Homer Hesiod Hymns Tragedy Remythologizing Tools Blackboard Info
Dictionary
 
VASES 100.00%
Vases of Greek origin, may be classified under four heads, with several subdivisions in each: (I) archaic vases, (II) those with black figures, (III) those with red figures, and (IV) those of the decadence.
 
DURIS 100.00%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
A vase-painter; see VASES.
 
LECYTHUS 92.47%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
An oil-flask. (See VASES and VESSELS.)
 
MAENADS 59.82%
"the frenzied ones." Women in Bacchic ecstasy, who formed part of the train of Dionysus (q.v. fig. 3; cp. VASES, fig. 13).
 
POTTERY 54.24%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
The simplest, and at the same time one of the oldest, branches of the primeval art of working in clay is the manufacture of bricks and tiles, the invention of which (at Athens) was ascribed by the Greeks to the mythical personages Euryalus and Hyperbius [Pliny, H. N. vii 194]. So far as bricks were used at all, their use was generally confined to private buildings; and Greeks and Romans for ages employed only unbaked or sun-dried bricks. Bricks baked in the kiln came into use at a later date. The first to employ them extensively were the Romans, probably at the period when the population of the city rendered it necessary to build houses of several stories, which demanded a more solid material. In imperial times such bricks were the common material for private and public buildings. The walls were built of them, and then overlaid with stucco or marble. Building with baked bricks extended from Rome into Greece, and, generally speaking, wherever the Romans carried their arms, they introduced their exceptional aptitude for making excellent bricks. Bricks which presented flat surfaces, to be used for walls or pavements, were made of the most various dimensions, but were for the mostpart thinner than ours. Besides these, there were also rounded bricks for bujlding dwarf column, and for the construction of circular walls. For roofs flat tiles were chiefly used (Lat. tegula), which were provided with a raised rim on both of their longer sides, and were so formed that the upper fitted into the lower. Concave tiles also were used (Lat. imbrex) of the form of a half cylinder, which covered the adjoining edges of the flat tiles. The lowest row was commonly finished off with ornamental moulding. From the same material as bricks were also made pipes for conveying water, for sewers, and for warm air; the section in the first two cases was round, in the last, square. Pottery in its proper sense, the manufacture of utensils, is very old. The potter's wheel was known even before Homer's time [IL. xviii 600]. Its invention was variously ascribed to the Corinthian Hyperbius [Pliny vii 198] and to the Athenian Talus, nephew of Daedalus. Corinth and Athens, where the neighbouring promontory of Colias furnished an inexhaustible supply of fine potter's clay, were, in fact, the headquarters of the manufacture of Greek pottery. Next came Aegina, Samos, Lacedaemon, and other places in Greece itself, which always remained the principal seat of this manufacture, especially in the form of vases of painted clay. These were exported in large numbers to the countries on the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The high estimation in which Greek, and especially Attic, pottery was held is proved by the numerous vases which have been discovered in tombs, chiefly in Italy. More-over they represent almost every period. The excellence of the workmanship lies in the material, which is very fine, and prepared with the utmost care; also in the execution and in the baking. Its thinness, as well as the hardness of its sides, even in vessels of large dimensions, astonishes experts in such matters. The shapes are mostly produced by the potter's wheel, but also by hand in the case of vessels too large to be conveniently placed on the wheel; for example, the largest wine-jars. [The prehistoric pottery from Mycenaene, the Troad, and other Hellenic sites, was-also made by hand.] Whereas small vessels were made of a single piece, in the case of large ones the body, handles, feet, and neck, were fashioned separately, and then united. They were first dried in the sun, then twice baked, before and after the painting. The colours are No less admirable than the workmanship. The clay shows a beautiful bright reddish yellow, which is produced by the addition of colouring matter, and is also further intensified by a thin coating of glaze. The black colour, which often verges upon green, and is of a brilliant lustre, is then applied. Either (1) the design stands out black against the bright background or (2) the figures appear in red on a black ground, the former being the earlier method. Other colours, especially white or dark-red, were applied after the black glaze had been burnt into the clay by the second baking, and served as a less lasting adornment. In later times yellow, green, blue, brown, and gold were also used. [In the case of vases with black figures, the vase was first turned on the wheel, and in order to give it a surface of deeper red: clay finely ground and mixed with water to the consistency of cream, technically known as "slip," was applied by a brush or other wise while it was still revolving. The outline of the design was next roughly sketched, either witho . nt or in light-red ochre with a brush. The vase was then dried in the sun, and again put on the wheel, and the glaze, finely powdered and mixed with water was applied to it with a brush as it revolved. The vase was then in some cases fired for the first time in the kiln in order to provide a smooth, almost non-absorbent surface for the use of the painter. The painter then put on the black enamel figures and ornaments with a brush. After the firing of the enamel, the details were drawn in by