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

232 W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT
Whereas chameuna is defined by Liddell-Scott-Jones as ' pallet-bed,' the Irapa6KoX-
Xos chameuna of our inscription is defined as a 'low couch with only one end to it.' 142
The meaning of parakollos is rather 'veneered' or 'tessellated,' as Bliimner (Technologie,
II, p. 328) and Ransom (op. cit., p. 109) define it. Theophrastos (H.P. V,
7, 6; cf. IV, 3, 4) uses wrapaKoXXijapra for the ornamental work attached to chests,
footstools, and the like. The word means literally 'things glued on.' 143
6. EITLKXtvITpOV (II, 235-236). Elbow- or head-rest for a couch. Two meanings
for epiklintron are given in the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae and in Liddell-Scott-
Jones: the first is 'comfortable chair or couch' and the second is 'arm or head-rest of
a couch or bed.' Pollux mentions the term thrice (VI, 9; X, 34; IX, 72), in the first
two cases clearly in the second sense, contrasting the epiklintron with the enelata or
legs and lower frame of the bed or couch. A statement similar to that of Pollux, X,
34, is to be found in Phrynichos, frag. 130 (p. 207: ed. Rutherford), who defines
epiklintron as the Attic word for acnaklintron. A number of Delian inscriptions use
the term, always as a part of a couch. For example, in I.G., XI, 2, 147 B, lines 13-14,
fifty beds are listed and four are specified as being without epiklintra.'44
It is in fact difficult to discover upon what evidence the first meaning is based.
Liddell-Scott-Jones cites in its support Aristophanes, frag. 44 (= Pollux, IX, 72) p45
which is inconclusive, and Aristophanes, Eccl., 907,140 which does not bear out this
meaning, since here the epiklintron is thrown down from a couch, and finally I.G.,
II2, 1541, line 26.147 The latter is an inscription from Eleusis of 363/2 B.C. in which,
at the end of a list of bed items, seven epiklintra are listed independently, followed by
tables. The argument apparently is that an arm-rest of a couch cannot be a separate
item in an inventory, and so these must be regarded as seven chairs. However, while
this argument will hold for a chair-back, it will not necessarily apply to the elbow-rest
at the end of a couch. Miss Ransom 148 has conjectured that some types of couch
were portable and could be taken down and set up at any time; in her figure 28 she
shows such a couch from two angles in a drawing which makes it clear that the
In this passage, quoted in Athenaeus, XV, 673 b, Gulick follows Dindorf in reading xauEvvavs, which
on the evidence of our inscription must be corrected to xa`jevva (xa,iuvvcva: ms.).
142 P. 1313.
143
xo'Aa - glue. For various compounds, see Buck and Petersen, Reverse Index, p. 367.
144
Cf. I.G., XI, 2, 144, line 66; 163, lines 64-65.
145 ' 'N 'V T& V3
. K
1TOVT avTo 7rparw 8v' o/w Kat corv3ov vro p ' 7rLKXvTpW.
146 7o T7 xtVTpOV IOarOXO
/ ovXo/1Edvy uroStrOat,
Kart
T77)S KXLVrjS, KTX.
147 Liddell-Scott-Jones also cites Galen 12, 302 (Kuhn, XVIII: 1, p. 344) as evidence for the
meaning ' straight-backed chair'; however, the phrase here is W'cXvKAtvpov ToVi Opo'vov, and the meaning
is ' straight back of the chair.'
148 Couches and Beds, p. 48, note 2.