458 PELOPONNESUS. 
CHAP, handles, of the most perfect form and exquisite 
VIII. 
workmanship, was almost covered with a white 
was designed by the Greeks, is not so conspicuous. Such pateras are 
sometimes represented in the hands of female Bacchanals ; possibly, 
therefore, it was used for drinking wine : the Turks drink sorbet out 
of vessels of the same form, but without foot or handle. Firgil, in 
describing Dido's royal feast, says, " hnplevit mero pateram." After 
the fair Queen had made a libation, she presented they'd/era to JBitins, 
who drank the whole of its contents : 
" Turn Sitia dedit increpitans : ille impiger hausit 
Spumantem pateram." 
The blood of victims was received in such vessels; and it is highly pro- 
bable that their form was originally derived from the top part of the 
human scull, used by all the Celtic tribes in drinking the blood of their 
enemies, and as a drinking vessel. A lumper in Norway is still called 
a Skool; and the sorbet cups of the Turks, being without handles and 
feet, have exactly the shape of the upper part of the cranium. Upon 
the subject of PATERAS, Gale, in his " Court of the Gentiles," has 
the following observations: " The Levite having killed the victime, 
the Priest received the blood in a vessel; which Moses (Exod. xxiv. 6.) 
calls JTlJJlK dganoth; and the Chaldee, fcOpYTD, that is to say, an 
Aspersorie: the Lxx render it x^r^a.s; so -the Vulgate, Craterus. 
In imitation whereof, the Popa having killed the victime, the Priest 
received the blood in a vessel ; which vessel the Atticks call eQtiym. 
Homer (Odyss. y.) styles it aftw. the Latin, Pateras. So Virgil 
(JEn. /. Hi.) ' Sanguinis et sacri pateras;' which he understands of 
the vietimes, as Servius." 
Fig. 2. A LIBATORY VESSEL, four inches in height, painted with 
dark stripes upon a yellow ground ; perhaps for containing oil. It 
has no orifice above the neck: the only opening is like the spout of a 
tea-pot, a part being broken off; but the rest is seen between the 
right handle and the neck of the vessel. 
Fig. 3. A beautiful double-handled Cup and Cover, curiously painted 
red and black upon a yellow ground, four inches high, and five inches 
in diameter. It was probably intended for honey, the handles being 
stouter than in the others, and the cover perhaps designed to preserve 
its contents from flies or other insects. 
Fig. 