incised lines, cutting through the enamel down to the clay body of the vase. In vases with red figures instead of the figures being painted in black, the ground is covered with black enamel and the figures left, showing the glazed red "slip" which covers the whole vase. This method produced a great artistic advance in the beauty of the figures, the details and inner lines of which could be executed with freedom and ease by brush-marked lines, instead of by the laborious process of cutting incised lines through the very hard black enamel (Prof. Middleton on "Pottery" in Encyc. Brit. xix 608, 609).] Lastly, the form deserves all praise. The vases of the best period present the most tasteful elegance of form, that is at once fine and strong, and the most delicate proportion of the various parts to each other and to the whole, without interfering with their practical utility (see cuts under VASES and VESSELS). It was not until the times when taste had begun to degenerate that the fashion was introduced of giving to clay ware, by means of moulds, all kinds of grotesque forms of men and beasts, and of furnishing them with plastic (as well as painted) ornamentation. [The technique of ancient pottery is illustrated by figs. 1 and 2. The first represents a youth seated in front of an oven, from the top of which he takes with two sticks a small, two-handled vase which has been newly glazed. The second shows the potter giving the last polish to a finished vase, while two other vessels are standing to dry on an oven, the door of which is closed (Guhl and Koner's Life of the Greeks and Romans, p. 141, Eng. ed.). Among the votive tablets in the Louvre there are two from Corinth, The first of these represents an early Greek type of kiln, which is domed over, and has a space for the fuel on one side, and a door in the side of the upper chamber, through which the pottery could be put in and withdrawn. The second shows a potter applying painted bands while the vessel revolves on the wheel (Prof. Middleton, l.c., figs. 3 and 20). See also VASES.] The ROMANS, with whom, as early as the time of the second king, Numa, a guild (collegium) of potters existed, neither had vessels of painted clay amongst their household goods, nor did they employ it for the ornamentation of their graves. In earlier times at least, they used only coarse and entirely unornamented ware. They imported artistically executed vases from their neighbours, the Etruscans. In the last hundred years of the Republic, as well as in the first hundred years after Christ, the chief place for the manufacture of the red crockery generally used in households was Arretium (Arezzo) [Pliny, xxxv 160; Martial, i 54, 6, xiv 98; Dennis, Etruria, ii 335]. The ware of this place was distinguished by a coral-red colour, and was generally furnished with glaze and delicate reliefs; in fact, ornamentation in relief was widely employed in later Roman pottery. Very much valued was the domestic ware, called vasa Samia, which was an imitation of the earlier pottery brought from the island of Samos. It was formed of fine, red-coloured clay, baked very hard, of thin make, and very delicate workmanship. It was glazed and generally adorned with reliefs, and served especially for the table use of respectable people who could not afford silver. While this fine ware was made by hand, the manufacture of ordinary pottery as well as of bricks and pipes, especially under the Empire, formed an important industry among capitalists, who, on finding good clay on their estates, built potteries and tileworks, and either worked them on their own account through slaves or had them carried on by lessees. The emperor himself, after the time of Tiberius, and the members of the imperial family, especially the females, pursued a similar trade, as is shown by the trade-mark which, according to Roman custom, was borne by clay manufactures. The production of large statues of clay, apart from the purpose of modelling, belongs amongst the Greeks to the early times. It continued much longer amongst the Italians, especially amongst the Etruscans, who furnished the temple at Rome with clay images of the gods before the victorious campaigns in the East brought marble and bronze productions of Greek art to Rome. On the other hand, throughout the whole of antiquity, the manufacture of small clay figures of very various kinds, for the decoration of dwellings and graves, and for playthings for children, etc., was most extensively practised. They were generally made in moulds, and after baking were decorated with a coating of colour. The excellence which Greek art attained in this department, as in others, is shown by the "figurines" discovered at Tanagra in and after 1874, specimens of which are given in figs. 3, 4. Very important too was the manufacture of clay reliefs, partly with figured representation and partly with arabesque patterns, for the embellishment of columns, windows, cornices, and also of tombstones and sarcophagi. (See Dumont and Chaplain, Ceramiques, 1888: Kekule, Thonfiguren aus Tanagra, 1878, Die antiken Terracotten, 1880, and Die Terracotten von Sicilien, 1884; Henzey, Catalogue des figurines antiques de terre cuite du Musee du Louvre, 1882, id. 60 plates, 1883; and the popular work by Pottier, Les Statuettes de Terre Cuite dans L'Antiquite, 1880.)
 
TROILUS 32.19%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
A younger son of Priam and Hecuba, who was slain by Achilles. According to the later legend, Achilles lay in wait for the boy when he was exercising his horse near a well in front of the city, and slew him as he fled to the temple of Thymbraean Apollo, just by the altar of the god, at the very spot where he himself was destined afterwards to meet his fate. According to another account, Troilus ventured to meet Achilles in open conflict, but was dragged to death by his own horses. (See VASES, fig. 10.)
 
