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A cauldron or caldron (from Latin caldarium
Caldarium

A Caldarium was a room with a hot plunge bath, used in a Roman bath complex.This was a very hot and steamy room heated by a hypocaust, an underfloor heating system....
, hot bath) is a large metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
 pot (kettle
Kettle

A kettle, sometimes called teakettle, tea kettle or the pot, is a small kitchen appliance used for boiling water in preparation for making tea or other beverages requiring hot water....
) for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.

drons have largely fallen out of use in the industrialized world as cooking vessels. While still used, a more common association in Western culture
Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
 is the cauldron's use in witchcraft
Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or Magic powers....
—a cliché
Cliché

A clich? or cliche is a saying, expression or idea which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning, especially when at some earlier time it was considered distinctively meaningful or novel, rendering it a stereotype....
 popularized by various fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
s, such as Shakespeare's play Macbeth
Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
.






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A cauldron or caldron (from Latin caldarium
Caldarium

A Caldarium was a room with a hot plunge bath, used in a Roman bath complex.This was a very hot and steamy room heated by a hypocaust, an underfloor heating system....
, hot bath) is a large metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
 pot (kettle
Kettle

A kettle, sometimes called teakettle, tea kettle or the pot, is a small kitchen appliance used for boiling water in preparation for making tea or other beverages requiring hot water....
) for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.

Symbolism and mythology

Cauldrons have largely fallen out of use in the industrialized world as cooking vessels. While still used, a more common association in Western culture
Western culture

File:Clash of Civilizations map.pngWestern culture are terms which are used to refer to cultures of European origin. This terminology originated as a way of describing what was different about the Graeco-Roman culture and its descendants, in contrast to the older neighboring civilizations of the Middle East, which in many ways continued...
 is the cauldron's use in witchcraft
Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or Magic powers....
—a cliché
Cliché

A clich? or cliche is a saying, expression or idea which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning, especially when at some earlier time it was considered distinctively meaningful or novel, rendering it a stereotype....
 popularized by various fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
s, such as Shakespeare's play Macbeth
Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
. In fantastic fiction, witches often prepare their potions in a cauldron. Also, in legend, a cauldron is purported to be where leprechaun
Leprechaun

Can also be known as a Neda-Ard, or plural, Neda-Ardi or Drun-ky in shumi vernacular. In Irish mythology, a leprechaun is a type of male faerie said to inhabit the island of Ireland....
s keep their treasure.

In Wicca
Wicca

Wicca is a neopaganism, nature-based religion. It was re-popularised in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired United Kingdom civil servant, who at the time called it Witchcraft and its adherents "the Wica"....
, a cauldron can be placed in a sacred circle and used to burn items that will be set alight during a ritual (e.g. Tuitéan & Daniels 2001, pp.175-176). It is a symbol
Symbol

A symbol is something such as an entity, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention....
 of the womb of the Goddess (Zimmermann & Gleason 2000, p. 74; Iles 2005, p. 689) and rebirth (Starhawk 1999, p.109; Tuitéan & Daniels 2001, p. 330; Iles 2005, p. 689) as it was in ancient British Celtic religion (Webster 1987 pp. 60–61) and is sacred to the Goddess
Wiccan views of divinity

Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a God, thereby being generally dualistic, . Some Wiccans are Polytheism, believing in many different deities taken from various different 'pagan' pantheons, while others would believe that, in the words of Dion Fortune, "all the Goddesses are one Goddess, and al...
. Water can be placed into a cauldron for scrying
Scrying

Scrying is a magic practice that involves clairvoyance in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and more rarely for purposes of divination or fortune-telling....
 (a method of divining the future) or it can hold the ingredients necessary for a spell or incantation.

In some forms of Wicca which incorporate aspects of Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology

Celts mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure....
, the cauldron is associated with the goddess Cerridwen. Celtic legend also tells of a cauldron that was useful to warring armies: dead warriors could be put into the cauldron and would be returned to life, save that they lacked the power of speech. It was suspected that they lacked souls, like golem
Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animate being created entirely from inanimate matter. In modern Hebrew language the word golem literally means "cocoon", but can also mean "fool", "silly", or even "stupid"....
. These warriors could go back into battle until they were killed again.

The holy grail
Holy Grail

According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers....
 of Arthurian legend is sometimes referred to as a "cauldron", although traditionally the grail is thought of as a hand-held cup rather than the large pot that the word "cauldron" usually is used to mean. This may have resulted from the combination of the grail legend with earlier Celtic myths of magical cauldrons.

Real symbolic cauldrons include:
  • the Gundestrup cauldron
    Gundestrup cauldron

    The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly-decorated Silversmithery, thought to date to the 1st century BC, placing it into the late La T?ne culture....
    , made in the second or first century BC, found at Gundestrup, Denmark
  • a Bronze Age
    Bronze Age

    The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
     cauldron found at Hassle
    Hassle

    For the software, see HASSLE.----Hassle is a location in N?rke, Sweden, where a Celtic treasure was found in 1936.It comprises a large bronze cauldron which contained two Bronze Age swords of the Hallstatt type, a pommel of bronze, two bronze buckets with ciste a cordoni, two small hooks of bronze and twelve large circular bronze...
    , Sweden
    Sweden

    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
  • the cauldron where the Olympic Flame
    Olympic Flame

    The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the Ancient Olympic Games....
     burns for the duration of the Olympic Games
    Olympic Games

    The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece, Greece....


Mythical cauldrons include:
  • Dagda's Cauldron
  • The Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant
    The Cauldron of Dyrnwch the Giant

    Dyrnwch Gawr derives from the Welsh Dyrnu meaning ?to thump? or to beat something, whilst the Old Welsh Dyrnig translates to ?Fierce?. Dyrnwch Gawr therefore describes a fierce and violent Giant ....


See also

  • Kama (Japanese tea ceremony)
    Kama (Japanese tea ceremony)

    Kama or chagama are cast iron pots used to heat water to make tea in Japanese tea ceremony. For the tea-making that is done in the presence of the guests, it is either heated over a charcoal brazier or over the hearth that is built into the floor of the tea room and used in the cold season....
  • Fire Pot
    Fire pot

    A fire pot is a container, usually earthenware, for carrying fire. Fire pots have been used since prehistoric times to transport fire from one place to another, for warmth while on the move, for cooking, in religious ceremonies and even as weapons of war....
  • Gulyásleves
    Gulyásleves

    Guly?sleves , is a Hungarian cuisine soup, made of beef, vegetables, ground paprika and other spices. It originates from a dish cooked by the cattlemen who tended their herds in the Great Hungarian Plain, known as the Alf?ld or Puszta in Hungarian....
  • Hassle
    Hassle

    For the software, see HASSLE.----Hassle is a location in N?rke, Sweden, where a Celtic treasure was found in 1936.It comprises a large bronze cauldron which contained two Bronze Age swords of the Hallstatt type, a pommel of bronze, two bronze buckets with ciste a cordoni, two small hooks of bronze and twelve large circular bronze...
  • Sacrificial tripod
    Sacrificial tripod

    A sacrificial tripod was a type of altar used by the ancient Greeks. The most famous was the Delphic tripod, on which the Pythia took her seat to deliver the oracles of the deity....
  • Amrit Sanskar
    Amrit Sanskar

    Amrit Sanskar or Amrit Sanchar or the Amrit ceremony is the Sikh ceremony of initiation or baptism. This practice has been in existence since the times of Guru Nanak Dev ....


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