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

THE ATTIC STELAI 223
by Quagliati to be merely decorative carving9 but Budde and Studniczka have taken
them to be the functioning doors to the chest, and Studniczka suggests that this is the
kibotos dithyros of our inscription.80 The little doors, if they opened, would offer two
very restricted and awkward entrances, through which only very small objects could
be introduced, although the space within was quite large.8' Yet, whether or not they
opened, they do constitute a representation from the fifth century B.C. of a door placed
vertically in the face of a piece of furniture not unlike the usual chests, which sometimes
also stood on legs. The question is: does such a cupboard, though only so
doubtfully established, suit the terms of our inscription better than the well authenticated
chest ?
First it must be established that the mere use of the term 'door ' does not, as
Budde assumes, necessitate a vertical plane. A thyra was primarily an entrance, and
the fact that it could be thought of in a horizontal plane is made clear by the term
used for a trap-door, thyra katapakte (Herodotos, V, 16). It seems reasonable to
assume that the chest which is described as thyridotos (V, 16) had apertures of the
sort supposed by Marstrand. The same sort of open grillwork panel can be seen on a
chest found in a Euboean chamber grave, a chest which incidentally shows a plain
panel in its own front surface which clearly did not open.82 A kibotos of this sort
would open in the usual way, with a lid at the top.
The two-doored kibotos (I, 227) might easily have been one of the known types
of chest. In the case of a large chest, it would be natural to divide the lid, which otherwise
might be too heavy to lift easily, and to compartmentalize the interior; this would
provide the usefulness of two chests, while the cost would hardly be increased. Since
these chests are nearly always shown in profile, the possibility of a split lid can neither
be confirmed nor ruled out by a study of vase-paintings and reliefs. Miss Richter has
found a variation in the coffin-chest, with gabled top, which would also lend itself
to a two-doored construction.83
The four-doored kibotos is much harder to envisage. The only other ancient
usages of the term tetrathyros are by Aristotle, H.A., 628a, where the meaning is
top of a kibotos which opened by a lid is demonstrated by Furtwangler-Reichhold, Griechische
Vasenmalerei, pl. 57, 3.
9 Ausonia, III, 1908, p. 227. W. von Massow, op. cit., p. 10, agrees, yet sees these false doors
as pointing toward actual vertical doors in the kibotai of the Attic Stelai. Note that Theophrastos,
H.P., V, 7, 6, mentions the ornamental work which was frequently glued to the surface of the chests.
80 Op. cit., p. 165. It should be noted that Studniczka nevertheless treats the pieces as examples
of the kuliouchion, ' buffet' or 'side table,' and refers to Brunn, Monum. Anncali Bull. d. Inst., 1856,
p. 114, where these same pieces of furniture are called cult tables.
81 It should be remembered that Miss Richter was not unaware of the Locrian reliefs when
she reached her conclusion that the cupboard with vertical doors in its face was an invention of
the Romans.
82
Vollmoeller, Ath. Mitt., XXVI, 1901, p1. XIII.
83 Op. cit., pp. 94 ff., figs. 232, 234.