the heads of different animals, in this case, a donkey and a ram. The painted scene probably showed a satyr and a maenad.
– Met museum notes
Above:
Rhyton in Form of a Dimidiated Donkey and Ram Head
Attribued to the Sotades Painter
Greek, Attica, c. 450 BCE
Red-Figure Pottery
H: 6 7/8 x W: 4 5/16 x D: 4 5/8 in. (17.5 x 10.95 x 11.7 cm)
The Walters Art Museum 48.2050
This rhyton (wine vessel) was made with two different molds, combining the right side of a ram’s head with the left side of a donkey’s head. Rhyta such as this one were used in drinking parties, and their lack of a base meant that their contents had to be consumed before the vessel could be put down. The maker would have employed existing two-piece molds that would have made a complete head of a ram and a complete head of a donkey; one side of each of these molds was used to create the head for this rhyton, which was then attached to the wheel-thrown neck prior to firing. The mold used to create the ram half of the vessel was already decades old when it was used for this piece. The juxtaposition of the ram and braying donkey may have been made to contrast the positive and negative attributes ascribed to the animals respectively, and the donkey had close associations with the wine god Dionysus (Bacchus), often acting as one of the god’s preferred mounts. The scene on the neck of the rhyton, where three satyrs participate in an outdoor drinking party, alludes to the use of this type of cup. Two older satyrs, one perched on a rock and the other crouching at attention, focus on the center of the composition where a younger satyr is about to drink directly from a large amphora (storage jar) of wine.
– The Walters museum notes
Donkey Kantharos
In this unusual example from the late 6th century BCE, a section of the black-figure kantharos was removed and fitted with a donkey-head attachment.
Greek, Attica, c. 520-500 BCE
Black-Figure Pottery
Diameter: 13.65 cm; Height: 21.59 cm
British Museum 1876,0328.5
[photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]
Bonus Book Recommendations for World Donkey Day
