LECTUS
LECTUS (
κλίνη,
λέχος,
εὐνή), a bed.
In the Homeric poems we find three kinds of beds distinguished: (1)
λέχος, a heavy compact bedstead,--even a
fixture, as the famous bedstead in the palace of Ulysses; (2)
δέμνια, easily transportable, like a camp-bed;
(3) a “shake down” upon the floor, with no framework at all,
expressed by the words
χάμαδις στορέσαι.
As the most noticeable instance of the
λέχος, we have the description (
Od.
23.190) of the bed made for himself by Ulysses. The actual trunk
of an olive-tree, round which he has built and roofed his chamber, forms one
solid and immovable post, lopped and smoothed with the axe; upon this is
constructed the rest of the wooden framework, with the other three feet; the
whole inlaid with gold and silver and ivory, and having a red leather strap
across to support the bedding. (Buchholz somewhat strangely interprets the
ἱμὰς to be a strap hung above the bed,
by which the occupant might raise himself up. The only argument for such a
view appears to be the use of the singular; but there is no reason why one
girth should not be used--
τόνος would be
the word in later Greek--even if we do not take it as a poetical usage of
singular for plural.)
For the
δέμνια as a quickly improvised bed,
see
Od. 4.296,
7.335;
Il. 24.643. From these
passages it appears that
δέμνια means a
light framework, such as slaves could bring out into the portico, and over
it was spread the bedding (see below). The passage in the Iliad, it is true,
seems to use
λέχος contrary to custom in
the same sense. For the third kind, see
Od.
20.1, where Ulysses, as a poor wanderer, has no bedstead but merely
an ox-hide and the bedding placed upon it. The
λέχος was, as has been said, a fixed or at least a solid
framework, and therefore called
πυκινόν
(
Od. 7.340, &c.): when
στορέσαι is joined to it, the arrangement of the
bedding is referred to. It is made with rounded posts (
δινωτόν) and carved. (The word
τρητός, however, to which Buchholz gives this meaning, may
only imply that the framework was pierced for the cords or girths.) The
plural
τὰ λέχεα includes bedstead and
bedding, which was arranged as follows. On the
λέχος or
δέμνια were placed (1)
ῥήγεα = mattress and pillows.
(Göll argues from their being washed that they were merely woollen
rugs; but they are always distinct from
τάπητες.) (2) Over these were spread
τάνητες, woollen blankets, not for a covering, but to make
the bed softer; both
ῥήγεα and
τάπητες were under the sleeper, and over him
were (3)
χλαῖναι as a coverlet (
Od. 4.296,
7.338;
Il. 24.647). The word
εὐνὴ in Homer is merely a
sleeping-place with or without a bed (comp.
Od.
7.347,
11.188). The poorer
classes, as in the passage cited from
Od. xx., had a hide in
place of the
λέχος, and
κώεα in place of the
ῥήγεα and
τάπητες (cf.
Od. 14.518. For fuller discussion, see
Buchholz,
Homerische Realien, § 60). The complete
bed consisted in later times of the following parts:
κλίνη, ἐπίτονοι, τυλεῖον or
κνέφαλλον, προσκεφάλαιον, and
στρώματα.
The
κλίνη, though used generally for the
whole (
εὐνὴ being rare in prose), is,
properly speaking, only the bedstead, and seems to have consisted only of
posts fitted into one another and resting upon four feet. At the head part
alone there was a board (
ἀνάκλιντρον or
ἐπίκλιντρον) to support the pillow and
prevent its falling out. Sometimes this was wanting, as we see in drawings
on ancient vases (see also Poll. 10.34; 6.9). Sometimes, however, the bottom
part of a bedstead was likewise protected by a board, so that in this case a
Greek bedstead resembled a modern so-called French bedstead. The
κλίνη was generally made of wood, which in
quality varied according to the means of the persons for whose use it was
destined; for in some cases we find that it was made of solid maple or
boxwood, or veneered with a coating of these more expensive woods. At a
later period bedsteads were not only veneered with ivory or tortoiseshell,
but sometimes had silver feet (Pollux,
l.c.; Aelian,
V.H. 12.29;
Athen. 6.255). This method of veneering is like that described by
Pliny,
Plin. Nat. 9.33: “testudinum
putamina secare in lamnas, lectosque et repositoria his vestire
Carvilius Pollio instituit.”
