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

THE ATTIC STELAI 293
7. Optvae (II, 119). Three-pronged fork. An old gloss states that this agricultural
instrument sometimes had five, not three, prongs.44 Hesychius (s.v.) defines
thrincx as a grain shovel. J. E. Harrison has published an illustration of a modern
Cretan Ovpva6Kt, a winnowing instrument in use today,45 which must closely resemble
the ancient instrument. It is a combination of a fork and shovel. The prongs would
help to pick up the mixed mass of stalks and grain, the broad curved surface would be
an excellent shovel. The thrinax was usually of iron, sometimes of wood. In Aristophanes,
Pax, 566-570, reference is made to the thrinax together with the sphyra,
v mattock.' These were the two tools used to clear the space between rows of vines and
fruit trees. In addition to the articles of J. E. Harrison, reference may be made to
Bliimner, Technologie, P2, p. 9.
The price of the thrinax in the Edict of Diocletian (Col. XV, 46) is given as 8
denarii.
8. KaAXo (I, 214). Rope, cord.46 Rope-making is discussed by G. Lefaye in
Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Restiarius and Restis.47 These articles contain,
however, no reference to kalos. Our entry reads KaWX& 17TTEW) 8Vo. It occurs after an
entry for bedstead and is followed in three lines by entries for cushions, pillows and
bedspreads. Moreover, Pollux, in referring to the property of Alkibiades, lists kalos
among the bands and straps which make up the girth of the bedstead.48 Our line may
be translated ' two horsehair cords ' of bedsteads.49 For tIT1TEtos in the meaning of
'horsehair,' see Homer, II., XV, 537.
In the fragmentary accounts of the epistatai of Eleusis for the year 327/6 B.C.,
a payment was made to a metic Theokles for kalos for a katagogis, which may have
been a lowering device. The price paid for the kalos is given as 19 drachmas, but the
quantity is not preserved.50 The next entry in this inscription was for strophos, or
twisted cord. To the metic Kallianaxis for three talents of strophe the sum of at least
90, but not more than 100 drachmas, was paid. The entry preserves the sum of 90
drachmas, but the figures may have continued onto the left part of the next line which
is lost. The weight of a talent is conventionally given as 36.86 kg.51 Three talents,
then, would equal roughly 244 lbs. The price per pound, depending on whether we
used the price of 90 or 100 drachmas, would be in the neighborhood of 2' 2 drachmas.
44 Cyrilli Glossarium, s.v. (ed. M. Schmidt, Hesychius, vol. IV, Jena, 1862, p. 342).
45 J.H.S., XXIII, 1903, p. 303. Cf. J.H.S., XXIV, 1904, pp. 246-249.
46 See Buck, Dictionary, pp. 548-549. The gradation by size in the English use of ' rope,' 'cord,'
'string,' 'twine' was not distinguished in Greek, which used KaXW%, c7raprov and aXoZvo', the last
for rope made by plaiting rushes together.
47 Cf. Bliimner, Technologie, I2, p. 295.
48 X, 36. See Aristophanes, Aves, 816 and the scholia on this line. For a description of such
bedsteads, see P. Girard in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Lectus, p. 1015 b.
49 Cf. A. Wilhelm, Jahreshefte, VI, 1903, p. 239; C. Ransom, Couches and Beds, p. 109.
50
I.G., II2, 1673, lines 18-19.
51 Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Weights.