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

THE ATTIC STELAI 305
This Epidaurian inscription is dated in the early part of the fourth century and
records the accounts of the building of the temple of Asklepios. In the accounts of
the epistatai of Eleusis of the year 329/8 B.C., there is a record in lines 205-206 of a
sum due to a certain Sosidemos for the iron-work of the trochileia. The weight of
the iron is given as 83 talents 23 staters, and the sum of money is 1569 drachmas.153
27. rpv'iravov (II, 131). Auger."54 The word is derived from *ter- meaning
'bore.' Buck and others define it as 'auger,' a more or less generic word for a boring
instrument. Casson believes that the word should be restricted to the 'bow-drill,'
which is certainly one meaning.155 Clear reference to such a drill occurs as early as
Homer, Od., IX, 385. The spinning motion of the trypanon is mentioned in Euripides,
Cyclops, 461. The instrument was used in gem-cutting as well as by the sculptor and
the carpenter.156 A clear illustration of a bow-drill, reproduced from a hydria of the
fifth century in the Boston Museum, appears in Cloche, Classes, etc., plate 26. Trypana
are described in detail by Bliimner, Technologie, II, pp. 222-226; and by de
Villefosse in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Terebra.
28. viav (V, 39). Pigpen. This word has occurred before only in a small and
fragmentary papyrus: C. C. Edgar, Zenon Papyri, III, Cairo, 1928, 59468, line 2.
The word was apparently first defined in Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek-English Lexicon,
revised edition, 1940. See Buck and Peterson, Reverse Index, p. 259, for this and
similar formations in -on.
29. ,pviyavov (IX, 9-10). Brushwood. Phryganon, derived from bpvyw,
'roast or parch,' 157 is a term applied to small dead wood or brushwood. Theophrastos,
H.P., I, 3, 1 made four genera of plants: tree (dendra), shrub (thamnos), herb
(poa), and undershrub (phryganon). In Syll.3, 1027, lines 14-15, the word is distinguished
from ev'Xa; in Plutarch, Fab., 6, 4, it is made synonymous with lygos,
'twig' or ' withe.'
I have discovered no prices for phryganon in sacred inscriptions where xyla and
rhymnoseem to be the usual words for firewood for sacrifices.
30. x6pa4 (Il, 254, 259; V, 25). Vine-prop, pointed stake. The word, derived
153
I.G., II2, 1672, lines 205-206. Through the kindness of the Ephor, M. Mitsos, I was able
to examine this stone in the Epigraphical Museum, which at the time of this writing is closed for
repairs. Kirchner had read the figures for the weight of the iron in talents as 5033. The first character
which he read as the numeral for 5000 is the sign for fifty talents (i. e. 10 x 5 talents).
Kirchner's H: is actually a T. This corrected reading accords with the earlier text of Koehler in
I.G., II, 834b, II, line 70.
154
See Buck, Dictionary, p. 594.
155
Op. cit., p. 208. Cf. Richter, op. cit., p. 144.
156 See Babelon in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Gemmae, p. 1469a.
157 See Boisacq, Dictionnaire4, p. 1040.