Argippæi evidently alludes to customs similar to those of the modern
Tartars. He says, “They live under trees, covering the tree in
winter with strong and thick undyed felt (πίλῳ στεγνῷ λευκῷ), and
removing the felt in summer.” Among the ceremonies observed by the
Scythians in burying the dead, Herodotus also mentions the erection
of three stakes of wood, which were surrounded with a close covering
of woollen felt (iv. 73). Also, in the next section but one (iv. 75.)
there is an evident allusion to the practice of living under tents
made of felt (ὑποδύνουσι ὑπὸ τοὺς πίλους).
[588] _Reise in dem Kaucasus und nach Georgien_, ch. vi. p. 161.
[589] _Voyage dans les Environs du Mont Elbrouz._ St. Petersburg, 1829,
4to, p. 20.
[590] _Travels in Circassia_, by Edmund Spencer.
[591] _Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor_, p. 38.
[592] Ch. ii. p. 7, of Rémusat’s Translation, Par. 1836, 4to.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.]
In conformity with the prevailing use of this manufacture in the
colder regions of Asia, scarlet or purple felt (such as that lately
_re-invented_ at Leeds, in England), was used by the Babylonish
decorators for the drapery of the funeral pile, when Alexander
celebrated the splendid obsequies of Hephæstion: for so we must
understand the expression φοινικίδες πιληταί (Diod. Sic. xvii. 115. p.
251, Wess.). Xenophon (_Cycrop._ v. 5. § 7.) mentions the use of felt
manufactured in Media, _as a covering for chairs and couches_. The
Medes also used bags and sacks of felt (Athenæus, 1. xii. p. 540 _c._
Casaub.).
The process, by which wool is converted into felt, was called by the
Greeks πίλησις (Plato _de Leg._ 1. viii. p. 115. ed. Bekker), literally
a compression, from πιλέω, to compress[593]. The ancient Greek scholion
on the passage of Plato here referred to thus explains the term:
Πιλήσεως· τῆς διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐρίων πυκνώσεως γινομένης ἐσθῆτος, _i. e._
“cloth made by the thickening of wool.” With this definition of felt
agrees the following description of a πέτασος in a Greek epigram, which
records the dedication of it to Mercury:--
Σοὶ τὸν πιληθέντα δι’ εὐξάντου τριχὸς ἀμνοῦ,
Ἑρμᾶ, Καλλιτέλης ἐκρέμασε πέτασον.
Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 41.
[593] Xenophanes thought that _the moon_ was _a compressed cloud_
(νέφος πεπιλημένον, Stobæi _Eclog._ i. 27. p. 550, ed. Heeren); _and
that the air was emitted from the earth by its compression_
(πίλησις, i. 23. p. 484).
The art of felting was called ἡ πιλητικὴ, (Plato, _Polit._ ii. 2. p.
296, ed. Bekker). According to the ancient Greek and Latin glossaries,
and to Julius Pollux (vii. 30), a felt-maker, or hatter, was πιλοποιὸς
or πιλωτοποιὸς, in Latin _coactiliarius_. From πῖλος (_dim._ πίλιον,
_second dim._ πιλίδιον), the proper term for _felt_ in general, derived
from the root of πιλέω, came the verb πιλόω, signifying _to felt_,
or _to make felt_, and from this latter verb was formed the ancient
participle πιλωτὸς, _felted_, which again gave origin to πιλωτοποιός.
It may be observed, that our English word _felt_ is evidently a
participle or a derivative, and that its verb or root FEL
appears to be the same with the root of πιλέω.
The Latin _cogo_, which was used, like the Greek πιλέω, to denote the
act of compressing, or forcing the separate hairs together, gave origin
to the participle _coactus_, and its derivative _coactilis_. Pliny (H.
N. viii. 48. s. 73.), after speaking of woven stuffs, mentions in the
following terms the use of wool for making felt: “Lanæ et per se coactæ
(_al._ coactam) vestem ficiunt,” _i. e._ “Parcels of wool, driven
together by themselves, make cloth.” This is a very exact, though
brief description of the process of felting. The following monumental
inscription (Gruter, p. 648, n. 4.) contains the title _Lanarius
coactiliarius_, meaning _a manufacturer of woollen felt:_--
M. BALLORIUS M. L. LARISEUS, LANARIUS COACTILIARIUS, CONJUGA
CARISSIMÆ B. M. FEC.
Helvius Successus, the son of a freed man, and the father of the Roman
emperor Pertinax, was a hatter in Liguria (_tabernam coactiliariam in
Liguria exercuerat_, Jul. Cap. _Pertinax_, c. 3.). Pertinax himself,
being fond of money, having the perseverance expressed by his agnomen,
and having doubtless, in the course of his expeditions into the East,
made valuable observations respecting the manufacture which he had
known from his boyhood, continued and extended the same business,
carrying it on and conveying his goods to a distance by the agency of
slaves. The Romans originally received the use of felt together with
its name[594] from the Greeks (Plutarch, _Numa_, p. 117, ed. Steph.).
The Greeks were acquainted with it as early as the age of Homer, who
lived about 900 B. C. (_Il._ x. 265), and Hesiod (_Op. et Dies_, 542,
546).
[594] _Pileus_ or _Pileum_ (Non. Marc. iii., _pilea virorum sunt_,
Servius _in Virg. Æn._ ix. 616.), dim. _Pileolus_ or _Pileolum_
(Colum. _de Arbor._ 25).
The principal use of felt among the Greeks and Romans was to make
coverings of the head for the male sex, and the most common cover
made of this manufacture was a simple skull-cap, _i. e._ a cap
exactly fitted to the shape of the head, as is shown in Plate VIII.
fig. 1. taken from a sepulchral bas-relief which was found by Mr.
Dodwell in Bœotia[595]. The original is as large as life. The person
represented appears to have been a Cynic philosopher. He leans upon
the staff (_baculus_, βάκτρον, σκῆπτρον); he is clothed in the blanket
(_pallium_, χλαῖνα, τρίβων) with one end, which is covered, over his
left breast, and another hanging behind over his left shoulder; he
wears the beard (_barba_, πώγων); his head is protected by the simple
skull-cap (_pileus_, πῖλος). All these were distinct characteristics of
the philosopher, and more especially of the Cynic[596]. The dog also
probably marked his sect. Leonidas of Tarentum, in his enumeration
of the goods belonging to the Cynic Posochares[597], including a
dog-collar (κυνοῦχον), mentions, καὶ πῖλον κεφαλᾶς οὔχ ὁσίας σκεπανὸν,
_i. e._ “The cap of felt, which covered his unholy head.” This passage
may be regarded as a proof, that among the Greeks, though not among
the Romans, the cap of felt was worn by very poor men. It also proves
that this cap, which was the _fess_ of the modern Greeks, was worn by
philosophers, and therefore throws light on a passage of Antiphanes
(_ap. Athen._ xii. 63. p. 545 a) describing a philosopher of a
different character, who was very elegantly dressed, having a small cap
of fine felt (πιλίδιον ἁπαλὸν), also a small white blanket, a beautiful
tunic, and a neat stick. When Cleanthes advanced the doctrine, _that
the moon had the shape of a skull-cap_ (πιλοειδῆ τῷ σχήματι, Stobæi
_Ecl. Phys._ 1. 27. p. 554, ed. Heeren), he probably intended to
account for its phases from its supposed hemispherical form. A cap of a
similar form and appearance, though perhaps larger and not so closely
fitted to the crown of the head, was worn by fishermen[598]. In an
epigram of Philippus[599], describing the apparatus of a fisherman, the
author mentions πῖλον ἀμφίκρηνον ὑδασιστεγῆ, “the cap encompassing his
head and protecting it from wet.” Figure 2. in Plate VIII. represents a
small statue of a fisherman belonging to the Townley Collection in the
British Museum. His cap is slightly pointed and in a degree, which was
probably favorable to the discharge of water from its surface. Hesiod
recommends, that agricultural laborers should wear the same defence
from cold and showers (_Op. et Dies_, 545-547). The use of this cap
by seamen was no doubt the ground, on which the painter Nicomachus
represented Ulysses wearing one. “Hic primus,” says Pliny (H. N. xxxv.
36. s. 22.), “Ulyssi addidit pileum[600].” For the same reason the cap
is an attribute of the Dioscuri; and hence two caps with stars above
them are often shown on the coins of maritime cities and of others
where Castor and Pollux were worshipped. Figure 3. of Plate VIII. is
taken from a brass coin of Dioscurias in Colchis, preserved in the
British Museum. On the reverse is the name ΔΙΟΣΚΟΥΡΙΑΔΟΣ. Figure 4.
represents both sides of a silver coin in the same collection, with
the legend ΒΡΕΤΤΙΩΝ. It belongs to Bruttium in South Italy. On the one
side Castor and Pollux are mounted on horseback. They wear the chlamys
and carry palm branches in their hands. Their caps have a narrow brim.
The reverse shows their heads only, and their caps, without brims, are
surrounded by wreaths of myrtle. The cornucopia is added as an emblem
of prosperity. Figure 5. is from a brass coin of Amasia (ΑΜΑΣΣΕΙΑΣ) in
Pontus. It shows the cornucopia between the two skull-caps. Charon also
was represented with the mariner’s or fishermen’s cap, as, for example,
in the bas-relief in the _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 35, and
the painted vase in Stackelberg’s _Grüber der Hellenen_, t. 47, 48,
which is copied in Becker s _Charicles_, vol. ii. taf. i. fig. 1, and
in Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 404.
[595] _Tour through Greece_, vol. i. pp. 242, 243.
[596] See the articles _Baculus_, _Barba_, _Pallium_, p. 703, in
Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_.
[597] Brunck, _Anal._ i. p. 223. Nos. x. xi.
[598] Theocrit. xxi. 13.
[599] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. p. 212. No. v.
[600] Compare Eustathius _in Hom. Il._ x. 265, as quoted below.
A pileus of the same general form was worn by artificers; and on
this account it was attributed to Vulcan and to Dædalus, who, as well
as Ulysses and Charon, are commonly found wearing it in works of
ancient art. Arnobius says, that Vulcan was represented “cum pileo
et malleo”--“fabrili expeditione succinctus;” and that on the other
hand Mercury was represented with the petasus, or “petasunculus,” on
his head.[601] This observation is confirmed by numerous figures of
these two divinities, if we suppose the term _petasus_, which will be
more fully illustrated hereafter, to have meant a hat with a brim, and
_pileus_ to have denoted properly a fessor cap without a brim.
[601] _Adv. Gentes_, lib. vi. p. 674, ed. Erasmi. When Lucian
ludicrously represents Jupiter wearing a skull-cap, which we may
suppose to have been like that of the philosopher in Plate VIII.
figure 1. he must have intended to describe the “Father of gods and
men” as a weak old man; Διεῖλε τὴν κεφαλὴν κατενεγκών· καὶ εἴ γε μὴ
ὁ πῖλος ἀντέσχε, καὶ τὸ πολὺ τῆς πληγῆς ἀπεδέξατο, &c. _Dial.
Deor._, vol. ii. p. 314. ed. Hemster.
Fig. 6. Plate VIII. is taken from a small bronze statue of Vulcan in
the Royal Collection at Berlin. He wears the _exomis_, and holds his
hammer in the right hand and his tongs in the left. For other specimens
of the head-dress of Vulcan the reader is referred to the _Museo
Pio-Clementino_, t. iv. tav. xi., and to Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek
and Roman Antiquities_, p. 589.
Plate VIII. is intended still further to illustrate some of the most
common varieties in the form of the ancient skull-cap. Figure 7. is
a head of Vulcan from a medal of the Aurelian family[602]. Figure 8.
is the head of Dædalus from a bas-relief, formerly belonging to the
Villa Borghese, and representing the story of the wooden cow, which
he made for Pasiphae[603]. Fig. 10. is from a cameo in the Florentine
collection. Fig. 9. is the head of a small bronze statue, wearing boots
and the _exomis_, which belonged to Mr. R. P. Knight, and is now in the
British Museum. It is engraved in the “Specimens of Ancient Sculpture
published by the Society of Dilettanti,” vol. i. pl. 47. The editors
express a doubt whether this statue was meant for Vulcan or Ulysses,
merely because the god and the hero were commonly represented wearing
the same kind of cap. Not only does the expression of countenance
decide the question; but also the small bronze of Mr. Knight’s
collection agrees in attitude and costume with many small statues of
Vulcan, who is represented in all of them wearing the exomis, holding
the hammer and tongs, and having the felt cap on his head[604]. Fig.
11. is another representation of Ulysses from an ancient lamp[605].
It exhibits him tied to the mast, while he listens to the song of the
Sirens. The cap in this figure is much more elongated than in the
others.
[602] Montfaucon, _Ant. Expl._ t. i. pl. 46. No. 4.
[603] Winckelmann, _Mon. Ined._ ii. 93. The skull-cap, here represented
as worn by Dædalus, is remarkably like that which is still worn by
shepherd boys in Asia Minor. Fig. 12, in Plate VIII. is copied from
an original drawing of such a Grecian youth, procured by Mr. George
Scharf who accompanied Mr. Fellows on his second tour into that
country.
According to Herodotus the Scythians had felted coverings for their
tents, a custom still found among their successors, the Tartars.
Felting appears to have preceded weaving. It is certainly a much
ruder and simpler process: and, when we consider both the long
prevalence of the art among the pastoral inhabitants of the ancient
Scythia, and the extensive use of its products among them so as to
be employed even for their habitations, perhaps we shall be right
in considering felting as the appropriate invention of this people.
