Nestor's Cup and the Etruscans

Abstract

Bronze cheese‐graters have been found in three 9th‐century warriors' graves at Lefkandi in Euboea. The presence of a similar item in a socially elevated male (and military) context is attested in the Iliad(xi, 628–643), when it is used in the preparation of a kykeon(mixture) in Nestor's depas(cup) that apparently revives a wounded hero. ‘Nestor's cup, good to drink from’ is mentioned in an inscription from a grave (c.725–700) at Euboean Pithekoussai on the Bay of Naples; and a number of bronze (occasionally silver) graters occur in 7th‐century Orientalizing princely graves along the Tyrrhenian seaboard. Unlike that of the better‐known 8th‐century Euboean ‘pre‐colonial’ skyphoi there, the distribution of 7th‐century graters extends as far north as the metal‐bearing area of Tuscany. It is suggested that a particular kind of ‘heroic’ drinking may have been introduced to the local Etruscan ‘princes’ by Euboeans negotiating for supplies of the Tuscan ores that are known to have been used at Pithekoussai; the presence c.700–690 of a high‐ranking Etruscan xenos(guest) at nearby Cumae, recently postulated on epigraphic grounds, may be significant in this respect.

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