The bedstead was provided with girths (
τόνοι, from which possibly the metaphor about Cratinus is drawn
in
Aristoph. Kn. 532),
ἐπίτονοι, κείρια on which rested the bed or
mattress (
κνέφαλον, τυλεῖον or
τύλη: the last word, however, is an old Ionic
domestic term in this sense, in Attic a knot or hump: Rutherford's
New Phrynichus, p. 256). The cover or ticking of a
mattress was made of linen or woollen cloth or leather, and the usual
stuffing (
πλήρωμα) was dried reeds or wool.
At the head part of the bed and supported by the
ἐπίκλιντρον lay a round pillow (
προσκεφάλαιον) to support the head; and in some ancient
pictures two other square pillows are seen, which were intended to support
the back. The covers of such pillows are striped in several pictures on
ancient vases (see the woodcut under
SYMPOSIUM), and
[p. 2.18]were
therefore probably of various colours. They were undoubtedly filled with the
same materials as the beds and mattresses.
The bed-covers, which may be termed blankets or counterpanes, were called by
a variety of names, such as
περιστρώματα,
ὑποστρώματα, ἐπιβλήματα, ἐφεστρίδες, χλαῖναι, ἀμφιεστρίδες,
ἐπιβόλαια, δάπιδες, ψιλοδάπιδες, ξυστίδες, χρυσόπαστοι,
τάπητες or
ἀμφιτάπητες. The
common name, however, was
στρώματα. They
were generally made of cloth, which was very thick and woolly either on one
or on both sides (Pollux, 6.9). It is not always easy to distinguish whether
the ancients, when speaking of
κλῖναι, mean
beds in our sense of the word, or the couches on which they lay at
meal-times. We consequently do not know whether the descriptive epithets of
κλῖναι, enumerated by Pollux, belong to
beds or to couches. But this matters little, as there was scarcely any
difference between the beds of the ancients and their couches, with this
exception, that the latter being made for appearance as well as for comfort,
were, on the whole, undoubtedly more splendid and costly than the former.
Considering, however, that bedsteads were often made of the most costly
materials, we may reasonably infer that the coverings and other ornaments of
beds were little inferior to those of couches. Notwithstanding the splendour
and comfort of many Greek beds, the Asiatics, who have at all times excelled
the Europeans in these kinds of luxuries, said that the Greeks did not
understand how to make a comfortable bed (
Athen.
2.48;
Plut. Pel. 30). The places most
celebrated for the manufacture of splendid bed-covers were Miletus, Corinth,
and Carthage (
Aristoph. Frogs 410,
542, with the Schol.;
Lysistr. 732;
Cic. c.
Verr. 1.34; Athen. i. pp. 27, 28). It appears that
the Greeks, though they wore nightgowns (
χιτὼν
εὐνητήρ,, Pollux, 10.123), did not simply cover themselves
with the
στρώματα, but wrapped themselves
up in them. Less wealthy persons continued, according to the ancient custom,
to use skins of sheep and other animals, especially in winter, as blankets
(Pollux, 10.123;
Aristoph. Cl. 10).
The bedsteads of the poorer classes are designated by the names
σκίμπους, ἀσκάντης: a description of such a
bed is given by Aristophanes (
Aristoph. Pl.
540, &c.; compare
Lysistr. 916). Socrates
sleeps on a
σκίμπους (Plat.
Protag. 310 C). For this
κράββατος is used by New Testament writers and in Scholiasts; it
is said by Salmasius to be a Macedonian word, whence its use in Hellenistic
Greek (see Rutherford,
New Phrynichus, p. 138). The words
χαμεύνη and
χαμεύνιον, which originally signified a bed of straw or dry
herbs made on the ground (Theocrit. 13.33;
Plut.
Lyc. 16), were afterwards applied to a bed which was only near
the ground, to distinguish it from the
κλίνη, which was generally a high bedstead.
Χαμεύνια were the usual beds for slaves,
soldiers in the field, and poor citizens, and the mattresses used in them
were mere mats made of rushes or bast. (Pollux,
l.c., 6.11, 10.7; Becker-Göll,
Charikles,
3.74-81; Guhl and Koner, 143.)
The beds of the Romans (
lecti cubiculares) in the
earlier periods of the Republic were probably of the same description as
those used in Greece; <*>wards the end of the Republic and
during <*>npire, when Asiatic luxuries were
im<*> into Italy, the richness and magnificence
<*>beds of the wealthy Romans surpassed <*>Thing
we find described in Greece. The bedstead was generally rather high, so that
persons reached the bed by means of a footstool (
scamnum, Varro,
L. L. 5.35, 46): it was veneered
with costly woods, tortoiseshell and ivory (cf.
supra on
κλίνη), or overlaid
with plates (
lamnae) of gold or silver (
Mart. 9.22), or gold leaf (
bracteae) which the dishonest slave scrapes off with his nail
(
Mart. 8.33,
5).
The
aurei lecti (
Cic.
Tusc. 5.21, 61;
Suet.
Jul. 49) and
eburni (Hor.
Sat. 2.6, 103) were no doubt, as Göll says,
not solid gold or ivory, but overlaid with gold and ivory =
inaurati, eburati: so also
lecti
aerati (
Liv. 39.6) were overlaid
with bronze. We hear, however, of massive silver bedsteads (Petron. 73;
Lamprid.
Heliog. 29). Often the feet, too (
fulcra), were of gold or silver (
Verg. A. 6.603;
Suet. Cl. 32;
Prop. 3.5,
5,
4.7,
3;
Juv. 11.95). Becker less satisfactorily takes
these
fulcra as equivalent to
scamnum (supports for the foot in mounting the bed).
In Propertius, “Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro,”
the foot of the bed stands for the bed itself. The
lectus
pavoninus of which Martial speaks (14.85) was inlaid with
variegated woods,
citrus, &c., of many
colours. The bed or mattress (
torus) with the
pillow (
culcita, cervical) rested upon girths
(
fasciae, institae, restes or funes:
Cic. de Div. 2.6. 5, 134;
Mart. 5.62; Hor.
Epod.
12.12). The two sides of the bed are distinguished by different names: the
side at which it was entered was open and called
sponda; the other side was protected by a board and called
pluteus (Isid. 20.11). There was always a
raised head-board at one end; sometimes (as also occasionally in Greek beds)
a raised foot-board too. The two sides are also distinguished as
torus exterior and
torus
interior or
sponda exterior and
sponda interior (Ov.
Amor. 3.14, 32; Hor.
Epod. 3.22;
Suet. Jul. 49). The ordinary stuffing (
tomentum) of the mattresses and pillows was wool
(
Plin. Nat. 8.192), for cheaper
bedding straw or dried reeds (Hor.
Sat. 2.3,
117;
Mart. 14.160), which had been the
old-fashioned material (
Plin. Nat. 8.193）
in less luxurious times. Later feathers were commonly used, especially for
pillows; so that
pluma is used for the pillow
itself (e. g.
Juv. 6.88; Propert. iv. or 3.7, 50;
Mart. 14.149). Becker wrongly used this
passage to show that feather tapestry, like the
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Lectus, in which the usual pluteus is
wanting. (From a Pompeian painting.)
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old Mexican work, was used for casings by the Romans:
pluma versicolor is merely a pillow
[p. 2.19]with a striped covering, and the art of the plumarius is not
what Becker imagined (see Göll's note on
Gallus, 3.339; Blümner,
Techn. 1.210; and
the article PLUMARIUS). As a special luxury,
Heliogabalus had pillows made of the soft plumage under the partridge's
wing. The blankets or counterpanes (
vestes
stragulae) were in rich houses of costly make, dyed purple, and
embroidered in gold. These gold-embroidered coverlets were called
Attalicae vestes, Attalica peripetasmata, being, as
Pliny (
Plin. Nat. 8.196) says, first used
by Attalus. Hence in Propert. 3.5, 5,
Attalicus
torus is used for a bed so covered. The name
stragula belongs both to the blanket on which the occupant
lay as well as that which covered him, but the latter was strictly called
opertorium (Sen.