[604] Montfaucon, _Ant. Expl._ vol. i. pl. 46. figs. 1. 2. 3; _Mus.
Florent. Gemmæ Ant. a Gorio illustratæ_, tom. ii. tab. 40. fig. 3.
[605] Bartoli, _Lucerne Antiche_, P. III. tab. 11. There is a beautiful
figure of Ulysses in _Picturæ Antiquæ Virgiliani cod. Bibl. Vat._ a
Bartoli, tab. 103, taken from a gem. In Winckelmann, _Mon. Ined._
ii. No. 154, he is represented giving wine to the Cyclops: this
figure is copied in Smith’s _Dict._ p. 762.
The felt cap was worn not only by _desultores_, but by others of the
Romans upon a journey, in sickness, or in cases of unusual exposure.
Hence Martial says in _Epig._ xiv. 132, entitled “Pileus,”
Si possem, totas cuperem misisse lacernas:
Nunc tantum capiti munera mitto tuo.
_i. e._
O that a whole lacerna I could send!
Let this (I can no more) your head defend.
The wig (_galerus_) answered the same purpose for the wealthy classes
(_arrepto pileo vel galero_, Sueton. _Nero_, 26), and the _cucullus_
and _cudo_ for both rich and poor. On returning home from a party,
a person sometimes carried his cap and slippers under his arm (Hor.
_Epist._ l. xiii. 15).
The hats worn by the Salii[606] are said by Dionysius of
Halicarnassus to have been “tall hats of a conical form[607].” Plutarch
distinctly represents them as made of felt. He says (_l. c._), that
the _flamines_ were so called _quasi pilamines_, because they wore
felt hats, and because in the early periods of Roman history it
was more common to invent names derived from the Greek. On coins,
however, this official cap of the Salii and Flamines is commonly oval
like that attributed to the Dioscuri. We observe indeed continual
variations in the form of the pileus from hemispherical to oval, and
from oval to conical. A conical cap is seen on the head of the reaper
in the wood-cut to the article FLAX in Smith’s _Dictionary_
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which wood-cut is taken from a coin
of one of the Lagidæ, kings of Egypt. Caps, regularly conical and
still more elongated, are worn by the buffoons or comic dancers, who
are introduced in an ancient mosaic preserved in the Villa Corsini
at Rome[608]. Telephus, king of Mysia, is represented as wearing a
“Mysian cap[609].” This “Mysian cap” must have been the same which is
known by the moderns under the name of _the Phrygian bonnet_, and with
which we are familiar from the constant repetition of it in statues
and paintings of Priam, Paris, Ganymede[610], Atys, Perseus, and
Mithras, and in short in all the representations not only of Trojans
and Phrygians, but of Amazons and of all the inhabitants of Asia Minor,
and even of nations dwelling still further to the East. Also, when
we examine the works of ancient art which contain representations of
this Mysian cap, we perceive that it was a cone bent into the form in
which it is exhibited, and so bent, perhaps by use, but more probably
by design. This circumstance is well illustrated in a bust of Parian
marble, supposed to be intended for Paris, which is preserved in the
Glyptotek at Munich. A drawing of it is given in Plate VIII. fig. 13.
The flaps of the bonnet are turned up and fastened over the top of the
head. The stiffness of the material is clearly indicated by the sharp
angular appearance of that portion of it which is turned forwards.
Mr. Dodwell, in his _Tour in Greece_ (vol. i. p. 134), makes the
following observations on the modern costume, which seems to resemble
the ancient, except that the ancient πῖλος and πιλίδιον were probably
of undyed wool:--“The Greeks of the maritime parts, and particularly
of the islands, wear a red or blue cap of a conical form, like the
pilidion. When it is new it stands upright, but it soon bends, and
then serves as a pocket for the handkerchief, and sometimes for the
purse. Others wear the red skull-cap, or _fess_.” The Lycians, as we
are informed by Herodotus (viii. 92), wore caps of felt, which were
surrounded with feathers. Some of the Lycian coins and bas-reliefs,
however, show the “Phrygian bonnet,” as it is called, in the usual
form[611].
[606] Smith’s _Dict. of Gr. and R. Antiquities_, art. Apex.
[607] _Ant. Rom._ L. ii.
[608] Bartoli, _Luc. Ant._ P. I. tab. 35.
[609] Aristoph. _Acham._ 429.
[610] Stuart, in his _Antiquities of Athens_, vol. iii. ch. 9. plates
8, 9, has engraved two beautiful statues of Telephus and Ganymede
from a ruined colonnade at Thessalonica. In these the cap is very
little pointed.
[611] Fellows’s _Discoveries in Lycia_, Plate 35. Nos. 3, 7. The
“Phrygian bonnet” is seen in the bas-reliefs brought from Xanthus
by this intelligent traveller, and now deposited in the British
Museum.
The cap worn by the Persians is called by Greek authors κυρβασία or
τιάρα[612], and seems to have had the form now under consideration.
Herodotus, when he describes the costume of the Persian soldiers in
the army of Xerxes, says, that they wore light and flexible caps of
felt, which were called _tiaras_. He adds, that the Medes and Bactrians
wore the same kind of cap with the Persians, but that the Cissii wore
a mitra instead (vii. 61, 62, 64). On the other hand he says, that the
Sacæ wore _cyrbasiæ_, which were sharp-pointed, straight, and compact.
The Armenians were also called “weavers of felt” (Brunck, _Anal._ ii.
p. 146. No. 22). The form of their caps is clearly shown in the coins
of the Emperor Verus, one of which, preserved in the British Museum,
is engraved in Plate VIII. fig. 14. The legend, surrounding his head,
L. VERVS. AVG. ARMENIACVS, refers to the war in Armenia. The reverse
shows a female figure representing Armenia, mourning and seated on the
ground, and surrounded by the emblems of Roman warfare and victory.
The caps represented on this and other coins agree remarkably with the
forms still used in the same parts of Asia. Strabo (L. xi. p. 563, ed.
Sieb.) says, that these caps were necessary in Media on account of the
cold. He calls the Persian cap “felt in the shape of a tower” (L.
xv. p. 231). The king of Persia was distinguished by wearing a stiff
cyrbasia, which stood erect, whereas his subjects wore their tiaras
folded and bent forwards.[613] Hence in the _Aves_ of Aristophanes the
cock is ludicrously compared to the Great King, his erect comb being
called his “cyrbasia.” The Athenians no doubt considered this form of
the tiara as an expression of pride and assumption. It is recorded as
one of the marks of arrogance in Apollodorus, the Athenian painter,
that he wore an “erect cap[614].”
[612] Herod, v. 49. According to Mœris, _v._
Κυρβασία, this was the Attic term, τιάρα meaning the same thing in
the common Greek. Plutarch applies the latter term to the cap worn
by the younger Cyrus: Ἀποπίπτει δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἡ τιάρα τοῦ Κύρου.
--_Artaxerxes_, p. 1858. ed. Steph.
The “Phrygian bonnet” is called _Phrygia tiara_ in the following lines
of an epitaph (_ap. Gruter._ p. 1123):
Indueris teretes manicas Phrygiamque tiaram?
Non unus Cybeles pectore vivet Atys.
[613] Xenoph. _Anab._ ii. 5. 23; _Cyrop._ viii. 3, 13. Clitarchus, _ap.
Schol. in Aristoph. Aves_, 487.
[614] Πῖλον ὀρθόν. Hesychius, _s. v._ Σκιαγραφαί.
The coin represented in Plate VIII. fig. 15. (taken from Patin, _Imp.
Rom. Numismata_, Par. 1697, p. 213) is of the reign of the Emperor
Commodus, and belonged according to the legend either to Trapezus in
Cappadocia or to Trapezopolis in Caria. It represents the god Lunus
or Mensis, who was the moon considered as of the male sex agreeably
to the ideas of many northern and Asiatic nations (Patin, p. 173).
This male moon or month was, as it seems, always represented with the
cyrbasia[615]. In another coin published by Patin (_l. c._) a cock
stands at the feet of this divinity, proving that this was the sacred
bird of Lunus, and probably because the rayed form of the cock’s comb
was regarded as a natural type of the cyrbasia, which distinguished the
kings of Persia and was attributed also to this Oriental divinity. A
lamp found on the Celian Mount at Rome[616] represents in the centre
Lunus with 12 rays, probably designed to denote the 12 months of the
year, and on the handle two cocks pecking at their food. A head of
the same divinity, published by Hirt (_l. c._) from an antique gem at
Naples, has 7 stars upon the cap, perhaps referring to the 7 planets.
[615] Hirt’s _Bilderbuch_, p. 88. tab. xi. figs. 8, 9.
[616] Bartoli, _Luc. Ant._, P. II. tav. 11.
Instead of the conical cap of the Asiatics many of the Northern
nations of Europe appear to have worn a felt cap, the form of which
was that of a truncated cone. Of this a good example is shown in the
group of Sarmatians, represented in the wood-cut in Smith s _Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (p. 160), which is taken from the
Column of Trajan. The same thing appears in various coins belonging
to the reign of this Emperor, two of which, preserved in the British
Museum, are engraved in Plate VIII. fig. 16. represents Dacia sitting
as a captive with her hands tied behind her back, wearing trowsers
(_braccæ_) and a conical or oval cap with the edge turned up. Figure
17. represents Dacia mourning. In each we see a Dacian target together
with Roman armor. Each has the same legend, DAC. CAP. COS. V. P.
P. S. P. Q. R. OPTIMO. PRINC. On the reverse is the head of the
Emperor with the inscription IMP. TRAJANO. AUG. GER. DAC. P. M. TR.
P.
According to the representation of Lucian (_de Gymnas._), the
Scythians were in the constant habit of wearing caps or hats: for
in the conversation between Anacharsis and Solon described by that
author, Anacharsis requests to go into the shade, saying that
he could scarce endure the sun, and that he had brought his cap (πῖλον)
from home, but did not like being seen alone in a strange habit. In
later times we read of the “pileati Gothi” and “pileati sacerdotes
Gothorum[617].”
[617] Jornandes, &c., _ap. Div. Gentium Hist. Ant._, Hamb. 1611, pp.
86, 93.
In considering the use of the skull-cap, or of the conical cap of
felt, it remains to notice the use of it among the Romans as the emblem
of liberty[618]. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head
shaven, and wore instead of his hair the pileus, or cap of undyed felt,
(Diod. Sic. Exc. Leg. 22. p. 625, ed. Wess.). Plutarch, in allusion to
the same custom, calls the cap πιλίον, which is the diminutive of πῖλος.
It is evident, that the Latin _pileus_ or _pileum_ is derived from the
Greek πῖλος and its diminutive, and this circumstance in conjunction
with other evidence tends to show, that the Latins adopted this use of
felt from the Greeks. Sosia says in Plautus (_Amphit._ i. l, 306), as a
description of the mode of receiving his liberty, “Ut ego hodie, raso
capite calvus, capiam pileum.” Servius (_in Virg. Æn._ viii. 564) says,
the act of manumitting slaves in this form was done in the temple of
Feronia, who was the goddess of freedmen. In her temple at Terracina
was a stone seat, on which was engraved the following verse:
“Benemeriti servi sedeant, surgent liberi.”
[618] Hæc mea libertas; hoc nobis pilea donant.--Persius, v. 82.
In allusion to this practice it appears that the Romans, though they
did not commonly wear hats, put them on at the Saturnalia.[619] At
the death of Nero, the common people to express their joy went about
the city in felt caps.[620] In allusion to this custom the figure of
Liberty on the coins of Antoninus Pius holds the cap in her right hand.
Figures 1 and 2 in Plate IX. are examples selected from the collection
in the British Museum, and, as we learn from the legend, were struck
when he was made consul the fourth time, _i. e._ A. D. 145.
[619] Pileata Roma. _Martial_, xi. 7; xiv. 1.
[620] Plebs pileata. _Sueton. Nero_, 57.
In contradistinction to the various forms of the felt cap now
described and represented, all of which were more or less elevated,
and many of which were pointed upwards, we have now to consider those,
which, though made of felt, and therefore classed by the ancients under
the general terms _pileus_, πῖλος, &c.,[621] corresponded more nearly
to our modern _hat_. The Greek word πέτασος, _dim._ πετάσιον, derived
from πετάννυμι, _extendo_, _dilato_, and adopted by the Latins in the
form _petasus_, dim. _petasunculus_, well expressed the distinctive
form of these hats. They were more or less broad and expanded. What
was taken from their height was added to their width. Those already
mentioned had no brim; the petasus of every variety had a brim, which
was either exactly or nearly circular, and which varied greatly in its
width. In some cases it seems to be a mere circular disc without any
crown at all. Of this we have an example in a beautiful statue, which
has, no doubt, been meant for Endymion, in the Townley collection of
the British Museum. See Plate IX. Fig. 3. His right hand encircles his
head, and his scarf is spread over a rock as described by Lucian[622].
He sleeps upon it, holding the fibula in his left hand. His feet are
adorned with boots (_cothumi_) and his simple petasus is tied under his
chin. In this form the petasus illustrates the remark of Theophrastus,
who, in describing the Egyptian Bean, says, that the leaf was of the
size of the Thessalian petasus[623]. For the purpose of comparing
these two objects, a representation of the leaves of the plant referred
to, is introduced into the same Figure (3); taken from the “Botanical
Magazine,” Plates 903, 3916, and Sir J. E. Smith’s “Exotic Botany,”
Tab. 31, 32. The petasus here shown on the head of Endymion, the
original statue being as large as life, certainly resembles very
closely both in size and in form the leaf of the Egyptian Bean, which
is the Cyamus Nelumbo, or Nelumbium Speciosum of modern botanists.
