Metraipolis › archive › dc_ab22ff794bdb

Authepsa — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-11-10T11:44:02.147Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 380386a168f9d26dc549aff6f12be52d258e33adb9dbe7232ebc88a69a6e5b02
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ab22ff794bdb

How to cite

Authepsa — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ab22ff794bdb (Metraipolis archive dc_ab22ff794bdb, sha256 380386a168f9d26dc549aff6f12be52d258e33adb9dbe7232ebc88a69a6e5b02)

BibTeX

@misc{dcab22ff794bdb,
  title = {Authepsa — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_ab22ff794bdb; sha256 380386a168f9d26dc549aff6f12be52d258e33adb9dbe7232ebc88a69a6e5b02},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

In classical antiquity, an authepsa or autepsa (Ancient Greek: αὐθέψης, authépsēs; from αὐτός + ἕψω, "self-boiling", "self-cooking") was a vessel used for water heating. Basically, it was a vase with a central tube used to keep coals. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities describes it as follows: AUTHEPSA (αὐθέψης), or “self-boiler”, was a vessel used for heating water or keeping it hot. As is well known, both hot and cold water were served by the attendants at well-appointed Roman tables (calidae gelidaeque minister, Juv. 5.63, with Mayor's note). For this purpose vessels were used which cannot have differed much in construction from our modern tea-urns (Böttiger, Sabina, 2.30), and like them might be made of costly materials and in artistic designs (authepsa illa, quam tanto pretio nuper mercatus est, Cic. pro Rose. Amer. 46.133; authepsas argenteas, Lamprid. Heliog. 19). Many ingenious contrivances for economical and portable cooking have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and are now in the Museo Nazionale (formerly Borbonico) at Naples. It is probable, however, that the authepsa, unlike the aënum and caccabus, was not used for cooking; and it is rather to be identified with a utensil from the same collection (Mus. Borbon. vol. iii. pl. 63) in the first cut above. This vessel is in bronze, and of very tasteful workmanship: the cylinder in the centre was filled with charcoal, and has a grating which allowed the air to enter and the ashes to escape. The second cut, from Mus. Borbon. vol. v. pl. 44, shows another of more elaborate construction. The Russian samovar is likewise explained to mean “self-boiler”, and appears to be little different from the authepsa. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities describes it as follows: Authepsa (αὐθέψης), which literally means “self-boiling” or “self-cooking,” was the name of a vessel which was used for heating water, or for keeping it hot. Its form was not greatly different from that of our modern tea-urn, as shown by the annexed illustration. Cicero speaks of authepsae among other costly Corinthian and Delian vessels. In later times they were made of silver.

Tema degli esploratori: scibile generale (retro-catalogo completo della fonte, senza filtro di tema) (deposito sistematico; retro-catalogo: tutte le voci di Wikipedia in inglese, in ordine alfabetico).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Authepsa» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa
Wikidata Q18486439: «vessel used for water heating» (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18486439
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authepsa?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1363686912, consultata il 2026-11-10T11:40:13.290Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: d7b05dd078acebf85a348cc3fa66fdebbc3493bf46d6b65795b18d1a514c9e05