The Greek word kántharos came to Latin as canthărus, and later to our language as a pitcher. In addition to the above, we must point out that the Greek word was used to refer to a kind of beetle, although later, with the passage of time, it also began to refer to a glass that had a stem shaped like a wine glass, wide mouth and two handles.
The concept is used to name a container of considerable size, whose structure is narrow at the bottom and in the mouth, but wide in the center.
According to DigoPaul, the pitchers, which are made of metal or clay, usually have handles or handles. These vessels are used to conserve or transfer fluids. The notion can also be used to name the contents of the container.
For example: “The linyera always went around the city with a jug of wine in his right hand”, “Be careful! If you drop the jug, it will break into a thousand pieces ”, “ At the party we drank two jugs of liquor ”.
The first pitchers were created thousands of years ago. These are common pieces of the so-called “water pottery”, consisting of the manufacture of clay or clay products for the storage and transport of water. The shapes and styles of the jugs have changed over the course of history, as can be seen through archeology.
In the history of art, on many occasions jugs have become an essential part of artistic works. A good example of this are examples like these:
– “The water carrier of Seville”, a painting from 1620 that was made by Diego Velázquez.
– “The girls with the pitcher.” It is a canvas painted in 1791 by Francisco de Goya with the aim that it could decorate the office of King Carlos IV in El Escorial.
Likewise, other painters such as Julio Romero de Torres or Picasso introduced pitchers in many of their works.
Various popular phrases were developed from the term. When trying to warn about the risks of repeat behavior, it is said that a jug that goes a long way to a source eventually breaks. On the other hand, when very abundant precipitations are registered, it is usually exclaimed that it rains “in pots”.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the existence of a place in Madrid that goes by the name of “Cántaro blanco”. It is a modern dairy that can be found in the famous Malasaña neighborhood and that has come to recall the way of selling milk that existed decades ago.
Thus, milk is now sold in bulk in this establishment, mostly. In addition, it stands out because it offers a wide variety of milk: cow, goat, sheep, soy, rice, lactose-free, skimmed, semi-skimmed…
Yogurt and all kinds of dairy products also take center stage in this place.
It should be noted that, beyond their original function, there are also pitchers that were used as musical instruments. In these cases the vessel became an idiophone that, when struck with an espadrille or with the hand, functioned as a percussion instrument.
