COLUM
COLUM (
ἠθμός,
ἠθάνιον), a strainer or colander, was used for
straining wine, milk, olive-oil, drugs, perfumes, and other liquids. Thus we
find it employed in the making of olive-oil to receive the juice of the
berry when pressed out by the prelum. Such cola were made of hair, broom, or
rushes (
Verg. G. 2.242,
Ed.
10.71; Colum.
R. R. 1 9.15, 12.17, 19,
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Colum, strainer. ( Museo Borbon. ）
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38). The cola employed for such domestic purposes as straining wine were
sometimes made of linen (
Mart. 14.104), but
frequently of some metal, such as bronze or silver. (Hellanicus ap.
Athen. p. 470 d.) Such strainers are
often represented in Greek vase-paintings; and several examples of elegant
silver strainers of Greek workmanship, found in the Crimea, are figured in
the
Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien,
pl. xxxi.
Various specimens of cola have been found at Pompeii. The preceding woodcut
shows the plan and profile of one which is of silver (
Mus.
Borb. vol. 8.14, figs. 4, 5).
The Romans filled the strainer with ice or snow (
cola
nivaria) in order to cool and dilute the wine at the same time
that it was cleared (
Mart. 14.103) [NIX]. Several Etruscan vases have been discovered,
in which the spout consists of a strainer, so that the liquid is clarified
as it is poured out. (Micali,
Monumenti inediti, pl. 30.2,
37.8.)
Ausonius (
Fp. 4.57) uses the word
colum to denote the
nassa or weel
for snaring fish [NASSA].
[
J.Y] [
J.H.F]