PANATHENAEA 27.20%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
The most ancient and most important of Athenian festivals. It was celebrated in honour of Athene, the patron deity of Athens. Claiming to have been founded as early as by Erichthonius, it is said to have been originally named only Athenaea, and to have first received the name of Panathenaea at the time when Theseus united all the inhabitants of Attica into one body. In memory of the union itself was kept the festival of the Synaecia, or Synaecesia, on the 16th of Hecatombaeon (July-August), which may be regarded as a kind of prepatory solemnity to the Panathenaea. There was a festival of the ordinary or lesser Panathenaea celebrated every year, and from the time of Pisistratus, the great Panathenaea held every fifth year, and in the third year of every Olympiad, from the 24th to the 29th of Hecatombaeon. Pisistratus, in the year 566 B.C., added to the original chariot and horse races athletic contests in each of the traditional forms of competition. He, or his son Hipparchus, instituted the regulation, that the collected Homeric poems should be recited at the feast of Rhapsodi. In 446 Pericles introduced musical contests, which took place on the first day of the festival, in the Odeum, which he had built. Competitions of cyclic choruses and other kinds of dances, torch races and trireme races, added to the splendour of the festival. The care and direction of all these contests were committed to ten stewards (athlothetae), who were elected by the people for four years, from one great Panathenaic festival to the next. In the musical contests, the first prize was a golden crown; in the athletic, the prize was a garland of leaves from the sacred olive trees of Athene, together with large and beautiful vases filled with oil from the same trees. Many specimens of these Panathenaic vases have been found [in Italy, Sicily, Greece, and at Cyrene. They have the figure of Athene on one side, and a design indicating the contest for which they are awarded on the other. Most of them belong to the 4th century B.C., 367-318; the "Burgon Vase," in the British Museum, to the 6th century. Cp. Pindar, Nem. x 35]. The tribe whose ships had been victorious received a sum of money, part of which was destined for a sacrifice to Poseidon. The culminating point of the festival was the 28th day of the month, the birthday of the goddess, when the grand procession carried through the city the costly, embroidered, saffron-coloured garment, the peplus (q.v.). This bad been woven in the preceding nine months by Attic maidens and matrons, and embroidered with representations from the battle of the gods and Giants. It was carried through the city, first of all as a sail for a ship moving on wheels, and was then taken to the Acropolis, where it adorned one of the statues of Athene Polias. The procession is represented in a vivid manner in the well-known frieze of the Parthenon. It included the priests and their attendants, leading a long train of animals festally adorned for sacrifice; matrons and maidens bearing in baskets the various sacrificial implements (see CANEPHORI); the most picturesque old men in festal attire, with olive branches in their hands, whence came their name, thallophorae; warriors, with spear and shield, in splendid array; young men in armour; the cavalry under the command of both the hipparchi; the victors in the immediately preceding contests; the festal embassies of other states, especially of the colonies ; and, lastly, the aliens resident in Athens. Of these last, the men bore behind the citizens trays with sacrificial cakes, the women waterpots, and the maidens sunshades and stools for the citizens' wives; while on the freedmen was laid the duty of adorning with oak-leaves the market-places and streets through which the procession moved. The feast ended with the great festal sacrifice of a becatomb of oxen, and with the general banqueting which accompanied it. At the yearly minor Panathenaea, on the 28th and 29th of Hecatombaeon, contests, sacrifices, and a procession took place, but all in a more simple style. In later times the festival was removed to spring, perhaps in consequence of Roman influence, in order to make it correspond to the Quinquatrus of Minerva. [All the ancient authorities are collected by Michaelis, Der Parthenon, pp. 318-333.]
 
GEMS 21.25%
The art of cutting precious stones was early learned by the Greeks from the Egyptians and Orientals, who had practised it from remote antiquity. The cuttings were originally only concave, and the gems set in rings and used as seals. Cameos, or stones carved in relief, first came into use, it would seem, in the time of Alexander the Great, and were used for ornament. For cameos precious stones of various colours were used, especially the onyx. The layers of the stone were so treated, that the figures stood out bright on a dark ground. Muesarchus of Samos, the father of the philosopher Pythagoras (about 600 B.C.) is the oldest Greek jeweller whose name has come down to us. In the 4th century B.C. the most celebrated master was Pyrgoteles, the only artist whom Alexander the Great would allow to cut his likeness. In the age of Augustus we hear of Dioscorides, who cut the emperor's likeness on a stone which was used as a seal by the succeeding Caesars. The Etruscans and Romans took up the art very early, but never attained the same perfection as the Greeks. The fancy for making collections of beautiful gems arose as early as the 1st century B.C. The intaglios, or cut stones, have come down to us in greater numbers than any Of the monuments of ancient art. Those which belonged to the advanced periods of style present examples of the most beautiful workmanship, the most original composition, and the most interesting subjects, the latter being mainly taken from mythology. Among the remaining Greek cameos an important place, both for size and beauty, must be given to the Gonzaga Cameo in St. Petersburg. This, it has been conjectured, represents the bust of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe, his sister and wife; [but it more probably commemorates Nero and Agrippina, fig. 7.] The largest and most splendid of the cameos which have come down from the Roman period are those at Vienna (fig. 8) and Paris, representing, in groups and figures, the family of Augustus. Whole vessels were sometimes made of single stones, and adorned with reliefs An instance is the Mantuan vase now at Brunswick, 6 1/3 inches high, 2 1/3 inches thick, consisting of a single onyx. The lid, handle and base are of gold. Two parallel lines of gold divide the surface into three parts, the midmost of which has twelve figures, representing the festival of the Thesmophoria, in three groups; while the highest and lowest are adorned with leaves, flowers, ears of corn, fruits, bulls' heads, and other objects connected with the worship of Demeter. Works of this kind are sometimes made of coloured glasses. The most celebrated instance of this sort is the Portland Vase now in the British Museum. Its height is about 10 inches. The material is a dark blue transparent glass, with beautiful reliefs in white opaque enamel (fig. 9). [See Catalogue of Engraved Gems in the British Museum, 1888, pp. 225-8; and (on the subject in general) Introduction, pp. 1-38.]
 
