Skyphos, Southern Italy, 400-375 BCE
- Made:
- 400-375 BCE in Apulia
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LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseRed figure skyphos or drinking cup
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Red figure skyphos or drinking cup
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Red figure skyphos or drinking cup, painted by the Wellcome painter, `depicting a youth holding a strigil, Apulian, South Italy, 400BC-375BC
A skyphos is a drinking cup with two handles. This one is decorated with an image of a young man holding a strigil. Part of the bathing and personal hygiene routine in ancient Rome involved cleaning the body with oil. Having rubbed the oil in, a strigil was used to scrape away any excess as well as any dead skin and dirt.
Athletes scraped their skin with strigils to remove dirt, dust and oil from their bodies after exercise. This was sometimes bottled and sold as a medical treatment called gloios to relieve aches, pains and sprains.
Details
- Category:
- Classical & Medieval Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A122634
- Materials:
- pottery
- Measurements:
-
overall: 183 mm x 326 mm 233 mm, 1.27kg
- type:
- skyphos
- credit:
- Pritchard and Co.
