Cage Cup, Greek diatreton, also vas diatretum, a Roman luxury glass vessel. These Diatreta consist of an inner beaker and an outer cage.

The Diatrea are mentioned in Roman literature, while the first identified discovery was in 1680. Since then it had been accepted, that the cage cups were made by carving solid thick glass, but recently observations and experiment have shown, that this is only true for the rim of the vessels and the cutting of the fixed cage, but not for the joining of beaker and its cage.

Furthermore, the specific carving of the rim of the beakers and the missing stand of all known vessels at least have to be understood in the light of the late Corning Cage Cup: they all were lamps, and their decoration and their inscriptions more or less elaborated the transformation of Ampelos, preserved by the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. The same is true for the Lycurgus cup, as Donald Harden has shown.^[1] In Greek mythology, Ampelos (vine) was a satyr and good friend of Dionysus. ... The Greek epic poet Nonnus (Greek Nonnos), a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid, probably lived at the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century AD. He produced the Dionysiaca, an epic tale of the god Dionysus, a paraphrase of the Gospel of John...

Munich Cage Cup from the 4th Century A.D.; the smooth joins show the fusion of the cage, but also the carving of its surface

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2056x2476, 546 KB) Roman glass baker from second half of the 4th century. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2056x2476, 546 KB) Roman glass baker from second half of the 4th century. ...

See also

• Conchylia cup
• Lycurgus cup

A conchylia cup is a Roman cup type with a conical base and a slightly everted rim, made of transparent to slightly colored glass. ...

Weblinks

• The Daruvar cage cup; also this image repesents the Roman fuse technique.
• The Cologne cage cup also was produced by the fuse technique. It Greek inscription is: IIIE. ZHCAIC KAAQC AEI = pie zesais kalos aei = Drink, so you will live well forever
• The Corning cage cup, serving as a lamp. Though the text emphazises: The Romans did make their cage cups by cutting and undercutting thick-walled glass blanks, the image clearly shows the fuse technique.
• The Lycurgus cup

• Roman glass fuse technology
• Lamps

Literature

• Harden, D. B.: Glass of the Caesars. Exh. cat., organized by: The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, N. Y., The British Museum, London, Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne; Olivetti, Milan, 1987.

Sources

1. ^ http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/text/obj570.html