[621] Plutarch (_Solon_, 179) says that Solon, pretending
to be mad and acting the part of a herald from Salamis, ἐξεπήδησεν
εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἄφνω πιλίον περιθέμενος. Here πιλίον seems to mean
the πέτασος.
[622] In the Dialogues of the Gods (xi.), the Moon says in answer to
Venus, that Endymion is particularly beautiful “when he sleeps,
having thrown his scarf under him upon the rock, holding in his
left hand the darts just falling from it, whilst his right hand
bent upwards lies gracefully round his face, and, dissolved in
sleep, he exhales his ambrosial breath.”
The recumbent statue, here represented, is of white marble, and is
placed in room XI. of the Townley Gallery. It was found in 1774
at Roma Vecchia (Dallaway’s _Anecdotes of the Arts_, p. 303). It
has been called Mercury or Adonis. But there are no examples or
authorities in support of either of these suppositions. It is
not sufficient to say that every beautiful youth may have been
meant either for Mercury, who was never represented asleep, or
for Adonis. We know that the fable of Endymion and the Moon was
a favorite subject with the ancient artists. In the _Antichita
d’Ercolano_, tom. iii. tav. 3, we find a picture, which was
discovered at Portica, and which represents this subject. It is
still more frequent in ancient bas-reliefs. See _Mus. Pio-Clem._
tom. iv. v. 8, pp. 38, 41; Sandrart, _Sculp. Vet. Adm._ p.
52; Gronovii _Thesaur._ tom. i. folio O; _Proceedings of the
Philological Society_, vol. i. pp. 8, 9.
[623] Πετάσῳ Θετταλικῇ. _Hist. Plant._ iv. 10. p. 147, ed. Schneider.
The flowers of umbelliferous plants are aptly called by Phanias[624]
πετασώδη, _i. e._ like a petasus. The petasus, as worn by the two
shepherds, who discover Romulus and Remus, in a bas-relief of the
Vatican[625], is certainly not unlike the umbel of a plant. See Plate
IX. Fig. 4.
Callimachus ascribes the same head-dress to shepherds in the following
lines:
Ἔπρεπε τοι προέχουσα κάρης εὐρεῖα καλύπτρη,
Ποιμενικὸν πίλημα.--_Frag._ cxxv.
The wide covering projecting from your head, the pastoral hat, became
you.
[624] _Apud Athen._ ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub.
[625] Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly
belonged to the Mattei collection. See _Monumenta Matthæinana_,
tom. iii. tab. 37.
This pastoral hat, if we may judge from the representation of the
two shepherds in the bas-relief just referred to (Fig. 4.), was in
its shape very like the “bonny blue bonnet” of the Scotch. Figure
5 in Plate IX. is taken from a painted Greek vase, and represents
the story of the delivery of Œdipus to be exposed. His name ΟΙΔΙΠΟΔΑΣ
is written beside him. The shepherd ΕΥΦΟΡΒΟΣ, who holds the naked child
in his arms, wears a flat and very broad petasus hanging behind his
neck. It is of an irregular shape, as if from long usage[626]. The
shepherd Zethus wears a petasus hanging behind his back in a bas-relief
belonging to the Borghese collection, published by Winckelmann (_Mon.
Inediti_, ii. 85). See Plate IX. Fig. 6.
[626] See [Italian 469]_Monumenti Inediti pubblicati dall’ Instituto di
Correspondenza Archeologica_, vol. ii. tav. 14.
The Athenian ephebi wore the broad-brimmed hat, together with the scarf
or chlamys[627]. Meleager, in an epigram on a beautiful boy, named
Antiochus, says, that he would be undistinguishable from Cupid, if
Cupid wore a scarf and petasus instead of his bow and arrows and his
wings[628].
[627] Pollux, _Onom._ x. 164; Philemon, p. 367. ed. Meineke; Brunck,
_Anal._ vol. ii. p. 41; Jacobs _in Athol. Græc._ i. l. p. 24.
[628] Brunck, _Anal._ vol. i. p. 5.
When a young Greek conquered in the games, his friends sometimes
bestowed a hat (_petasus_) upon him as a present[629].
[629] Eratosthen. _a Bernhardy_, p. 249. 250.
In consequence of the use of the petasus as a part of the ordinary
costume of the Athenian youth, we find it in a great variety of works
of ancient art illustrative of the religion and mythology of Greece.
For example:--
1. In the inner frieze of the Parthenon, the remains of which are now
in the British Museum, it is worn by many of the riders on horseback.
Figure 7, in Plate IX. shows one of these horsemen (from the slab No.
54.) with his petasus tied under his chin.
2. It is worn by Theseus, as represented on a vase in the Vatican
collection. See Winckelmann, _Mon. Inediti_, vol. ii. 98, and Fig. 8,
Plate IX.
3. Also by Œdipus, as represented on one of Sir William Hamilton’s
vases (vol. ii. Plate 24.), standing before the sphinx.
4. The coins of Ætolia exhibit Meleager wearing the petasus. Five of
these have been selected from the collection in the British Museum,
which are engraved according to the size of the originals in Plate
IX. Figures 9, 10, and 11, are of silver. In each of them the petasus
has the form of a circular disc with a boss at the top like that on a
Scotch bonnet: on the reverse is the Calydonian boar, with a spear head
beneath it, and the word ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ. Figure 12, which is of gold[630],
and Figure 13, which is of silver, have the head of Hercules on the
reverse. The hero, supposed to be Meleager, wears a petasus, a scarf,
and boots, as we have seen to be the case with Endymion (Fig. 3), this
being the attire of hunters. In these two coins he also holds a spear
in his right hand, and is seated upon a shield (see Fig. 13.) and other
pieces of armor. ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ is written by the side. The gold coin (see
Fig. 12.) represents him with a Victory in his left hand, and with a
small figure of Diana Lucifera in front.
[630] This is engraved by Taylor Combe, _Vet. Populorum Nunmi._ tab. v.
No. 23.
The broad-brimmed hat, or petasus, was more especially worn by the
Greeks when they were travelling[631]. Its appearance is well shown in
Fig. 14, taken from a fictile vase belonging to the late Mr. Hope[632].
It represents a Greek soldier on a journey, wearing his large blanket,
and holding two spears in his right hand. This figure also shows one of
the methods of fastening on the hat, viz. by passing the string round
the occiput.
The comedies of Plautus, being translated from the Greek, contain
allusions to the same practice. In the Pseudolus (ii. 4. 55, and iv.
7. 90,) the petasus and the scarf are supposed to be worn by a person
to indicate that he was coming from a journey. In the prologue to the
Amphitryo, Mercury says,
Ego has habebo hic usque in petaso pinnulas,
Tum meo patri autem torulus inerit aureus
Sub petaso: id signum Amphitruoni non erit.
[631] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 170, No. 5.
[632] Hope, _Costume of the Ancients_, vol. i. pl. 71.
Mercury and his father Jupiter are here supposed to be attired like
Sosia and Amphitryo his master, both of whom had been travelling and
were returning home. At the same time there is an allusion to the
winged hat of Mercury, of which more hereafter. Again, in act i.
scene i. l. 287, the petasus is attributed to Sosia, because he is
supposed to be coming from a journey; and to Mercury, both because it
was commonly attributed to him, and because on this occasion he was
personating Sosia.
The Romans were less addicted to the use of the petasus than the
Greeks: they often wore it when they were from home; but that they
did not consider it at all necessary to wear hats in the open air is
manifest from the remark of Suetonius about the Emperor Augustus,
that he could not even bear the winter’s sun, and hence “domi quoque
non nisi petatasus sub divo spatiabatur.” (_August._ 82.) Caligula
permitted the senators to wear them at the theatres as a protection
from the sun (Dio. Cass. lix. 7. p. 909, ed. Reimari). What was meant
by wearing hats “according to the Thessalian fashion” is by no means
clear. Perhaps the Thessalians may have worn hats resembling those
of their neighbors, the Macedonians, and of the shape of these we
may form some conception from the coins of the Macedonian kings. One
of these coins from the collection in the British Museum is copied
in Plate IX. Fig. 15. It is a coin of the reign of Alexander I. and
exhibits a Macedonian warrior standing by the side of his horse,
holding two spears in his left hand, and wearing a hat with a broad
brim turned upwards. This Macedonian petasus is called the _Causia_
(καυσία)[633], and was adopted by the Romans[634], and more especially
by the Emperor Caracalla, who, as Herodian states, aimed to imitate
Alexander the Great in his costume. It appears probable, nevertheless,
that the turning up of the brim was not peculiar to the Macedonians,
and it may have depended altogether on accident or fancy; for we find
instances of it on painted fictile vases, where there is no reason
to suppose that any reference was intended either to Macedonia or
Thessaly. Fig. 16. Plate IX. for example, is taken from the head
of Bellerophon, on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases[635]; and
the left-hand figure from a fictile vase at Vienna, engraved by
Ginzrot[636]. This hat is remarkable for the boss at the top, which we
observe also on the Ætolian coins, and in various other examples.
[633] Val. Max. v. 1. _Extem._ 4. Pausan., _ap. Eustath. in Il._ ii.
121. It is to be observed, that the _causia_ and _petasus_ are
opposed to one another by a writer in Athenæus (L. xii. 537, e), as
if the _causia_ was not a petasus!
[634] Plautus, _Mil._ iv. 4. 42. _Pers._ i. 3. 75. Antip. Thess. in
_Brunck Anal._ ii. 111.
[635] Vol. i. pl. 1.
[636] _Uber die Wägen und Fuhrwerke der Alten_, vol. i. p. 342.
In connection with the above quoted expression of Dio Cassius it may
be observed further, that besides the _causia_ two varieties of the
petasus seem to be alluded to by several ancient authors, viz. the
Thessalian, and the Arcadian or Laconian. How they were distinguished,
cannot be ascertained, but the passages which mention them will now be
produced, that the reader may judge for himself. The Thessalian variety
is mentioned by Dio Cassius, by Theophrastus, as above quoted (p. 427),
and by Callimachus in the following fragment, which is preserved in the
Scholia on Sophocles, _Œd. Col._ 316.
And about his head lay a felt, newly come from Thessaly, as a
protection from wet.--_Frag._ 124. _ed._ Ernesti.
The frenzied Cynic philosopher Menedemus, among other peculiarities,
wore an Arcadian hat, HAVING THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC WOVEN INTO
IT[637]! Ammianus (Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 384.) represents an orator
dedicating “an Arcadian hat” to Mercury, who was the patron of his art,
and also a native of Arcadia.
[637] Diog. Laërt. vi. 102. See Gilroy’s Treatise on the _Art of
Weaving_, American edition, p. 446.
Herodes Atticus wore “the Arcadian hat” at Athens, as a protection
from the sun; and the language of Philostratus, in recording the fact,
shows that the Athenians of his time commonly wore it, more especially
in travelling[638]. Arrian, who wrote about the middle of the second
century, says, that “Laconian or Arcadian hats,” were worn in the army
by the peltastæ instead of helmets[639]. This circumstance shows a
remarkable change of customs; for in the early Greek history we find
the Persian soldiers held up as the objects of ridicule and contempt,
because they wore hats and trowsers[640]. On the whole, it is very
evident that “the Arcadian or Laconian hat” was one and the same
variety, and that this variety of head-dress was simply the petasus,
or hat with a brim, so called to distinguish it from the proper πῖλος,
which was the skull-cap, or hat without a brim.
This supposition suits the representations of the only imaginary beings
who are exhibited in works of ancient art wearing the petasus, viz. the
Dioscuri and Mercury.
[638] _Vit. Sophist._ ii. 5. 3.
[639] _Tactica_, p. 12. ed. Blancardi.
[640] _Herod._ v. 49.
It has been already observed that the Dioscuri are commonly represented
with the skull-cap, because they were worshipped, as the reader will
have perceived, as the guardians of the mariner[641]; but on ancient
vases we find them sometimes painted with the petasus; and if this
was the same with the πῖλος Λακωνικὸς, it would coincide with their
origin as natives of Sparta. In Plate IX. Fig. 16, an example is shown,
on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases, in which their attire resembles
that of the Athenian ephebi. They wear boots and a tunic, over which
one of them also wears the scarf or chlamys. They are conducted by the
goddess Night.
[641] See p. 419.
In like manner Mercury, as a native of Arcadia, might be expected
to wear “the Arcadian hat.” In the representations of this deity on
works of ancient art, the hat, which is often decorated with wings to
indicate his office of messenger, as his talaria also did[642], has a
great variety of forms, and sometimes the brim is so narrow, that it
does not differ from the cap of the artificer already described, or
the πῖλος in its ordinary form. These hats, with a brim of but small
dimensions, agree most exactly in appearance with the cheapest hats of
undyed felt, now made in the United States and Great Britain[643]. On
the heads of the rustics and artificers in our streets and lanes we
often see forms the exact counterpart of those which we most admire in
the works of ancient art. The petasus is also still commonly worn by
agricultural laborers in Greece and Asia Minor.
[642] Servius (on _Virg. Æn._ viii. 138) says, that Mercury was
supposed to have wings on his petasus and on his feet, in order to
denote the swiftness of speech, he being the god of eloquence.
[643] These hats are sold in the shops for sixpence, ninepence, or a
shilling each.
