A chous is a specific type of wine jug made from clay. They are characterised by a squat profile, bulbous body, and trefoil mouth that looks like a three-leaf clover. Choes – the plural form of chous – were produced from the Geometric period (900-700 BC) until the Classical period (480-323 BC), but they were especially popular between 500 and 300 BC. Smaller examples, which are less than 15cm tall, are usually associated with children because they are decorated with scenes showing children at play, and can be found buried with children in their graves.
There is a strong link between children and choes. Literary evidence records that chous jugs were used to give children their first drink of wine to formally welcome them into society. Choes were also given to children as gifts to celebrate this. Children took their first drink of wine from chous jugs during a festival called the Anthesteria, when they were around three years old. The Anthesteria was a wine and flower festival, celebrated in Springtime. It was a three-day festival, and the second day was called ‘the day of the jugs’.
The Shefton chous (inventory number 198) is unusual in some respects. It was probably a child’s chous, because it is only 11.8cm tall, but unfortunately we do not have any information about its findspot. The chous is surprisingly light, it weighs only 132g.
What is particularly unusual about the Shefton chous is that it seems to show an older youth, rather than a child. The male figure is seated in the centre of the scene, which is bordered by bands of ‘ovolo’ patterning to create a frame. His face is shown in profile, and his head faces right, whilst his body is illustrated frontally, but with his right foot in profile and turned to the left. The figure has some clothes draped around his hips, but his chest, arms, lower legs, and feet are exposed. You can note his distinctly muscular physique, which surprisingly also appears on younger boys. He holds out his hands, and in his right hand he holds a chous jug.
Ovolo patterning
The Shefton chous was made in Athens in Greece between 450 and 400 BC. The body of the jug would have been thrown on a wheel and the handle would have been attached. It would then have been decorated and fired in a kiln.
The Shefton chous is decorated in a red-figure style: the background and the details of the image are painted in black, whilst the figure is an orange/red colour because it has not been painted and remains the reddish-orange colour of the clay underneath. The red-figure style was developed in Athens around 530-525 BC and was the most popular style used to decorate Greek painted pottery in the following two centuries, with Athens remaining the key centre of production.
Close-up of the hole pierced through the pot
The chous has been repaired and restored, and an interesting feature to note is a hole pierced through the ovolo patterning along the bottom of the scene, to the left of the figure’s right foot: we are not sure how the hole came to be there.
Over 1000 choes have been found in Greece, and almost three-quarters of them are smaller examples (less than 15cm tall) that are decorated with scenes illustrating a child or children. Other choes typically show children that are characterised as younger juveniles than the figure on the Shefton chous. The children play alone, with toys or animals, or they play in groups of up to five youngsters. Some of the children are girls, though only around 8% of choes show female children. Children of both genders are shown with a range of objects as well as animals, including; dogs, birds, choes, toy carts or rollers (walking aids, characterised as wheeled sticks), strings of protective amulets, balls, and rattles.
In terms of shining light on children in antiquity, choes demonstrate the importance of children being formally welcomed into society, especially in the fifth and fourth centuries BC in ancient Greece. Choes also illustrate the importance of toys and animals in children’s lives.