EOS 19.31%
The Greek goddess of the dawn, daughter of the Titan Hyperion and Theia, sister of Hellos and Selene, by Astraeus, mother of the winds, Argestes, Zephyros, Boreas and Notos, the morning star Heosphoros, and of the stars in general. Her hair is beautiful, her arms and fingers ruddy, her wings are white. She rises early from her couch on the Eastern Ocean, and in a saffron-coloured mantle, on a golden chariot drawn by white horses, she comes forth as her brother's herald to proclaim the rising of day to mortals and immortals, Loving all fresh and youthful beauty, she carries away Clitus, Cephalus, Orion and Tithonus, to whom she bears Memnon and Emathion. She is represented in works of art as hovering in the sky, or riding on her chariot, moving with a torch before Ares, or sprinkling dew from a vase over the earth. See <smappCaps>MEMNON</smappCaps>.
 
TRIPTOLEMUS 18.71%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
Son of Eleusis (or of Celeus, see DEMOPHOON) a favourite of Demeter, who sent him about the world on a car drawn by serpents to extend the cultivation of grain, and with it agriculture. On his return to Attica, Celeus of Eleusis made an attempt upon his life, but, at the bidding of Demeter, was obliged to give up the country to him. He founded the town of Eleusis, and, as first priest of Demeter, instituted the services there held in her honour, as well as the Thesmophoria (q.v.). In various parts of Greece, as well as in Italy and Sicily, he was honoured as the founder and promoter of husbandry, but especially in Eleusis, where, as the local hero, he had a temple dedicated to him, and a spot called the threshing-floor of Trip-tolemus on the Rharian plain. The Argive legend connected him with its local genealogies, and told how, while seeking Io in Tarsus and Antioch, he founded Greek settlements and instituted the cultivation of corn. In the Attic legend of Eleusis, he is also represented as a judge of the dead. (See DEMETER, fig. 1, and VASES, fig. 12.)
 
TOREUTIC ART 16.15%
 
TORCH-RACE 15.98%
 
SIRENS 10.65%
The virgin daughters of Phorcys, according to later legend of Achelous and one of the Muses. In Homer there are two, in later writers three, called Ligeia, Leukosia, and Parthenope, or Aglaopheme, Molpe, and Theloeiepeia. Homer describes them as dwelling between Circe'sisle and Scylla, on an island, where they sit in a flowery meadow, surrounded by the mouldering bones of men, and with their sweet song allure and infatuate those that sail by. Whoever listens to their song and draws near them never again beholds wife and child. They know everything that happens on earth. When Odysseus sailed past, lie had stopped up the ears of his companions with wax, while he had made them bind him to the mast, that he might hear their song without danger [Od xii 41-54,153-200]. Orpheus protected the Argonauts from their spell by his own singing [Apollonius Rhodius, iv 903]. As they were only to live till some one had sailed past unmoved by their song, they cast themselves into the sea, on account either of Odysseus or of Orpheus, and were changed to sunken rocks. When the adventures of Odysseus came to be localised on the Italian and Sicilian shore, the seat of the Sirens was transferred to the neighbourhood of Naples and Sorrento, to the three rocky and uninhabited islets called the Sirenusae [the Sirenum scopuli of Vergil, Aen. v 864; cp. Statius, Silvae ii 2, 1], or to Capri, or to the Sicilian promontory of Pelorum. There they were said to have settled, after vainly searching the whole earth for the lost Persephone, their former playmate in the meadows by the Achelous; and later legend also assigned this as the time when they in part assumed a winged shape. They were represented as great birds with the heads of women, or with the upper part of the body like that of a woman, with the legs of birds, and with or without wings (see cut). At a later period they were sometimes regarded as retaining their original character of fair and cruel tempters and deceivers. But they are more generally represented as singers of the dirge for the dead, and they were hence frequently placed as an ornament on tombs; or as symbols of the magic of beauty, eloquence, and song, on which account their sculptured forms were seen on the funeral monuments of fair women and girls, and, of orators and poets: for instance, on those of Isocrates and Sophocles. [Such a Siren may be seen, beating her breast and tearing her hair, above the stele of Aristion in the Street of Tombs at Athens. The National Museum at Athens contains several examples of stone Sirens, not as reliefs, but as separate figures "in the round"; and a funeral monument of this type maybe noticed on a vase in the British Museum (Cat. C. 29), where the Siren is standing on a pillar and playing the lyre. Cp. Euripides, Hel. 169; Anthologia Palatina vii 710 and 481; with Miss Harrison's Myths of the Odyssey, pp. 146-182, and Mythology and Monuments of Athens, pp. 582-5.1
 
