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

224 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
' four-chambered,' rather than ' four-doored,' and Kallixeinos, ap. Athenaeus, V,
205b, where a single doorway in a ship's hold apparently had four leaves. TET [pa'vpof]
has been restored in the text of Stele I, line 228, by all editors; the only other possibility
would seem to be tetrapous (as diphros tetrapous, Eupolis, 58: Kock, C.A.F.,
I, p. 272; Pap. Oxy., 646; Epicharmos, 149), that is, a chest standing on four legs
instead of resting directly on the ground or on a low stand. This alternative restoration
is not very attractive since by the late fifth century nearly all chests stood on
legs; Richter shows only one which does not.84 Either the chest or the coffin-chest
might well have been divided into four compartments, each with its lid, and this would
be our preference, although admittedly we have no evidence for such pieces.85 In the
same way, a cupboard of the Locrian type could be broadened so that it would
offer four doors in a row, or it could be heightened by the addition of another twocompartment
tier. This last possibility seems the least likely, since the only representations
we have of a possible Greek cupboard show a piece of furniture which
was clearly used as much for a low table as it was for a chest, and the pieces may
actually have been only tables, as was suggested by Brunn.86 We cannot then assert
that this kibotos tetrathyros was definitely either chest or cupboard; certainly Budde
cannot use it as a proof of the early existence of the cupboard form.
Whatever their shape, the kibotoi were made of wood 87 with lids (or doors)
attached by metal hinges.88 From vase-paintings it can be seen that the usual method
of closing was with thongs bound around two knobs, one on the body of the chest and
one on the lid.89 A kibotos could be even more firmly sealed if necessary, for in I.G.,
12, 1469, line 102, there are chests which are specified as sesemasmene and asemantos.
The kibotos could be used for storing clothes,90 or money,9' or scrolls and documents,92
or miscellaneous objects.93
84 Op. cit., fig. 224.
85 In Insc. Delos, 442 B, line 25, there is a list of vessels from the first, second, and third
rhyoi of a kibotos. It has been generally thought (Homolle, B.C.H., VI, 1882, p. 90, note 3;
Holleaux, B.C.H., XXXI, 1907, pp. 53-56) that in the inventories the word rhymos meant 'group'
or ' class,' and it might then seem possible that in this Delian chest there were actual compartments,
conceivably with separate lids. But D. B. Thompson (Hesperia, XIII, 1944, p. 186) has shown
that in some Athenian records the word mreans the 'yard' or lever (statera) of the weighing instrument.
We must then take our Delian word to refer to 'weighing-lots.' In connection with the word
rhymos, it may be noted that in the inventory I.G., II2, 1443, the numerals modifying the word run
as high as twenty-two (lines 12-71).
86 Loc. cit. They are called tables also by the Brit. Mus., Greek and Roman Life, 2nd ed.,
London, 1920, p. 41, fig. 31.
87 On occasion a kibotos might be of ivory or bronze, or even papyrus (Insc. Delos, 442 B,
line 214; 443, line 138), but these materials would be specified in a list such as ours.
88
Deonna, Delos, XVIII, pp. 242-244; Davidson, loc. cit., and p. 129 for bone hinges and knobs.
89 Richter, op. cit., figs. 236-241.
90 Aristophanes, Vespae, 1056; Athenaeus, III, 84 a; I.G., J2, 386, line 22; XI, 2, 287 A, line 49.
91 Lysias, XII, Against Eratosthenes, 10; I.G., IJ2, 1388, line 61.