[403] λέχος … εὐνήν. The former of these words, meaning properly the bedstead, corresponds with the Lat. lectus or fulcrum; while “εὐνή”, ‘the bedding,’ is equivalent to torus. Cp. Virg. Aen.6. 603‘lucent genialibus altis
aurea fulcra toris,’ Ov. Met.11. 471‘petit anxia lectumseque toro ponit.’
πόρσυνε, Schol. “ηὐτρέπιζε”, is used always of the wife who shares the bed; as of Arete, Od.7. 347; cp. Il.3. 411.In Apoll. Rhod. 3. 840, young maidens are described as “ἥλικες οὔπω λέκτρα σὺν ἀνδράσι πορσύνουσαι”. Ameis takes in the sense of ‘honouring’ the bed, in contradistinction to “αἰσχύνειν” Od.8. 269, but the use of the word comes from the simple fact that no one but the wife had free access to the husband's chamber, and so she actually ‘prepares’ his bed for the night's rest. Cp. Theocr. 6. 33 “αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ κλαξῶ θύρας ἔς τέ κ᾽ ὀμόσσῃ” “αὐτά μοι στορέσειν καλὰ δέμνια”. That from this use it passed into the ordinary meaning of ‘sharing’ the bed, we see from Od.7. 347“πὰρ δὲ γυνὴ δέσποινα λέχος πόρσυνε καὶ εὐνήν”. The master's chamber lay quite at the back of the premises, μυχῷ. Compare the expression “ἐς μυχὸν ἐξ οὐδοῖο”, meaning ‘from front to back,’ Od.7. 96.
