Stone Jug

Either a stone jar or a prison. The Greek word (kordmos) means either an earthen jar or a prison, as in (chalkeo en keramo), in a brazen prison. When Venus complained to the immortals that Diomed had wounded her, Dione bade her cheer up, for other immortals had suffered also, but had borne up under their affliction; as Mars, for example, when Otos and Ephialtes bound him ... and kept him for thirteen months (in a brazen prison, or brazen jug). (Homer: Iliad, v. 381, etc.; see also ix. 469.) Ewing says keramos, potter's earth or pottery, was also a prison, because prisoners were made to work up potters' earth into jugs and other vessels. Thus we say, “He was sent to the treadmill, meaning, to prison to work in the treadmill.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Stone Soup

Stone Dead