the attic stelai - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

290 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
85 drachmas.23 In the Edict of Diocletian (Col. XV, 1-2), the maximum price for
an axle is given as 250 denarii.
3. yaXEaypa (II, 124). Weasel-trap.24 Theophrastos states that the galeagra
was made of elm wood.25 For illustrations of various types of cages, see E. Saglio
in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Cavea, 981; for illustrations of various hunting
nets, including a trap for hares, see E. Pottier in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire,
s.v. Rete.
It may be noted that there is another type of galeagra, not defined in Liddell-
Scott-Jones, which would be not unsuited to our word in its present context. This is
a meaning for galeagra in the sense of 'olive press.' The word occurs in the Arabic
text of the Mechcanica of Hero of Alexander. L. Nix and W. Schmidt in vol. II of
the Teubner edition (Leipzig, 1900) have given a German translation.26 Hero in book
III, 16-17, describes two types of galeagra. They are illustrated by Nix and Schmidt
on pp. 236 and 242. Each type was in the shape of a box; so doubtless resembled a
'trap.' The galeagra is studied in detail by A. G. Drachmann, " Ancient Oil Mills and
Presses," Dauske Videuskabernes Selskab, Arch-kunst. Meddelelser, I, 1932, pp. 60-
62, 150.
' Olive press ' has not been offered as the meaning for our galeagra, because Hero,
who is dated in the second or first century B.C., speaks of the press as something new.
Moreover, this agrees with Pliny, who is probably describing the galeagra in the following
language: " sive in sportis prematur, sive ut nuper inventum est exilibus regulis
pede incluso." 27 The oil press galeagra was a late development. In addition, Cato,
who died in 149 B.C., in his sections on grape and olive presses in the De agricultcra
did not know of such a press. We cannot, therefore, apply the meaning to a fifthcentury
word.
4. 8tKEXXa (II, 131). Two-pronged hoe or mattock.28 For illustration of the
instrument, dating from the Roman period, see Saglio in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire,
s.v. Bidens; and H. Thedenat, s.v. Raster.29 For a description of the use of the
23 I.G., II2, 1673, line 32. Cf. Kirchner ad loc.
24
This is the literal meaning; see Pollux, X, 155. The word is also used for an iron cage for
ferocious beasts; see Diogenes Laertius, V, 5, 216; Athenaeus, XIV, 616 c; and E. Saglio in
Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Cavea, 981.
25
H.P., V, 7, 6. Cf. Bliimner, Technologie, II, p. 291, note 5.
26 An earlier publication of Hero's text with French translation is that of D. de Vaux in Journal
Asiatique, Ninth Series, vols. I and II, 1893. For galeagra, see II, pp. 164 ff.
27 H.N., XV, 5.
28
For the etymology of the word, see Buck, Dictionary, p. 501. Cf. A. Walde, Vergleichendes
Worterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, ed. J. Pokorny, Berlin and Leipzig, 1927-32, I, p. 436,
II, p. 591; and Schwyzer, Gr. Gram., I:2, p. 475, note 2.
29 Cf. the illustration in R. Billiard, L'agriculture dans l'antiquite' d'apres les Getorgiques de
Vergile, Paris, 1928, p. 58. For two-pronged hoes from Egypt, see Petrie, op. cit., plate XIX.