CAN´ABUS
CAN´ABUS (
κάναβος or
κάνναβος) was a wooden stock or framework
used by potters and sculptors round which the clay was laid (Poll. 7.164).
In small statues (
sigilla) and vessels it was
of the simplest description, and mostly of the form of a cross,
crux or
stipes
(Tertull.
Apol. 12;
ad Nat.
1.12). Scaliger on Festus (
s. v. Stipatores) compares it to
the framework of a trophy. It is applied to very lean persons (Strattis ap.
Pollux, 10.189;
Anth. P. 11.107), as we should say a
“scarecrow.” It is the same word as the Latin
cannaba,
“a booth,” both signifying a construction like a scaffold or
framework (Fick,
Vergl. Wörterb. 2.50). The word
seems to have been also used for the outline figure which sculptors and
painters used as a model (Suidas,
s.
v.). In this sense Aristotle (
Gen.
An. 2.6, 18 = 743, 2
a) compares the
appearance of the arteries and veins diverging from and converging to the
heart to those who draw
κάναβοι on the
walls; they present, he says, the form of the whole body (
αἱ μὲν γὰρ φλέβες ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς γραφομένοις
κανάβοις τὸ τοῦ σώματος ἔχουσι σχῆμα παντός,
H. A. 3, 5, 3 = 515, 35
a). They
are, as Blümner says (
Technol. 2.117), figures
indicated by the sketch of the most essential muscles.
[
L.C.P]
