KRATĒR. The Mixing-Vessel as Metaphorical Space in Ancient Greek Tradition

Abstract

Aristotle conceptualized the noun metaphora (literally ‘transfer’) as the result of a linguistic and cognitive process of transfer presupposing a comparison or an analogy between two material or mental elements. However, such a notion of metaphor is unable to convey the impact of semantic mixtures between those elements. This is demonstrated by the term kratēr (literally ‘mixing-object’) in ancient Greek poetry, where it is used as an emblem and not necessarily a metaphor for different forms of transfer, spatial and non-spatial ones, but also of mixtures, taking place in the symposion.

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