[Sidenote: Meanings of the word “cypsele” given by the ancients.]
The Olympian larnax does not at all correspond to the picture of a cypsele suggested by the ancient notices on the subject, which, quite apart from the light they may possibly throw on Cypselus, deserve a more detailed examination than they have hitherto received[1029].
The meanings of the word given by the ancients are as follows:
(2) A vessel to receive wheat or barley[1031],
(5) Vessels for sweet condiments[1034], or receptacles for such vessels[1035],
This literary evidence may be supplemented from a numismatic source. Some fourth century B.C. coins of the Thracian Cypsela[1038] show a more or less cylindrical vessel with two small vertical handles[1039]. A similar vessel, resting on what is probably a grain of corn, is shown on other coins of the same century and from the same district[1040]. The vessel has very plausibly been identified as a cypsele.
[Illustration: Fig. 26. Coins of Cypsela.]
[Sidenote: Inferences as to size, shape, and material.]
At first sight the various uses of the word appear rather miscellaneous, especially if we include (6) and (7). But (6) and (7) need not be brought in. They are late uses derived from (4)[1041]. Meaning (5) is probably to be eliminated on the same grounds. This leaves us with (1) to (4), all of them vessels of large size, a feature implicit in the Cypselus legend and confirmed by the ancient lexicographers[1042].
For the material of cypselae under meanings (1) to (5) the only written evidence is found in (i) schol. Aristoph. _Pax_ 631, which says that “cypselae were not only woven (πλεκταί) but also of pottery (κεραμεαῖ),” (ii) a scholiast to Lucian, _Lexiphanes_, 1, which explains the cypsele as (_a_) “the narrow-mouthed unpitched vessel of pottery,” (_b_) an earthenware vessel, (_c_) [addit. C] “the name is also given to a sort of woven vessel,” (iii) Hesychius, who explains a cypsele as a wickerwork beehive.
These statements quite suit the list of uses. As between the two materials mentioned the Aristophanes scholiast gives the impression that the commoner was wicker or basket work. But in the Lucian scholiast wickerwork is only an afterthought added by a later hand. The Lucian scholiast is probably more correct. Pottery is a natural material for every kind of cypsele. Cypselae (1) and (3) can never have been of basketwork, and for (5) it looks a most unlikely material, though we know too little about ancient spice vessels to speak with certainty. For (2) it is suitable enough, but the cypselae of the Thracian coins, which the emblem of the grain of corn shows to have been probably corn jars, point in the other direction. Their shape suits either terra cotta or metal but not wickerwork. The probable use practically excludes metal[1043]. (4) is according to Hesychius a “plaited beehive,” _i.e._ a hive of basketwork, and this statement is accepted by M. Pottier[1044]. No doubt it was true at the time when it was made. But is it so certain that the earliest cypsele beehives were of basketwork? The first reference to beehives is in the _Odyssey_, which describes hives of stone in the shape of vases (κρητῆρες and ἀμφιφορῆες)[1045]. These Homeric beehives must have been either prototypes or glorifications of hives of earthenware[1046], and it is tempting to classify these latter with the cypsele form of hive, especially in the light of the cypsele on the Thracian coins, which has much the shape of a mixing bowl except that the handles are of a type more frequent on the amphora. These coins are of the first half of the fourth century. Our literary authorities are all much later. Most of them mention earthenware beehives only to condemn them[1047]. Presumably they were out of fashion. Basketwork hives[1048] on the other hand are spoken of without condemnation. When therefore they define the cypsele beehive as a basketwork beehive, they practically mean a round or vase-shaped hive like the “little pail where the bee distils his sweet flow” of Antiphilus[1049], as distinguished from the rectangular form that was also much in use[1050].