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

THE ATTIC STELAI 219
dition of the philosopher's chair that the early Christians called the chair of a bishop
a thronos.55
The use of the term throios in other inscriptions does not help to determine its
precise meaning in the Alkibiades list, for the word does not often occur, and when
it does it refers to pieces of votive furniture which are neither described nor evaluated.
Most probably the thronoi which were set up in the temples were of Miss Richter's
type 4, a type very unlikely to appear in a list of ordinary household furniture because
of its extra weight. A group of twelve thronoi is repeatedly mentioned in the accounts
of the treasurers of Athena; in the Delian inscriptions a thronos is occasionally mentioned,
apparently as the seat for a figure of a god which was held in place by a cord
or chain, but the chair is not given any specific character, and the term seems to be
used interchangeably with klismos.6
Hug believed that the thronos was not often a piece of furniture for ordinary
household use,57 but our text seems to show that it was common enough at the end
of the fifth century. Richter gives one representation of a thronos in domestic surroundings,58
but it seems at least likely that the woman who is here seated upon an
ornate throne with rectangular legs is Phaedra, so that we have a princely mythological
scene and not one from everyday life. However, in an archaic funerary plaque from
Berlin a group of women are shown in their quarters, some sitting on thronoi of
Richter's type 1, and some on animal-legged folding stools.59 A fourth-century lekanis,
or covered bowl, from Kertch, apparently intended especially for women's use, shows
a group of women and a bridegroom gathered around a herm in the closed courtyard of
a house. One lady, who is regarded as the bride's mother, sits on a throne of type 2,
with a high back, arms, and rectangular, cut-out legs.60 It may be that in ordinary use
the thronos was particularly associated with women, for Pollux lists it among Ta ra
KOtTcvt TTapaKEt1LEVa (X, 47). Athenaeus quotes a phrase of Kritias about the Thessalian
thronos, which was much admired, emphasizing the comfort rather than the
prestige of the chair.6"
Probably the thronoi of the Attic Stelai were something like the chair shown on
the bowl fromn Kertch. It is doubtful that they were inlaid with metal or ivory, for
this would have been specified, but they may have been highly decorated and elaborately
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VII, 30.
56 I.G., XI, 161 B, line 22 and note; cf. 287 B, line 20.
57 Op. cit., 415: " In den Darstellungen des taglichen Lebens begegnet man dem Thronsessel
als Hausm6bel sehr selten."
58 Op. cit., fig. 51.
5 Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, II, fig. 2597.
60 Furtwangler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, Ser. 2, pp. 34 ff. and pl. 68 (= K.
Schefold, Untersuchungen zu den Kertschen Vasen, Berlin and Leipzig, 1934, no. 10; and Kertscher
Vasen, Berlin, 1930, pls. 13 and 14).
61 J, 28 b: oeraXKOs 8e Opo'vo%, yVv
rpfpvOepra1-q 'Spa.