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{{Short description|Ancient drinking horn or cup from Eurasia}}
{{For|the band|Rhyton (band)}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name = ''Rhyton''
| image = [[File: Achaemenid gold rhyton in the shape of a lion, from Ecbatana, ca. 550-330 BC, Exhibition- 'Iran, Cradle of Civilizations', Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ), Spain - 48244034452.jpg|300px]]
| image2 = 
| image_caption = Golden ''rhyton'' from Iran's [[Achaemenid Empire]] (550–330 BC), excavated at [[Ecbatana]], kept at the [[National Museum of Iran]].
| material = Ceramic, metal, horn, stone
| size = Cup-size for practical use, larger for ceremonial use, typically in a roughly conical shape caused by a spout or a pseudo-spout at the bottom.
| writing = May be inscribed and otherwise decorated
| created = Prehistoric times through the present
| discovered = 
| location = 
| id = 
}}

[[File:Rhyton with death of Orpheus from Vassil Bojkov collection.jpg|thumb|Silver ''rhyton'' with goat protome and death of [[Orpheus]], {{circa|420}}–410 BC, housed in the [[Vassil Bojkov Collection]], [[Sofia]], Bulgaria.
The horn in a continuous and graceful curve makes a right-angled bend. Its lower two thirds are covered by flutes with arc-shaped upper tips. A figural scene below the flaring rim represents the murder of Orpheus. The musician is the central figure, fallen to his right knee, flanked by three attacking Thracian women. He holds a six-string lyre on his right hand and with his left one, wrapped in his mantle, a knobbed wooden stick, with which he  tries vainly to protect himself.<ref>The horn in a continuous and graceful curve makes a right-angled bend. Its lower two thirds are covered by flutes with arc-shaped upper tips. A figural scene below the flaring rim represents the murder of Orpheus. The musician is the central figure, fallen to his right knee, flanked by three attacking Thracian women. He holds a six-string lyre on his right hand and with his left one, wrapped in his mantle, a knobbed wooden stick, with which he  tries vainly to protect himself.</ref>|alt=Rhyton with death of Orpheus from Vassil Bojkov collection]]
A '''''rhyton''''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|aɪ|ˌ|t|ɒ|n|,_|ˈ|r|aɪ|t|ə|n}} ({{plural form}}: '''''rhytons''''' or, following the Greek plural, '''''rhyta''''') is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as [[libation]], or merely at table; in other words, a [[cup]]. A ''rhyton'' is typically formed in the shape of either an animal's head or an animal horn; in the latter case it often terminates in the shape of an animal's body. ''Rhyta'' were produced over large areas of ancient [[Eurasia]] during the [[Bronze Age|Bronze]] and [[Iron Age]]s, especially from [[Iran|Persia]] to the [[Balkans]]. 

Many have an opening at the bottom through which the liquid fell; this could be either for pouring [[libation]]s, or as a way of drinking.  Others did not, and were merely used as drinking cups, with the characteristic, shared by many early cup forms, that they were "unstable" and could not usually be set down on a surface without spilling their contents.

The English word [[wiktionary:rhyton|''rhyton'']] originates in the ancient [[Greek language|Greek]] word ''{{lang|grc|ῥυτόν}}'' (''rhy&#774;tón ''or'' rhŭtón''). The conical ''rhyton'' form has been known in the Aegean region since the [[Bronze Age]], or the 2nd millennium BC. However, it was by no means confined to that region. Similar in form to, and perhaps originating from, the [[drinking horn]], it has been widespread over Eurasia since prehistoric times.

==Name and function==
[[A Greek–English Lexicon|Liddell and Scott]]<ref>{{LSJ|r(uto/s3|ῥυτόν|ref}}.</ref> give a standard derivation from Greek ''rhein'', "to flow", which, according to [[Julius Pokorny]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch | year=1959 | location=Bern | publisher=Francke | title=sreu | page=1003 | url=https://archive.org/stream/indogermanisches03pokouoft#page/1002/mode/2up}}</ref> is from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]] ''*sreu-'', "flow". As ''rhutos'' is "stream", the neuter, ''rhuton'', would be some sort of object associated with pouring, which is equivalent to English ''pourer''. Many vessels considered ''rhytons'' featured a wide mouth at the top and a hole through a conical constriction at the bottom from which the fluid ran. The idea is that one scooped wine or water from a storage vessel or similar source, held it up, unstoppered the hole with one's thumb, and let the fluid run into the mouth (or onto the ground in [[libation]]) in the same way that wine is drunk from a [[wineskin]] today.

