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

308 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
8opa&nov (II, 226). Short spear. Hesychius defines doration as the short lance or
javelin (tuKpd AOyX-q or aKovrtov).6 It was cast by hand and used for striking from
afar. In the fighting at Pylos the doration is mentioned by Thucydides as a weapon
of the Athenian light-armed troops which along with stones inflicted injury on the
Spartans! It is described by De Ridder in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.V.
Jaculum, p. 594 b.
opv a6vEv o-rvpaKos (II, 225). Spear without the butt-spike. 86pv, a common word
in Homer, was originally the ' tree-trunk ' or ' beam,' whence it came to mnean ' spearshaft
' and eventually, sometimes, ' spear.' It is connected with Greek apvii ' tree, oak'
and Avestan daru-' tree-trunk. 8 Cuq in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictiounaire, s.v. Hasta,
p. 33 b, states &0pv "signifie proprement le bois (Homer, II. XVI, 814); aussi les
po'tes l'emploient-ils pour d'signer d'autres bois que celui de la lance, mais dans les
auteurs de prose il designe toujours la lance." In our entry the qualifying phrase
'without the butt-spike ' makes clear that 80pv has its customary prose meaning.
The word styrax is known from Xenophon, H.G., VI, 2, 19, and Plato, Laches,
184 a.9 In the former passage the Spartan commander at Korkyra is described as
using his baton to strike one of his captains, his styrax to strike another. If the
styrax were the spear-point, the commander would have killed instead of flogged the
man. It must, then, be the butt end of the lance. In the Plato passage, the mariner is
said to have let the spear slip through his hand until he retained only the end of the
styrax. The word is derived from o-Tavp0s and is the Attic form for the more common
cavpcv4p.10 Both words, then, refer to the caps fastened on to the end of the shaft
at the opposite end from the spear-head.1" The spear could then be stuck upright in
the ground.12 Many of these butt-spikes have survived. Several are described by
Robinson (Olynthus, X, pp. 416-418, plates 127-128) who gives references in his
notes to those from other excavations than Olynthos.
X. MISCELLANEOUS
Included under the title of 'Miscellaneous ' are twelve items which do not fall
easily under any of the nine preceding headings. They are listed in alphabetical order
by the Greek names.
1. apyiptov apyo,v (VII, 93). Unwrought silver. The item in Stele VII, line 93
6S.V.
aKovTtov.
7 IV, 34, 3.
8 See, in particular, Buck, Dictionary, p. 1390.
9 For the most complete documentation of this word, see Thesaurus Graecae Linguae.
10 See Boisacq, Dictionnaire4, pp. 902 and 922.
1 See Harpokration, s.v. aavpwr4p.
12
See, for example, Homer, II., III, 135.