Re-reading, for the first time in years, through my copy of Courtesans and Fishcakes, the Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (James Davidson, 1997) I encountered a form of classical Greek pottery cup, the kothon, that I was familiar with.
I've had a large fragment of the Greek, black glazed, ribbed drinking cup on my fireplace mantel shelf for years but had not remembered the references in the Davidson book to the colour and form.
The ribbed cup is of Spartan origin and, according to Critias of Athens, is an appropriate cup to carry on military service. It is compact and easily transported in a kit bag, the black colour means that unclean water encountered cannot be easily seen, and, finally, the cup's ribbed body form retains impurities. Despite the written benefits of the kothon for drinking less than clean waters it retained notoriety as being the form of vessel for drinking deep and over indulging in wine promoting drunkenness.