Smith points out<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | editor-first=William | editor2-first=William | editor3-first=GE | editor-last=Smith | editor2-last=Wayte | editor3-last=Marindin | title=Rhyton | encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities | volume=II | location=London | publisher=John Murray | year=1901 | edition=3rd Revised, Enlarged}}</ref> that this use is testified in classical paintings and accepts [[Athenaeus]]'s etymology that it was named ''{{lang|grc|ἀπὸ τῆς ῥύσεως}}'', "from the flowing".<ref>{{LSJ|r(u/sis2|ῥύσις|shortref}}</ref> Smith also categorized the name as having been a recent form (in classical times) of a vessel formerly called the ''keras'', "horn", in the sense of a drinking horn.<ref>{{LSJ|ke/ras|κέρας|shortref}}.</ref> The word ''rhyton'' is not present in what is known about [[Mycenaean Greek]], the oldest form of Greek written in [[Linear B]]. However, the bull's head ''rhyton'', of which many examples survive, is mentioned as ''ke-ra-a'' on tablet [[Knossos|KN]] K 872,<ref>{{cite web|title=KN 872 K(1) (102)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/804|website=DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]}}</ref> an inventory of vessels at [[Knossos]]; it is shown with the bull [[ideogram]] (*227<sup>VAS</sup>; also known as ''rhyton''). [[Michael Ventris|Ventris]] and [[John Chadwick|Chadwick]] restored the word as the adjective ''*kera(h)a'', with a Mycenaean intervocalic ''h''.<ref>{{cite book | first1=Michael | last1=Ventris | first2=John | last2=Chadwick | title=Documents in Mycenaean Greek | edition=2nd | location=Cambridge | publisher=University Press | year=1973 | pages =330, 552}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align             = left
| direction         = horizontal
| header            = 
| header_align      = left/right/center
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| image1            = Parthian Rhyton (150 BC - AD 225), Iran (5899222425).jpg
| width1            = 220
| caption1          = A ''rhyton'' drinking vessel with animal details; such vessels were widely produced in Persia during the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (550–330 BC), though the lifelike animal details as seen in this one date from the later [[Parthian Empire]] (247 BC – AD 224).
| image2            = Wine horn with lion protome, Iran, Parthian period, 1st century BC - 1st century AD, silver and gilt - Arthur M. Sackler Gallery - DSC05821.JPG
| width2            = 150
| caption2          = A ''rhyton'' wine horn with lion protome, Iran, [[Parthian Empire|Parthian period]], 1st century BC – 1st century AD, silver and gilt, housed in the [[Arthur M. Sackler Gallery]]
}}

''Rhyta'' shaped after bulls are filled through the large opening and emptied through the secondary, smaller one. This means that two hands are required: one to close the secondary opening and one to fill the ''rhyton''. This has led some scholars to believe that ''rhytons'' were typically filled with the help of two people or with the help of a chain or a rope that would be passed through a handle. ''Rhytons'' modeled after animals were designed to make it look like the animal was drinking when the vessel was being filled.{{Citation needed|date=July 2018}} A bull ''rhyton'' weighed about three kilograms when empty and up to six kilograms when full.

Other ''rhytons'' with animal themes were modeled after boars, lions, and lionesses (such as [[Lion head horn]]). Some shapes, such as lioness ''rhyta'', could be filled through simple submersion, thanks to the vessel's shape and buoyancy. Horizontally designed ''rhyta'', like those modeled after lionesses, could be filled by being lowered into a fluid and supported. Vertically designed ''rhyta'', like those modeled after boars, required another hand to cover the primary opening and to prevent the liquid from spilling as the vessel was filled.

''Rhyta'' were often used to strain liquids such as wine, beer, and oil. Some ''rhyta'' were used in blood rituals and animal sacrifice. In these cases, the blood may have been thinned with wine. Some vessels were modeled after the animal with which they were intended to be used during ritual, but this was not always the case.<ref>Koehl, Robert B. "Prehistory Monographs, Volume 19: Aegean Bronze Age Rhyta". INSTAP Academic Press, 2006.</ref>

==Geography==
[[File:Scène de banquet, fresque, Herculanum.jpg|thumb|right|[[Roman Republic|Roman]] fresco from Herculaneum demonstrating the use of a ''rhyton'', {{Circa|50 BC}}]]
Not every drinking horn or libation vessel was pierced at the bottom. An aperture invites zoomorphic interpretation and plastic decoration in the forms of animal heads—bovids, equines, cervids, and even canines—with the fluid pouring from the animals' mouths.

''Rhyta'' occur among the remains of civilizations speaking different languages and language groups in and around the Near and Middle East, such as [[Iran|Persia]], from the second millennium BC. They are often shaped like animals' heads or horns and can be very ornate and compounded with precious metals and stones. In [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]], silver-and-gold bulls' heads with round openings for the wine (permitting wine to pour from the bulls' mouths) seemed particularly common, for several have been recovered from the great palaces ([[Heraklion Archaeological Museum]]).

