The Chalice of Antioch

I recently wrote a paper for my Archeology class about a cup which was discovered in Antioch about 100 years ago. It’s commonly called the “Chalice of Antioch.” As promised, I’m not going to post the actual paper on here… too boring. The reason this particular piece of kitchen-ware caught my eye was because it is one of the most “likely” contenders to be the actual Holy Grail! Well, I guess by putting “likely” in quotes, I’ve already revealed my conclusion. Actually, it is still possible that it could be the ONE, but at this point, it seems pretty unlikely. There are some things about it, though, that are pretty intriguing.

It was discovered by a group of Arab workmen digging around Antioch. Antioch was of course a major center of early Christianity, probably second only to Jerusalem during the first century. You might remember that that’s where Christians were first called “Christians.” Paul and a bunch of other big famous’ were based there. Anywho, this obviously makes it prime territory for finding these sorts of major first century kinds of finds.

The chalice is actually made up of two chalices. The outer chalice is very ornate. It displays 12 grape vines growing up and 12 figures seated on them. Anyone picking up on the imagery? (Spoiler: once you study it a little, you find that there is no way these twelve men are the twelve apostles… sorry, but they ARE depictions of various apostles and fathers. For instance, Luke and Mark are depicted). There are a bunch of other things carved onto the outer chalice as well. Some of them are quite interesting, some are just plain confusing (i.e. a roman eagle holding a basket?).

The really interesting part is the inner chalice. It is a simple silver cup. It is not decorated, and it shows a significant amount of wear (or corrosion). The interesting part comes when one asks, “Why encase such a seemingly unimpressive cup in such an exquisite gilded outer chalice?” To protect it? To decorate it without actually harming it? It’s hard to know.

Well, anyway, that’s all I’m gonna give you for now. I don’t want to ruin the magic for anyone by giving all of the technical debate surrounding these questions. I just really enjoy the “what if” factor. I mean, think about the implications of that for a while. Not that this is the grail, but how would it change us if we did find the grail?

For more cool info start with: "'Antioch Chalice', The [Byzantine] (50.4)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/06/waa/ho_50.4.htm (October 2006)