Note 180 — Chapter V · EURIPIDES AND VASE PAINTING

‘Megarian Bowls’ is a name applied to a class of small cups decorated with a band of relief. The ware is red or black, and appears both in glazed and unglazed form. The largest number of the vases has been found in Megara, hence the name ‘Megarian.’ As many have been discovered also in Boeotia and other places, the present terminology is somewhat misleading. Examples of this ware are to be found in every large museum in Europe. The British Museum possesses no less than nine such cups, and fragments from fourteen others (vid. cat. iv. pp. 251–256). The reliefs illustrate mostly scenes from the Theban and Trojan Cycles. Whether the terra cotta presented a cheap way of reproducing silver and gold cups, which were highly prized, and served therefore the place of our casts, or whether the bowls were made from special moulds and are to be considered independent works of art, is quite uncertain. The fact that there are in existence three copies of the same work, each agreeing in every detail with the others, would seem to point to the former supposition. Robert, who has handled this set of monuments most thoroughly, distinguishes two classes: (1) the whole vase is cast from one mould; (2) the reliefs having been made separately are stamped on the ready bowl. Vid. especially Robert’s Homerische Becher for the whole question; cf. also p. 27 ff. above.