Drillopota.

PLATE XIII

p. 29

TERRA COTTA. Height, 16 16/25 inches.

PLATE XIII.

LIKE the former, this is another specimen of the drillopotæ, representing a dwarf, a child's body with the head of an old man. Its figure is as much out of proportion as its attitude is obscene and yet its gestures seem too indicate modesty.

Sometimes the ancients made use of certain drillopotæ, made of glass these were called phallovitroboli, or phalloveretroboli, drinking-glasses in the form of phalluses. ¹ Juvenal says: "He drinks from a Priapeian glass;" ² and the commentator adds: "Glass phalluses called drillopotæ."

The present vase is seen full and side-face; it will be remarked that the upper part has no opening, whence it appears that the vessel was turned upside down and filled at the bottom; it is probable that they drank from he projecting part as from a spout. O tempora!!

Many other drillopotæ have been found at Civita, Herculaneum, and several parts of Magna Grecia; but as they are not in any way different from those we have described, we have deemed it useless to repeat a description of them.

Footnotes

29:1 PLINY, xxxiii. 1.

29:2 JUVENAL, Sat. ii. 95.