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

THE ATTIC STELAI 227
of Rodenwaldt s.v. Kline. Delian beds are discussed by Deonna in De'los, XVIII,
pp. 1-4. A convenient list of words connected with the couch is given in Reincke's
1935 article s.v. Mobel in R.E., Suppl. 6, 508. More recently, Miss D. K. Hill has
published a bronze couch of about the first century B.C. in Journal of Walters Art
Gallery, XV-XVI, 1952-3, pp. 49-61. References to preserved copies of ancient
couches are usually made by their numbers in the list of Greifenhagen (Rom. Mitt.,
XLV, 1930, pp. 137-146).
The couch was a very common article of furniture. Robinson surmises that a
dining room with three couches (triklinon) was most common,109 although his reference
(Athenaeus I, 23 e) hardly seems to confirm this. In the case of the men's rooms,
Robinson and Graham have reported: "Of the twenty-five completely excavated
androns at Olynthus ... fifteen could have accommodated five couches 2.00 to 2.25 m.
long." 110 Studniczka reconstructs nine couches in rooms of a house in Megara.'
For an interesting list of the known numeral compounds with -KXLvo3 see Buck and
Petersen, Reverse Index, p. 273.112
1. KXi-Vrq (I, 229, 233; II, 7, 241, 244, 245; III, 6 [see below, p. 228]; VI, 40,
41). Couch, bed. For the derivation of the word (KXi0voat, 'recline, lie '), see
Boisacq, Dictionnaire,4 p. 470; and Buck, Dictionary, p. 480. The earliest occurrences
of this post-Homeric word are in Herodotos (VI, 139; IX, 16) and I.G., XII, 5,
593, line 6."'
The kline was a couch for sleeping, banquets and funerals. One could lie upon it,
use it at table, or sit upon it."14 The dimensions must have varied considerably; see
B.C.H., X, 1886, p. 467, line 143; and I.G., I2, 1638, line 68. Repairs of klinai are
frequently mentioned in the Delian inventories.115
Prices. So far as the writer knows, the prices of couches, as of those of other
articles of furniture, have never been collected. Some prices are preserved from
ancient sources. In I.G., XI, 2, 287, A, line 115 (250 B.C.), the price of making 14
beds for the sanctuary of Zeus Kynthios on Delos is given as 275 drachmas, or
slightly more than 19.6 drachmas apiece.'16 In I.G., IV2, 114, lines 20-24 (ca. 300
109 Olynthus, XII, p. 350. As Robinson and Graham (Olynthus, VIII, p. 173) note, " in later
times triclinium became the accepted term for a dining room among the Romans."
110 Olynthus, VIII, p. 173.
Op. cit., p. 142.
112 The 4tIKktVoV, or half-sized couch, of I.G., XI, 2, 147 B, line 14, seems to have received no
attention in the literature dealing with furniture.
113
Cf. Buck and Petersen, Reverse Index, p. 292.
114
See the references in the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae, s.v.
115 I.G., XI, 144, A, line 65; 199, A, line 27; 287, A, line 70 (this is for fixing the ropes which
supported the mattress) ; Insc. Delos, 443, Bb, lines 141, 162.
116 I would assume that these were beds of metal construction, especially in view of Pliny's
(H.N., XXXIV, 4, 9) statement that the bronze of Delos was used for triclinii. When klinai were