GLASS 9.04%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
Glass was for a long time procured by the Greeks and Romans from Phoenicia and Egypt, where its manufacture had been carried on since very ancient times, and the art had reached an uncommon degree of perfection. The ancients produced glass-work of great beauty, both in form and colours. In later times it was the manufacturers of Alexandria whose reputation stood the highest. The manufacturers carried on, down to the times of the later Empire, a considerable export trade in coloured blown-glass and mosaics. It is uncertain whether the Greeks manufactured their own glass in more ancient times. It was certainly a very costly article down to the time of the Peloponnesian War, and only came into general use at a late period. In Italy the manufacture of glass began at the commencement of the imperial period, first in Campania and afterwards in Rome, where they were ambitious of surpassing the art of Alexandria. From Italy it spread to Gaul and Spain and the more distant provinces, and before long, glass cups, saucers, and bottles became an ordinary part of household furniture. The remains discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii show that glass windows were not unknown in the imperial age. The ancients were familiar with the manufacture of pure, white, transparent, crystal glass, which was much in request, as well as with the art of colouring glass in every tint. They could imitate every kind of stone, produce varying prismatic tints, and spread layers of different colours upon each other. The art of cutting and polishing glass was very advanced. From bits of glass, cut and polished, were made great numbers of mock pearls, or mock precious stones, and pastes, which were worn, instead of real stones, in rings, tut in intaglio or relief. The most important productions of art were: (1) the vasa diatreta. In these cups the outer side was made of filigree work, cut out of the hard mass. The outer network was of a different colour from the ground, with which it was connected by nothing but slender glass talks. (2) The vessels which exhibit reliefs of white opaque glass on a dark and transparent ground, like the celebrated Portland Vase (See GEMS). Glass tablets, intended for mural decoration, were sometimes ornamented with reliefs of this kind.
 
