CONOPE´UM
CONOPE´UM (
κωνωτεῖον),
a gnat or mosquito-curtain, i. e. a covering made to be expanded over beds
and couches to keep away gnats and other flying insects, so called from
κώνωψ, a gnat.
These curtains were especially used in Egypt on account of the mosquitoes
which infest the Nile (Isid.
Orig. 19.5, 5); hence they are
spoken of by Horace (
Epod. 9.16) and by Propertius (
3.11,
45) with
contempt, as signs of Oriental effeminacy. They were used by Roman ladies as
early as Varro's day (
R. R. 2.10). The use of them is still
common in Italy, Greece, and other countries surrounding the Mediterranean.
The Scholiast on Juvenal 6.80 describes them as being a thread network woven
in very fine meshes ( “linum tenuissimis maculis nanctum” ),
and tells us that at Rome they were called
cubiculare; while in Juvenal (
l.c.), on the
contrary,
conopeum seems to be used in the sense of
bed.
Conopeum is the origin of the English word
canopy. (Judith 10.21, 13.9, 16.19; Varr.
R.
R. 2.10.8.)
[
J.Y] [
J.H.F]
