Malevolent spirits.

According to Wikipedia, there were in Ancient Greek mythology 5 Daemones Ceramici (Δαίμονες Κεραμικοί), five malevolent spirits who plagued the craftsman potter.

• Syntribos (Σύντριβος), the shatterer
• Smaragos (Σμάραγος), the smasher
• Asbetos (Ασβετος), the charrer
• Sabaktes (Σαβάκτης), the destroyer
• Omodamos (Ομόδαμος), crudebake

I am glad to report that none of these bad guys have been troubling me too much of late, but this fact tickled me and I thought I would share it! Even with experience, sometimes there is no obvious reason why a pot has failed to make it through a firing - it will amuse me to think of these spirits when things go wrong! And of course, it is interesting, and also strangely comforting, to think that there were people doing what I do now so long ago.