Ep. 87, 2).
2. The
lectus tricliniaris (for the use and
arrangement of which, see
CENA and
TRICLINIUM) was in most
points like the
lectus cubicularis. It was, however,
lower, as may be gathered from the use of
scandere, &c. applied to the latter (see also
Serv. ad Aen. 4.685). It had also, at
least in most cases, a
pluteus, as may be seen
from
Suet. Cal. 26; Propert. iv. (or v.) 8,
68: and this appears also in drawings. At one end only there was a raised
ledge on which a cushion was placed, and on this the left arm rested. Among
the Romans it held three persons; among the Greeks, two. Like the bed, it
had a mattress (
torus), over which coverlets of
fine stuffs, “Tyriae” vestes, &c., were thrown. The
toral was a sort of valance from the torus to the ground
(Becker-Göll, 2.343). Some have thought that the
aulaea (Hor.
Sat. 2.8, 54;
Od. 3.29,
14;
Verg. A. 1.697) were a canopy over the
lectus, and so Göll maintains; but it is better with Marquardt to
take them as wall-hangings, in no way part of the lectus (see AULAEA). For pictures of the
lectus tricliniaris, see
CENA
3. The
lectus genialis was the marriage couch to
which the newly-married were led by the
pronuba. It was placed in the atrium opposite the door, and hence
was called
lectus adversus (
Prop. 5.11,
85;
Laberius, ap.
Gel. 16.9). When a new marriage
took place, it was again prepared (
stratus,
Cic. Clu. 5,
14:
cf.
Hor. Ep. 1.1,
87; Arnob. 2.67;
Juv. 10.333). Till
that time it remained unoccupied in the atrium: by it in old and simple
times sat the mistress of the house, spinning and superintending household
work. “Lucretia nebat: ante
torum calathi
lanaque mollis erat” (
Ov. Fast.
2.739; cf. Ascon.
ad
Cic. Mil. 5,
13).
The
lectus genialis was higher than the
ordinary bed, and ascended by steps,
“
gradibus acclivis eburnis,”
Lucan 2.356
. (“
Qua simplici scansione scandebant in lectum non
altum scabellum, in altiorem scamnum: duplicata scansio gradus
dicitur,” Varro,
L. L. 5.168.)
4. The
lectus lucubratorius, often simply
lectus or
lectulus, and
in
Suet. Aug. 78
lectica lucubratoria, a reading couch smaller
and no doubt usually simpler than the bed, but otherwise of much the same
construction.
Here the Roman of literary habits spent much of his day, especially in the
morning, reading and writing: to this, not to sleep, Horace's “ad
quartam jaceo” refers, and the lectulus is his place of
meditation (
Sat. 1.4, 133). Suetonius (
l.c.) tells us that Augustus was in the habit of
going to his reading couch after dinner: see also Pliny the younger's
account of Spurinna (
Ep. 3.1), and of his uncle's habits
(
Ep. 3.5) and the description in
Ep. 5.5,
“jacere in lectulo suo compositus in habitum studentis, habere
ante se scrinium.” The “habitus studentis” was the
reclining posture on the left arm, using the right for writing or holding
the book: cf.
Ov. Tr. 1.11,
37; Sen.
Ep. 72; Pers. 1.52.
5.
Lectus funebris, also but less frequently
lectica, and in
Corn. Nep. Att. 22
“
lecticula”
(cf.
Tac. Hist. 3.67), sometimes in
poets
feretrum, the couch or bier on which the
dead were borne. They were sometimes elaborately ornamented. Dio Cassius
(56.34) thus describes the bier of Augustus:
κλίνη
ἦν ἔκ τε ἐλέφαντος καὶ χρυσοῦ πεποιημένη καὶ στρώμασιν
ἁλουργοῖς διαχρύσοις (i. e. Attalicis vestibus)
κεκοσμημένη. For other particulars, see article
FUNUS and
Becker-Göll,
Gallus, 3.508.
Representations of
lecti funebres have been
found on several sepulchral monuments. The following woodcut represents
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Lectus funebris. (From an ancient tombstone.)
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one taken from a tombstone.
[
L.S] [
G.E.M]