A bas-relief in the Vatican collection[644], represents the birth
of Hercules, and contains two figures of Mercury. In one he carries
the infant Hercules, in the other the caduceus. In both he wears a
large scarf, and a skull-cap, like that of Dædalus[645], without a
brim. This example therefore proves that, although the petasus, as
distinguished from the pileus, was certainly the appropriate attribute
of Mercury[646], yet the artists of antiquity sometimes took the
liberty of placing on his head the skull-cap instead of the hat, just
as we have seen that they sometimes made the reverse substitution in
the case of the Dioscuri.
[644] _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 37.
[645] See Plate VIII. Fig. 8.
[646] See Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 41, and Arnobius, _Adv. Gentes_, lib. vi.
See also Ephippus, _ap. Athen._ xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub.
It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus
in the Dionysiac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at
Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus (_Athen._ v. 27. p.
198 A.). In this case the imagination appears to have been indulged
in decorating a mere festive character with the peculiar attributes
of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven
by “boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi” (_Athen._
v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the
custom of the Grecian youth.
The following is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua (_Gruter._
_p._ 297):
Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestro cum Mercurio petasato
caduceatoque.
Another bas-relief in the Vatican[647], represents the story of
the birth of Bacchus _from Jupiter’s thigh_. Thus the subject of it
is very similar to that, which relates to the birth of Hercules,
the infant being in each instance consigned to the care of Mercury.
But the covering of Mercury’s head in these two cases is remarkably
different, though from no other reason than the fancy of the artist.
In the bas-relief now under consideration, Mercury holds the skin
of a lynx or panther to receive the child. He wears the scarf or
chlamys and cothumi. This was a very favorite subject with the
ancients. It occurs on a superb marble vase with the inscription
ΣΑΛΠΙΩΝ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ[648], and on one of Sir W. Hamilton’s fictile
vases[649].
[647] _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 19.
[648] Spon., _Misc. Erud. Ant._ § xi. art. 1.
[649] Vol. i. No. 8.
Figure 4. in Plate X. is from Hope’s _Costume of the Ancients_, vol.
ii. pl. 175. The money-bag is in Mercury’s right hand.
In a painting found at Pompeii[650], Mercury is represented with wings
(_pinnulæ_) on his petasus, though not very ancient, is also recognized
in the Amphitryo of Plautus.
[650] Gell’s _Pompeiana_, London 1819, pl. 76.
Figure 5. in Plate X. is from the Marquis of Lansdowne’s marble bust,
published by the Dilettanti Society[651]. In this beautiful bust the
brim of the hat is unfortunately damaged.
[651] _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, London 1809, pl. 51.
Figures 6 and 7, Plate X., are from coins engraved in Carelli’s _Nummi
Veteris Italiæ_ (plates 58 and 65). Figure 7 is a coin of Suessa in
Campania.
To these illustrations might have been added others from ancient gems,
good examples of which may be found in the second volume of Mariette’s
_Traité des Pierres Gravées_, folio, Paris, 1750.
Besides the application of felt as a covering of the head for the
male sex in the manner now explained, it was also used as _a lining for
helmets_. When in the description of the helmet worn by Ulysses we read
Μέσσῃ δ’ ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει[652],
we may suppose πῖλος to be used in its most ordinary sense,
consequently that the interior of the helmet was a common skull-cap.
[Illustration: PLATE IX.]
[652] Homer, _Il._ x. 265. Eustathius, in his commentary on this
passage, says, that the most ancient Greeks always wore felt in
their helmets, but that those of more recent times, regarding
this use of felt as peculiar to Ulysses, persuaded the painters
to exhibit him in a skull-cap, and that this was _first_ done,
according to the tradition, by the painter _Apollidorus_. The
account of Pliny, who, together with Servius (_in Æn._ ii. 44),
represents Nicomachus, and not Apollidorus, as having first adopted
this idea.
Being generally thicker than common cloth, felt presented a more
effectual obstacle to missile weapons. Hence, when the soldiers under
Julius Cæsar were much annoyed by Pompey’s archers, they made shirts
or other coverings of felt, and put them on for their defence[653].
Thucydides refers to the use of similar means to protect the body from
arrows[654]; and even in besieging and defending cities felt was used,
together with hides and sackcloth, to cover the wooden towers and
military engines[655].
[653] Jul. Cæsar, _Bell. Civ._ iii. 44.
[654] Thucyd. iv. 34. Schol. _ad loc._
[655] Æneas Tacticus, 33.
Felt was also sometimes used to cover the bodies of quadrupeds.
According to Aristotle[656], the Greeks clothed their _molles oves_
either with skins or with pieces of felt; and the wool became gray in
consequence. The Persians used the same material for the trappings of
their horses (Plutarch, _Artax._ II. p. 1858. ed. Stephani).
[656] _De Gen. Animalium_, v. 5. p. 157. ed. Bekker.
The loose rude coverings for the feet called _Udones_ were sometimes
made of felt, being worn within the shoes or brogues of the rustic
laborers[657].
[657] Hesiod, _Op. ed Dies_, 542; Grævius, _ad loc._; Cratini,
_Fragmenta_, p. 29. ed. Runkel.
In concluding this investigation it may be proper to observe, that,
although πῖλος originally meant _felt_, and more especially a skull-cap
made of that manufacture, it was sometimes used, at least by the later
Greek authors, by an extension of its meaning, to denote a cap of any
other material. Thus Athenæus (lib. vi. p. 274. Casaub.) speaking of
the Romans, says, that they wore about their heads πίλους προβατείων
δερμάτων δασεῖς, _i. e._ “thick caps made of sheep skins.”
APPENDIX D.
ON NETTING.
MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE
SCRIPTURES, ETC.
Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom--General terms for nets--Nets
used for catching birds--Mode of snaring--Hunting-nets--Method
of hunting--Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes--Manner of
fixing them--Purse-net or tunnel-net--Homer’s testimony--Nets used
by the Persians in lion-hunting--Hunting with nets practised by
the ancient Egyptians--Method of hunting--Depth of nets for this
purpose--Description of the purse-net--Road-net--Hallier--Dyed
feathers used to scare the prey--Casting-net--Manner of throwing
by the Arabs--Cyrus king of Persia--His fable of the piper and the
fishes--Fishing-nets--Casting-net used by the Apostles--Landing-net
(Scap-net)--The Sean--Its length and depth--Modern use of the
Sean--Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians
and ancient Egyptians--Corks and leads--Figurative application of
the Sean--Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the
Persians--Nets used in India to catch tortoises--Bag-nets and small
purse-nets--Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian prætor.
The raw materials, of which the ancients made nets, were flax,
hemp[658], and broom[659]. Flax was most commonly used; so that
Jerome, when he is prescribing employment for monks, says,
“Texantur et _lina_ capiendis piscibus[660].” The operation of
netting, as well as that of platting, was expressed by the verb
πλέκειν[661]. The meshes were called in Latin _maculæ_[662], in Greek
βρόχοι, _dim._ βροχίδες[663].
[658] Rete cannabina. Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 5. p. 216, ed. Bipont.
[659] Pliny, H. N. xix. 1. s. 2; xxiv. 9. s. 40.
[660] Hieron. _Epist._ l. ii. p. 173, ed. Par. 1613, 12mo. Hunting-nets
are called “lina nodosa” by Ovid, _Met._ iii. 153, and vii. 807.
Compare Virg. _Georg_, i. 142; Homer, _Il._ v. 487; Brunck, _Anal._
ii. 94, 494, 495; Artimedorus, ii. 14. See also Pliny, H. N. xix.
1. s. 2.
[661] Πλεξάμενος ἄρκυς, Aristoph. _Lysist._ 790. Τῶν πεπλεγμένων
δίκτυων, Bokkeri _Anecdota_, vol. i. p. 354.
[662] Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 11; Ovid, _Epist._ v. 19; Nemesiani
Cyneg. 302.
[663] Heliodor. l. v. p. 231, ed. Commelini.
The use of all the Latin and Greek terms for nets will now be
explained, and in connection with this explanation of terms, will be
produced all the facts which can be ascertained upon the subject.
I.
RETIS and RETE; _dim._ RETICULUM.
ΔΙΚΤΥΟΝ[664].
[664] From δικεῖν, _to throw_. See Eurip. _Bacc._ 600, and the Lexicons
of Schneider and Passow.
_Retis_ or _Rete_ in Latin, and δίκτυον in Greek, were used to denote
nets in general. Thus in an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus[665], three
brothers, one of whom was a hunter, another a fowler, and the third
a fisherman, dedicate their nets to Pan. Several imitations of this
epigram remain by Alexander Ætolus[666], Antipater Sidonius[667],
Archias[668], and others[669]. In one of these epigrams (Ἰουλιάνου
Αἰγυπτίου) we find λίνα adopted as a general term for nets instead of
δίκτυα, no doubt for the reason above stated. In another epigram[670]
a hare is said to have been caught in a net (δίκτυον). Aristophanes
mentions nets by the same denomination among the contrivances employed
by the fowler[671]. Fishing-nets are called δίκτυα in the following
passages of the New Testament: Matt. iv. 20, 21; Mark i. 18, 19; Luke
v. 2, 4-6; John xxi. 6, 8, 11: also by Theocritus, _ap. Athen._ vii.
20. p. 284, Cas.; and by Plato, _Sophista_, 220, _b._ p. 134, ed.
Bekker.
[665] Brunck, _Anal._ i. 225.
[666] Brunck, _Anal._ i. 418. Alexandri Ætoli _Fragmenta_, a Capelmann,
p. 50.
[667] _Ibid._ ii. 9, Nos. 15, 16.
[668] _Ibid._ ii. 94, No. 9.
[669] _Ibid._ ii. 494, 495. Jacobs, _Anthol._ vol. i. p. 188, 189.
[670] Brunck, _Anal._ iii. 239, No 417.
[671] _Aves_, 526-528.
Netting was applied in various ways in the construction of _hen-coops_
and aviaries; and such net-work is called _rete_[672]. It was used to
make pens for sheep by night. At the amphitheatres it was sometimes
placed over the podium. At a gladiatorial show given by Nero, the
net, thus used as a fence against the wild beasts, was knotted _with
amber_[673]. The way in which the net was used by the _Retiarii_ is
well known. The head-dress called κεκρύφαλος, was a small net of fine
flax, silk, or gold thread, and was also called _reticulum_[674]. But
by far the most important application of net-work was to the kindred
arts of hunting and fishing: and besides the general terms used alike
in reference to both these employments, there are special terms to be
explained under each head.
[672] Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 5.
[673] Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 3. s. 11.
[674] Nonius Marcellus, p. 542, ed. Merceri. See also the article
CALANTICA, in Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_.
The use of nets for catching birds was very limited, on which account
we find no appropriate name for fowlers’ nets[675]. Nevertheless
thrushes were caught in them[676], and doves or pigeons, with their
limbs tied up, or fastened to the ground, or with their eyes covered
or put out, were confined in a net in order that their cries might
allure others into the snare[677]. An account of the nets used by the
Egyptians to catch birds is given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson[678], being
derived from the paintings found in the catacombs. The net commonly
employed for the purpose was the clap-net. Bird-traps were also made by
stretching a net over two semicircular frames, which, being joined and
laid open, approached to the form of a circle. The trap was baited, and
when a bird flew to it and seized the bait, it was instantly caught by
the sudden rising of the two sides or flaps.
[675] See Aristophanes, _l. c._
[676] Hor. _Epod._ ii. 33, 34.
[677] Aristoph. _Aves_, 1083.
[678] _Man. and Customs_, vol. iii. p. 35-38, 45.
II.
CASSIS; PLAGA.
ΕΝΟΔΙΟΝ, ΑΡΚΥΣ.
In hunting it was usual to extend nets in a curved line of considerable
length[679], so as in part to surround a space, into which the beasts
of chase, such as the boar, the wild goat, the deer, the hare, the
lion, and the bear might be driven through the opening left on one
side. Tibullus (iv. 3. 12) speaks of inclosing woody hills for this
purpose:--
... densos indagine colles
Claudentem.
[679] Τὰ δίκτυα περιβάλλουσι. Ælian, H. A. xii. 46. Uno portante
multitudinem, qua saltus cingerentur. Plin. H. N. xix. l. s. 2.
Oppian (_Cyneg._ iv. 120-123) says, that in an Asiatic lion-hunt the
nets (ἄρκυες) were placed in the form of the new moon.
The following lines of Virgil show, that the animals were driven into
the toils from a distance by the barking of dogs and the shouts of men:
Thy hound the wild-ass in the sylvan chase,
Or hare, or hart, with faithful speed will trace;
Assail the muddy cave with eager cries,
Where the rough boar in secret ambush lies;
Press the tall stag with clamors echoing shrill
To secret toils, along the aërial hill.
Georg. iii. 411-413.--_Warton’s Translation._
In another splendid passage the boar is described as coming into the
midst of the nets after he has been driven to them from a mountain or a
marsh at a great distance:
And as a savage boar on mountains bred,
With forest mast and fattening marshes fed;
When once he sees himself in toils inclosed,
By huntsmen and their eager hounds opposed;
He whets his tusks, and turns and dares the war:
The invaders dart their javelins from afar:
All keep aloof and safely shout around,
But none presumes to give a nearer wound.
He frets and froths, erects his bristled hide,
And shakes a grove of lances from his side.
_Æn._ x. 707-715.--_Dryden’s Translation._
Even in a case where the same poet introduces an equivalent expression
to that of Tibullus, already quoted, viz. “saltus indagine cingunt”
(_Æn._ iv. 121), he represents the hunting-party as going over a large
extent of country to collect the animals out of it:
Postquam altos ventum in montes atque invia lustra,
Ecce feræ saxi dejectæ vertice capræ
Decurrere jugis; alia de parte patentes
Transmittunt cursu campos, atque agmina cervi
Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt.
