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Krater

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Martin P. Nilsson
Martin P. Nilsson
Affiliation:
The University of Lund, Sweden
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Extract

The word κρατήρ, the great mixing vessel in which the wine was mixed with water and from which it was drawn, is not seldom used metaphorically in religious literature. To begin with, it may be useful to quote a few examples showing how the metaphor is used in secular literature. Pindar calls the messenger who brings his ode a sweet krater of loud-sounding songs and Aristophanes calls the sycophant a vessel of evils. Plutarch speaks of a krater, placed in the middle which contains myths and arguments mixed up. In Aeschylus Clytaemestra says of Agamemnon that, since he has filled a krater in the house with so many evils, having returned he has to drink it off himself. Philostratus speaks of krateres set up from which the thirsty ones drew. The metaphorical use of the word comes very near to the concrete facts: a storage vessel in which liquids are mixed and from which they are drawn.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 1958 , pp. 53 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 Pindar, Ol., vi, v. 154 f., έσσὶ γὰρ ἄγγελος όρθός, ἠυκόμων σκυτάλα Μονσᾶν, γλυκὺς κρατὴρ άγαϕθέγκτων ἀοιδᾶν.

2 Aristophanes, Acharnenses, v. 936 ff., πάγχρηστον ἄγγος ἔσται κρατὴρ κακῶν.

3 Plutarch, de defectu Orac., p. 421 A, μὐθων καὶ λόγων ἀναμεμιγμένων κρατὴρ ἐν μέσῳ πρόκειται.

4 Aeschylus, Agamemnon, v. 1397, τοσῶνδε κρατῆρ' ἐν δόμοις κακῶν ὅδε πλήσας ἀραίων αὐτὸς ἐκπίνει μολών.

5 Philostratus, vita Apollonii, iv, 24, λόγων τε κρατῆρες ἴσταντο καὶ ἠρύοντο αὐτῶν οὶ διψῶντες.

6 Plato, Philebus, p. 61 B f., τοῖς δὴ θεοῖς, ὤ Πρώταρχε, εὐχόμενοι κεραννύωμεν, εἴτε Διόνυσος εἴτε Ἣϕαιστος εἴθ' ὅστιѕ θεῶν ταύτην τὴν τιμὴν εἴληχε τῆѕ συγκράσεωѕ. - - - - - καὶ μὴν καθάπερ ἡμῖν οίνοχόοιѕ τισὶ παρεστᾶσι — κρῆναι, μέλιτος μὲν ἄν άπεικάζοι τις τὴν τῆς ἡδονῆς, τὴν δὲ τῆς ϕρονήσεως νηϕαντικὴν καὶ ἄοινον αὐστηροῦ καὶ ὑγιεινοῦ τινος ὔδατος, ἄς προθυμητέον ὡς κάλλιστα συμμειγνύναι.

7 So Boyancé, Platon et le vin, Lettres d'humanité, 1951, p. 9.

8 Plato, Timaeus, p. 41 πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸν πρότερον κρατῆρα, ἐν ᾦ τὴη τοῦ παντὸς ψυχὴν κεραννὺς ἔμισγεν, τὰ τῶν πρόσθεν ὑπόλοιπα κατεχεῖτο μίσγων πρόπον μέν τινα τὸν αὐτόν, ἀκήρατα δὲ οὐκέτι κατὰ ταὐτὰ ὼσαὐτως, ἀλλὰ δεὐτερα καὶ τρίτα. Cornford's translation.

9 In the Realencyklopädie der Altertumswiss., xviii, p. 211.

10 Pfister, Die Autorität der göttlichen Offenbarung, Glauben und Wissen bei Platon, Würzburger Jahrbücher, ii, 1947, p. 181.

11 Kern, Orphicorum fragmenta, 297 f., p. 309 ff.

12 For the testimonia see Orph. fragm., p. 308.

13 Proclus, in Timaeum, p. 41 D; Orphic. fragm., 217.

14 Plutarch, de sera num. vind., p. 566 B f.

15 Proclus in Timaeum E, prooem. iii, p. 169 Diehl; Orphic. fragm. 104, τὸν δὲ κρατῆρα τὸν ζῳογόνον τῆ Νυκτιὶ τῆ πᾶσαν ἐκ τῶν ἁϕανῶν παραγούσῃ ζωὴν μετὰ τοῦ Φάνητος, ὡς καὶ ὸ κρατὴρ πᾶσαν λοχεὐει τοῖς έν τῷ κόσμῳ ψυχήν.

16 Arnobius, adv. nationes, ii, 25, haecine est anima docta illa quam dicitis, immortalis, perfecta, divina, post deum principem rerum et post mentes geminas locum optinens quarum et affluens ex crateribus vivis? (mentes geminas: daemones et genios, conjecit Klussmann).

