Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Urna

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

UR'NA (κάλπις). An urn; a narrow-necked, full-bodied pitcher, in which water was fetched from the fountain or river (Juv. i. 164. Senec. H. F. 757.), whence usually ascribed by poets and artists as an appropriate emblem to the river gods. (Virg. Aen. vii. 792. Sil. Ital. i. 407.) It was made of earthenware or metal, and carried on the top of the head (Ov. Fast. iii. 14.), or on the shoulder (Prop. iv. 11. 28.), in the manner still commonly practised by the women of Italy and Egypt; for which purpose it was furnished with three handles, as exhibited by the annexed engraving (Urna/1.1) from an original of earthenware, — two at the sides, to assist in raising it, and one at the neck, by which it was held on the shoulder, or kept steady when tilted for pouring out.

2. A vessel of similar form and character, employed as a cinerary urn, in which the ashes and dust collected from the funeral pile were enclosed, when deposited in the sepulchral chamber. (Ov. Trist. iii. 3. 65. Id. Her. xi. 124. Suet. Cal. 15. Wood-cut s. SEPULCRUM, 2.) They were made of baked earth, alabaster, marble, or glass; of which last material the annexed example (Urna/2.1) affords a specimen, from an original discovered at Pompeii, half filled with a liquid in which the fragments of bones and ashes are still perceivable.

3. A vessel of similar form and character, employed for drawing lots at the Comitia, &c. (Val. Max. vi. 3. 4. Cic. Verr. ii. 2. 17.), used for collecting the votes or sentence pronounced by the judges in a court of law, &c. (Cic. Q. Fr. ii. 6. Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 47. Ov. Met. xv. 44.) The lots or tablets were thrown into the vessel filled with water, and then shaken (urna versatur. Hor. Od. ii. 3. 26. Compare Virg. Aen. vi. 432. Stat. Sylv. ii. 1. 219.), and as the neck of the urn was narrow, only a single lot could come to the surface, or be drawn out at a time. The illustration (Urna/3.1), which, it will be observed, exhibits the same characteristic features in regard to form as the other examples, is copied from the device on a coin of the Cassian family.

4. A liquid measure containing four congii or half an amphora; also the vessel that holds the quantity, probably possessing the same characteristic forms as those described above. Cato, R. R. x. and xiii. Juv. xv. 25.

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  Urna/1.1
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  Urna/2.1
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  Urna/3.1