UDO
UDO a warm close-fitting shoe of felt (
Mart. 14.140). It is clear that the translation
“sock” in dictionaries is wrong, for
Dig.
34,
2,
25.4,
specially distinguishes them as worn “calceamentorum loco,”
whereas the
impilia are said to be
“vestis loco.” The
impilia
therefore take the place of our socks, and are equivalent, or nearly so, to
the Greek
πῖλοι (Hes. Op. 542), which seem
to have been strips of felt wrapped round the feet and extending up the leg:
so in Plat.
Symp. p. 220 B, we find
ὑποδεδεμένων καὶ ἐνειλιγμένων τοὺς πόδας εἰς πίλους,
the first participle referring to the sandals, the second describing the
πῖλοι. They were not ordinary articles
of Greek clothing, but were worn in extreme cold, e. g. at the siege of
Potidaea. The name may, however, also have been given to felt-soles
(probably=Latin
pedule), since Pollux (7.91)
distinguishes
πῖλοι from
περιειλήματα ποδῶν. The same passage gives as
names for a sort of stocking
πέλυντρα and
ποδεῖα: the latter of these words
occurs in Theophr.
H. P. 7.12, 8, and is rendered
impilia by Pliny (
Plin.
Nat. 19.32) in his translation of that passage.
(Becker-Göll,
Charikles, 3.284;
Gallus, 3.226;--Marquardt,
Privatleben, p.
502.)
[
G.E.M]
