Lebes

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Lebes gamikos
, a vessel that was part of an ancient Greek wedding

The lebes (Greek 'λέβης', plural lebetes) is a type of

ancient Greek cauldron, normally in bronze. It is a deep bowl with a rounded bottom. It was often supported by a sacrificial tripod.[1]
In classical times, a foot was attached and it was typically used as a cooking pot.

Variants

Tripod lebes

The tripod lebes is characterized by two round vertical handles and by three strut-supported legs. All were separately cast then riveted to the cauldron.

Artefactual evidence indicates the tripod lebes was not used as a mixing bowl, even long after it lost its role as a cooking pot.[2]

Lebes gamikos

Main article:
Lebes gamikos

The lebes gamikos (pl. lebetes gamikoi), or nuptial lebes, appears to have been a part of pre-wedding purification ceremonies, and was often made in pottery. It may have stood by the bride's door and was probably used in ritual sprinkling of the bride with water.

Lebetes gamikoi stood on variously long or short bases and each typically was painted with a scene of a wedding procession. Oftentimes, the wedding depicted was mythic (such as the wedding of

Menelaos.[3][page needed
]

Value

Just as the

Cnidus—forbade the sixth city—Halicarnassus—to share in the use of the temple. Such was the penalty imposed on the Halicarnassians.

— Herodotus, The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley), Book I, chapter 144, sections 1–3[4]

Under the

exchange medium (money). However, such transactions were aided by conventionally accepted reference values. Certain commodities were often used as reference points for evaluating the relative values of different goods. Cattle was common as such a reference in many early cultures. In Greece during this period, in addition to cattle, bronze and iron items—specifically lebetes—were also common.[5]

Remnants of

compensatory damages denominated in bronze lebetes from ancient Crete, as early as the 7th century BCE. For example, in one instance, a bronze tripod "of [worth] ten lebetes" was recorded as payment for a fine.[5]

In the Iliad, a bronze lebes was valued at one ox. By the Hellenistic period, long after the introduction of coin based money, the lebes survived as a term for a quantity of silver coinage.[5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lebes.
  1. ^ Sayles, Wayne G. (2003). Ancient Coin Collecting. Vol. 1. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. p. 258. Lebes: cauldron, usually supported on a tripod.
  2. S2CID 194957933
    .
  3. ISBN 9780500181447
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  4. ^ Crane, Gregory R. "Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1, chapter 144, section 1". Perseus Digital Library. Department of the Classics, Tufts University. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  5. ^
    ISBN 9780195305746
    .
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