Mettlach Beer Stein Tankard 5016 Dutch German Hippocampi Hippocampus Faience

Description

The Mettlach stein offered is a 1 1/3 L capacity with a height of 11 3/4” to the top of the thumblift. The mold number is 5016. The stein has designs of the Hippocampus. This stein has a pewter lid. There are no chips or cracks on the stein.
This stein is a great addition to any advanced collectors collection.
In the
Iliad
,
Homer
describes
Poseidon
, who was god of horses (
Poseidon Hippios
), earthquakes, and the sea, drawn by "
brazen
-hoofed" horses over the sea's surface, and
Apollonius of Rhodes
, being consciously archaic in
Argonautica
, describes the horse of Poseidon emerging from the sea and galloping away across the
Libyan
sands. This compares to the specifically "two-hoofed" hippocampi of
Gaius Valerius Flaccus
in his
Argonautica
: "
Orion
when grasping his father’s reins heaves the sea with the snorting of his two-hooved horses."In
Hellenistic
and
Roman
imagery, however, Poseidon (or Roman
Neptune
) often drives a sea-
chariot
drawn by hippocampi. Thus hippocampi sport with this god in both ancient depictions and much more modern ones, such as in the waters of the 18th-century
Trevi Fountain
in Rome surveyed by Neptune from his
niche
above.
The appearance of hippocampi in both
freshwater
and
saltwater
is counter-intuitive to a modern audience, though not to an ancient one. The Greek picture of the natural
hydrological cycle
did not take into account the condensation of atmospheric water as rain to replenish the
water table
, but imagined the waters of the sea oozing back landwards through vast underground
caverns
and
aquifers
, rising replenished and freshened in springs.
Tritons
and
winged
hippocampi in the
Trevi Fountain
, Rome
Thus it was natural for a temple at
Helike
in the coastal plain of
Achaea
to be dedicated to
Poseidon Helikonios
, (the Poseidon of Helicon), the sacred spring of
Boeotian Helikon
. When an earthquake suddenly submerged the city, the temple's bronze Poseidon accompanied by hippocampi continued to snag fishermens' nets. Likewise, the hippocampus was considered an appropriate decoration for
mosaics
in Roman
thermae
or public baths, as at
Aquae Sulis
modern day
Bath
in Britannia.
Poseidon's horses, which were included in the elaborate sculptural program of gilt-bronze and
ivory
, added by a Roman client to the temple of Poseidon at
Corinth
, are likely to have been hippocampi; the Romanised Greek
Pausanias
described the rich ensemble in the later 2nd century AD
On the temple, which is not very large, stand bronze
Tritons
. In the fore-temple are images, two of Poseidon, a third of
Amphitrite
, and a Sea, which also is of bronze. The offerings inside were dedicated in our time by
Herodes Atticus
, four horses, gilded except for the hoofs, which are of ivory, and two gold
Tritons
beside the horses, with the parts below the waist of ivory. On the car stand Amphitrite and Poseidon, and there is the boy Palaemon upright upon a
dolphin
. These too are made of ivory and gold. On the middle of the base on which the car has been wrought a Sea holding up the young
Aphrodite
, and on either side are the nymphs called
Nereids
.
Pictures are part of the description.
Shipping to the United States and Canada only. Shipping within continental United States will be .00. Price reduction on shipping if multiple items purchased. Illinois residents pay sales tax of 8.5%. Email with any questions. Payments to be made via Paypal.  Payment due within 48 hours of auction close.
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