INDUSTRY: HOUSE-BUILDERS, CARPENTERS, CABINET-MAKERS, TURNERS, MUSICAL
INSTRUMENT-MAKERS, POTTERS, GLASS-WORKERS, ETC.
Another flourishing branch of industry was that of quarrying stones for
building, carried on wherever marble, or freestone, or tufa, or granite,
was found.[1003] The stones were usually fashioned by the axe, or
saw,[1004] in the quarry, and drawn thence by ropes. In many cases,
however, as where cheapness or despatch was aimed at, bricks were
substituted,[1005] made, in addition to the materials at present
employed, from powdered tufa.[1006]
-----
Footnote 1003:
Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. i. 37.
Footnote 1004:
Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 299.
Footnote 1005:
Plato de Rep. t. vi. p. 15. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, ii. 544. Goguet.
iv. 11. Theoph. de Lapid. 48.
Footnote 1006:
Winkelmann, ii. 544.
-----
In the preparation of mortar and cement the Greeks exhibited
extraordinary ingenuity.[1007] They made use, in the first place, of
lime procured by burning coarse marble in the ordinary way, or,
secondly, obtained from sea-shells, or stones picked up on the banks of
rivers. A superior kind of cement was made from those stones used in the
manufacture of gypsum, which was so firm and durable, that it was
frequently found to outlast the materials which it had been employed to
unite. It was prepared by being reduced to powder, and mixed with water,
and afterwards well stirred with a piece of wood, since it was too hot
to admit of the hands being used. When removed from old walls it might
be burnt and prepared a second and a third time, as originally from the
stone.[1008] This, in Syria and Phœnicia, was used in facing the walls
of houses, and in Italy for whitening them, as well as in the making of
various mouldings and ornaments within.[1009]
-----
Footnote 1007:
On one occasion, moreover, when they happened to be in lack of hods,
they gave proof of no less ingenuity in their mode of carrying mortar.
In the hasty construction of the fortress of Pylos, by Demosthenes and
his companions, the soldiers took the mud, which was to serve as
cement, on their bare backs, stooping forward that it might not fall
off, and knotting their hands on their loins beneath their burden: καὶ
τὸν πηλὸν, εἴπου δέοι χρῆσθαι, ἀγγείων ἀπορίᾳ, ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου ἔφερον,
ἐγκεκυφότες τε, ὡς μάλιστα μέλλοι ἐπιμένειν, καὶ τὼ χεῖρε ἐς τοὐπίσω
ξυμπλέκοντες, ὅπως μὴ ἀποπίπτοι. Thucyd. iv. 4. The reader will,
doubtless, be struck by the picturesque energy with which the great
historian relates this humble fact.
Footnote 1008:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 65, sqq. The κονία, or stucco, was likewise called
ἀσβέστος. A wall covered with this substance was called κεκονιαμένος
τοῖχος. Schol. ad Theocrit. i. 31.
Footnote 1009:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 67.
-----
Frequently, also, it appears to have been employed like plaster of Paris
in the casting of statues, as was that composed of powdered marble, in
repairing such as by accident had been broken. An example of this was
observed in the cheek of a sphynx dug up in the island of Capri.[1010]
Instead of water, however, a tough glue, composed of the hides and horns
of bulls, was employed in mixing it.[1011]
-----
Footnote 1010:
Winkelm. Hist de l’Art, ii. 81.
Footnote 1011:
Dioscor. v. 164.
-----
In the roofing of houses pantiles were commonly made use of;[1012]
instead of which, as they were fragile and easily broken by hailstones,
tiles of Pentelic marble, invented by Byzes of Naxos,[1013] were often
substituted in the case of temples, as that for example of Zeus at
Olympia. It is mentioned incidentally by Dioscorides, that physicians
used to reduce acacia-wood to powder by burning it in the
tile-kilns.[1014]
-----
Footnote 1012:
Luc. Contemplant. § 6.
Footnote 1013:
Of this Byzes, who lived in the age of Alyattes and Astyages,
Pausanias gives the following account:—τὸ δὲ εὕρημα (viz. that of the
tiles) ἀνδρὸς Ναξίου λέγουσιv εἶναι Βύζου, οὗ φασὶν ἐν Νάξω τὰ
ἀγάλματα ἐφ᾽ ὧν ἐπίγραμμα εἶναι
Νάξιος Εὔεργός με γένει Λητοῦς πόρε, Βύζεω
Παῖς, ὃς πρώτιστος τεῦξε λίθου κέραμον.
De Situ Græciæ. v. 10. 3. Cf. Poll. i. 12. Another article produced by
the same handicraftsmen was the chimney-pots, ὀπαίαι, which appear to
have been in almost universal use: ὀπαίαν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ τὴν κεραμίδα
ἐκάλουν, ἣ τὴν ὀπὴν εἶχεν. Poll. ii. 54. The nature of the ὀπαία is
more exactly explained by the author of the Etymologicon Magnum:
κράτης δέ φησιν ἀνοπαῖαν τὴν τὲ τρημένην κεραμίδα τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς ὀροφῆς.
iii. 21.
Footnote 1014:
Dioscor. i. 133.
-----
Respecting the business of house-painters our information is exceedingly
scanty; we may infer, however, that they excelled in the imitation of
woods and marbles, since they were employed in imitating on the polished
surface of one stone the veins and colours characteristic of
another.[1015] Some persons covered the walls of their apartments with
historical subjects,[1016] or landscapes, or the figures of animals in
fresco.[1017] In later ages ceilings were painted, or inlaid with
coloured stones,[1018] or abaculi, so as to imitate the feathers and
hues of a peacock’s tail.[1019]
-----
Footnote 1015:
Winkelmann, ii. 68. Xenoph. Œconom. i. 3, seq.
Footnote 1016:
Dion Chrysost. i. 261. ii. 459.
Footnote 1017:
Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 153.
Footnote 1018:
Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 353. Pollux. x. 84.