At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri
Gaudet equo, jamque hos cursu, jam præterit illos,
Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis
Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem.
_Æn._ iv. 151-159.
So Ovid (_Epist._ iv. 41, 42):
In nemus ire libet, pressisque in retia cervis,
Hortari celeres per juga summa canes;
and (_Epist._ v. 19, 20):
Retia sæpe comes maculis distincta tetendi,
Sæpe citos egi per juga longa canes.
The _younger_ Pliny describes himself on one occasion sitting beside
the nets, while the hunters were pursuing the boars and driving them
into the snare (_Epist._ i. 6). In Euripides (_Bacc._ 821-832) we find
the following beautiful description of a fawn, which has been driven
into the space inclosed by the nets, but has leaped over them and
escaped:--
ὡς νεβρὸς χλοεραῖς
ἐμπαίζουσα λείμακος ἡ-
δοναῖς, ἡνίκ’ ἂν φοβερὸν φύγῃ
θήραμ’ ἔξω φυλακᾶς
εὐπλέκτων ὑπὲρ ἀρκύων, &c.
Here a Bacchanal, tossing her head into the air with gambols and
dancing, is said to be “like a fawn sporting in the green delights
of a meadow, when she has escaped the fearful chase by leaping over
the well-platted nets so as to be out of the inclosure, whilst the
shouting hunter has been urging his dogs to run still more swiftly:
by great efforts and with the rapidity of the winds she bounds over a
plain beside a river, pleased with solitudes remote from man, and hides
herself in the thickets of an umbrageous forest.”
If hollows or valleys were inclosed[680], the nets were no doubt
extended only in those openings, through which it was possible for the
animals to escape. Also a river was of itself a sufficient boundary:
Inclusum flumine cervum.--Virg. _Æn._ xii. 749.
[680]
Nec, velit insidiis altassi claudere valles,
Dum placeas, humeri retia ferre negent.--Tibullus, i. 4. 49, 50.
It was the duty of the attendants (J. Pollux, v. 4. 27-31) in
most cases to carry the nets on their shoulders, agreeably to the
representation in the Plate X. Pliny, _l. c._
Cassibus impositos venor.--Propert. iv. 2. 32.
... alius raras
Cervice gravi portare plagas.--Sen. _Hippol._ i. l. 44.
The proper Latin term for the hunting-net, but more especially for the
purse-net, which will be hereafter described, was CASSIS.
“Cassis, genus venatorii retis.” Isidori Hispalensis _Orig._ xix. 5.
“Arctos rodere casses” is applied by Persius (v. 170) to a quadruped
with incisor teeth caught in such a net and striving to escape. See
also Propertius as just quoted, and the _Agamemnon_ of Seneca and
Virgil’s _Georgics_ as quoted below. _Cassis_ seems to be derived from
the root of _capere_ and _catch_. But PLAGA was also applied
to hunting-nets, so that Horace describes the hunting of the boar in
the following terms:
Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane
Apros in obstantes plagas.--_Epod._ ii. 31, 32.
Lucretius (lib. v. 1251, 1252) aptly compares the setting up of the
_plagæ_ to the planting of a hedge around the forest:
Nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum,
Quam sæpire plagis saltum, canibusque ciere.
In the same manner _plagæ_ is used in the _Hippolytus_ of Seneca, as
above quoted, and in Pliny[681].
[681] H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.
To dispose the nets in the manner which has been described, was called
“retia ponere” (Virg. _Georg._ i. 307) or “retia tendere” (Ovid, _Art.
Amat._ i. 45).
In Homer a hunting-net is called λίνον πάναγρον, literally, “the flax
that catches everything[682].” But the proper Greek term for the
hunting-net, corresponding to the Latin _cassis_, was ἄρκυς, which is
accordingly employed in the passages of Oppian and Euripides cited
above. Also the epigram of Antipater Sidonius, to which a reference has
already been made, specifies the hunting-net by the same appellation:
Δᾶμις μὲν θηρῶν ἄρκυν ὀρειονόμων.
The word is used in the same sense by Cratinus[683]; also by
Arrian, where he remarks that the Celts dispensed with the use of
nets in hunting, because they trusted to the swiftness of their
greyhounds[684]. In Euripides[685] it is used metaphorically: the
children cry out, when their mother is pursuing them,
Ὡς ἐγγὺς ἤδη γ’ ἐσμέν ἀρκύων ζίφους,
_i. e._ “Now how near we are being caught with the sword.”
[682] _Il._ v. 487.
[683] Cratini _Fragmenta_, a Runkel, p. 28.
[684] Καί εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ,
_i. e._ “And here greyhounds answered the same purpose as Xenophon’s
hunting-nets.” _De Venat._ ii. 21. See Dansey’s translation,
pp. 72, 121.
[685] _Medea_, 1268.
Also in the _Agamemnon_ of Æschylus (l. 1085):
Ἡ δίκτυον τί γ’ Αἴδου;
ἀλλ’ ἄρκυς ἡ ζύνευνος, ἡ ζυναιτία
φόνου.
In this passage reference is made to the large shawl in which
Clytemnestra wrapt the body of Agamemnon, as in a net, in order to
destroy him. On account of the use made of it, the same fatal garment
is afterwards (l. 1353) compared to a casting-net, which in its
form bore a considerable resemblance to the _cassis_. In l. 1346,
ἀρκύστατα[686] denotes this net as set up for hunting. The same form
occurs again in the _Eumenides_ (l. 112); and in the _Persæ_ (102-104)
escape from danger is in nearly the same terms expressed by the notion
of overleaping the net. In Euripides[687] this contrivance is called
ἀρκύστατος μηχανὴ; and in the _Agamemnon_ of Seneca[688] the same
allusion is introduced:
At ille, ut altis hispidus silvis aper;
Cum, casse vinctus, tentat egressus tamen,
Arctatque motu vincla, et incassum furit,
Cupit, fluentes undique et cæcos sinus
Disjicere, et hostem quærit implicitus suum.
[686] Or, ἀρκύστατον, ed. Schütz. l. 1376.
[687] _Orestes_, 1405, s. 1421.
[688] L. 886-890.
Part of the apparatus of a huntsman consisted in the stakes which he
drove into the ground to support his nets, and which Antipater Sidonius
thus describes:
Καὶ πυρὶ θηγαλέους ὀξυπαγεῖς στάλικας;
_i. e._ “The sharp stakes hardened in the fire[689].”
The term which Xenophon uses of the stakes is, according to some
manuscripts of his work, σχαλίδες. He says, they should be fixed so
as to lean backwards, and thus more effectually to resist the impulse
of the animals rushing against them[690]. The Latin term answering to
στάλικες was VARI. We find it thus used by Lucan:
Aut, cum dispositis adtollat retia varis
Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi.
_Pharsalia_, iv. 439, 440.
_i. e._ “The hunter holds the noisy mouth of the light Molossian dog,
when he lifts up the nets to the stakes arranged in order.”
[689] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 10. We find στάλικες in Oppian,
_Cyneg._ iv. 67, 71, 121, 380; Pollux, _Onom._ v. 31.
[690] _De Venat._ vi. 7.
Gratius Faliscus, adopting a Greek term, calls them _ancones_, on
account of the “elbow” or fork at the top:
Hic magis in cervos valuit metus: ast ubi lentæ
Interdum Libyco fucantur sandyce pinnæ,
Lineaque extructis lucent anconibus arma,
Rarum, si qua metus eludat bellua falsos.--_Cyneg._ 85-88.
It was the business of one of the attendants to watch the nets:
Ego retia servo.--Virg. _Buc._ iii. 75.
Sometimes there was a watchman at each extremity and one in the middle,
as in the Persian lion-hunt[691]. The prevalence of this method of
hunting in Persia might be inferred from the circumstance, that one of
the chief employments of the inhabitants consisted in making these nets
(ἄρκυς, Strabo, xv. 3. § 18). To watch the nets was called ἀρκυωρεῖν
(Ælian, H. A. i. 2), and the man who discharged this office ἀρκυωρὸς
(Xen., _De Ven._ ii. 3; vi. 1.).
[691] Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 124, &c.
The paintings discovered in the catacombs of Egypt show, that the
ancient inhabitants of that country used nets for hunting in the same
manner which has now been shown to have been the practice of the
Persians, Greeks and Romans[692].
[692] Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_,
vol. iii. p. 3-5.
Hunting-nets had much larger meshes than fishing or fowlers’-nets,
because in general a fish or a fowl could escape through a much smaller
opening than a quadruped. In hunting, the important circumstance
was to make the nets so strong that the beasts could not break
through them. The large size of the meshes is denoted by the phrases
“retia rara[693]” and “raras plagas[694];” and it is exhibited in a
bas-relief in the collection of ancient marbles at Ince-Blundell in
Lancashire. See Plate X. fig. 1. This sculpture presents the following
circumstances, which are worthy of notice as illustrative of the
passages above collected from ancient authors. Three servants with
staves carry a large net on their shoulders. The foremost of them holds
by a leash a dog, which is eager to engage in the chase[695]. Then
follows another scene in the hunt. A net with very large meshes and
five feet high is set up, being supported by three stakes. Two boars
and two deer are caught. A watchman, holding a staff, stands at each
end of the net. Fig. 2, Plate X. is taken from a bas-relief in the same
collection, representing a party returning from the chase, with the
quadrupeds which they have caught. Two men carry the net, holding in
their hands the stakes with forks at the top. These bas-reliefs have
been taken from sarcophagi erected in commemoration of hunters, and
they are engraved in the _Ancient statues, &c. at Ince-Blundell_, vol.
ii. pl. 89 and 126. An excellent representation of these forked staves
is given in a sepulchral bas-relief in Bartoli, _Admiranda_, tab. 70,
which Mr. Dansey has copied at p. 307 of his translation of Arrian
_on Coursing_, and which represents a party of hunters returning from
the chase. Another example of the _varus_, or forked staff, is seen
in a sepulchral stone lately found at York (England), and engraved
in Mr. Wellbeloved’s _Eburacum_, pl. 14. fig. 2. The man, who holds
the varus in his right hand, and who appears to be a huntsman and a
native of the north of England, though partly clothed after the Roman
fashion, wears an inner and outer tunic, and over them a fringed
sagum. In the _Sepolcri de’ Nasoni_, published by Bartoli, there is a
representation of a lion-hunt, and of another in which deer are caught
by means of nets set up so as to inclose a large space. In Montfaucon’s
_Supplement_, tome iii., is an engraving from a bas-relief, in which
a net is represented: but none of these are so instructive as the two
bas-reliefs at Ince-Blundell.
[693] Virg. _Æn._ iv. 131; Hor. _Epod._ ii. 33.
[694] Seneca, _Hippol._ l. c.
[695] See Lucan, as quoted in the last page.
Gratius Faliscus recommends that a net should be forty paces long, and
full ten knots high:
Et bis vicenos spatium prætendere passus
Rete velim, plenisque decem consurgere nodis.--_Cyneg._ 31, 32.
The necessity of making the nets so high that the animals could
not leap over them, is alluded to in the expression Ὕψος κρεῖσσον
ἐκπηδήματος, _i. e._ “a height too great for the animals _to leap
out_[696].”
[696] Æschyli _Agamemnon_, 1347.
Xenophon, in his treatise _on Hunting_, gives various directions
respecting the making and setting of nets; and Schneider
has added to that treatise a dissertation concerning the ἄρκυς. It
is evident that this kind of net was made with a bag (κεκρύφαλος,
vi. 7), being the same which is now called the _purse-net_, or the
_tunnel-net_, and that the aim of the hunter was to drive the animal
into the bag; that the watchman (ἀρκυωρὸς) waited to see it caught
there; that branches of trees were placed in the bag to keep it
expanded, to render it invisible, and thus to decoy quadrupeds into it;
that a rope ran round the mouth of the bag (περίδρομος, vi. 9), and was
drawn tight by the impulse of the animal rushing in so as to prevent
its escape[697]. To this rope was attached another, called ἐπίδρομος,
which was used as follows. In fig. 1. of Plate X. we observe, that
the upper border of the net consists of a very strong rope. Xenophon
calls this σαρδὼν (vi. 9). In the purse-net it was furnished with
rings. The ἀρκυωρὸς, or watchman, lay in ambush, holding one end of the
ἐπίδρομος, which ran through the rings, and was fastened at the other
end to the περίδρομος, so that by pulling it he drew the mouth of the
bag still more firm and close. He then went to the bag and despatched
the quadruped which it inclosed, or carried it off alive, informing his
companions of the capture by _shouting_[698].
[697] This effect of the περίδρομος is well expressed by Seneca,
“Arctatque motu vincla:” also the circumstance of the branches used
to distend the bag and to make it invisible; “Fluentes undique et
cæcos sinus.”
Homer (_Il._ v. 487) seems to allude to the same contrivance, and to
apply the term ἀχῖδες to the rope which encircled the entrance of
the bag, with the others attached to it.
We find in Brunck’s _Analecta_ (ii. 10. No. xx.) the phrase ἀγκύλα
δίκτυα applied to hunting-nets. It was probably meant to designate
the ἄρκυς, which might be called ἀγκύλα, _i. e._ angular, because
they were made like bags ending in a point. The term νεφέλη, which
occurs in Aristophanes (_Aves_, 195), and denoted some contrivance
for catching birds, is said by the Scholiast on the passage to have
meant a kind of hunting-net. But this explanation is evidently good
for nothing.
[698] Oppian, _Cyneg._ iv. 409. Pliny mentions these _epidromi_, or
_running ropes_: H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.
In this treatise Xenophon distinguishes the nets used in hunting by
three different appellations; ἄρκυς, ἐνόδιον, and δίκτυον. Oppian also
distinguishes the δίκτυον used in hunting from the ἄρκυς[699]. The
ἄρκυς or _cassis_, _i. e._ “the purse- or tunnel-net,” was by much
the most complicated in its formation. The ἐνόδιον, or “road-net,”
was comparatively small: it was placed across any road, or path, to
prevent the animals from pursuing that path: it must have been used to
stop the narrow openings between bushes. The δίκτυον was a large net,
simply intended to inclose the ground: it therefore resembled in some
measure the sean used in fishing. The term, thus specially applied,
may be translated _a hay_, or _a hallier_[700]. These three kinds of
nets appear to be mentioned together by Nemesianus under the names of
_retia_ (i. e. δίκτυα), _casses_ (i. e. ἄρκυς), and _plagæ_ (i. e.
ἐνόδια.):
Necnon et casses idem venatibus aptos,
Atque plagas, longoque meantia retia tractu
Addiscunt raris semper contexere nodis,
Et servare modum maculis, linoque tenaci.
_Cyneg._ 299-302.
[699] _Ibid._ iv. 381.
[700] See Arrian _on Coursing: the Cynegeticus of the younger_
Xenophon, _translated from the Greek_, &c. &c. _by a graduate of
Medicine_ (William C. Dansey, M. B.). London, 1831, pp. 68, 188.
Xenophon, in his treatise on Hunting, further informs us, that the cord
used for making the ἄρκυς, or purse-net, consisted of three strands,
and that three lines twisted together commonly made a strand (ii. 4);
but that, when the net was intended to catch the wild boar, nine lines
went to a strand instead of three (x. 2).
It remains to be noticed, that, when the long range of nets, set up in
the manner which has been now represented, was designed to catch the
stag (_cervus_), it was flanked by cords, to which, as well as to the
nets themselves, feathers _dyed scarlet_, and of other bright colors
intermixed with their native white, and sometimes probably birds’
wings, were tied so as to flare and flutter in the wind[701]. This
appendage to the nets was called the _metus_ or _formido_ (Virg. _Æn._
xii. 750), because it frightened these timid quadrupeds so as to urge
them onwards into the toils. Hence Virgil, speaking of the method of
taking stags in Scythia, says,
Nor toils their flight impede, nor hounds o’ertake,
Nor plumes _of purple dye_ their fears awake.
_Georg._ iii. 371, 372.--_Sotheby’s Translation._
[701] Dum trepidant alæ.--Virg. _Æn._ iv. 121.
The following passages likewise allude to the use of this contrivance
in the stag-hunt:
Nec formidatis cervos includite pennis.--Ovid. _Met._ xv. 475.
Vagos dumeta per avia cervos
Circumdat maculis et multa indagine pinnæ.
Auson. _Epist._ iv. 27.
Nemesianus, in the following passage, asserts that the cord (_linea_)
carrying feathers of this description had the effect of terrifying not
the stag only, but the bear, the boar, the fox and the wolf:
Linea quinetiam, magnos circumdare saltus
Quæ possit, volucresque metu concludere prædas,
Digerat innexas non una ex alite pinnas.
Namque ursos, magnosque sues, cervosque fugaces
Et vulpes, acresque lupos, ceu fulgura cœli
Terrificant, linique vetant transcendere septum.
Has igitur vario semper fucare veneno
Cura tibi, neveisque alios miscere colores,
Alternosque metus subtemine tendere longo.
_Cyneg._ 303-311.
The same fact is asserted in a striking passage, which has been above
quoted from Gratius Faliscus. To the same effect are the following
passages:
Nec est mirum, cum maximos ferarum greges linea pennis distincta
conterreat, et ad insidias agat, ab ipso effectu dicta
formido.--Seneca, _de Ira_, ii. 11.
Feras lineis et pinna conclusas contine: easdem a tergo eques telis
incessat: tentabunt fugam per ipsa quæ fugerant, proculcabuntque
formidinem.--Seneca, _de Clementia_, i. 12.
Picta rubenti lineo pinna
Vano claudat terrore feras.
Seneca Frag. _Hippol._ i. 1.
III.
FUNDA, JACULUM, RETE JACULUM, RETIACULUM.
ΑΜΦΙΒΛΗΣΤΡΟΝ, ΑΜΦΙΒΟΛΟΝ.
Fishing-nets[702] were of six different kinds, which are enumerated by
Oppian as follows:
Τῶν τὰ μὲν ἀμφίβληστρα, τὰ δὲ γρῖφοι καλέονται,
Γάγγαμα τ’, ἠδ’ ὑποχαὶ περιηγέες, ἠδὲ σαγῆναι,
Ἄλλα δὲ κικλήσκουσι καλύμματα.--_Hal._ iii. 80-82.
[702] Ἁλιευτικὰ δίκτυα. Diod. Sic. xvii. 43. p. 193, Wessel.
Of these by far the most common were the ἀμφίβληστρον, or
_casting-net_, and the σαγήνη, _i. e._ the _drag_ or _sean_.
Consequently these two are the only kinds mentioned by Virgil and Ovid
in the following passages:
Atque alius latum funda jam verberat amnem,
Alta petens; pelagoque alius trahit humida lina.
Virg. _Georg._ i. 141, 142.
Hi jaculo pisces, illi capiuntur ab hamis;
Hos cava contento retia fune trahunt.
Ovid, _Art. Amat._ i. 763, 464.
By Virgil the casting-net is called _funda_, which is the common term
for a sling. In illustration of this it is to be observed, that the
casting-net is thrown over the fisherman’s shoulder, and then whirled
in the air much like a sling. By this action he causes it to fly open
at the bottom so as to form a circle, which is loaded at intervals
with stones or pieces of lead, and this circle “strikes the broad
river[703]:” for the casting-net is used either in pools of moderate
depth, or in rivers which have, like pools, a broad smooth surface;
whereas the sean is employed for fishing in the deep (_pelago_)[704].
[703] The Arabs now employ the casting-net on the shores of the Arabian
Gulf. “Its form is round, and loaded at the lower part with small
pieces of lead; and, when the fisherman approaches a shoal of
fish, his art consists in throwing the net so that it may expand
itself in a circular form before it reaches the surface of the
water.”--Wellsted’s _Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 148.
[704] For a technical account of nets, including the casting-net as now
made, the reader is referred to the Hon. and Rev. Charles
Bathurst’s _Notes on Nets; or the Quincunx practically considered_,
London, 1837, 12mo. Duhamel wrote on the same subject in French.
Isidore of Seville, in his account of the different kinds of nets
(_Orig._ xix. 5), thus speaks: “_Funda_ genus est piscatorii retis,
dicta ab eo, quod in fundum mittatur. Eadem etiam a jactando _jaculum_
dicitur. Plautus:
Probus quidem antea jaculator eras[705].”
[705] _Jaculator_ corresponds to the Greek ἀμφιβολεὺς.
Ausonius, in the following lines, which refer to the methods of
fishing in the vicinity of the Garonne, appears to distinguish
between the _jaculum_ and the _funda_.
Piscandi traheris studio? nam tota supellex
Dumnotoni tales solita est ostendere gazas:
Nodosas vestes animantum Nerinorum,
Et jacula, et fundas, et nomina villica lini,
Colaque, et indutos terrenis vermibus hamos.
_Epist._ iv. 51-55.
Besides the passage of Plautus, here quoted by Isidore, there are two
others, in which the casting-net is mentioned under the name of _rete
jaculum_, viz. _Asinar_. l. i. 87, and _Truc._ l. i. 14. Pareus, as
we find from his _Lexicon Plautinum_, clearly understood the meaning
of the term, and the distinction between the casting-net and the
sean. Of the _Rete jaculum_ he says, “Sic dicitur ad differentiam
_verriculi_, quod non jacitur, sed trahitur et verritur.” He adds, that
Herodotus calls it ἀμφίβληστρον, and the Germans _Wurffgarn_.
The word occurs twice in Herodotus, and both places throw light upon
its meaning. In Book i. c. 141. he says: “The Lydians had no sooner
been brought into subjection by the Persians than the Ionians and
Æolians sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, entreating him to receive
them under his dominion on the same conditions on which they had been
under Crœsus. To this proposal he replied in the following fable. A
piper, having seen some fishes in the sea, _played for a while on his
pipe, thinking that this would make them come to him on the land_.
Perceiving the fallacy of this expectation, he took a casting-net, and,
having thrown it around a great number of the fishes, he drew them out
of the water. He then said to the fishes, as they were jumping about,
_As you did not choose to dance out of the water, when I played to
you on my pipe, you may put a stop to your dancing now_.” The other
passage (ii. 95) has been illustrated in a very successful manner by
William Spence, Esq., F. R. S., in a paper in the Transactions of the
Entomological Society for the year 1834. In connection with the curious
fact, that the common house-fly will not in general pass through the
meshes of a net, Mr. Spence produces this passage, in which Herodotus
states, that the fishermen who lived about the marshes of Egypt, being
each in possession of a casting-net, and using it in the day-time to
catch fishes, employed these nets in the night to keep off the gnats,
by which that country is infested. The casting-net was fixed so as
to encircle the bed, on which the fisherman slept; and, as this kind
of net is always pear-shaped, or of a conical form, it is evident
that nothing could be better adapted to the purpose, as it would be
suspended like a tent over the body of its owner. In this passage
Herodotus twice uses the term ἀμφίβληστρον, and once he calls the
same thing δίκτυον, because, as we have seen, this was a common term
applicable to nets of every description[706].
[706] _None of the commentators appear to have understood these
passages._ In particular we find that Schweighäuser in his _Lexicon
Herodoteum_ explains Ἀμφίβληστρον thus: “Verriculum, Rete quod
circumjicitur.” _Rete_, however, corresponds to δίκτυον, which meant
a net of any kind; and _Verriculum_ is the Latin for Σαγήνη, which,
as will be shown hereafter, was a sean, or drag-net.
The antiquity of the casting-net among the Greeks appears from a
passage in the _Shield of Hercules_, attributed to Hesiod (l. 213-215).
The poet says, that the shield represented the sea with fishes seen in
the water, “and on the rocks sat a fisherman watching, and he held in
his hands a casting-net (ἀμφίβληστρον) for fishes, and seemed to be
throwing it from him.” We apprehend that, the position of _sitting_ was
not so suitable to the use of the casting-net as standing, because it
requires the free use of the arms, which a man cannot well have when he
sits. In other respects this description exactly agrees with the use of
the casting-net: for it is thrown by a single person, who remains on
land at the edge of the water, observes the fishes in it, and throws
the net from him into the water so as suddenly to inclose them.
In two of the tragedies of Æschylus we find the term ἀμφίβληστρον
applied _figuratively_ by Clytemnestra to the _shawl_, in which she
enveloped her husband in order to murder him.
Ἄπειρον ἀμφίβληστρον, ὥσπερ ἰχθύων,
περιστίχιζω, πλοῦτον εἵματος κακόν.--_Agamem._ 1353, 1354.
Μέμνησο δ’, ἀμφίβληστρον ὡς ἐκαίνισαν.--_Choëph._ 485.
Lycophron (l. 1101) calls this garment by the same name, when he refers
to the same event in the fabulous history of Greece. We have seen, that
in other passages the shawl so used is with equal aptitude called a
purse-net (ἄρκυς).
One of the comedies of Menander was entitled Ἁλιεῖς, “the Fisherman.”
The expression, Ἀμφιβλήστρῳ περιβάλλεται, is quoted from it by Julius
Pollus (x. 132)[707].
[707] Menandri et Phil. _Reliquæ, a Meineke_, p. 16.
Athenæus (lib. x. 72. p. 450 c. Casaub.) quotes from Antiphanes the
following line, which describes a man “throwing a casting-net on many
fishes”:
Ἰχθύσιν ἀμφίβληστρον ἀνὴρ πολλοῖς ἐπιβάλλων.
In an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus we find the casting-net called
ἀμφίβολον instead of ἀμφίβληστρον[708].
[708] Brunck, _Anal._ i. 223, No. xii. Jacobs, _Anthol._ i. 2. p. 74.
The ἀμφίβληστρον is mentioned together with two other kinds of nets by
Artemidorus, and which will be quoted presently.
The following curious passage of Meletius _de Natura Hominis_, in
which that author, probably following Galen, describes the expansion
of the optic nerves, mentions the casting-net as “an instrument used
by fishermen”:
Διασχίζονται δὲ τὰ νεῦρα εἰς τοὺς θαλάμους, ὥσπερ ἤν τις λαβὼν
πάπυρον, ταύτην εἰς λεπτὰ διατεμὼν καὶ διασχίζων ἀναπλέκηται πάλιν,
καὶ ποιῇ χιτῶνα λεγόμενον ἀμφιβληστροειδῆ, ὅμοιον ἀμφιβλήρτρῳ. ὄργανον
δὲ τοῦτο θηρευταῖς ἰχθύων χρήσιμον.--Salmasius, _in Tertull. de
Pallio_, p. 213.
The χιτὼν ἀμφιβληστροειδὴς, or _tunica retina_, was so called on
account of its resemblance in form to the casting-net.
As we learn from Herodotus that the casting-net was universally
employed by the fishermen of Egypt, we shall not be surprised to find
it mentioned in the Alexandrine, or, as it is commonly called, the
Septuagint version of the Psalms and Prophets:--
Πεσοῦνται ἐν ἀμφιβλήστρῳ αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτωλοὶ,
_i. e._ “Sinners shall fall in _his_ casting-net.”--_Psalm_ cxli. 10.
