This is the third in a four-part series about the 3D elements in Minoan art. Find the other posts here: Part One, Part Two, Part Four.

In my previous post in this series, I explored Minoan ceramics with 3D decorations on them. This time, we're going to look at some ceramic containers where the entire piece is the 3D element. And no, these are definitely not ordinary pitchers.

Pitchers / rhytons of all sorts are among the more numerous Minoan ceramics. They were used both for ordinary cooking and dining as well as for ritual libations. And they appear in ordinary pitcher format as well as a wide variety of animal shapes.

For instance, there's the bird-shaped rhyton at the top of this post - or maybe I should call it a borb? It's definitely unusual, from the modern point of view.

But bird-shaped rhytons were actually pretty popular in Minoan Crete. They came in a wide variety of forms, based perhaps on each individual artist's creative vision. And they might be related to the nippled ewers and beaked pitchers I've talked about before, homages to the Neolithic Bird Goddess the Minoans continued to revere well into the Bronze Age.

Here's one example that appears to have been made purposely without a head and with textured wings:

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

And a few funky, weird ones that are officially classified as bird rhytons. But I have questions.

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

and

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

and

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Here's one that's labeled in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum as a bull, but it's pretty clearly meant to look like a ram from the curly-horned sheep breed the Minoans raised. Though I will say, that pitcher spout rising up out of its back looks quite uncomfortable.

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Cattle were a popular form for rhytons. They're all labeled as bulls in the museums because apparently archaeologists and museum curators are unaware that until quite recently, both bulls and cows had horns. Some rhytons are clearly bulls, like this gorgeous fellow with his heavy neck musculature and glorious curly coat:

Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

This one may be a friendly cow rather than a bull:

Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

In Ariadne's Tribe, we have both cow and bull Horned Ones deities, so we're delighted to see both bovine sexes represented in Minoan art. Of course, they're not all realistic enough to be able to tell whether they're bulls or cows. Like this interesting, cartoonish one - and no, I don't know why it has Frankenstein bolts sticking out of the sides of its neck. They may have been anchors for a cord used as a handle, but no one is sure.

Image CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I'm quite fond of this pig-shaped rhyton. Yes, the Minoans had pigs along with all their other livestock.

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

And I would be remiss if I didn't include this hysterical rhyton, shaped like the human animal. I love the curly bangs!

Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

That completes our brief tour of 3D Minoan rhytons. But never fear, there's even more 3D fun to come... in the form of carved stone vessels and faience plaques.