Owl drinking cup, terracotta, Greece or the wider Hellenic world, ~400-350 BCE

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Owl drinking cup, terracotta, Greece or the wider Hellenic world, ~400-350 BCE
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Not only is that a superb owl, it’s also a super bowl!

The Chosen One, at long last arrived…


Would make an excellent supper bowl.



Kewl!

I wonder why the second handle? Symmetry or something else? It’s not very big.

Part of the design of a “skyphos”. Toledo Museum of Art has one with a similar design.

And from Wikipedia on skyphos

Skyphoi of the type called glaux (*owl*) have one horizontal and one vertical thumbhold handle.

How very fitting.

I also noticed that some had 2 horizontal handles while others had them going with one vertical.

It made me wonder if it was something deeper than a stylistic choice.

Found this article and it’s more or less the scientific way of saying: some guys are speculating but actually we don’t really know 😅 https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/the-owls-of-athena-some-comments-on-owl-skyphoi-and-their-iconography/

“I dunno… maybe they thought it made it look like an owl this way? You like owls, so we made your owl cups vaguely shared like owls?”

I looked up some other Acropolis owls and I liked this little guy. This site has a neat 3D rotatable scan of it.

Maybe a “happy little accident” a la Bob Ross. And the artist thought exactly this 😆

The Acropolis find is cute. Maybe some soapstone and time… Just kidding.

Looking at various specimens of the cup, it looks like there were a lot of happy accidents. Some versions have some pretty funny eyeballs! 😁

It would be awesome to know how to sculpt or carve. The only thing I ever carved was a very minimal fish, though I do love it!

I’m making life sized standies of all 8 owls of Pennsylvania for the clinic open house, and that is proving enough of a challenge for me as it is!









Ce n’est pas une chouette.


Somebody was complaining on yetrippingbastards for his post being removed, while being basically the same joke.

I mean, if the mods were asleep and decide to remove this when they wake up, I ain’t mad, lmao. I understand if they want only actual owls, I just thought it might be of interest to the comm. If it’s off-topic and needs to be deletos, c’est la vie. As long as it’s recognized I cross-posted in good faith, it’s not like it’s an offense towards me.

No issue on my end, just an unprompted shower thought.




Comments from other communities

The owl and its eyes appear a lot. It is a representation of Athena, usually appearing where she would.


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