Cadent in retiaculo ejus peccatores.--_Vulgate Version._
“Let the wicked fall in their own nets.”
--_Common English Version._
The word in the original Hebrew is
מכמור, which Gesenius translates “Rete,” _a net_. This word
must have been more general in its meaning than the Greek ἀμφίβληστρον,
and included the purse-net, or ἄρκυς. The Chaldee and Syriac versions
use in this passage a word, which denotes _snares_ in general. See
_Isaiah_ li. 20, where the same word is used in the Hebrew, but applied
to the catching of a quadruped, and where consequently the purse-net
must have been intended.
Καὶ οἱ βάλλοντες σαγήνας, καὶ οἱ ἀμφιβολεῖς πενθήσουσι.
_i. e._ “And they who throw seans, and they who fish with the
casting-net, shall mourn.”--_Isa._ xix. 8.
Et expandentes rete super faciem aquarum emarcescent.--_Vulgate
Version._
“And they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.”--_Common
English Version._
It is to be observed, that this prophecy relates to Egypt. The Hebrew
verb פרש, here translated “_expandentes_,”
“_they that spread_,” is exactly applicable to the remarkable
expansion of the casting-net just as it reaches the surface of the
water. In the Alexandrine version we may also observe the clear
distinction between the two principal kinds of nets, the sean and the
casting-net, and that the man who fishes with the latter is called
ἀμφιβολεὺς, as in Latin he was designated by the single term
_jaculator_.
Εἵλκυσεν αὐτὸν ἐν ἀμφιβλήστρῳ, καὶ συνήγαγεν αὐτὸν ἐν ταῖς σαγήναις
αὐτοῦ· ἕνεκεν τοὺτου εὐφρανθήσεται καὶ χαρήσεται ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ.
Ἕνεκεν τούτου θύσει τῇ σαγήνῃ αὐτοῦ, καὶ θυμιάσει τῷ ἀμφιβλήστρῳ
αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλίπανε μερίδα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ βρώματα αὐτοῦ
ἐκλεκτά. Διὰ τοῦτο ἀμφιβαλεῖ τὸ ἀμφίβληστρον αὐτοῦ, καὶ διαπαντὸς
ἀποκτένειν ἔθνη οὐ φείσεται.
_i. e._ “He (the Chaldean) hath drawn him in a casting-net and
gathered him in his seans: therefore his heart shall rejoice and be
glad. Therefore he shall sacrifice to his sean and burn incense to
his casting-net, because by them he hath fattened his portion and his
chosen dainties. Therefore he shall throw his casting-net, and not
spare utterly to slay nations.”--_Habakkuk_, i. 15-17.
“They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag; therefore
they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net and
burn incense unto their drag: because by them their portion is fat and
their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty their net, and not
spare continually to slay the nations?”--_Common English Version._
The Latin Vulgate in this passage uses without discrimination the terms
_rete_ and _sagena_, which latter is the Greek word in a Latin form.
Ἀμφίβληστρον occurs twice in the New Testament. Matthew iv. 18: “Jesus,
walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon and Andrew,
_casting a net into the sea_; for they were fishers”: in the original,
βάλλοντας ἀμφίβληστρον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν; in the Vulgate version,
“mittentes rete.” It appears no sufficient objection to the sense
which has been assigned to ἀμφίβληστρον, that here two persons are
mentioned as using it at the same time. Being partners and engaged in
the same employment, one perhaps collecting the fishes which the other
caught, they might be described together as “throwing the casting-net,”
although only one at a time held it in his hands. In other respects
this explanation is particularly suitable to the circumstances. Jesus
was walking on the shore and accosted the two brothers. This suits the
supposition that they were on the shore likewise, and not fishing out
of a boat, as they did with the sean at other times. In verse 20 the
Evangelist uses the term δίκτυα (nets), saying “they left their nets,”
and meaning both their casting-net and those of other kinds. In verse
21 he mentions that James and John were in their boat, mending their
nets (δίκτυα).
The same things are to be observed in Mark i. 16, which is the parallel
passage.
IV.
ΓΡΙΦΟΣ, _or_ ΓΡΙΠΟΣ.
Pursuing the order adopted by Oppian in his list of fishing nets above
quoted, we come to the Γρῖφος. What kind of net this was we have been
unable to discover. It must, however, have been one of the most useful
and important kinds, because Plutarch mentions γρίφοι καὶ σαγήναι as
the common implements of the fisherman[709], and Artemidorus speaks of
this together with the casting-net and the sean in similar terms[710].
[709] Περὶ ἐνθυμίας, vol. v. p. 838, ed. Steph.
[710] L. ii. c. 14.
It may be observed, that Γριπεὺς is used for a fisherman[711],
apparently equivalent to ἁλιεὺς[712]. We also find the expression
Γριπηΐδι τέχνῃ, meaning, “By the fisherman’s art[713]”.
[711] Jacobs, _Anthol._ vol. i. p. 186, Nos. 4 and 5.
[712] Theocrit. i. 39; iii. 26.
[713] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 9, No. 14.
V.
ΓΑΓΓΑΜΟΝ.
The third fishing-net in Oppian’s enumeration is Γάγγαμον. We find
it once mentioned metaphorically, viz. by Æschylus, who calls an
inextricable calamity, Γάγγαμον ἄτης[714]. In Schneider’s edition
of Oppian we find this note, “Rete ostreis capiendis esse annotavit
Hesychius.” Passow also in his Lexicon explains it as “a small round
net for catching oysters.” The reference to Hesychius is incorrect. If
it was a net for catching oysters, which appears very doubtful, it may
have been the net used by the Indians in the pearl-fishery[715].
[714] _Agam._ 352.
[715] Λέγει Μεγασθένης θηρεύεσθαι τὴν κόγχην αὐτοῦ δικτύοισι.
Arrian, _Indica_, vol. i p. 525, ed. Blancardi.
VI.
ὙΠΟΧΗ.
The ὑποχὴ, which is the fourth in Oppian’s enumeration, was the
landing-net, used merely to take fishes out of the water when they rose
to the surface, or in similar circumstances to which it was adapted. It
was made with a hoop (κύκλος) fastened to a pole, and was perhaps also
provided with the means of closing the round aperture at the top[716].
Of the Κάλυμμα we find nowhere any further mention.
[716] See Oppian, _Hal._ iv. 251.
VII.
TRAGUM, TRAGULA, VERRICULUM.
ΣΑΓΗΝΗ.
These were the Greek and Latin names for the _sean_. Before producing
the passages in which they occur, we will present to the reader an
account of this kind of net as now used by the fishermen on the coast
of Cornwall (England) for catching pilchards, and as described by Dr.
Paris in his elegant and pleasant _Guide to Mount’s Bay and Land’s
End_[717].
“At the proper season men are stationed on the cliffs to observe by
the color of the water where the shoals of pilchards are to be found.
The sean is carried out in a boat, and thrown into the sea by two
men with such dexterity, that in less than four minutes the fish are
inclosed. It is then either moored, or, where the shore is sandy and
shelving, it is drawn into more shallow water. After this the fish are
bailed into boats and carried to shore. A _sean_ is frequently _three
hundred fathoms long, and seventeen deep_. The bottom of the net is
kept to the ground by leaden weights, whilst the corks keep the top of
it floating on the surface. A sean has been known to inclose at one
time as many as _twelve hundred hogsheads_, amounting to about _three
millions of fish_.”
[717] Penzance, 1816, p. 91
Let this passage be compared with the following, which gives an account
of the use of the same kind of net among the Arabs. It will then appear
how extensively it is employed, since we find it used in exactly the
same way both by our own countrymen and by tribes which we consider
as ranking very low in the scale of civilization; and on making this
comparison, the inference will seem not unreasonable, that the ancient
Greeks and Romans, who in several of their colonies in the Euxine Sea,
on the coasts of Ionia, and of Spain, and in other places, carried on
the catching and curing of fish with the greatest possible activity and
to a wonderful extent, used nets of as great a compass as those which
are here described.
“The fishery is here (_i. e._ at Burka, on the eastern coast of Arabia)
conducted on a grand scale, by means of nets many hundred fathoms in
length, which are carried out by boats. The upper part is supported by
small blocks of wood, formed from the light and buoyant branches of
the _date-palm_, while the lower part is loaded with lead. To either
extremity of this a rope is attached, by which, when the whole of the
net is laid out, about thirty or forty men drag it towards the shore.
The quantity thus secured is enormous; and what they do not require for
their own consumption is salted and carried into the interior. When, as
is very generally the case, the nets _are the common property of the
whole village_, they divide the produce into equal shares[718].”
[718] Lieutenant Wellsted’s _Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. (_Ornam_), pp.
186, 187.
That this method of fishing was practised by the Egyptians from a
remote antiquity appears from the remaining monuments. The paintings
on the tombs show persons engaged in drawing the sean, which has
floats along its upper margin and leads along the lower border[719].
An ancient Egyptian net, obtained by M. Passalacqua, is preserved in
the Museum at Berlin. Some of its leads and floats remain, as well as a
gourd, which assisted the floats[720].
[719] See Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii.
p. 20, 21; see also vol. iii. p. 37. One of these paintings, copied
from Wilkinson, is introduced in Plate X. fig. 3. of this work.
The fishermen are seen on the shore drawing the net to land full
of fishes. There are eight floats along the top, and four leads at
the bottom on each side. The water is drawn as is usual in Egyptian
paintings.
[720] Un filet de pêche à petites mailles, et fait avec du fil de lin.
Cet objet, qui est garni de ses plombs, conserve encore les
morceaux de bois qui garnissaient sa partie supérieure, ainsi
qu’une courge qui l’aidait à surnager.--Thèbes, Passalacqua,
_Catalogue des Antiquitiés découvertes en Egypte_, No. 445. p. 22.
Besides the verses of Oppian, which are above quoted, we find another
passage of the same poem (_Hal._ iii. 82, 83), which mentions the
following appendages to the σαγήνη, viz. the πέζαι, the σφαιρῶνες, and
the σκολιὸς πάναγρος. As the πόδες, or _feet_ of a sail were the ropes
fastened to its lower corners, we may conclude that the πέζαι were
the ropes attached to the corners of the sean, and used in a similar
manner to fasten it to the shore and to draw it in to the land, as is
described by Ovid in the line already quoted,--
Hos cava _contento_ retia _fune_ trahunt.
The σφαιρῶνες, as the name implies, were spherical, and must therefore
have been either the floats of wood or cork at the top, or the weights,
consisting either of round stones or pieces of lead, at the bottom.
The σκολιὸς πάναγρος must have been a kind of bag formed in the sean
to receive the fishes, and thus corresponding to the purse or conical
bag in the ἄρκυς. The term is illustrated by the application of the
equivalent epithet ἀγκύλα or “angular,” to hunting-nets in a passage
from Brunck’s _Analecta_, which was formerly explained, and by the
epithet “cava” in the line just quoted from Ovid[721].
[721] Observe also the use of the word μυχὸς in the passage of Lucian’s
_Timon_, quoted below.
In the following passage Ovid mentions the use both of the corks and of
the leads[722]. This passage also shows that several nets were fastened
together in order to form a long sean:
Aspicis, ut summa cortex levis innatat unda,
Cum grave nexa simul retia mergat onus?
_Trist._ iii. 4. 1, 12.
[722] Μολύβδαιναι, J. Pollux, x. 30. § 132.
This use of cork and lead in fishing is also mentioned by Ælian,
_Hist. Anim._ xii. 43; and that of cork by Pausanias, viii. 12. § 1;
and by Pliny, H. N. xvi. 8. s. 13, where, in reciting the various
uses of cork, he says it was employed “piscantium tragulis.” Sidonius
Apollinaris, describing his own villa, says:--
Hinc jam spectabis, ut promoveat alnum piscator in pelagus, ut
stataria retia suberinis corticibus extendat.--_Epist._ ii. 2.
“Hence you will see how the fisherman moves forward his boat into the
deep water, that he may extend his stationary nets by means of corks.”
Alciphron, in his account of a fishing excursion near the Promontory
of Phalerum, says, “The draught of fishes was so great as almost to
submerge the corks[723].” The earnest desire of a posterity, founded
on the wish for posthumous remembrance, which was a very strong
and prevailing sentiment among the ancients, is illustrated by the
language of Electra in the Choëphorœ of Æschylus, where she entreats
her father upon this consideration to attend to her prayer, and likens
his memory to a net, which his children, like corks, would save from
disappearing:--“_Do not extinguish the race of the Pelopidæ. For
thus you will live after you are dead. For a man’s children are the
preservers of his fame when dead, and, like corks in dragging the net,
they save the flaxen string from the abyss._” The use of the corks is
mentioned in several of the epigrams of the Greek Anthology, already
referred to, and in the following passage of Plutarch:--
Ὥσπερ τοὺς τὰ δίκτυα διασημαίνοντας ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ φελλοὺς ὁρῶμεν
ἐπιφερομένους .--_De Genio Socratis_, p. 1050, ed. Steph.
[723] Μικρὸν καὶ τοὺς φελλοὺς ἐδέησε κατασύραι ὕφαλον τὸ δίκτυον
ἐξογκούμενον.--_Epist._ i. 1.