One of the oldest examples of the concept of an animal figure holding a long flat ended conical shaped vessel in hands was known to be discovered from Susa, in Southwestern Iran, in Proto Elamite era about 3rd millennium BC, is a silver figurine of a cow with body of a sitting woman actually offering the vessel between both her bovine hoofs.

''Rhytons'' were very common in ancient Persia, where they were called ''takuk'' (تکوک).
After a Greek victory against Persia, much silver, gold, and other luxuries, including numerous ''rhytons'', were brought to Athens. Persian ''rhytons'' were immediately imitated by Greek artists.<ref>{{cite web | last=Bakker | first=Janine | url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/persian_influence_on_greece2.php | title=Persian influence on Greece | work=History of Iran | publisher=Iran chamber society | access-date=15 June 2012}}</ref>
Not all ''rhyta'' were so valuable; many were simply decorated conical cups in ceramic.

Rhytons are represented in Chinese archaeology.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sxhm.com/collections/detail/512.html |title=镶金兽首玛瑙杯 |date=2021 |website=Shaanxi History Museum}}</ref>

==Greek symbolism==
[[File:Table support with a Dionysiac group (AD 170-180) (3470740119).jpg|thumb|Marble table support adorned by a group including [[Dionysus|Dionysos]], [[Pan (god)|Pan]] and a [[Satyr]]; Dionysos holds a ''rhyton'' (drinking vessel) in the shape of a panther; traces of [[Red hair|red]] and [[Blond|yellow colour]] are preserved on [[Human hair color|the hair]] of the figures and the branches; from an [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] workshop, 170–180 AD, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]], Greece]]
Classical Athenian pottery, such as [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured]] vases, are typically painted with themes from mythology. One standard theme depicts satyrs, which symbolize ribaldry, with ''rhyta'' and wineskins. The horn-shaped ''rhyta'' are carefully woven in composition with the erect male organs of the satyrs, but this blatantly sexual and somewhat humorous theme appears to be a late development, consistent with Athenian humor, as is expressed in the plays of [[Aristophanes]]. The ornate and precious ''rhyta'' of the great civilizations of earlier times are grandiose rather than ribald, which gives the democratic vase paintings an extra satirical dimension.

The connection of satyrs with wine and ''rhyta'' is made in [[Nonnus]]'s epic ''Dionysiaca.'' He describes the [[satyr]]s at the first trampling of the grapes during the invention of wine-making by [[Dionysus|Dionysos]]:
:...the fruit bubbled out red juice with white foam. They scooped it up with oxhorns, instead of cups which had not yet been seen, so that ever after the cup of mixed wine took this divine name of 'Winehorn'.<ref>''Dionysiaca'' XII 361-362.</ref>
[[Károly Kerényi]], in quoting this passage,<ref>{{cite book | first=Karl | last=Kerenyi | author-link=Karl Kerenyi | title=Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life | year=1996 | pages=58–60 | location=Princeton, NJ | publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> remarks, "At the core of this richly elaborated myth, in which the poet even recalls the ''rhyta'', it is not easy to separate the Cretan elements from those originating in [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]]." The connection to which he refers is a pun not present in English translation: the wine is mixed (''kerannymenos''), which appears to contain the bull's horn (''keras''), the ancient Greek name of the ''rhyton''.

