[Illustration: Lucerna, lamp. (Museo Borbonico, vol. iv. pl. 10.)]
LŬCERNA (λύχνος), an oil lamp. The Greeks and Romans originally used
candles; but in later times candles were chiefly confined to the
houses of the lower classes. [CANDELA.] A great number of ancient
lamps has come down to us; the greater part of which are made of
terra cotta, but also a considerable number of bronze. Most of the
lamps are of an oval form, and flat upon the top, on which there are
frequently figures in relief. In the lamps there are one or more
round holes, according to the number of wicks (_ellychnia_) burnt
in them; and as these holes were called from an obvious analogy,
μυκτῆρες or μύξαι, literally nostrils or nozzles, the lamp was also
called _Monomyxos_, _Dimyxos_, _Trimyxos_, or _Polymyxos_, according
as it contained one, two, three, or a greater number of nozzles
or holes for the wicks. The following is an example of a _dimyxos
lucerna_, upon which there is a winged boy with a goose. The next
woodcut represents one of the most beautiful bronze lamps which has
yet been found. Upon it is the figure of a standing Silenus. The
lamps sometimes hung in chains from the ceiling of the room, but
they generally stood upon a stand. [CANDELABRUM.]
[Illustration: Lucerna lamp. (Museo Borbonico, vol. i. pl 10.)]
LUCTA, LUCTĀTĬO (πάλη, πάλαισμα, παλαισμοσύνη, or καταβλητική),
wrestling. The Greeks ascribed the invention of wrestling to mythical
personages, and Hermes, the god of all gymnastic exercises, also
presided over wrestling. In the Homeric age wrestling was much
practised: during this period wrestlers contended naked, and only
the loins were covered with the perizoma (περίζωμα), and this custom
probably remained throughout Greece until Ol. 15, from which time the
perizoma was no longer used, and wrestlers contended entirely naked.
In the Homeric age the custom of anointing the body for the purpose
of wrestling does not appear to have been known, but in the time of
Solon it was quite general, and was said to have been adopted by the
Cretans and Lacedaemonians at a very early period. After the body was
anointed, it was strewed over with sand or dust, in order to enable
the wrestlers to take a firm hold of each other. If one combatant
threw the other down three times, the victory was decided. Wrestling
was practised in all the great games of the Greeks. The most renowned
wrestler was Milon, of Croton. [PANCRATIUM.]
LŪDI, the common name for the whole variety of games and contests
which were held at Rome on various occasions, but chiefly at the
festivals of the gods; and as the ludi at certain festivals formed
the principal part of the solemnities, these festivals themselves are
called ludi. Sometimes ludi were also held in honour of a magistrate
or a deceased person, in which case they may be considered as ludi
privati. All ludi were divided by the Romans into two classes, _ludi
circenses_ and _ludi scenici_, accordingly as they were held in
the circus or in the theatre; in the latter case they were mostly
theatrical representations with their various modifications; in the
former they consisted of all or of a part of the games enumerated
in the articles CIRCUS and GLADIATORES. Another division of the
ludi into _stati_, _imperativi_, and _votivi_, is analogous to the
division of the feriae. [FERIAE.] The superintendence of the games,
and the solemnities connected with them, was in most cases intrusted
to the aediles. [AEDILES.] If the lawful rites were not observed in
the celebration of the ludi, it depended upon the decision of the
pontiffs whether they were to be held again (_instaurari_) or not. An
alphabetical list of the principal ludi is subjoined.
LUDI APOLLINARES were instituted at Rome during the second Punic
war, after the battle of Cannae (212 B.C.), at the command of an
oracle contained in the books of the ancient seer Marcius, in order
to obtain the aid of Apollo. They were held every year under the
superintendence of the praetor urbanus, and ten men sacrificed to
Apollo, according to Greek rites, a bull with gilt horns and two
white goats also with gilt horns, and to Latona a heifer with gilt
horns. The games themselves were held in the Circus Maximus, the
spectators were adorned with chaplets, and each citizen gave a
contribution towards defraying the expenses. In B.C. 208, it was
ordained that they should always be celebrated on the 6th of July.