Apulian rhyton: A 2,300-year-old Spartan-hound-shaped cup that was likely used at boozy bashes

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This dog-shaped vessel was likely used for pouring wine, oil or blood in ancient rituals in what is now Italy.

a photo of a decorated drinking cup in the shape of a dog's head
A decorated drinking cup in the shape of a dog's head. (Image credit: The Getty, CC0 1.0)
QUICK FACTS

Name: Apulian dog head rhyton

What it is: A terracotta cup in the shape of a dog's head

Where it is from: Puglia, Italy

When it was made: 340 to 330 B.C.

This terracotta cup was made to resemble the head of a Laconian hound, an extinct Greek hunting breed also known as a Spartan hound. Discovered in the "heel" of Italy's "boot," the rhyton — a kind of drinking vessel — shows the influence of Greece on southern Italy 2,300 years ago.

Measuring approximately 8 by 4 inches (20 by 10 centimeters), the rhyton is covered in a black glaze, save for the dog's ears and nostrils, and its eyes are coated in a diluted glaze. On the bowl of the cup, a satyr — a half-man, half-goat woodland mythological creature — holds a plate and a staff, surrounded by leaf- and egg-shaped patterns.

Related: Lviv pysanka: World's oldest Easter egg

The dog, whose face makes up the lower part of the rhyton, is a hound breed that originated in Laconia, a region of ancient Greece where Sparta was located. Because the Laconian hound was well known for its hunting abilities, it was depicted on numerous mosaics, gravestones and drinking cups.

Ancient Greeks used rhytons at drinking parties or in ceremonies. It is notable that these vessels did not have flat bottoms, so they could not normally be set down on a table. Rhytons as a style likely evolved from earlier drinking horns common in Eurasia in the Bronze Age (roughly the second millennium B.C.), but with a Greek twist: Many rhytons depicted satyrs, which were symbols of debauchery and drunkenness. Dogs were not the only animals whose heads were made into cups; horses, stags, cats, rams, boars, lions and even mythical creatures, like griffins, adorn ancient rhytons.

In addition to being cool cups at boozy bashes, rhytons may have been used ceremonially to pour offerings of wine, oil or blood, particularly during animal sacrifices.

This Laconian hound rhyton shows the strong influence of Greek culture on southeastern Italy, which was called Magna Graecia (Greater Greece) in the fourth century B.C. This area was not annexed by the Romans until 205 B.C.

Kristina Killgrove
Kristina Killgrove
Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.

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