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

THE ATTIC STELAI 241
Our two lampstands were made of wood, and must have been of very simple
construction, since the price was one obol each. An article of J. D. Beazley's on lamps
of the archaic period 191 gives a clue to the sort of stand which seems most likely.
From the lamps collected, three sorts of stands can be inferred: (1) a tripod,192 wall
bracket, or upright with an arm, from which the lamp was suspended by chains or
thongs; (2) a stand ring, of metal or terracotta, in an ornate or simple form 93 (a
wooden stand ring is not likely); (3) a spike which went through the central hole of
a circular lamp, with a ridge at a short distance from the top, on which the lamp would
rest; at the bottom some kind of flat base to allow the spike to stand upright.194 This
last type suits the qualifications of our entry very well, since it would be easily made of
wood and simpler even in construction than type 1, so that it might well sell for an
obol. That such stands were common is shown by the number of lamps of the pierced
variety which have been found.95
Price. The price for the two wooden lampstands was two obols. For prices of
expensive lampstands from Roman Egypt, see A. C. Johnson, Economic Survey, II,
p. 473.
TABLES
1. rpdirERa (I, 110, 230; II, 149, 221, 222, 242-243; V, 88) and rpac're4ov (VI,
35; see above, p. 209). Table. The word trapes2 originally meant ' four-footed' 196
and applied to a table around which people sat to eat. When the Greeks began to dine
from couches a much smaller table could be used, and since it was customary to bring
in tables and remove them sometimes several times during a meal,197 they came to be
of the lightest possible construction. The table most frequently pictured in the fifth
century was small and rectangular, with two legs at the corners of one end, and a
single leg centered at the other end.198 This table continued to be called, inappropriately,
a trapeza, but it could also be called a tripous.199 The jokes of Ulpian Epicharmus
191 J.H.S., LX, 1940, pp. 22-49.
192
Antiphanes (frag. 110: Kock, C.A.F., II, p. 54) describes an improvised lychneion in the
form of a tripod: " We fasten three javelins upright together and use them as a lampstand."
193 Beazley, op. cit., fig. 30; 0. Broneer, Corinth, IV, 2, p. 49, fig. 24 (Hellenistic); Daremberg-
Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Lucerna, p. 1335, fig. 4606; Wiegand and Schrader, Priene, fig. 484; Arch.
Anz., 1900, p. 182, fig. 7.
194 However, see H. A. Thompson, Hesperia, II, 1933, p. 198, note 1, who alone among those
who have studied lamps seems to have doubts about this type of stand.
195 Beazley, op. cit., pp. 30, 33, 46; Broneer, op. cit., p. 33; Deonna, B.C.H., XXXII, 1908,
pp. 140 ff., with references; Howland, Athenian Agora, IV, Greek Lamps (in press), Types 11,
19, 22, 26A, 27A-D.
196 Buck, Dictionary, p. 483.
197
For the use of tables in Greece, see, in particular, Richter, op. cit., pp. 76 ff.
198 Richter, op. cit., figs. 195-205; Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire, s.v. Mensa. Note also the
greater stability of a three-legged table especially on a clay floor.
199 For references to representations of tables of three legs from antiquity, see Schwendemann
in Jahrbuch, XXXVI, 1921, pp. 114-120.