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

THE ATTIC STELAI 225
The diminutive kibotion has been grouped with its primitive kibotos. W. Petersen
" has shown that the diminutive may mean ' a small box,' 95 or it may mean ' that
which is like a box,' 96 or it may simply mean ' box,' regardless of size.97 The word is
frequently used in the Delian inscriptions, where it probably did refer to a fairly small
box, since it was nearly always used as a place to store gold ornaments, crowns and
rings, or glass cups.98 In domestic use the kibotion would contain jewelry, money, or
utensils; Pollux (X, 61) mentions kibotia grammatophora, which held the papyrus
rolls of a teacher. Like the ordinary kibotos, the smaller box was usually of wood but
might also be of ivory or metal.99 These boxes unquestionably opened at the top, and
the box described in Stele I, line 215, as wXariv, 'broad,' probably looked something
like Miss Richter's fig. 240.
Price. The price of the kibotos thyridotos (V, 16) must be restored as at least
21 drachmas, the highest price we have found for any piece of furniture; only the
folding doors were more expensive at 23 drachmas 1 obol. This chest must have been
quite large (in more than one legend the kibotos was big enough for a man to hide in),
but the price may also be partially explained by the fact that the grillwork of carved
wood or metal would add considerably to the value of the chest. It is reasonable to
suppose that the other chests sold at somewhat lower prices. In the records of the
temple at Eleusis for 329/8 B.c. a kibotos is valued at 20 drachmas.100 One other not
very indicative comparative price has been found: in the Delian accounts of 250 B.C.
a workman was paid 5 drachmas (a high wage) for the repair of a kibotos.101
2. KOtTrIJ (I, 211, 213). Chest. As an article of furniture, koite has two meanings:
'couch' and ' chest.' The former meaning is well attested; see Thesaurus Graecae
Linguae, s.v. KOtT'Y and Buck, Dictionary, p. 480. Most of the passages cited in the
Thesaurus and in Liddell-Scott-Jones are from lyric poetry, and the word has been
regarded as poetical for 'couch' by Ransom 102 and Rodenwaldt.Y'8
Hlesychius, however, has defined the koite as a chest in which food was carried.
92
I.G., 112, 1455, line 16; Aristophanes, Equites, 1000; in papyri the term is used to mean
'archives'; R.E., s.v. Truhe, 704.
93 Pausanias, X, 28, 3; I.G., 112, 1388, lines 73 ff.
94 Gr. Dim. in -tov, pp. 83, 147.
95 Ibid., p. 83.
96 Ibid., p. 112.
97 Ibid., p. 98. We found no reference to kibotion in J. Friedrich, Deminutivbildungen mit nicht
deminutiver Bedeutung, Leipzig, 1916, but it should be noted that the work is not provided with
an index.
98 Deonna, Delos, XVIII, p. 235.
99 I.G., J2-, 314, col. I, line 25; HJ2, 1456, line 34.
100 I.G., 112, 1672, line 192.
101 I.G., XI, 2, 287 A, line 49.
102 Op. cit., p. 109.
103
R.E., s.v. Kline, 847.