Eye-cups that turn the drinker into a face
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 15). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: Appear about 540 BCE; popular in the later 6th century BCE
Region: Greek pottery
Workbook date-sort bounds: 540 BCE to 500 BCE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
Large painted eyes on a drinking cup produce a face or mask when it is raised to the mouth; handles resemble ears and the foot forms a mouth.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Eye-cup design recurs on independently made drinking vessels.
What remains uncertain
A widespread ceramic fashion is established, but the catalogue supplies no secure bottom-up or non-elite audience evidence; sympotic contexts can be affluent.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria