What is "patera"

Patera \Pat"e*ra\, n.; pl. Pater[ae](?). [ L., fr. patere to lie open.]

1. A saucerlike vessel of earthenware or metal, used by the Greeks and Romans in libations and sacrificies.

2. (Arch.) A circular ornament, resembling a dish, often worked in relief on friezes, and the like.

n. 1 A broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in a ritual context such as a libation. 2 (context architecture English) A circular ornament, resembling a dish, often worked in relief on friezes etc.

In the material culture of classical antiquity, a phiale or patera is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation ( omphalos, "bellybutton") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, in which case it is sometimes called a mesomphalic phiale. It typically has no handles, and no feet. (A drinking cup with handles is a kylix. A circular platter with a pair of C-handles is not a patera, but a few paterae have a single long straight handle.) Although the two terms may be used interchangeably, particularly in the context of Etruscan culture, phiale is more common in reference to Greek forms, and patera in a Roman setting.

Patera is a genus of land snails in the family Polygyridae.

The name is from the Latin patera ("a saucer"), and refers to the highly depressed, saucer-like shape of the shells of these snails. In addition to flattened shells, members of the group have an imperforate umbilicus and a single tooth on the parietal wall of the aperture.

These snails are known only from the eastern United States.

A patera was a saucer-shaped Roman drinking vessel. In modern usage it describes something similar to a shallow bowl or deep dish.

Patera may also refer to:

• A small decorative plate fixed to the base of a clock

Patera (plural: paterae) is an irregular crater, or a complex crater with scalloped edges on a celestial body. Paterae can have any origin ( volcanic, impact or other), although majority of them were created by volcanism. The term comes from Latin language, where it refers to a shallow bowl used in antique culture.

This term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of the international names of such features. In such names, it is capitalized and stands after the proper given name (e.g., Pillan Patera). Besides that, it can be used as a description term and applied even to unnamed features.