Footnote 1019:
For a knowledge of this fact we are indebted to the elder Pliny: In
Belgicâ provinciâ candidum lapidem serrâ, qua lignum, faciliusque
etiam, secant, ad tegularum et imbricum vicem: vel si libeat, ad quæ
vocant pavonacea tegendi genera, xxxvi. 44. On which Dalecampus has
the following note: Docti complures legendum putant, pavita, aut
pavimenta, _i. e._ pavimenti modo facta et constructa. Ego pavonacea
interpretor, picturatis lapidum impositorum quadris ad instar pennarum
pavonis fulgentia, et splendentia, ut hodie fit in principum ædibus
tegulis magnâ colorum varietate nitentibus et conspicuis. See also the
note of Hardouin in loc.
-----
Timber for house-building,[1020] the choice of which was regulated by
law,[1021] abounded in most parts of Greece, though the best and
straightest was obtained from Macedonia and Arcadia,[1022] particularly
from a hollow valley near a place called Cranè, never visited by the
sun, and fenced round by rocks on all sides from the winds.[1023] Very
particular rules were laid down respecting the time and manner of
felling trees;[1024] first, wood cut in spring was most easily barked;
second, if this operation was neglected it bred worms, which furrowed
its whole surface like written characters; third, such as was cut when
the moon was below the horizon was thought harder and less liable to
decay.[1025] It may here, perhaps, be worth observing, that stones and
other substances were often found grown into the trunks of wild
olive-trees. This was particularly the case with that which grew in the
market-place of Megara. The oracle had foretold, that when this tree
should be cut down the city would be sacked and destroyed, which was
brought to pass by Demetrius. On this occasion the tree being felled and
sawed into planks, greaves and other articles of Athenian workmanship
were found in the heart of it.[1026] Fragments of the timber remained in
the time of Theophrastus.
-----
Footnote 1020:
Among the frailest dwellings of mankind, with the exception perhaps of
the paper houses of the Japanese, we may mention those of the
Nasamones described by Herodotus, composed of the stems of the
asphodel intertwisted with rushes: οἰκήματα δὲ σύμπηκτα ἐξ ἀνθερίκων
ἐνερμένων περὶ σχοίνους ἐστὶ, καὶ ταῦτα περιφορητά. iv. 190. Cf. v.
101.
Footnote 1021:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 55.
Footnote 1022:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 1.
Footnote 1023:
Id. iv. 1. 2.
Footnote 1024:
See a curious figure of the axe, Mus. Chiaramont, pl. 21. Of the time
of fruit-bearing in forest trees, see Theoph. Hist. Plant, iii. 4. 4.
The same naturalist remarks, that the ilex, in Arcadia, was
perpetually covered with acorns, the old ones not falling off till the
new ones appeared. The yew and the pine blossom, he observes, a little
before midsummer, and the bright yellow flowers of the latter, are
extremely beautiful in form. Ib.
Footnote 1025:
Geopon. i. 6. 4. iii. 1. 2. iii. 10. 4. iii. 15. 3. Theoph. Hist.
Plant. v. 1. 2.
Footnote 1026:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 4.
-----
In cutting hard wood carpenters made use of a blunt axe,[1027] which
thus became sharper, while soft wood produced the contrary effect.[1028]
It was customary before timber was committed to the saw to soak it for
some time in water;[1029] and it is said to have been rendered
incombustible by a solution of alum and certain kinds of vinegar.[1030]
The tools of the Greek carpenter as near as possible resembled our own;
they had the saws small and great, the plane, the axe, the chisel, the
square, the gimlet, the augur,[1031] the compass,[1032] and, in short,
whatever else could be useful in their trade. Among the paintings of
Herculaneum[1033] we find the representation of a carpenter’s workshop,
where two winged genii are busily employed with the mallet and the saw.
In making lines, &c., they used the ruddle now employed.[1034]
-----
Footnote 1027:
Lucian. Jup. Confut. § 11, who elsewhere commemorates the practice of
carpenters, who shut one eye that they may see the better. Icaromenip.
§ 14.
Footnote 1028:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 4. 7.
Footnote 1029:
Id. v. 6. 4.
Footnote 1030:
Aul. Gell. Noct. Apt. xv. 1.
Footnote 1031:
Auger-handles and small mallets were made of oleaster, box, elm, and
ash; large mallets of pine wood. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 8.
Footnote 1032:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 179.
Footnote 1033:
Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 24, p. 181.
Footnote 1034:
Μίλτος τεκτονικὴ. Dioscor. v. 12.
-----
Among the kinds of timber in most general use was the silver fir,
thought to be extremely durable, in illustration of which Theophrastus
relates the following circumstance: it happened at Pheneos, in
Arcadia,[1035] that, owing to the obstruction of the torrent-beds, the
plain was converted into a lake. To traverse this they constructed
bridges of fir, and when the flood rose still higher, bridge upon bridge
was erected in succession. Afterwards when the waters had worked
themselves a passage and ebbed off, the whole of the wood of these
bridges was found in the completest preservation.[1036] The other kinds
of timber were the elm, used for doors, hinges, and weasel traps;[1037]
the cypress,[1038] cedar, and juniper for wainscoting, beams, and
paneled ceilings; the Arcadian, and the Idæan yew,[1039] which latter
was sometimes fraudulently substituted for cedar; the Eubœan walnut,
and the beech, which, not being subject to the rot, were resorted to for
piles and substructions.[1040] The former of these trees, which grew to
an extraordinary size, was likewise applied to the roofing of houses,
chiefly because, by a loud crackling noise, it gave notice when it was
about to break, and thus afforded the inmates leisure to effect their
escape. This happened at the public baths of Antandros, where the
company foreseeing from this warning sound the catastrophe that was
approaching, rushed forth into the streets, and thus avoided being
overwhelmed beneath the ruins.[1041]
-----
Footnote 1035:
In this country the pitch pine (πίτυς) was rare, but it abounded in
Elis. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 94.
Footnote 1036:
Id. v. 4. 6.
Footnote 1037:
Id. v. 3. 5-7. 4-4, seq.
Footnote 1038:
Athen. ix. 67.
Footnote 1039:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 10. 1, seq.
Footnote 1040:
Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 8. 4. v. 7. 7.
Footnote 1041:
Id. v. 6. 1.
-----
The box, the ilex, and the lotos, they employed for door-pivots, which
were seasoned by being immersed in cow-dung.[1042]
-----
Footnote 1042:
Id. v. 5. 4-6.
-----
Cart and wheel wrights,[1043] necessarily pretty numerous, made use in
their trade of the following kinds of wood,—the scarlet oak,[1044] in
countries not abounding with ilex, as Laconia and Elis, for carts,
ploughs, and other rustic implements; the oxya, the fir, and the elm,
for chariot-bodies;[1045] the ilex, the box, the ash, and the
mast-bearing beech, for axletrees. The wood of all glutinous trees is
naturally flexible, but more especially that of the mulberry and the
wild fig, for which reason these, together with the platane, and the
poplar, were used for making the bended rims of chariot-seats, and the
circles of wheels.[1046] For spokes, the wood of the cornel tree was
preferred, and that of the box, the yew, the maple, and the
carpinus—hedge-beech, or hornbeam—for the yokes of oxen. In old times
the bodies of carts were often formed of basket-work. It may be remarked
by the way, that the Greeks understood the use of the drag-wheel.[1047]
-----
Footnote 1043:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 462. Poll. i. 253.
Footnote 1044:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 16. 3.
Footnote 1045:
Id. iii. 10. 1.
Footnote 1046:
Id. v. 6. 2.
Footnote 1047:
Athen. iii. 55.
-----
It has long been made a question among the learned[1048] whether the
ancients were or were not acquainted with the saddle, properly so
called. It may now be determined in the affirmative, since, besides the
several testimonies of classical writers, which are much too clear to be
set aside, we find in several Herculanean pictures exact representations
of saddles, both on horses and asses, with girths and cruppers exactly
as in modern times.[1049] It is evident, too, that they are constructed
upon wooden frames, to which Herodotus may possibly allude where he
speaks of saddles made of tanned human skins.[1050] Packsaddles for
sumpter-asses are of constant occurrence in history; and that they were
tolerably thick may be inferred from the fact, that numbers of daggers
were concealed in them by Aratos in his attempt upon Argos.[1051] I
shall here mention, also, by the way, and without entering into any
discussion, that horses and asses were occasionally shod by the
ancients,[1052] though the practice was doubtless not universal.
-----
Footnote 1048:
Beckmann decides for the negative, i. 247.
Footnote 1049:
Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. tav. 12, p. 79. t. iii. pp. 227. 231.
Footnote 1050:
Herod. iv. 64.
Footnote 1051:
Plut. Arat. § 25.
Footnote 1052:
Beckmann, History of Inventions, ii. 170, sqq.
-----
The trade of the cooper[1053] was in less general request than in modern
times; his principal employment being the making of tubs, with flour and
water-casks; their wine having been chiefly preserved in jars.[1054]
Latterly, however, small kegs got into use, as well probably as larger
casks even for wine. Pump-makers, together with the pump itself,[1055]
came in late, and of fire-engines they possessed barely the first
rudiments.[1056]
-----
Footnote 1053:
Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 1168.
Footnote 1054:
Id. 1055. 789.
Footnote 1055:
Cf. Dutens, Orig. des Découv. p. 258. Aristoph. Pac. 17, seq. Eq. 432,
cum Schol.
Footnote 1056:
Beckmann, iv. 75, seq.
-----
In speaking elsewhere of the household furniture of the Greeks we
necessarily anticipated much of what was to be said respecting
cabinet-makers and upholsterers. Some few particulars, however, omitted
in that place, shall be here introduced. With respect to the price of
furniture at Athens,[1057] it seems much better to be silent than by a
few imperfect conjectures to confine the mind of the reader. We know
absolutely nothing of the matter.
-----
Footnote 1057:
Cf. Bœckh, Pub. Econ. of Athens. i. 1441, whose laborious
researches on this subject lead to no result.
-----
Among the Egyptians, the roots of the Persea,[1058] a beautiful
fruit-tree, said to have been poisonous in Persia,[1059] furnished the
materials not only of statues but of bedsteads and tables, which were of
a rich dark colour and received a fine polish.[1060] There was likewise,
in Syria, a species of wood the blackness of which was interveined with
ruddy streaks, so that it looked like variegated ebony. From this were
manufactured bedsteads, chairs, and other expensive articles of
furniture.[1061] The maple-tree grows both on plains and mountains. In
the latter situation its wood is of a pleasant reddish colour, finely
veined and solid,[1062] on which account it was much used in superior
cabinet-work. The zygian maple, in general beautifully clouded, was so
hard, that it required to be steeped in water before it could be
wrought.[1063] Of all woods the ancients considered that of the
cypress[1064] the most durable, and it is related in confirmation of
this opinion, that the doors of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos, which
were made of it, had already lasted four centuries in the time of
Theophrastus.[1065] It took the finest polish, and was therefore
employed in costly cabinet-work. The wood of the tree called thuia (a
species perhaps of wild cypress), abounding in Cyrenè, and the Oasis of
Jupiter Ammon,[1066] was thought to be incorruptible; and from its
roots, which were beautifully clouded, the most delicate articles of
furniture were manufactured. Next to these the wood of the mulberry-tree
was preferred, which exhibited a dusky grain like that of the
lotos.[1067] Expensive bedsteads were sometimes made of oxya and
citron-wood, the feet of which, among the Persians, were often turned
from the wood of the doom-palm,[1068] as they were formed among the
Greeks from amber.[1069] Statues,[1070] which ought in truth to be
regarded as articles of furniture, were carved from cedar,
cypress,[1071] lotos, box, and of a smaller size from the roots of
olive-trees, because they did not crack.[1072] Besides these which were
perhaps the more common, we find mention in ancient writers of images of
ebony, oak, yew, maple, beech, palm,[1073] myrtle, pear, linden, and
vine, to which may be added the fig-tree which was frequently preferred
on account of its soft texture, lightness, shining whiteness, and
close-grain. Occasionally statues of horses were carved of ebony and
ivory. As during the prevalence of certain winds several of these kinds
of woods were liable to sweat,[1074] the vulgar, who understood nothing
of the cause, regarded the circumstance as a prodigy.[1075]
-----
Footnote 1058:
This tree, which bore fruit in Egypt, only flowered in Rhodes. iii. 3.
5.
Footnote 1059:
Ælian. De Natur. Animal. ap. Schneid. ad Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2.
5. t. iii. p. 284. The account of this tree given by Dioscorides
contains a brief allusion to the fact related at length by Ælian, that
it was poisonous in its original country, together with some other
particulars nowhere else I believe stated. Περσέα δένδρον ἐστὶν ἐν
Ἀιγύπτῳ, καρπὸν φέρον ἐδώδιμον, εὐστόμαχον· ἐφ᾽ οὗ καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα
κρανοκόλαπτα φαλάγγια εὑρίσκεται, μάλιστα δὲ ἐν Θηβαΐδι. Δύναμιν δὲ
ἔχει τὰ φύλλα λεία ἐπιπλαττόμενα ξηρὰ, αἱμοῤῥαγίαν ἱστᾷν, τοῦτο δὲ
ἱστόρησαν τινες ἐν Περσίδι ἀναιρετικὸν εἶναι, μετατεθὲν δὲ εἰς
Ἀιγύπτον, ἀλλοιωθῆναι καὶ ἐδώδιμον γενέσθαι. i. 187.
Footnote 1060:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 5. Cf. Clusii. Hist. Rar. Plant. i. 2.
Footnote 1061:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 3. 3. Cf. Gitone, Il Costume Antico e Moderno
di tutti i Popoli. t. i. p. 94, tav. 15.
Footnote 1062:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 11. 12, seq.
Footnote 1063:
Id. v. 3. 3.
Footnote 1064:
This tree was supposed particularly to delight in the perpetual snows
of the Cretan Ida. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 1. 3.
Footnote 1065:
Hist. Plant. v. 4. 2.
Footnote 1066:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 37, seq. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. 30. Diod. Sicul.
v. 46. This wood, on account of its extraordinary durability, was much
used in the roofing of ancient temples. Many suppose it to be the
Arbor Vitæ. Clus. Hist. Rar. Plant. i. 24. p. 36, seq.
Footnote 1067:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 4. 3.
Footnote 1068:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 7.
Footnote 1069:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 530.
Footnote 1070:
Plat. De Rep. t. vi. 86. Plin. viii. 39. xxxv. 36. xxxiii. 54. Poll.
i. 7. See the note of the Milanese editor of Winkelmann, Hist. de
l’Art, t. i. p. 31, seq.
Footnote 1071:
Plut. Alex. § 14. Herod. ii. 131. Pausanias supplies a list of the
different kinds of wood used in the most ancient statues. viii. 17. 2.
Footnote 1072:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 3. 7.
Footnote 1073:
Id. v. 3. 6.
Footnote 1074:
Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 8.
Footnote 1075:
Plut. Alex. § 14.
-----
From the knotted wood of the fir-tree, tablets for painting or writing
on were made, the inferior kinds of which were very common; but there
was a superior and very beautiful sort used only by the opulent.[1076]
-----
Footnote 1076:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 9. 7.
-----
Another piece of furniture in all Greek houses was the chest or
coffer[1077] in which money and plate, or costly garments, were
deposited. Articles of this description were frequently manufactured of
the finest and most aromatic woods, as cedar for example, and adorned on
all sides, as well as on the cover, with numerous figures in relief,
sometimes in gold or ivory, as in the case of the celebrated coffer of
Cypselos preserved in the treasury at Olympia.[1078] Generally, however,
they were made of humbler materials; sometimes veneered with thin planks
of yew, which took a high polish. Persons of inferior means substituted
for these, mallequins of fine basket-work, or plaited from the bark of
cherry or linden-tree.[1079] We may here remark by the way, that
bread-baskets were manufactured from willows and the twigs of
chestnut-trees,[1080] cleanly peeled, and that in Egypt articles of this
description were generally woven or plaited from the leaves of the date
and doom-palm, and probably variegated in colour as they are at present.
At the court, however, bread-baskets were at one period of gold, but
fashioned so as to resemble the rush-baskets in use among the earlier
Greeks.[1081]
-----
Footnote 1077:
Schweigh. Anim. in Athen. t. vi. p. 52. Schol. Arist. Eq. 1207.
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. 310. Poll. vii. 79. Plat. Tim. t. vii. pp.
52. 61. Luc. Amor. § 39. Arist. De Mund. c. vi.
Footnote 1078:
Creuzer. Commentat. Herodot. Ægypt. et Hellen. i. § 7. p. 62, seq.
Raoul Rochette, Cours D’Archéologie, p. 342, seq.
Footnote 1079:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 10. 4-13. 1. v. 7. 5. Philost. Icon. i. 31.
p. 809.
Footnote 1080:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 15. 2. v. 7. 7. Common baskets too were made
of the leaves of the dwarf-palm, Id. i. 6. 11, and various domestic
utensils from the roots of the papyrus. Id. iv. 8. 4.
Footnote 1081:
Athen. vi. 15.
-----
Lanterns, too, in the first instance, were of basketwork,[1082] though
afterwards manufactured, as in modern times, with thin plates of horn or
ivory.[1083]
-----
Footnote 1082:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 428.
Footnote 1083:
Athen. vi. 157. That the trade of lantern-making was of considerable
importance in the ancient world may be inferred from the great number
of lanterns made use of in fortified cities, either when actually
besieged, or when apprehensive of sudden attacks from the enemy. See
on this subject a long and interesting passage in Æneas Tacticus, cap.
xxvi. p. 81, seq. Ed. Orell. Cf. cap. xxii. p. 67, seq.
-----
In some parts of Greece when individuals, not possessing costly
furniture, desired to give a grand entertainment, they hired whatever
articles they stood in need of, as seats, beds, vases, &c., of a broker,
whose business, in the island of Samos, was once carried on by the
tyrant Polycrates.[1084]
-----
Footnote 1084:
Athen. xii. 57.
-----
As ivory entered largely into the making of furniture among the
ancients,[1085] the reader will not regret to find here an explanation
of the means by which it was rendered soft and tractable. This secret
appears hitherto to have escaped the modern writers on Art. Monsieur
Dutens[1086] and the Milanese editors of Winkelmann[1087] observe, that
the ancients possessed the art of softening ivory without, however,
giving any intimation that they understood in what the secret consisted.
But the whole matter was extremely simple, since they merely steeped the
piece of ivory about to be worked in a fermented liquor, called
zythos,[1088] prepared from barley, and drank commonly, with or without
a mixture of honey, by all persons in Gaul. Many of these ivory
ornaments were produced by the turning-lathe. They turned also from the
knots of the Arcadian fir large bowls of a shining black colour.[1089]
There was even a kind of stone which, being soft when drawn from the
quarry, was turned and cut into bowls, plates, and other articles for
the table, which were susceptible of a high polish, and became hard by
constant exposure to the air.[1090]
-----
Footnote 1085:
Luc. Cynic. § 9. Somn. seu Gall. § 14.
Footnote 1086:
Origine des Découvertes, p. 194.
Footnote 1087:
Histoire de l’Art. p. 34.
Footnote 1088:
Εὐεργης δὲ καὶ ὁ ἔλεφας γίνεταὶ βρεχόμενος αὐτῳ. Dioscor. ii. 109.
Footnote 1089:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 7. 1.
Footnote 1090:
Id. de Lapid. § 42. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 44. Tournefort, Voyage, t.
i. p. 209.
-----
It was, probably, to the turner’s art that the Greeks owed many of those
straight and elegant kinds of walkingsticks,[1091] particularly affected
by the opulent, and called Persian, doubtless because the use of them
came originally from Asia. Others preferred the Laconian scytale,[1092]
fashioned usually from a piece of whitethorn, and philosophers, sticks
of olive-wood.[1093] Rustics then, as now, were in the habit of carrying
twisted and uncouth walkingstaves, bent sometimes atop, and of heavy
materials. The straight light stem of the malachè,[1094] and birch, and
elder,[1095] were likewise in use; while some carried sticks made from
the agnus castus or the laurel, which were believed to possess the
virtue of preserving those who bore them from accident or injury.[1096]
The making of umbrellas or parasols, which opened and closed like our
own,[1097] no doubt constituted a separate branch of industry. These
articles, it may be observed, were manufactured with great elegance,
with handles gracefully ornamented, and furnished at the periphery[1098]
with numerous elongated drops. It was, probably, the same tradesmen in
whose shops were found those folding-seats, or camp-stools, invented by
Dædalos, the use of which seems to have been very common at
Athens.[1099]
-----
Footnote 1091:
Gitone, Il Costume, pl. 20.
Footnote 1092:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. 170, seq. Suid. v. σκύταλον, t. ii. p. 768.
b. Poll. iv. 170. v. 18. x. 113.
Footnote 1093:
Luc. Dial. Meret. xi. § 3. The Celastron, an evergreen, and the Mya,
were also used for walkingsticks. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 7.
Footnote 1094:
Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 2, seq.
Footnote 1095:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 13. 4. 14. 4. Old men sometimes flourished a
pair. Sch. Aristoph. Plut. 272. Generally, however, they were content,
even in winter, with one, and were, therefore, compared by the poets
to three-legged stools. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 533. Æschyl. Agam. 80.
Eurip. Troad. 275. For the thick, heavy staff affected by old men see
in Zoëga (Bassi Rilievi, tav. 40) a basso rilievo representing the
Death of Meleager.
Footnote 1096:
Dioscor. i. 135.
Footnote 1097:
To this fact Aristophanes jocularly alludes, where he describes the
ears of the Demos as opening and closing under the influence of
eloquence. Equit. 1344, seq.
Τὰ δ᾽ ὦτα γάρ σου, νὴ Δί᾽, ἐξεπετάννυται,
Ὥσπερ σκιάδιον, καὶ πάλιν ξυνήγεται.
On this passage the Scholiast observes: σκέπασμά τι, ὅπερ αἱ γυναῖκες
παρὰ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ἔχουσι θέουσαι ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ καίεσθαι τὰς ὄψεις ὑπὸ
τοῦ ἡλίου. ἐκτείνεται δὲ καὶ συστέλλεται πρὸς τὸν κατεπείγοντα καιρόν.
Footnote 1098:
Hope, Costumes of the Ancients.—Gitone, Il Cost. Ant. e Mod. pl. 17.
pl. 67.
Footnote 1099:
Aristoph. Eq. 1384. cum Schol.
-----
Respecting the manufacture of musical instruments, we have but a few
particulars to communicate, though it formed a profitable branch of
industry in every part of Greece. Musical instruments were divided by
the ancients into three kinds:[1100] those which were played by means of
the breath,—the pipe, the trumpet, and the flute; those whose harmony
resided in their strings, as the lyre and the cithara; and those which
produced sound by beating or clashing against each other, as cymbals and
the drum. The best trumpets, supposed to have been an invention of the
Tyrrhenians,[1101] were obtained from Italy, though on many occasions
great sea-shells were substituted for those larger instruments. In the
East, trumpets were sometimes manufactured of cow-hide, though the usual
materials were brass and iron, with a little bone for the
mouth-piece.[1102] There were two kinds,—the straight and the crooked.
-----
Footnote 1100:
Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 312.
Footnote 1101:
Poll. iv. 70. Sch. Aristoph. Ran. 133. Cf. Raoul Rochette, Cours
D’Archéol. p. 136. In lieu of trumpets the Indians, we are told, made
use of certain whips, by the flourishing and cracking of which in the
air they produced a kind of rude music. These strange sounds were
accompanied by the low and terrible roll of their great drums, which
still continue to delight the ear of the Hindùs. Suid. v. σάλπιγξ, t.
ii. 709. b. For the common form of the trumpet see Gitone, Il Costume,
tav. 81. Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 9.
Footnote 1102:
Poll. iv. 71.
-----
Of the pipe of barley-straw,[1103] invented by Osiris, nothing need be
said except, that its use and manufacture formed the amusement of
shepherds. The fashioning of the common pipe constituted an important
branch of industry, particularly in Bœotia, where the reed[1104] from
which it was made abounded in the Orchomenian marshes,[1105] between the
Cephisos and the Melas, in the place called Pelecania.[1106] The season
for cutting, which prevailed up to the age of Antigones, was the month
Boedromion; but, for the improvement of the instrument, that musician
altered the time, which thenceforward was in the months Scirophorion and
Hecatombion.[1107] The reeds were prepared in the following manner:
being cut, they were piled in a heap with their leaves on, and left in
the open air during the whole winter. Having in spring been cleared of
their outer integuments, well rubbed and exposed to the sun, they were,
during the summer, cut into lengths at the knots, and left a little
longer in the open air.[1108] The internodial spaces did not fall short
of two palms in length, and the best portions of the reed used for
making the double pipe[1109] was about the middle.[1110] Pipes and
flutes[1111] were likewise manufactured of the leg-bones of stags, at
least in Bœotia. The lotos-wood[1112] transverse flute was an
invention of the Africans. The elymœan flute made of boxwood owed its
origin to the Phrygians, and was played during the worship of Cybelè.
That called hippophorbos was invented by the last dwellers of Libya, who
habitually played on it while pasturing their great droves of horses in
the desert.[1113] It appears to have been a very simple instrument,
fashioned of a piece of laurel-wood, by removing the bark and scooping
out the pith. Its sharp shrill sound which could be heard far and near,
delighted the ears of the horses, who probably, like the Turks, estimate
the merit of music by its loudness. The monaulos, a favourite invention
of the Egyptians, spoken of by Sophocles in his Thamyris, was usually
played in marriage concerts.[1114] The lugubrious funeral-pipe of the
Carians was a Phrygian invention. There existed among the Thebans a
curious instrument of this kind, probably used in hunting, made from the
bones of fawns, with a coating of bronze.[1115] The Tyrrhenians, like
the rude sportsmen of Europe, drew music from the horn. Among the
Phœnicians was a small flute made of goose-bones, not exceeding a
span in length, called gingras[1116] in honour of Adonis, so named in
their language, which emitting a plaintive and melancholy note, was
doubtless much used in the wailing orgies of that divinity. Its
character being exceedingly simple, it was habitually put into the hands
of beginners,[1117] and seems to have been very common at Athens. The
most extraordinary pipes, however, enumerated by ancient writers, were
the ones in which those Scythian tribes denominated by the Greeks,
Cannibals, Black Cloaks, and Arimaspians, delighted; and manufactured
from the leg-bones of eagles and vultures.[1118] The Celts and the
islanders of the ocean, our own forefathers, doubtless eschewed the
music of vultures’ legs, and contented themselves with the notes of the
syrinx.[1119]
-----
Footnote 1103:
Cf. Aristot. Problem. xix. 23.
Footnote 1104:
Cf. Philost. Icon. i. 20. p. 794.
Footnote 1105:
The borders of this lake must at all times have presented a most
picturesque appearance, tufted as they were with thickets of the
willow and the eleagnos, while a variety of terrestrial and aquatic
plants descended its banks and spread themselves far into the water,
as the pipe and the common reed, the white nymphæa, the typha, the
phleos, the cyperos, the menyanthos, the icmè, and the ipnon. Theoph.
Hist. Plant. iv. 10. 1.
Footnote 1106:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 11. 8. Dioscor. i. 94. The κάλαμος συριγγίας
is the Saccharum Ravennæ of Sibthorp, Flora Græca, tab. 52, where it
is observed, that it is found “in Peloponneso coprosè; ad littora
Ponti Euxini propè _Fanar_.”
Footnote 1107:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 11. 9.
Footnote 1108:
The form of the modern pipe is thus described by Chandler, who, after
having spoken of the taborer, adds “this was accompanied by a pipe
with a reed for the mouth-piece, and below it a circular rim of wood,
against which the lips of the player came. His cheeks were much
inflated, and the notes so various, shrill, and disagreeable, as to
remind me of the composition designed for the ancient Aulos or flute,
as was fabled by Minerva.” Travels, &c. i. 49.
Footnote 1109:
Cf. Gitone, Il Costume, tav. 65.
Footnote 1110:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 11. 6, seq.
Footnote 1111:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 827, seq. Cf. Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 386.
Footnote 1112:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 3. 3. Poll. iv. 74.
Footnote 1113:
Poll. iv. 74. Comm. t. iv. p. 720. Ælian. De Nat. Animal. xii. 44.
Footnote 1114:
Poll. iv. 75.
Footnote 1115:
Id. iv. 75.
Footnote 1116:
Athen. iv. 76. Poll. iv. 76.
Footnote 1117:
Athen. iv. 75. Hesych. v. γιγγρίσι.
Footnote 1118:
Poll. iv. 76.
Footnote 1119:
Suid. v. σύριγξ, t. ii. p. 844. a.
-----
In earlier times there was a flute appropriated to each mode, or grand
division of the national music, but afterwards Pronomos of Thebes,[1120]
invented one equally well suited to every mode. Even the manufacture of
mouth-pieces, and flute-cases formed a considerable branch of industry.
The materials from which the above instruments were chiefly made, were,
in addition to those already mentioned, branches of the elder tree and
dwarf laurel, bones of asses and kids, ivory and silver.[1121] Organs,
and hydraulic organs, the latter invented by the Alexandrian barber
Ctesibios, to whom antiquity was likewise indebted for the knowledge of
the pump, were reckoned by the ancients among wind-instruments.[1122]
-----
Footnote 1120:
Cf. Dion Chrysost. i. 263.
Footnote 1121:
Jul. Scalig. Poet. i. 20, p. 78, seq.
Footnote 1122:
Athen. iv. 75. Pignor. de Serv. p. 88, seq. Vitruv. ix. 9.
-----
Of stringed-instruments the most common was the lyre,[1123] manufactured
from many kinds of fine wood, and sometimes of ivory.[1124] The bridge
was usually of ilex.[1125] The cithara,[1126] introduced at Athens by
Phrynis,[1127] was made sometimes of horn with wooden pegs,[1128] though
mention occurs of one formed entirely of solid gold, adorned with
figures in relief of the Muses, Orpheus, and Apollo, and thickly studded
with emeralds and other precious stones.[1129] The magadis,[1130]
sometimes reckoned among wind-instruments, was unquestionably stringed,
since we find Timotheus, accused at Sparta of innovating in the number
of its chords, pointing out to his accuser an ancient statue of Apollo,
in which the god was represented playing on a magadis with an equal
number.[1131] In proof of its antiquity it may be remarked, that
Lesbothemis, a sculptor, who flourished in a remote age at Mytilene,
where this instrument was always in high favour,[1132] represented one
of the Muses with the magadis in her hand. The pectis, said to have been
an invention of Sappho, and by some confounded with the magadis, ought
rather perhaps to be regarded as a modification of that
instrument.[1133] The epigoneion, so called from its inventor Epigonos,
by birth an Ambraciot, though afterwards made a citizen of Sicyon, was a
kind of harp with forty strings, resembling, probably, those
many-chorded instruments represented on the monuments of Egypt and
Ethiopia. This Epigonos, is said to have been the first person who in
playing dispensed with the use of the plectron.[1134] The ancient Arabs
forestalled Signor Paganini, and drew a world of sweet sounds from an
instrument of one chord:[1135] the Assyrians had their pandoura, with
three strings.[1136] Among the Scythians was found the pentachordon,
stringed with thongs of raw bull-hide, and played on by a plectron of
goat’s hoof. The Libyans, more especially the Troglodytes, filled their
caverns with the music of the psithura, otherwise called the ascaron, an
instrument a cubit square, which produced sounds resembling the tinkling
of castanets. Cantharos attributes its invention to the Thracians. To
these we may add the drum, the tambourine,[1137] with cymbals, and
castanets, sometimes of brass, and sometimes of shells, played on by
women in honour of Artemis.
-----
Footnote 1123:
A rude species of lyre is still in use in Asia Minor. Chandler,
Travels, &c., i. 149.
Footnote 1124:
Athen. xv. 50. Herod. iv. 192.
Footnote 1125:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 6.
Footnote 1126:
Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 574.
Footnote 1127:
Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 958.
Footnote 1128:
Luc. adv. Indoct. § 10.
Footnote 1129:
Id. § 8.
Footnote 1130:
Athen. iv. 35. Poll. iv. 61. Anab. vii. 3. Meur. Lect. Att. iv. 20.
Footnote 1131:
Athen. xiv. 40.
Footnote 1132:
Id. 36.
Footnote 1133:
Poll. iv. 59.
Footnote 1134:
Etym. Mag. 605. 45.
Footnote 1135:
Poll. iv. 60.
Footnote 1136:
There was likewise an instrument of four chords. Etym. Mag. 514. 34.
Footnote 1137:
See a representation of this instrument, with a portrait painted on
the bottom of it. Antich. di Ercol. t. iv. p. 151.
-----
The business of the potter[1138] was held in considerable estimation
among the Greeks, so that several celebrated cities rivalled each other
in their productions. Among these, Athens,[1139] Samos, and Rhodes held
the first rank.[1140] Even the Bœotian Aulis obtained some degree of
reputation for its earthenware.[1141] But that made at Kolias,[1142] in
Attica, from the clay there found, and richly painted with figures in
minium, appears to have been the most beautiful known to antiquity.
-----
Footnote 1138:
On the potter’s wheel, see Suidas. v. κωλιάδος κεραμῆες. t. i. p.
1511. b.
Footnote 1139:
Aristoph. Acharn. 901, seq.
Footnote 1140:
Athen. xi. 37.
Footnote 1141:
Pausan. ix. 19. 8.
Footnote 1142:
Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 2. Chandler, Travels, ii. 166. Lucian
observes somewhat jocularly that in some parts of Africa the natives
were driven to the use of ostrich’s eggs for goblets, because no
potter’s clay was found in their country. De Dipsad. § 7. Cf. Plin.
Nat. Hist. x. 1. Bochart. Hierozoic. Compend. ii. 16.
-----
The number of rough articles produced was prodigious, seeing that oil,
and wine, and salt-fish, and pickles, and a variety of other commodities
were exported in jars; while almost all culinary operations were carried
on in earthern vessels. Such of these as found their way to Egypt, after
the conquest of that country by the Persians, were filled with Nile
water, and transported into the desert, on camels, to slake the thirst
of the wayfarers on that arid waste.[1143] Perhaps, the largest articles
of earthenware, however, were the corn-jars, some of which are said to
have contained nearly a quarter of grain, in lieu of which plaited
corbels were sometimes used.[1144] Much art and elegance was displayed
in the forms, varnishing, and painting of fictile vases, some of which,
of light and graceful contour, were made without bottoms, wholly for
ornament.[1145] The colours employed in the painting of vases, more
particularly those intended to hold the ashes of the dead, were
generally light and durable; and the ease and beauty of the figures
prove that the ancient potters paid great attention to the arts of
design. The ornaments were extremely various, sometimes consisting of
representations of the gods, as Heracles, Pan, or the genii, sometimes
of oakleaves, garlands, or festoons, arranged with taste and
elegance.[1146] Athenæus speaks of a kind of porcelain called
Rhossican,[1147] covered with the forms of flowers, upon which Cleopatra
expended five minæ per day. Another branch of the potter’s business
consisted in the manufacturing of lamps,[1148] which were so generally
in use, that, throughout the Greek and the Roman world, the sites of
cities, the ruins of temples, and the sepulchral chambers excavated
beneath the earth, lavishly abound with them, entire or in
fragments.[1149] Hyperbolos is said to have amassed a considerable
fortune by selling lamps of an inferior quality.[1150] Wax-candles,
however, were likewise in use, at least in later ages,[1151] and with
the same materials they fashioned artificial pomegranates and other
ornaments, together with small portable images of animals, men, and
gods, which, like our figures of plaster of Paris, were sold, as well as
those of clay, about the streets. Some notion, too, may be formed of the
price, since we find that a figure of Eros fetched a drachma.[1152]
-----
Footnote 1143:
Herodot. iii. 6. A large branch of the potter’s business consisted in
the manufacture of earthen pipes used in conveying water to towns and
cities. See Chandler, Travels, &c. i. 22. seq. 133.