PAINTING 7.37%
 
BURIAL 6.02%
Greek. The Greeks regarded the burial of the dead as one of the most sacred duties. Its neglect involved an offence against the dead ; for, according to the popular belief, the soul obtained no rest in the realms of the dead, so long as the body remained unburied. It involved, further, an offence against the gods, both of the upper and the lower world. The unburied corpse was an offence to the eyes of the former, while the latter were deprived of their due. Any one finding an unburied corpse was expected at least to throw a handful of dust over it. If a general neglected to provide for the burial of the slain in war, he was deemed guilty of a capital offence. Burial of the dead was not refused even to the enemy, whether Greek or barbarian. It was a violation of the laws of war to refuse to the conquered the truce necessary for this purpose; and if the conquered were unable to fulfil the duty, the responsibility fell upon the conquerors. There were certain circumstances under which, according to Athenian law, children, during the lifetime of their fathers, were held free from all obligations to them; but the obligation to give them burial after death was never cancelled. The usages of the Athenians, and probably of the other Greeks, were as follows. The eyes of the dead having been closed, an obolos was put in the mouth as passage-money for Charon. The body was then washed and anointed by the women of the family, who proceeded to adorn it with fillets and garlands (commonly of ivy), to clothe it in white garments, and lay it out on a couch in the hall, with its face turned to the door. The kinsfolk and friends stood by, mourning; but the laws of Solon forbade all exaggerated expressions of grief. Hired women were sometimes introduced, singing dirges to the accompaniment of the flute. Near the couch were placed painted earthenware vases containing the libations to be afterwards offered. Before the door was a vessel of water, intended for the purification of all who went out. This water might not be brought from another house in which a dead body lay. The corpse was laid out on the day following the death; and on the next day before sunrise (lest the sun should be polluted by the sight) was carried out to the place of burial, attended by kinsmen and friends, who sometimes acted as bearers. This office, however, was usually performed by freedmen or hired assistants; in the case of men of mark, it would be undertaken by young Athenian citizens. The procession was headed by men singing songs of mourning, or women playing the flute; then came the male mourners in garments of black or grey, and with hair cut short; and these were followed by the bier. Behind the bier followed a train of women, including all who were related to the dead as far as to the fifth degree. No other women might attend but those who were more than sixty years of age. In the heroic age the bodies are always burnt, burial being unknown; but in later times burial and burning are found existing side by side, burial being preferred by the pooron the ground of expense. In case of buria, the body was placed in coffin of wood, clay, or stone, or in a chamber in a wall, or in a grave hollowed out in a rock. If burning was resorted to, the corpse was laid on a pyre, which, in the case of rich families, was sometimes very large, splendid and costly. It was kindled by the nearest relative; the mourners threw into the flame locks of hair, and objects of all kinds in which the dead person had taken pleasure during his life. When the fire was extinguished, the relations collected the ashes and put them in an urn, which was set up in a building constructed on a scale large enough for whole families or clans. So, too, in ease of burial, the coffins which belonged to one family or clan were laid together in a common tomb. Near the urns and coffins were placed a variety of vessels and other objects which had been the property of the dead. (Comp. fig. 1.) The funeral was succeeded by a meal partaken of by the mourners in the house of mourning. The virtues of the dead were spoken of, and his faults passed over, to speak evil of the dead being regarded as an impiety. Then came the purification of the house. On the third, ninth, and thirtieth day after the funeral, libations of honey, wine, oil, and milk or water, with other offerings, were brought to the tomb. On the ninth day, in particular, peculiar preparations of food were added. The outward signs of mourning were laid aside at Athens on the thirtieth, at Sparta as early as the twelfth, day after the funeral. The kinsfolk visited the graves at certain seasons of the year, adorned them with garlands and fillets, and brought offerings to them. This was done more especially on the anniversaries of births and deaths, and at the general festival of the dead (Nekysia) in September. (Comp. fig. 2.) After the time of Solon, a public burial was sometimes given at Athens to men of great mark. In time of war, too, the bones of all the citizens who had fallen in the campaigns of the year were sometimes buried together at the public expense in the outer Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of the city. On these occasions a funeral oration was delivered by a speaker of mark, chosen by the government. In later times a memorial festival was observed, even in time of peace, in honotir of the dead thus publicly buried. A special service was held annually at Marathon in memory of the heroes who had fallen there, and been buried on the spot in recognition of their valour. (Comp. fig. 3.) The ashes of persons who had died in a foreign country were, if possible, brought home and laid in a tomb. There were cases in which this was impossible, or in which the body could not be removed-if, for instance, the deceased had been lost at sea. Then a kenotaphion, or empty tomb, would be erected to his memory. It was only to very heinous offenders that a tomb in their own country was refused. If a man's guilt was proved after his death, his remains were disinterred and sent across the frontier. As a rule-though there were exceptions, as at Sparta-burial places were situated outside the city, and in the neighbourbood of the great roads. This was also the favourite place for private tombs standing on their own ground, apart from the common cemeteries. The body was generally buried with the feet turned towards the road. Monuments took the form of mounds, pilasters, columns, and flat grave-stones. We often find buildings in the style of temples, with very costly adornments, sculptures, and inscriptions in verse and prose. These inscriptions often give more than the name of the deceased, and contain notices of his life, sometimes with proverbs, sometimes with curses directed against any one violating the tomb and disturbing the rest of its occupants. The violation of a tomb, which was regarded with reverence as a consecrated spot, was a serious offence. One of the most aggravated forms of it was the intrusion into the family sepulchre of a body which had no right to be there.
 
