CORBIS
CORBIS
dim. COR´BULA, CORBIC´ULA, a
basket of very peculiar form and common use among the Romans, both for
agricultural and other purposes. It was made of osiers twisted together, and
was of a conical or pyramidal shape. (Varr.
L. L. 5.139;
Isidor.
Orig. 20.9; Cic.
pro
Sest. 38, 82;
Ov. Met. 14.644;
Plaut.
Aul. 2.7, 4;
Suet. Nero
19;
Col. 6.3,
5;
11.2,
99). A
basket answering precisely to this description, both in form and material,
is still to be seen in everyday use among the Campanian peasantry, which is
called in the language of the country “la corbella,” a
representation of which is introduced in the lower portion of the annexed
woodcut. The hook
 |
|
Corbis. (The upper cut from a drawing at Herculaneum; the latter a
basket used by Campanian peasantry.)
|
attached to it by a string is for the purpose of suspending it to
a branch of the tree into which the man climbs to pick his oranges, lemons,
olives, or figs. The upper portion of the woodcut
(
Antichità di Ercolano, tom. iii. tav. 29)
represents a Roman farm, in which a farming man, in the shape of a dwarfish
satyr, is seen with a pole (
ἄσιλλα) across
his shoulder, to each end of which is suspended a basket resembling in every
respect the Campanian
corbella; all which
coincidences of name, form, and description leave no doubt as to the
identity of the term with the object represented. Like the
calathus, which it resembles in shape, it is
sometimes employed as a distinguishing emblem of Ceres (Clarac,
Mus
de Sculpt. pl. 214, n. 33).
[
A.R] [
J.H.F]
