[Meaning] hirelings who carry jars. Also [sc. attested is the singular] amphoreaphoros, he who carries a jar for hire. "Then some amphora-bearer bringing a return." [So says] Menander in The Girl Who Gets Flogged.[1] And Aristophanes in Heroes [says]: "run inside for the wine, taking an empty amphora, and food and a tasting-cup, and then hire yourself out as an amphora-bearer."[2] Eupolis in Catamite [writes]: "and we go about and [he is] carrying a tribe [as] amphora."[3]
An amphoreus, then, [is a] vessel, measure, jar.
It also means wine-skin. And it is a proper name.[4]
Also [sc. attested is the plural] amphoreis, [meaning] jars.
Also [sc. attested is the phrase] "little Thasian amphoras", [meaning] jugs.[5]
Josephus [writes]: "he bought up with a Tyrian coin, which is worth four Attic [drachmas], four amphoras, and then sold [them] for the price of half an amphora and made a lot of money."[6]
And Aristophanes says amphoreis [when he means] the measures. "Little pots and small trenchers, and little amphoras".[7]
Also [sc. attested is the phrase] a)mforei=s nenhsme/noi, [meaning] jars heaped up. Aristophanes [writes]: "why do you good-for-nothings sit there like sheep,... heaped-up amphoras."[8]
Also [sc. attested are the terms] a)mforh=as and a)mforei/dia [meaning] jars.
[Note] that a)mforh=as is a Megarian way of speaking.