VESSELS 5.96%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
An immense number of vessels for different purposes is mentioned by the ancients. It is impossible within the present limits to speak of more than a certain number of the most important. In ordinary life much use was made of pottery, which was sometimes ornamented with paintings. (See POTTERY and VASES.) Next to clay, bronze was the favourite material. The precious metals, marble, and other stones, such as porphyry, travertine, alabaster, and onyx, were also used, and the vessels made of these and of bronze were often adorned with carved work. On the employment of glass for this purpose, see GLASS. (Cp. also MURRINA.) It can hardly be said that wood was much in use. Vessels intended to hold wine, oil, salt meat, salt fish, olives, corn, and the like, were generally of clay. The largest of them was the pithos (Gr.) or dolium (Lat.), a butt in the form of a gourd, used for storing oil and wine. This vessel, which was lined with pitch, was often so large that a man could easily get inside it. It was one of these butts in which Diogenes made his abode. They were generally let into the floor of the cellar, and counted as immovable furniture. The Greek bikos and the Roman seria were smaller vats of the same kind, used for storing salt-meats, figs, corn, etc. For purposes of sale and of use, the wine and oil were passed from the dolium into the amphora (Gr. amphoreus), and the cadus (Gr. kados). These were vessels with two handles, and a slim body pointed at the foot. They were either buried up to the middle in the ground, or set up slanting against the wall (fig. 1, nos. 20-23; fig. 2 a, b). The cadi were specially used by the Romans for the storage of Greek wines. Wine and oil were also, especially in the country, put into leather bags (Gr. askos; Lat. uter), as is the case now in the East and in the south of Europe. The bag was made by sewing a number of skins together, and was tapped by untying one of the legs. For drawing and holding water they used the hydria, or kalpis (Lat. urna), carried on the head or shoulders. This was a vessel, with a short neck and large body, often with three handles, two smaller ones for carrying, and one behind for drawing and pouring out (fig. 1, nos. 16, 17). The lagynos (Lat. lagona or lagoena) was a wine-jar. It had a narrow neck, rather a wide mouth, and a handle (fig. 1, no. 34). It was hung up as a sign in front of wine shops, and was put before the guests at table. The lekythos or ampulla was used for oil (fig. 1, no. 33); the alabastron or alabaston (fig. 1, no. 35) for fragrant ointments. This vessel was named from the material of which it was usually made. Both the lekythos and alabastron had narrow necks, so that the liquid ran out in drops. The alabastron was round at the foot, and therefore required a stand to support it. The general term krater (Lat. cratera or creterra) was used to denote the vessels in which wine was mixed with water at mealtimes (fig. 1, no. 25; cp. HILDESHEIM, THE TREASURE OF). They were moderately large, with wide necks and bodies, and two handles. Sometimes they had a pedestal, sometimes they were pointed or round beneath, in which case they required a support (hypokraterion). For ladling and pouring out the wine, spoons were used (trua, trulla, fig. 3), as well as various sorts of cups (cyathus, fig. 1, nos. 10, 13-15). These resembled our tea and coffee cups, but had a much higher handle, rising far above the rim, and contained a definite measure. Drinking-vessels were made in the form of bowls, beakers, and horns. To the first class belonged the flat phiale, or saucer without handle or base, corresponding to the Roman patera generally used in sacrifices (fig. 1, nos. 1, 2); the kymbion, a long deep vessel without handles, so called from its likeness to a boat; and the kylix (Lat. calix) with handle and base (fig. 1, nos. 3 and 8). Among the beakers may be mentioned the skyphos (Lat. scyphus) attributed to Heracles (fig. 1, nos. 4-7). This was a large cup originally of wood, and used by shepherds, sometimes with a round, sometimes with a flat bottom. Another was the kantharos (cantharus) peculiar to Dionysus (fig. 1, no. 12), with a high base and projecting handles. The karchesion (carchesium, fig. 1, no. 11) was tall, slightly contracted at its sides, and with slender handles reaching from the rim to the foot [Macrobius, Saturnalia v 21]: the kiborion (ciborium) resembled the husks of the Egyptian bean. The class of drinking horns included the rhyton (fig. 4), with its mouth shaped like the head of an animal. As may be seen from the names, the Romans borrowed most of their drinking vessels from the Greeks. They were generally fitted with silver; and, during the imperial times often ornamented with finely cut gems. It is unnecessary to enumerate the various vessels used for washing, cooking, and eating, the characteristics of which were not strikingly different from our own. But we may observe that for domestic purposes of all kinds the ancients used basket work of canes, rushes, straw, and leaves, especially palm leaves. The kalathos, made in the form of a lily (fig.5, a and b), was used for holding the wool used in weaving and embroidery: the low kaneon, or basket of round or oval shape (fig. 5, c), for bread and fruit. The Athenian maidens carried kanea on their heads at the Panathenaic procession. (See CANEPHORI.) For baskets of other shapes, see fig. 5, d, e, f.
 
