Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A visit with two lovely Greek dishes



This beautiful Greek vessel - called a kylix - is in the museum at Delphi in Greece. It's an elegant thing, about nine inches in diameter and decorated with a simple drawing of Apollo on the interior. We saw this in the museum in 2008 while visiting the old mountainside complex of temples, treasuries and athletic complexes well outside Athens with our son Marcus and his Greek-American wife Anastasia Pantelias. Part of Anastasia's family lived in a town not far down the mountain just two generations ago.
The kylix was a broad and shallow bowl set on a tallish foot and was used - according to online sources - as a drinking vessel at celebrations. This one dates to around 480 B.C.E. A similar kylix, which I found online, dates to a similar time and is credited to a potter named Kachrylion. I have no reason to think Kachrylion made this one, but isn't it reassuring to know that some actual potters are remembered 2,500 years after they made their last pot?
The other Greek dish is more contemporary - a plate of fresh summer toppings for souvlakia grilled at the Pantelias home in Avlidas during that same vacation.

4 comments:

ang design said...

cool post!

Tracey Broome said...

I remember when I was in design school we had to do pen and ink drawings of every period style we studied and keep it in a notebook, which I wish I still had. I don't think I have read the word Kylix since then. I remember drawing those along with all the other Greek vessels and furniture styles. It was such a pain but I did learn a lot about style. I prefer the greek food dish, yum!

Hollis Engley said...

You're right, Trace. Those people do know how to cook and eat. Oh ... and drink, too.

Marcus said...

Mmmm, I remember those pitas. Yum.