PLOUGH
Form: Gr. arotron; Lat. aratrum.
This well-known agricultural implement, according to the story generally current in Greece, was an invention of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, who taught its use to Triptolemus (q.v.). Originally it was constructed of a strong, hook-shaped piece of timber, whereof the longer end (Gr. histoboeus; Lat. buris) served at once as plough-tail and pole, while the other acted as sharebeam (Gr. elyma; Lat. dentale). This was fitted the the share (Gr. hynis; Lat. vomer), and behind with the upright plough-tail (Gr. echetle; Lat. stiva). At the end of the pole was affixed the yoke, in which the oxen or mules by which it was to be drawn were harnessed (see cuts). Besides the natural hook-shaped plough, we have, as early as Hesiod (8th century B.C.), a notice of the artificially constructed instrument, in which the main parts, the pole, the share-beam, and the plough-stock (gyes) connecting them, were of different sorts of wood [Works and Days, 425-434]. Roman ploughs had also two earth-boards (aures), which served to smooth the furrow [Vergil, Georgic i 172]. The plaustraratrum (wagon-plough) used in Upper Italy was a different kind. In this the plough-stock rested on two low wheels, the pole being let into the axle. [In Pliny, N. H. xviii 172, the MSS have plaumorati d, altered by Hardouin into plaustraratri. Neither word is found elsewhere.]
Pictures and Media
<smalCaps>GREEK PLOUGH. (Relief on the pedestal of a statue of Demeter, found in Magnesia; Ginzrot, Wagen und Fahrucerke der Alten,p. 34.)
ITALIAN PLOUGH AND PLOUGHMAN. (From an ancient bronze, found at Arezzo; Micali, Monumenti per servire alto Storia d. ant. Popoli Ital., pl. 114.)