Terracotta rim fragments of kylikes (drinking cups)

Art Historical Context

These delicate terracotta rim fragments from kylikes—wide, shallow drinking cups—offer a glimpse into everyday life in ancient Attic Greece during the Archaic and Classical periods (6th–5th centuries BCE). Crafted by an unknown potter or painter, these pieces hail from Athens, the heart of Greek pottery production, where terracotta vases were both functional household items and canvases for storytelling art. Kylikes were especially prized in symposia, the all-male drinking parties central to Greek social and intellectual culture, where revelers reclined and sipped wine mixed with water from th...