Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cantharus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CANTH'ARUS (κάνθαρος). A goblet, or drinking cup, of Greek invention. It was furnished with handles (Virg. Ecl. vi. 17.); and was the cup particularly sacred to Bacchus (Macrob. Sat. v. 21.), as the scyphus was to Hercules; consequently in works of art, both painting and sculpture, a vessel of the form here engraved (Cantharus/1.1), from a fictile original, is constantly represented in the hands of that divinity.

2. A vase into which the water of an ornamental fountain is discharged, formed in imitation of the drinking cup. Paul. Dig. 30. 41.

3. A sort of boat, the peculiar properties of which, however, are unknown. Macrob. Sat. l. c. Aristoph. Pac. 143.

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  Cantharus/1.1