Passages have been already produced from Plutarch, Artemidorus,
and the Alexandrine version of Isaiah and Habakkuk, in which the
sean is mentioned by its Greek name σαγήνη, in contradistinction
to other kinds of nets. Also the passage above cited from Virgil’s
Georgics (“pelagoque alius trahit humida lina”), indicates the use of
the sean in deep water, and the practice of dragging it out of the
water by means of ropes, which gave origin both to its English name,
_the Drag-net_, and to its Latin appellations, _tragula_, used by Pliny
(_l. c._), and _tragum_, which is found in the ancient Glossaries and
in Isidore of Seville[724].
[724] Tragum genus retis, ab eo quod trahatur nuncupatum: ipsum est et
verriculum. Verrere enim trahere est.--_Orig._ xix. 5.
The Latin name _verriculum_ occurs in a passage of Valerius
Maximus, which is also remarkable for a reference to the Ionian
fisheries, and for the use of the word _jactus_, literally, _a
throw_, corresponding to that which the Cornish men denominate, _a
hawl of fish_.
A piscatoribus in Milesia regione verriculum trahentibus quidam
jactum emerat.--_Memor._ lib. iv. cap. 1.
We introduce here an expression of Philo, in which we may remark
that βόλος ἰχθύων corresponds exactly to _jactus_ in Latin, and
that the drawing of the net into a circle is clearly indicated:
βόλον ἰχθύων πάντας ἐν κύκλῳ σαγηνεύσας. --_Vita Mosis_, tom. ii.
p. 95. ed. Mangey.
We find mention of the sean more especially for the capture of the
tunny and of the pelamys, which were the two principal kinds of fish
caught in the Mediterranean. Lucian speaks of the tunny-sean[725],
which was probably the largest net of the kind, and he relates
the circumstance of a tunny escaping from its bag or bosom[726].
The sean is thrice mentioned in the Epistles of Alciphron (_l.
c._ and lib. i. epp. 17, 18.), and in the two latter passages, as
used for catching tunnies and pelamides. We read also of a dolphin
(δελφὶς) approaching the sean[727]; but this might be by accident. It
was not, we apprehend, employed to catch dolphins.
[725] Σαγήνη θυννευτική.--_Epist. Saturn._ tom. iii. p. 406. ed. Reitz.
[726] Ὁ θύννος ἐκ μυχοῦ τῆς σαγήνης διέφυγεν.--_Timon_,
§ 22. tom. i. p. 136.
[727] Οὐκ ἔτι πλησιάζει τῇ σαγήνῃ.--Ælian, H. A. xi. c. 12. In this
chapter the same net is twice called by the common name, δίκτυον.
In the following passage of the Odyssey (xxii. 384-387) we have a
description of the use of a sean in a small bay, having a sandy shore
at its extremity, and consequently most suitable for the employment of
this kind of net:
Ὥστ’ ἰχθύας, οὕσθ’ ἁλιήες
Κοῖλον ἐς αἰγιαλὸν πολιῆς ἔκτοσθε θαλάσσης
Δικτύῳ ἐξέρυσαν πολυωπῷ· οἱ δέ τε πάντες
Κύμαθ’ ἁλὸς ποθέοντες ἐπὶ ψαμάθοισι κέχυνται.
The poet here compares Penelope’s suitors, who lie slain upon the
ground, to fishes, “which the fishermen by means of a net full of holes
have drawn out of the hoary sea to a hollow bay, and all of which,
deprived of the waves of the sea, are poured upon the sands.” Although
the general term δίκτυον is here used, it is evident that the net
intended was the sean, or dragnet.
In one of the passages of Alciphron already referred to, mention is
made of the use of the sean in a similar situation. Some persons,
who are fishing in a bay for tunnies and pelamides, inclose nearly
the whole bay with their sean, expecting to catch a very large
quantity[728]. This circumstance proves, that the sean was used with
the ancient Greeks, as it is with us, to encompass a great extent of
water.
[728] Τῇ σαγῆνῃ μονονουχί τὸν κόλπον ὅλον περιελάβομεν. --_Epist._ i. 17.
A few miscellaneous passages, which refer to the use of the sean,
may be conveniently introduced here:
Diogenes, seeing a great number of fishes in the deep, says there
is need of a sean to catch them; σαγήνης δέησις.--Lucian, _Piscata_,
§ 51. tom. i. p. 618, ed. Reitz.
The sean is called, from its material, σαγηναίον λίνον, in an
epigram of Archias.--Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 94. No. 10.
Plutarch, describing the _spider’s web_, says, that its _weaving_
is like the labor _of women at the loom_, its hunting like that
of fishermen with the sean.--_De Solertia Animalium_, tom. x. p.
29, ed. Reiske. He here uses the term σαγηνευτὴς for _a fisher with
the sean_. This verbal noun is regularly formed from σαγηνεύειν,
which means _to inclose or catch with the sean_: e. g. ἐν δίκτυοις
σεσαγηνευμένοι.--Herodian, iv. 9, 12.
Lucian uses the same verb in reference to the story of Vulcan
inclosing Mars and Venus in a net; σαγηνεύει τοῖς δεσμοῖς.--_Dialogi
Deor._ tom. i. p. 243. _Somnium_, tom. ii. p. 707, ed. Reitz.
Leonidas of Tarentum, in an epigram enumerating the ornaments
of a lady’s toilet (Brunck, _Anal._ i. p. 221), mentions ὁ πλατὺς
τριχῶν σαγηνευτήρ. Jacobs (_Annot. in Anthol._ i. 2. p. 63) supposes
this to mean the lady’s comb; but, judging from the known meaning
of σαγήνη and its derivatives, we may conclude that it was the
κεκρύφαλος, or net, which inclosed and encircled the hair, like a sean.
The following verse of Manilius (lib. v. ver. 678.) is remarkable
as a rare instance of the adoption of the Greek word _sagena_ by a
Latin poet:--
Excipitur vasta circumvallata sagena.
We have seen that the sean supplied figures of speech no less than the
purse-net (ἄρκυς), and the casting-net (ἀμφίβληστρον). It is applied
thus in the case of persons who are ensnared by the wicked[729], who
are captivated by the charms of love[730] or of eloquence[731], or who
are held in bondage by superstition[732]. But by far the most distinct,
expressive and important of its metaphorical applications, was to
the mode of besieging a city by encircling it with one uninterrupted
line of soldiers, or sweeping away the entire population of a certain
district by marching in similar order across it. Of this the first
example occurs in Herodotus iii. 145:--
Τὴν δὲ Σάμον σαγηνεύσαντες οἱ Πέρσαι παρέδοσαν Σολυσῶντι, ἐρῆμον
ἐοῦσαν ἀνδρῶν.
“The Persians, having dragged Samos, delivered it, being now destitute
of men, to Solyson.”
[729] Σαγηνεύομαι πρὸς αὐτῶν.--Lucian, _Timon_, § 25. tom. i. p. 138,
ed. Reitz.
[730] Brunck, _Anal._ iii. 157. No. 32. Here the sean is called by the
general term δίκτυον, but the particular kind of net is indicated by
the participle σαγηνευθείς.
[731]
Τῶνδὲ μαθητὴν,
Οἳ κόσμον γλυκερῇσι Θεοῦ δήσαντο σαγήναις,
_i. e._ “A disciple of those who bound the world in the sweet seans
of God.”--Greg. Nazianz. _ad Nemesium_, tom. ii. p. 141, ed. Paris,
1630. (See Chap. III, p. 53.)
[732] Plutarch, evidently referring to the siege of Jerusalem by
Titus, says, “The Jews on the Sabbath sitting down on coarse
blankets (ἐν ἀγνάμπτοις, literally, in ἱμάτια, or blankets, which
had not been fulled, or cleansed by the γναφεύς), even when the
enemy were setting the ladders to scale the walls, did not rise up,
but remained, as if inclosed in one sean, namely, superstition,
(ὥσπερ ἐν σαγήνῃ μιᾷ, τῇ δεισιδαιμονίᾳ, συνδεδεμένοι).”--_Opp._
tom. vi. _De Superstit._ p. 647, ed. Reiske.
As we speak of _dragging_ a pit, so the Greeks would have spoken,
in this metaphorical sense, of _dragging_ an island. In the sixth
book (ch. xxxi.) Herodotus particularly describes this method of
capturing the enemy. According to this account the Persians landed on
the northern side of the island. They then took hold of one another’s
hands so as to form a long line, and thus linked together they walked
across the island to the south side, so as to hunt out all the
inhabitants. The historian here particularly mentions, that Chios,
Lesbos, and Tenedos were reduced to captivity in this manner. It is
recorded by Plato[733], that Datis, in order to alarm the Athenians,
against whom he was advancing at the head of the Persian army, spread
a report that his soldiers, joining hand to hand, had taken all the
Eretrians captive as in a sean. The reader is referred to the Notes
of Wesseling and Valckenaer on Herod. iii. 149 for some passages, in
which subsequent Greek authors have quoted Herodotus and Plato.
We find σαγηνευθῆναι, “to be dragged,” used in the same manner by
Heliodorus[734].
[733] _De Legibus_, lib. iii. prope finem.
[734] Lib. vii. p. 304. ed. Commelini.
In addition to the passages of Isaiah and Habakkuk which mention the
drag in opposition to the casting-net; we find three references to the
use of it in the prophecies of Ezekiel, viz. in Ezek. xxvi. 5. 14;
xlvii. 10. The prophet, foretelling the destruction of Tyre, says it
would become _a place to dry seans upon_, ψυγμὸς σαγηνῶν; “siccatio
sagenarum,” _Vulgate Version_; “a place for the spreading of nets,”
_Common English Version_. The Hebrew term for a drag or sean is here
חרם.
The only passage of the New Testament which makes express mention of
the sean, is Matt. xiii. 47, 48: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a
net (σαγήνη) that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind;
which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered
the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” The casting-net, which
can only inclose part of a very small shoal, would not have been
adapted to the object of this parable. But we perceive the allusion
intended by it to the great quantity and variety of fishes of every
kind which are brought to the shore of the bay (αἰγιαλὸν) by the use
of the drag. The Vulgate here retains the Greek word, translating
_sagena_ as in the above-cited passages of Habakkuk and Ezekiel. In
John xxi. 6. 8. 11, the use of the sean is evidently intended to be
described, although it is called four times by the common term δίκτυον,
which denoted either a sean, or a net of any other kind. It is in this
passage translated _rete_ in the Latin Vulgate.
The Greek σαγήνη having been adopted under the form _sagena_ in the
Latin Vulgate, this was changed into rezne by the Anglo-Saxons[735],
and their descendants, have still further abridged it into _sean_. In
the south of England this word is also pronounced and spelt _seine_,
as it is in French. We find in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History[736] a
curious passage on the introduction of this kind of net into England.
He says, “the people had as yet only learnt to catch eels with nets.
Wilfrid caused them to collect together all their eel-nets, and to use
them as a sean for catching fishes of all kinds.”
[735] See Caedmon, p. 75. ed. Junii.
[736] Page 294, ed. Wilkins.
VIII.
RETICULUS or RETICULUM.
ΓΥΡΓΑΘΟΣ.
In the ancient Glossaries we find Γύργαθος translated _Reticulus_ and
_Reticulum_: it meant, therefore, _a small net_. It was not a name
for nets in general, nor did it denote any kind of hunting-net or
fishing-net, although the net indicated by this term might be used
occasionally for catching animals as well as for other purposes. It
was used, for example, in an island on the coast of India to catch
tortoises, being set at the mouths of the caverns, which were the
resort of those creatures[737]. But the same term is applied to the
nets which were used to carry pebbles and stones intended to be thrown
from military engines[738]; and a similar contrivance was in common
use for carrying loaves of bread[739]. Hence it is manifest that the
γύργαθος was often much like the nets in which the Jewish boys in our
streets carry lemons, being inclosed at the mouth by a running string
or noose. We may therefore translate γύργαθος, “a bag-net,” as it was
made in the form of a bag. “To blow into a bag-net,” εἰς γύργαθον
φυσᾷν, became a proverb, meaning to labor in vain. But this bag was
often of much smaller dimensions, and of much finer materials, than in
the instances already mentioned. From a passage of Æneas Tacticus (p.
54. ed. Orell.) we may infer that it was sometimes not larger than a
purse for the pocket. Hence Aristotle[740] properly applies the term
γύργαθος to the small spherical or oval bag in which spiders deposit
their eggs. Among the luxurious habits of the Sicilian prætor Verres,
it is recorded, that he had a small and very fine linen net, filled
with rose-leaves, “which ever and anon he gave his nose[741].” This net
was, no doubt, called γύργαθος in Greek.
[737] Ἐν δὲ ταύτῃ τῇ νήσῳ καὶ γύργαθοις αὐτὰς ἰδίως λινεύουσιν,
ἀντὶ δικτύων καθίεντες αὐτοὺς περὶ τὰ στόματα τῶν προράχων.
[738] Athenæus, lib. v. § 43. p. 208, ed. Casaub.
[739] Γύργαθον· σκεῦος πλεκτὸν, ἐν ᾧ βάλλουσι τὸν ἄρτον οἱ
ἀρτοκόποι.--Hesych. Reticulum panis.--Hor. _Sat._ i. l. 47.
[740] _Anim. Hist._ v. 27. Compare Apollodorus, _Frag._ xi. p. 454, ed.
Heyne.
[741] Reticulum ad nares sibi admovebat, tenuissimo lino, minutis
maculis, plenum rosæ.--Cic. _in Verr._ ii. 5. 11. --_Arrian, Per.
Maris Eryth._ p. 151. ed. Blancardi.
THE END.
[Illustration: _Plate X._]
Transcriber’s Notes:
A number of typographical errors have been corrected silently.
Cover is in public domain.
Footnote 731 may not be pointing to the exactly correct location as the
original was not marked.