pelike

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noun

A ceramic container of Ancient Greece, similar to an amphora.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

nounpelike (plural pelikes or pelikai or pelikae)

plural pelikes · plural pelikai · plural pelikae

  1. A ceramic container of Ancient Greece, similar to an amphora.

    There are also many pelikai (18%) above all in the Attic red figure production as witness the sets from the tombs of the necropolis of S.Venera.

    2003, Stefania Visco, “Poseidonia”, in Rosalba Panvini, Filippo Giudice, editors, Ta Attika: Attic Figured Vases from Gela, «L’Erma» di Bretschneider, →ISBN, page 48, column 1
    5 more examples

    The high twisted handles of Pl. XII, 60. 41, and the same sort of shape (but with boldly moulded lip), has been found at Kertch in the same grave as two red figure pelikae and lekythoi, some with r.f. palmettes, others with a check pattern filled in with white dots.

    1913, Percy N[eville] Ure, Black Glaze Pottery from Rhitsona in Boeotia (University College, Reading: Studies in History and Archaeology), London: Humphrey [Sumner] Milford, Oxford University Press, page 31

    Polychromy now carried all before it, even the outworn defences of Red-figure; and in the fourth century we find not only white and gold, but other colours—pink, blue, and green—not infrequently used on a group of vases, chiefly hydriae, pelikae, and elaborate toilet-boxes, found at Kertch in the Crimea, in the Cyrenaica and elsewhere, and evidently imported there from Athens Athens (Fig. 17).

    1919, Mary Antonie Beatrice Herford, A Handbook of Greek Vase Painting, Manchester University Press, page 103

    The scenes were probably intended as abbreviated representations of combat between griffins and barbarians, since there are many pelikai that carry scenes of Amazons on horseback in combat with griffins.

    2002, Faraj Mohmoud Elrashedy, Imports of Post-Archaic Greek Pottery into Cyrenaica: From the End of the Archaic to the Beginning of the Hellenistic Period, Archaeopress, →ISBN, page 58, column 1

    The black- and red-figure vases that were found are mainly small in size (lekythoi, kylikes, aryballoi, alabastra, kotylae, skyphoi, exaleiptra, and kantharoi), although there are also larger pots (oinochoae, pelikae, hydriae, kraters, and amphoras).

    2011, G. Karamitrou-Mentessidi, “Aiani—Historical and Geographical Context”, in Robin J[ames] Lane Fox, editor, Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon: Studies in the Archaeology and History of Macedon, 650 bc–300 ad, Brill, →ISBN, page 106

    In plain and banded wares, pelikai typically have rotund bodies and squat necks, with a pair of ring handles mounted to the shoulder and arching around to attach anywhere from the rim to the lower neck (e.g., PZ PBW 145).

    2018, Joseph Coleman Carter, Keith Swift, The Chora of Metaponto 7: The Greek Sanctuary at Pantanello, volume I, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 807, column 2

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekπελίκη
  2. Englishpelike

Ancient Greek πελίκη (pelíkē)

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Rhymes & wordplay

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Cite this entry
APA

pelike. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pelike

MLA

“pelike.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pelike. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pelike,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pelike.

Source: pelike on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.