My new baby, patiently waiting for me.
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My baby is a replica of a5th century pnigeus, a portable earthenware oven. Its name comes from the verb πνίγω, to choke, strangle.
Hippo, a presocratic Greek philosopher, said that the heavens were like the dome of an oven ( πνιγεύς) covering the Earth. In Clouds, Aristophanes illustrated the cosmos of the school of Socrates as a domed pnigeus: “There is a Thinkery of wise minds. There dwell men who argue and persuade that the
sky is an oven-lid which is above us and that we are the coals.”
The pnigeus is heated by hot coals put on the floor; when it is hot enough, the coals are moved and the dough loaves are placed on the warm floor. After they have been covered with the dome-shaped lid, the coals are gathered on its side.
Oh yes, I can’t wait to try it.
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