Rhyton featuring a ram’s head and painted detail of the god Eros with a seated woman. From Apulia, Italy 4th century B.C. Currently on display in the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

To a modern viewer this cup, also known as a rhyton, must look like the world’s least functional drinking vessel. The Ancient Athenian creators of the rhyton designed the cup not merely for functionality, but to promote a particular kind of experience. Namely, to encourage heavy drinking, and debauchery at elite banquets, called Symposia.

The physical qualities of the rhyton were designed to work together with the banquet setting to create the ideal party and encourage prolific drinking, free-flowing conversation, and a playful spirit.

The cup you just cant put down: anti-affordances at play

One glaring feature of the rhyton is that it lacks a flat base to rest on. This is no mistake on the part of its designers. The curved design of the cup is not only meant to imitate an animal horn, but also to offer the user nowhere to safely place it down without spilling their wine. The user must carry the cup at all times, only placing it down when they have finished all their wine.

Not only did the rhyton need to be held upright, but most rhytons were made with holes in the bottom, tapered end of the horn. Wine could be drunk from the top opening, or the lower one, but either way, it had to be drunk quickly, or else it would leak onto the floor. You can see a man reclining at a banquet and spilling wine all over his expensive couch and floor in a fresco painting from 50 A.D. discovered in Herculaneum, Italy (pictured below).

Both the curved design and the hole in the bottom of the rhyton are examples of anti-affordances — something that the physical form of the design prevents you from doing. Often anti-affordances can be used to promote safety or prevent undesired behaviors, but they don’t have to be all work and no play. The rhyton is a great example of how an anti-affordance can be used to produce the desired behavior (drinking quickly), but also subvert expectations to create a fun experience.

Banquet scene featuring a man reclining and holding a rhyton. Fresco from Herculaeum 50 A.D.

Emotional design: designing for crazy, sexy, fun

The rhyton was not only meant to encourage people to drink, but was also creating an emotional experience through its decoration. The rhyton could be both a toy for drunk people and a conversation piece.

The animal head on the base of the rhyton can only be seen properly when someone is drinking from it. When the drinker holds the rhyton up to their face the cup becomes like a mask, concealing the drinker’s face and temporarily turning them into animals.

Many rhytons were also decorated with erotic scenes, sometimes mythological figures, which were meant to not only create a raunchy party, but also to spark deeper conversations about love, sex, and the gods. Plato’s Symposium is set at exactly this kind of dinner party where the guests, after a few drinks, take turns making philosophical speeches about love and beauty.

The rhyton was the all-in-one party game of its day. It was playful, provocative, and subversive and encouraged its users to be the same.

Designing for the reflective level

The reflective level of design is all about how an object makes the user feel about themselves, how it fits with their identity and values. Although it might seem undignified to have a drinking cup that pours wine all over the floor, the rhyton became something of a status symbol in the ancient world.

The rhyton became popular in Ancient Athens in 5th century B.C. as a vessel for drinking wine at elite male drinking parties. Unlike the classic red plastic drinking cups used at raucous parties today, the rhyton was an expensively hand-crafted item reserved for wealthy Athenians.

The form was so revered that it was copied throughout Italy and reached as far as Persia, where rhytons were often made from expensive metals such as gold and silver. Through clever emotional design a cup with a hold in the bottom became a prized luxury item traded throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

Silver rhyton from Iran, 1st century B.C. On display in the Met Museum.

Lessons for modern designers

The rhyton illustrates the importance of designing in context, and designing for the whole experience from function to emotion. It cleverly employed anti-affordances to encourage wine drinking, but it was also a toy, a conversation piece, and a status symbol.

Next time you want to throw a raging party, consider putting holes in the bottom of your guests’ cups. Just don’t send me the dry cleaning bills.

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published on our platform. This story contributed to Bay Area Black Designers: a professional development community for Black people who are digital designers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area. By joining together in community, members share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, and resilience. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.