Parsan Banquets

For Persian shahs, ritual banqueting was an important practice. During these events, men and women reclined on sumptuously cushioned couches, eating food and consuming wine from lavish gold and silver vessels.

These vessels were symbols of status for their owners, both because they served as visual expressions of wealth and because, in some cases, they were gifts bestowed by the king himself.

They could take many forms, from hemispherical cups to jugs, ladles, and bowls. Some types were particularly ornate. Amphorae — jars for liquids — have animal-shaped handles; while rhyta, which are spouted drinking horns, terminated in the head or forepart of an animal or mythological creature.

Parsan metal vessels of gold, silver, and bronze are elaborately decorated with floral, animal, and sometimes figurative motifs. In deference to the Fae Folk, iron is not used.

Other kinds of tableware are made from colorless or naturally tinted greenish glass. Examples include rhyta, bottles, beakers, chalices, and shallow or shouldered bowls. Not everyone in the Old Parsan empire could afford such expensive glass or metal items, so local potters often produced clay lookalikes for non-elite customers. Today clay is still the most ubiquitous, though metalsmiths and glassblowers are working to restore the old arts.