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[German version] (Greek μάχαιρα, máchaira). Originally the  knife, specifically the knife of butchers and therefore the butchering tool in  sacrifices (Hom. Hym. Apoll. 535f. for máchaira). On Greek and Roman representations, the hiereús or the victimarius has the sacrificial knife brought to him on a tray or holds it in his hand. The culter was used to open the carotid artery of the sacrificial animal and to cut out its intestines. The sacrificing victimarius was also called cultrarius after the sacrificial knife. Furthermore, the culter was the attribute of oriental peoples w…

[German version] The game in which it was a matter of defeating all the stones of the opponent by clever placement of one's own, takes its name from Latin latro (‘mercenary’, later also ‘bandit’); the winner was given the title Imperator (cf. SHA Proculus 13,2). The course of the game has not been fully clarified, but from the literary sources (Varro, Ling. 10,22; Ov. Ars am. 3,357f., cf. 2,207; Sen. De tranquillitate animi 14,7; Laus Pisonis 190-208) we have an approximate picture: the latrunculorum ludus was played by two partners on a chess-board-like playing board that norm…

[German version] (κρήδεμνον; krḗdemnon, Latin calautica, also κάλυμνα/ kálymna, καλύπτρη/ kalýptrē). In general the top covering, also of a wine or storage vessel (Hom. Od. 3,392) or of a circular wall (Hom. Il. 16,100), but subsequently mostly a woman's headscarf which covered the shoulders and could be used to conceal the face (Hom. Il. 14,184; 16,470; Hom. Od. 1,334). In the 5th cent. BC the word continued to be used only in poetry (e.g. Eur. Phoen. 1490); the usual expressions for veils and especially for bridal veils were kálymna and kalýptrē (cf. Aesch. Ag. 1178). The krḗdemnon was a…

[German version] As containers for flammable oil and wick holders, lamps made of clay are a ubiquitous find from antiquity; less numerous are lamps made of bronze, marble and plaster. The basic shape of the lamp was the stone bowl, which was already used as a lamp early in the Stone Age. Early lamps of clay follow this basic form; they are shaped on a potter's wheel and creased one or several times to accommodate the wick in the spout that is thereby created. These Phoenician lamps (also called ‘P…

[German version] (ᾤα λουτρίς; ṓia loutrís, subligar). Men and women wore loin cloths or bath towels made from sheepskins or cloth during the communal bath in bath houses (Poll. 7,66; 10,181,   perizoma ,   subligaculum ), women also wore a breast band (vase paintings, ‘bikini girl’ of  Piazza Armerina). Men's bathing costumes could also be made from leather ( aluta, Mart. 7,35,1). In Pap. Cair. Zen. 60,8, there is mention of an ἐκλουστρίς ( ekloustrís). It is uncertain if bonnets ( vesica) were worn. Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) Bibliography R. Ginouvès, Balaneutikè, 1962, 223-225 W. Hein…

[German version] [1] see Schiffahrt see Navigation Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) [German version] [2] Drinking vessel A quite large drinking vessel, similar in shape to the kantharos (Ath. 11,474e-475b; Macrob. Sat. 5,21,1-6) for wine (Mart. 8,56,14; Ov. Met. 12,317), which according to Ath. 11,500f. was one of the vessels of a Greek symposium. In Rome, it was also a sacrificial vessel (e.g. Ov. Met. 7,246). Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) Bibliography W. Hilgers, Lat. Gefäßnamen, BJ, 31. Beih., 1969, 48; 140f. S. Rottroff, Hellenistic Pottery, The Athenian Agora 29, 1997, 88f.

[German version] (στρόβιλος/ stróbilos, also βέμβηξ/ bémbēx, κῶνος/ kônos, στρόμβος/ strómbos, στρόφαλος/ stróphalos, Latin rhombus, turbo). The top was a popular toy in Antiquity (Children's games); made of box wood (hence also called buxum in Latin) with cross grooves, it was set rotating with the fingers and then propelled with a whip (Verg. Aen. 7,373-383 in an epic simile;  Callim. Epigr. 1,9; Tib. 1,5,3; Anth. Pal. 7,89). Original tops of clay, bronze, lead and other materials have been preserved as grave goods and votive gifts in sanctuaries (cf. Anth. Pal. 6,309) [1]. Hurschman…

[German version] The educational value of children's games was already known in antiquity; thus Plato (Pl. Leg. 643b-c; cf. Aristot. Pol. 7,17,1336a) saw in games imitating the activities of adults a preparation for later life. Quintilian (Quint. Inst. 1,1,20; 1,1,26; 1,3,11) fostered guessing games, games with ivory letters and learning in games in order to promote the child's mental capacities; for this purpose, the ostomáchion game ( loculus Archimedius) -- in which 14 variously shaped geometric figures had to be placed into a square or objects, people or ani…

[German version] (παραπέτασμα/ parapétasma, προκάλυμμα/ prokálymma, αὐλαία/ aulaía; Lat. velum, aulaea). In Greek and Roman tents (Ath. 12,538d), houses, palaces, occasionally also in temples (Lk 23,45; cf. Paus. 5,12,4), curtains were attached to doors, windows (Juv. 9,105), as wall decoration (Juv. 6,227) and to the intercolumnia of the atria and peristyles; they served to keep out the rain or sun (Ov. Met. 10,595). Depictions of such curtains are known from Greek and Roman art (e.g. the parapétasma representations on Roman relief sarcophagi) and are extant in origina…