17 Proclus in Parmenidem, p. 769. Cousin, ed. 2: W. Kroll, Oracula chaldaica (Breslauer philologische Abhandlungen, vi, 1895), p. 25, δέσμῳ Ἔρωτος ἀγητοῦ, δς ἐκ νόου ἔκθορε πρῶτος ἑσσάμενος περὶ (ms πυρι) πῦρ συνδέσμιον, ὄϕρα κεράσσῃ πηγαίους κρατῆρας ἑοῦ πυρὸς ἄνθος ἑπισχών. Cf. Idem. Theol. Platonis, p. 318, 27 Portus, πηγαίους γοῦν κρατῆρας καὶ οί θεοὶ προεστήκασι τὰς πρωτουργοὺς τῶν μερικῶν αίτίας.

18 Only in a footnote I quote a passage in which the content of the krater is the opposite. As a proof that the soul, inebriated with the matter, is drawn downwards Macrobius, In somnium Scipionis, i, 12, 7, refers to the constellation Krater: crater Liberi patris ille sidereus in regione inter Cancrum et Leonem locatus ebrietatem illic primum descensuris animis evenire silva influente significans, unde et comes ebrietatis oblivio illic animis incipit earn latenter obrepere. Kern has introduced this passage as his fragment 241 with questionable right. The metaphor is clear, taken from the intoxication following the drinking of the wine in the krater. It is used to illustrate the well-known doctrine that when the soul is sent down into a new incarnation, she, when descending, is invested with the vices. According to the Hermetism this takes place in the spheres of the planets, here the name of the constellations and the consequences of drinking wine have called forth another version. Just as an intoxicated man forgets his human nature, so the soul, intoxicated by the constellation of the Krater, forgets his celestial nature.

19 L. v. Sybel, Christliche Antike, i, 1906. Pl. iv to p. 256.

20 Cumont, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains, 1942, pp. 158 f. with fig. 26.

21 A.-J. Festugière, Le baptême dans le Crater, Harvard Theol. Review, XXXI, 1938, pp. 1 ff. I have objected to his interpretation in my Gesch. d. griech. Religion, ii, p. 584, n. 1, but, my exposition not being satisfactory, I come back to the problem here.

22 However, he seems now more inclined to such an understanding. In his review of my book, Revue des études grecques, lxiv, 1951, p. 485, he says: M. N. préfère pour βάπτισον σεαυτήν le sens métaphorique “durchtränkt von etwas” à celui de “plonge-toi dans” que j'avais jadis adopté. Très possible, et j'avais moi-même longtemps hésité.

23 Corp. Herm., iv, 11, ἣν ἀκριβῶς εἰ θεάσῃ καὶ νοὴσεις τοῖς τῆς καρδίας ὀϕθαλμοῖς, vii, 1, ἀνβλέψατε τοίς ὀϕθαλμοῖѕ τῆѕ καρδίας; vii, 2, ἀϕορῶντες τῇ καρδὶᾳ εἰς τὸν ὁραθῆναι θέλοντα. Nock points to I Clement, 36, 2, διὰ τοὐτου (Christus) ἠνεῴχθησαν ἡμῶν οἱ ὀϕθαλμοὶ τῆς καρδίας. Cf. Corp. Herm., 1, 31, δέξαι λογικὰς θυσίαѕ ἀγνὰς ἀπὸ ψυχῆς καὶ καρδίας πρὸς σέ ἀνατεταμένης; cf. the Greek version of Asclepius, ii, p. 353 Nock-Festugière, χάριν σοι οἴδαμεν ψυχῆ πάσᾳ καὶ καρδίᾳ πρὸς σὲ ἀνατεταμένη. Cf. also phrases such as Plato, de rep., p. 533 D, τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα; this seems to be especially Platonic: Lucian, vitarum auctio, 18, τυϕλὸς γὰρ εῖ τῆς ψυχῆς τὸν ὀϕθαλμόν. Corp. Herm., v, 2, νόησις γὰρ μόνη ὁρᾷ τὸ ἀϕανές (God), ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ ἀϕανὴς οὔσα. εἰ δύνασαι, τοῖς τοῦ νοῦ ὀϕθαλμοῖς ϕανήσεται.

24 Cf. Κόρη κόσμου, fragm. xxiii, 14, Nock-Festugière, iv, p. 4, πνεῦμα γὰρ ὄσον ἀρκετὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου λαβὼν καὶ νοερῶς τοῦτο πυρὶ μίξας ἀγνώστοις τισὶν ἑτέραις ὔλαις ἐκέρασε.

25 Plutarch, de superstitione, p. 166 A.