Footnote 1144:
Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 614.
Footnote 1145:
Winkelmann, Hist, de l’Art. t. i. p. 30, seq.
Footnote 1146:
“Morning Chronicle,” July 17, 1838, p. 3, where we find an account of
several of these jars dug up at Exeter.
Footnote 1147:
Athen. vi. 15.
Footnote 1148:
These were filled with the ἀρύταινα, a brazen ladle. Schol. Arist. Eq.
1087. Æropos, king of Macedon, was an amateur lamp-maker, devoting his
leisure hours to the manufacture of diminutive lamps and tables, just
as other kings used to unbend their minds, after the enjoyment of
luxury, by painting, playing the flute, or wielding the turning-lathe.
Plut. Demet. § 20.
Footnote 1149:
Herodot. ii. 62. Cf. Sophocl. Aj. 285, sqq.
Footnote 1150:
Aristoph. Eq. 1301. Vesp. 1001.
Footnote 1151:
Vid. Plin. xiii. 27. xvi. 70, cum not. Hard.—Antipat. ap. Anthol.
Græc. vi. 249.
Footnote 1152:
Anacreon, 10. Athen. viii. 50. Suid. v. κοροπλάθοι t. ii. p. 1500. a.
-----
The manufacture of glass[1153] was carried to a very high degree of
perfection among the ancients.[1154] They understood the methods of
blowing, cutting, and engraving on it; could stain it of every rich and
brilliant colour so as to imitate the most precious gems,[1155] from the
ruby and the amethyst to the turquoise and the beryl; they could fashion
it into jars, and bowls, and vases, exhibiting all the various hues of
the peacock’s train, which, like shot-silks and the breast of the dove,
exhibited fresh tints in every different light,—fading, quivering, and
melting into each other as the eye changed its point of view.[1156]
Squares of glass were produced, perfectly polished and transparent
without, but containing figures of various colours in their
interior.[1157] Glass, likewise, was wrought into bassi and alti
rilievi, and cast, as gems were cut, into cameos.[1158] The
manufacturers of Alexandria excelled in the working of glass,[1159] with
which they skilfully imitated all kinds of earthenware, fabricating cups
of every known form.
-----
Footnote 1153:
Plat. Tim. t. vii. p. 81.
Footnote 1154:
Large glass cups. Luc. Quomed. Hist. sit Conscrib. § 25. In the
Antichita di Ercolano we see represented a glass vase so completely
transparent, that the eggs with which it is filled are seen as
distinctly as through water. t. ii. p. 111. Cf. t. iii. p. 287.
Footnote 1155:
Petron. Satyr, p. 99. Cf. Treb. Poll. Gallien. § 12. p. 321. Caylus
supposes them to have mixed a small portion of lead with their glass.
t. ii. p. 355.
Footnote 1156:
The allusions of ancient authors to these vases are few. They are
mentioned, however, in a letter of Adrian to the Consul Servianus:
“Calices tibi _allassontes_ versicolores transmisi, quos mihi sacerdos
templi obtulit, tibi et sorori meæ specialiter dedicatos, quos tu
velim festis diebus conviviis adhibeas.” Vopisc. in Vit. Saturnin.
cap. viii. Casaubon, in his note on this passage, speaks of these cups
in the following terms: Allassontes qui colorem mutant sicut
palumborum colla. The murrhine vases, the nature of which so many have
attempted to explain, if they were not after all a species of glass,
appear at least to have had many analogous qualities; and the
following description of Pliny is calculated to create the highest
idea of their beauty: “Splendor his sine viribus: nitorque verius quam
splendor. Sed in pretio varietas colorum subinde circumagentibus se
maculis in purpuram candoremque, et tertium ex utroque ignescentem,
veluti per transitum coloris, in purpura, aut rubescente lacteo. Sunt
qui maxime in iis laudent extremitates et quosdam colorum repercussus
quales in cœlesti arcu spectantur.” Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 8.
Footnote 1157:
Winkelmann, Hist. de l’Art. i. 48.
Footnote 1158:
Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. i. 51. See Beckmann, Hist. of Inventions, vol.
i. p. 240.
Footnote 1159:
Athen. xi. 28. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 756.
-----
It is added, moreover, that a certain kind of earth was found in Egypt,
without which the best kind of coloured glass[1160] could not be
produced. Petronius informs us, that, in the reign of Tiberius, a
skilful experimentalist discovered the art of rendering this substance
malleable, but that the emperor, from some freak of tyranny, put the man
to death, and thus his secret was lost to the world.[1161] A similar act
of cruelty was perpetrated by the public authorities at Dantzic, who, in
the seventeenth century, caused an able mechanician, who had invented a
superior kind of ribbon-loom, to be strangled.[1162]
-----
Footnote 1160:
Strab. ap. Beckmann, History of Inventions, i. 198.
Footnote 1161:
Satyr. c. 51, p. 25, seq. Burm. Plin. xxxvi. 66.
Footnote 1162:
Beckmann, iii, 494.
-----