[German version] Leading representative of Paestan red-figured vase painting ( Paestan ware), and along with  Python the only southern Italian vase painter who signed his name; he was working c. 360-330 BC. Most importantly, on the eleven signed vases depicting various myths (Telephus, Heracles, Europa i.a.) and mythic travesty (Ajax and Cassandra,  Phlyakes vases) A. named the persons depicted, and in one case (Hesperids lekythos: Naples, MN 2873) gave the scene a title. On one phlyakes vase (Berlin, SM F 3044) he is evidently referring to a contemporary stage-play. …

[German version] Long-sleeved  tunica reaching down to the knees, named after its country of origin Dalmatia; mentioned in literature for the first time at the turn of the 2nd cent. AD. According to evidence from written sources and statues, the dalmatica was white with a purple   clavus that went vertically from the shoulders to the hem; the materials from which it was made were wool, silk, a half-silk and linen. The dalmatica was worn by men (with a cingulum militiae when on duty) and women. As early as the 3rd cent. AD it was adopted as liturgical church dress and became…

[German version] Leading genre of red-figured,  southern Italian vase painting, c. 430 - c. 300 BC, with its production centre in Taranto. Apulian vases (AV) are subdivided into plain and ornate style. The first hardly employs any additional colours and concentrates on bell-shaped and colonette craters as well as smaller vessel types, and applies simple decor and compositions of one to four figures to them (Sisyphus Painter, Tarporley Painter). Mythological themes are one of the focal points, furthermore the…

[German version] Archaeological research regards the fish-plate (FP) as a plate that is decorated with paintings almost exclusively of fish and other marine animals (mussel, cuttlefish, prawn, shrimp, electric ray, seahorse and many more); other motifs are rare (e.g. grasshopper, head of a woman or purely floral ornament). FP have a wide standing ring and a handle of varying height. Their dish, with an edge bent round to the outside, inclines in a trough shape towards the deepened centre. As a cer…

[German version] (ἀναξυρίδες; anaxyrídes). Iranian trousers worn by Scythians, Persians and neighbouring peoples (Hdt. 7,61 ff.) as well as mythical figures of the Orient (Amazons, Trojans, Orpheus, i.a.) who were characterized by these trousers. Anaxyrides were already known to the Greeks in the 6th cent. BC (various vase paintings; ‘Persian’ rider, Athens AM Inv. 606). In ancient art, anaxyrides are depicted as close-fitting along the legs, often in conjunction with a bodice resembling a leotard which covers the arms. This oriental attire is completed by the kandys (Iranian sl…

[German version] (χλαμύς; chlamýs). Shoulder-coat made of wool for travellers, warriors and hunters. The many-coloured and embroidered chlamys appeared in the 6th cent. BC and originally came from Thessaly (Poll. 7,46; 10,124; Philostr. Heroïkos 674) where it was also awarded as a winner's prize after athletic contests (Eust. in Hom. Il. 2,732), or Macedonia (Aristot. fr. 500 Rose). Typically it was worn as follows: the cloth of the ovally or rectangularly tailored coat was folded vertically, laid around the lef…

[German version] ( mantellum, mantelium, χειρόμακτρον; cheirómaktron). A rectangular linen cloth with braiding and fringes; in cult activity it served as a hand towel carried by the servants of the sacrifice,at meals is served for cleaning hands (e.g. Xen. Cyr. 1,3,5) and as a tablecloth (Mart. 12,28). In Sappho (99 Diehl) the cheirómaktron is mentioned as a head adornment. In its main functions as a tablecloth and towel the mantellum corresponds with the mappa that was also a popular gift at Saturnalia (Mart. 5,18,1). There is evidence that from the time of Nero (Suet. Nero 22) a mappa (fl…

A. General [German version] 1. Raw materials Attested in early monuments from the Minoan and Mycenaean period, hides and leather, as well as wool, sheepskins and goatskins, are amongst the oldest materials used for clothing. The use of  linen or flax to make garments developed thanks to the agency of the Phoenicians; Alexander [4] the Great's wars of conquest introduced  silk into Greece. The Romans used the same materials for clothing as the Greeks;  cotton came into use as well in the 2nd cent. BC; s…

[German version] (πήρα/ pḗra, πηρίδιον/ pērídion, Latin pera). A bag or satchel for carrying bread (Theoc. Epigr. 1,49; Ath. 10,422b), seeds (Anth. Pal. 6,95; 104) or herbs and vegetables (Aristoph. Plut. 298), which belonged to the equipment of hunters (Anth. Pal. 6,176), shepherds (Anth. Pal. 6,177) or fishermen and was worn at the hip by means of a strap over the shoulder. The pera was already an item characterizing beggars in Hom. Od. 13,437; 17,197; 410; 466 (cf. Aristoph. Nub. 924), and later became, along with the walking staff ( báktron, Latin baculum, staff), a symbol used by …

[German version] (δέπας; dépas). Wine bowl, mentioned several times in Homer and probably also attested in Hittite, for drinking, libations, mixing and ladling, made from precious metal and decorated (‘Nestor's cup’, Hom. Il. 11,632ff.). As synonyms Homer uses ἄλεισον ( áleison), ἀμφικύπελλον ( amphikýpellon), κύπελλον ( kýpellon); from which the depas has been understood to be a two-handled cup, similar to the cantharus ( Pottery, shape and types of). Archaeological finds and interpretation of Linear-B tablets from Pylos and Knossos (where it appears as di-pa) seem to have br…

[German version] (καρβατίνη/ karbatínē, cf. Lat. pero). Shoe made from rough leather, mostly worn by shepherds and farmers, later also shoe for soldiers (Xen. An. 4,5,14), apparently laced up (cf. Lucian. Alexander 39). In Aristot. Hist. an. 499a 29 also a camel shoe. Hurschmann, Rolf (Hamburg) Bibliography O. Lau, Schuster und Schusterhandwerk in der griech.-röm. Lit. und Kunst, 1967, 119-121.