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

182 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
Greek Liquid Measures
Name
Liter
kotyle 0.2736
chous (12 kotylai) 3.283
metretes (12 choes) 39.390
Greek Dry Measures
Name
Liter
kotyle 0.2736
choinix (4 kotylai) 1.094
medimnos (48 choinikes) 52.53
DESCRIPTION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
1. auvyoacX- (Stele II, line 140). Almond, Prunus Amygdalus. The word is of
Syrian origin,9 and the Syrian almond was famous in antiquity.10 The word does not
occur in the Epic, and the view is held that the tree was not introduced into Greece
until relatively late times." The word appears first in Phrynichos Comicus.'2 Theophrastos
describes the plant in detail, and by the first century B.C. the fruit had become
known in Rome as the nux graeca."3 Excellent almonds were grown on the islands of
Naxos and Cyprus, and they were often eaten while still unripe and having a soft
skin.'4
Prices: In the Edict of Diocletian, the maximum price placed on almonds was 6
denarii an Italian pint (xestes: 0.547 liter)."
2. a'xvpa (II, 85). Chaff. The word is joined, as in our list, with 'ta in
Pherekrates, frag. 161.'" Theophrastos refers to the difference between the husk
(achyron) of wheat and that of barley.'7 Herodotos states that the Scythians stuffed
the skins of horses at royal burials with achyra.'8 For the use of achyra in building
walls, see I.G., JJ2, 468, line 68, Aristotle, H.A., 612b, 22 and Vitruvius, II, 1; in
Boisacq, Dictionnaire4, p. 56.
10 Heichelheim, " Roman Syria," Economic Survey, IV, p. 138 (with references).
"See Wagler, R.E., s.v. 'Afvy8aXiA. We should note, however, the frequency with which the
almond is represented in miniature plastic lekythoi in the late fifth and fourth centuries; see for
example, C.V.A., Oxford, I, pl. XL, nos. 14-16, and cf. Beazley, B.S.A., XLI, 1945, p. 14.
12
Frag. 68 (Kock, C.A.F., I, p. 387).
13
Pliny, H.N., XV, 90. Cf. Cato, De agric., VIII, 2; and Macrobius, Sat., III, 18, 8.
14 Athenaeus, II, 52 b-c.
15
Col. VI, 52.
16
Cf. Eustathius, 1445, 42.
17
H.P., VIII, 4, 1.
18 IV, 72.