Note 282 — Chapter XXIII

Or, as suggested in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for April 1874, a person, holding the cup before him by the two handles, may have poured a libation from the further spout and then have drunk out of the nearer. Thus Achilles used a choice goblet (δέπας) for drinking wine and pouring libations to the gods. (Iliad, XVI., 225-228.)

We are indebted to Mr. J. W. Lockhart for the following account of a double-spouted boat-shaped bronze vessel, used in a similar manner in the Chinese temples:—“In China there is a vessel of very nearly the same shape, but with ears prolonged till they rise an inch above the cup: the cup stands on three legs and is, in fact, a tripod. Such cups are used in the temples, especially in the ancestral temples of the real religion of China, when offerings are made to the manes of ancestors. The cups are filled with wine, when placed on the altar before the idol shrine, or before the ancestral tablet; and the wine is afterwards partly drunk and partly poured out as a libation.” Such vessels are used in pairs, and our drawing is made from one of a pair in Mr. Lockhart’s possession. It is of bronze, 6 inches long, and 6-1/2 inches high, including the legs. The width is 2 inches between the upright ears, and 2-3/8 inches at the broadest part. There is only one handle. Mr. Lockhart calls attention to the “key” ornament round the cup, which is so well known in the purest Greek art, as a sign of Chinese influence on the art of Western Asia and Europe. Mr. Lockhart also reads Chinese characters on some of the Trojan whorls. We are under a deep obligation to Mr. Lockhart for his spontaneous offer of this very interesting illustration of one of the most striking and (as we before supposed) unique objects discovered by Dr. Schliemann.—[Ed.]