TROCHUS
TROCHUS (
τροχός,
κρίκος), a hoop (Artemid. 1.55;--
Ov. Tr. 3.12,
19;
Art. Am. 3.338, &c.). The Greek and Roman boys
used to exercise themselves like ours by trundling a hoop. It was a bronze
ring, and had sometimes bells attached to it (
Mart.
11.21,
2;
14.168,
169). It was propelled by
means of a hook with a wooden handle, called
clavis (Propert. 4.14) and
ἐλατήρ. From the Greeks this custom passed to the Romans, who
consequently adopted the Greek term (
Hor. Carm.
3.24.57). The hoop was used at the
GYMNASIUM (Propert.
l.c.;
Ovid,
Ov. Tr. 2.485); and therefore, on one
of the gems in the Stosch Collection at Berlin, which is engraved in the
subjoined woodcut, it is accompanied by the vase of oil and the laurel
branch, the signs of effort and of victory. On each side of this we have
represented another gem from the same collection. Both of these exhibit
naked youths trundling the hoop by means of the hook or key. These show the
size of the hoop, which in the middle figure has also three small rings or
bells on its circumference. (Winckelmann,
Desc. des Pierres
Gravéyes, pp. 452-455.)
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Hoops, from ancient gems.
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On the use of
τροχὸς to denote the potter's
wheel, see
FICTILE
(Blümner,
Privatalterth. 293; Marquardt,
Privatleben, 836.)
[
J.Y] [
G.E.M]