In the myth, [[ichor]] from Olympus falls among rocks. From it grow grapevines. One grows around a pine tree, where a serpent, winding up the tree, eats the grapes. Dionysus, seeing the snake, pursues it into a hole in the rocks. Following an oracle of [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], the Cretan mountain goddess, Dionysus hollows out the hole and tramples grapes in it, dancing and shouting. The goddess, the rocks, the snake, and the dancing are Cretan themes. The cult of Dionysus was Anatolian. At its most abstract, the ''rhyton'' is the container of the substance of life, celebrated by the ritual dancing on the grapes.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:AchaemenidGoblet02.jpg|[[Urartian]] silver ''rhyton'' from [[Erebuni Fortress]]
File:Achaemenid Goblet Erebuni.JPG|[[Achaemenid]] silver ''rhyton'' from Erebuni Fortress
File:Persia - Achaemenian Vessels.jpg|[[Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton]], {{circa|500}} BC
File:National Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria - Rhyton1.JPG|Greek ''rhyton'' for the Thracian market, 4th century BC
File:Greek Rhyton in griffin form DMA.jpg|Pottery [[Griffin|griffon]]'s head ''rhyton'', [[Apulia]], {{circa|350–300}} BC
File:Ceremonial vessel (rhyton) in the shape of a grape cluster, Alishar, the Mansion, Middle Bronze Age, 1750-1650 BC, ceramic - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07649.JPG|Ceramic ceremonial ''rhyton'' in the shape of a [[grape cluster]], [[Alişar Hüyük]], [[Anatolia]], Middle Bronze Age, 1750–1650 BC
File:Museu arqueologic de Creta25.jpg|Minoan steatite ''rhyta'' in the [[Heraklion Archaeological Museum]]
File:Boar rhyton Louvre AO18521.jpg|Boar's head ''rhyton'' from [[Ugarit]], view from the bottom
File:Sotades Painter - Red-Figure Rhyton - Walters 482050 - Side B.jpg|Pottery ''rhyton'', decorated with [[red-figure]] [[satyr]]s cavorting, {{circa|450}} BC
File:Rhyton Greek Thracian silver, end of 4th c BC, Prague Kinsky, NM-HM10 1407, 140856.jpg|Greek silver ''rhyton'' for the Thracian market, end 4th century<ref>Rhyton. The upper section of the luxury vessel used for drinking wines is wrought from silver plate with gilded edge with embossed ivy branch. The lower part goes in the cast Protoma horse. The work of the Greek master, probably for Thracian aristocrat. Perhaps Thrace, the end of the 4th century BC. NG Prague, Kinský Palace, NM-HM10 1407.</ref>
File:Rhyton terminating in the forepart of a wild cat MET DT905.jpg|''[[Rhyton terminating in the forepart of a wild cat]]'', 1st century BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:4th cent. B.C. Greek gold and bronze drinking horn with head of Dionysus from Tamoikin Art Fund.jpg|4th century BC Greek gold and bronze drinking horn with head of Dionysus from Tamoikin Art Fund
File:Aleria, Rhyton, tête de chien.jpg|An [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] ''rhyton'' serving vessel in the shape of a dog's head, made by [[Brygos]], early 5th century BC. Jérôme Carcopino Museum, Department of Archaeology, [[Aleria]].
File:Greek Gilt-silver Rhyton (Libation Vessel) In the Form of a Stag's Head.jpg|The Stag's Head ''Rhyton'' dating to 400 BCE, the largest so far known of recent examples, recently surrendered and worth $3.5 million, originally rediscovered in the 20th century after rampant looting in [[Milas]], Turkey<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/us-billionaire-michael-steinhardt-surrenders-70m-dollars-stolen-art|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|work=www.theguardian.com|title=US billionaire surrenders $70m of stolen art|date=December 7, 2021|accessdate=December 7, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.georgeortiz.com/objects/greek-world-cont/152-rhyton-stag-s-head-classical/|work=www.georgeortiz.com|title=152. Rhyton (stag's head) - Classical|accessdate=December 7, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/hedge-fund-pioneer-michael-steinhardt-surrenders-stolen-antiquities-vance-says-.html|first1=Dan|last1=Mangan|first2=Jim|last2=Forkin|title=Hedge-fund pioneer Michael Steinhardt surrenders 180 stolen antiquities valued at $70 million, Manhattan DA Vance says|website=[[CNBC]] |date=December 6, 2021|accessdate=December 7, 2021}}</ref>
File:Achaemenid-Persian-Lion-Rhyton-Persepolis,Iran.jpg|[[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] Lion Rhyton from [[Persepolis]], kept at [[National Museum of Iran]].
File:Ankara Archaeology and art museum Rhyton Bronze Achaemenid Persian 500-400 BC 2019 3473.jpg|Bronze Rhyton from Iran's Achaemenid period, [[Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum|Erimtan Archaeology and Art Museum]].
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Special characters}}
* [[Silver Siege Rhyton]]
* [[Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Rhyta}}
* {{cite encyclopedia | article = RHYTON | last = Jaeger | first = Ulf | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/rhyton-vessel | encyclopedia  = Encyclopaedia Iranica | year = 2016 }}
More pictures of rhyta:
:* [http://www.persiandna.com/images/rhyton.jpg Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton]
:* [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090305155308/http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/dlevine/Rhyton.jpg Minoan Bull-head Rhyton]
:* [http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/gumelnita/foto/3/1/index.htm Prehistoric European Rhyta]
:* [http://www.asianart.com/articles/heller/large/33_rhyton_det01.jpg Tibetan Rhyton]
:* [http://www.ceramicstudies.me.uk/hgrafs04/ch486ts.gif Cretan-style Rhyton from Egypt]
:* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=Perseus:image:1990.24.0407&redirect=true Attic red-figure vase, satyr holding a rhyton]

{{Greek vase shapes}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek pot shapes]]
[[Category:Types of archaeological artefact]]
[[Category:Drinkware]]
[[Category:Libation]]
[[Category:Ancient art in metal]]
[[Category:Drinking horns]]