PHYSICIANS 5.76%
 
TEMPLES 4.91%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
In ancient times temples were regarded as the dwelling-places of the gods to whom they were dedicated. They might contain an image or not, but the latter case was exceptional. As they were not houses of prayer intended for the devotion of a numerous community, they were usually of very limited extent. There were, however, temples of considerable size, among which was that of Artemis in Ephesus, 438 feet long by 226 broad; that of Hera in Samos; that begun by Pisistratus and finished by Hadrian, and dedicated to Zeus Olympius in Athens (see OLYMPIEUM); and the temple of Zeus of Agrigeutum, which was never quite completed. All of these were almost as large as the first-mentioned. Only temples like that at Eleusis, in which the celebration of mysteries took place, were intended to accommodate a larger number of people. The great sacrifices and banquets shared by all the people were celebrated in the court of the temple (Gr. peribolos), which included the altars for sacrifice, and was itself surrounded by a wall with only one place of entrance. It was a feature common to all temples that they were not built directly on the surface of the ground, but were raised on a sub-structure which was mounted by means of an uneven number of steps, so that people were able as a good omen to put their right foot on the first and last step. The usual shape of Greek temples was an oblong about twice as long as wide, at the front and back of which was a pediment or gable-roof (Gr.aetos or aetoma; Lat. fastigium). Round temples with dome-shaped roofs were quite the exception. The principal part of the temple was the chamber containing the image of the god. This stood on a pedestal, which was often placed in a small niche, and usually stood facing the east, opposite folding-doors which always opened outwards. Before the image stood an altar used for unbloody sacrifices. This chamber, called in Greek naos, and in Latin cella, generally received its light through the door alone, but sometimes there was also an opening in the roof. There were also temples designated hypoethral (from hypaithros, "in the open air");1 in these there was no roof to the middle chamber of the cella, which was separated from the lateral portions by one or more rows of pillars on each side. Generally each temple belonged to only one god; but sometimes a temple was regarded as the dwelling-place of several deities, either those who were worshipped in groups, as the Muses, or those who were supposed to stand in close alliance or other relationship to each other, such as the twins Apollo and Artemis; and Apollo, as leader of the Muses, together with the Muses themselves. Frequently only one god had an image and altar in the chief cella, while others were worshipped in adjoining chapels. Lastly, there were double temples, with two celloe built in opposite directions. (See ARCHITECTURE, fig. 13.) Many temples had, besides the cella, a kind of "holy of holies" (adyton or megaron) which was only entered by the priests, and only by them at certain times, and which was sometimes under the ground. Usually an open porch or vestibule (pronaos), with pillars in front, stood before the cella, and in it were exposed the dedicatory offerings. There was often also an inner chamber behind the image (opisthodomos) which served for various purposes, the valuables and money belonging to the temple being often kept there. It was surrounded by a wall, and the door was well secured by locks. The various kinds of temples are usually distinguished according to the number and arrangement of the pillars. Thus: (1) A temple in antis (fig. 1) is one in which the pronaos (sometimes also the opisthodomos) was formed by the prolongation of the side walls of the temple (Lat. antoe; Gr. parastades) and by two columns placed between the terminal pilasters of the antoe. (2) Prostylos, with the columns in front (fig. 2), is an epithet descriptive of a temple, the front of whose pronaos was formed in all its breadth by a row of columns quite separate from the walls, and with the columns at the extremities standing in front of the antoe. (3) Amphiprostylos (fig. 3) describes a temple with the columns arranged as in (2) at the back as well as in the front. (4) Peripteros (fig. 4) describes a temple surrounded on all sides by a colonnade supporting the architrave. This is the type most frequently employed by the Greeks. (See PARTHENON, cuts 1 and 2.) (5) Pseudoperipteros ("false peripteros") is an epithet of a temple in which the architrave appears to be carried by pilasters or by "engaged" columns in the walls of the cella. This form is seldom used by the Greeks, but often by the Romans. (6) Dipteros (fig. 5) describes a temple surrounded by two ranges of columns. (7) Pseudodipteros ("false dipteros," fig. 6). A temple surrounded with only a single range of columns, but at such a distance that they correspond in position to the exterior range of the dipteral temple. According to the number of columns in front, which must always be an even number, since the entrance was in the middle, it is usual to distinguish temples as tetra-, hexa-, octa-, deca-, or dodeca-stylos (with 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 columns). The number of columns along each side was usually one more than twice the number along the front, but this was not the invariable rule. For the architrave and for the columns of the different orders, see pp. 57, 58. The frieze resting on the architrave, and (in the Doric order) the metopes in particular (q.v.), as well as the two pediments (Gr. tympana), were decorated with sculptures, and these sculptures, as well as the walls of the temple often had a more life-like and more varied appearance given to them by appropriate colouring. The coping of the roof, as well as the angles of the pediment, were ornamented by acroteria, which consisted of statues, vases, or anthemia (groups of flowers and leaves; cp. cut to AeGINETAN SCULPTURES). In the plan of their temples the ROMANS originally followed the Etruscans (cp.TEMPLUM, below). The ground-plan of the Etruscan temple was nearly a square, the ratio of the depth to frontage being 6:5. Half of the space was taken up by the cella, and the rest by the columns. The architrave was of wood, and without any special frieze. The great temple with three celloe on the Roman Capitol was built in the Etruscan style, the middle and largest cella being sacred to Jupiter, and the smaller ones on either side to Minerva and Juno. (Cp. JUPITER.) Under Greek influence the different forms of the Greek temple began to be imitated at Rome, the most prevalent type being that described as prostylos, which lent itself most easily to the requirements of a templum in the strict sense of the term. An important alteration in the Greek form of temple was brought about by the introduction of vaulted arches or groined ceilings, which were seldom used by the Greeks, and never on a large scale, but were brought to great perfection by the Romans. They took the form of a cylindrical vaulting in the case of a quadrangular cella, and a dome in the case of the round temples, which were frequent with the Romans. The two principal forms of the latter are (1) the monopteros, which consisted of a single circle of columns standing on a platform mounted by steps and supporting the columns which bore a dome on a circular architrave. (2) The peripteros, with the same arrangement of columns, but with a circular cella in the middle which was covered by a dome rising from the surrounding colonnade. In a third variety, of which we have an example in the Pantheon (q.v.), the circular body of the building is not surrounded by columns externally, but only provided on one side with an advanced portico.
 
Query:
Type: Standard
SoundEx
Results:
  
gutter splint
gutter splint
gutter splint