🍷 Krater

A krater is a large Greek vessel with a wide mouth. Wine was mixed with water in it. This was normal in ancient Greece: wine was drunk diluted, and undiluted wine was seen as rough.

The krater stood at the symposium, an evening where men drank wine, talked and listened to music. The host or a chosen leader decided how much water to add. Wine was scooped from the krater with a special jug, the oinochoe, and poured into cups.

Kraters were shaped from clay and painted with scenes from myth and daily life. Today they are found in museums, and scholars learn from them how the ancient Greeks lived. There were also metal kraters, but they were rarer.

The Greek word krater is linked to the idea of mixing. The krater belongs to the topic of ancient Greece and wine and helps us understand how people drank wine thousands of years ago.