Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LECTUS. LECTUS. f,3
sofa, which was not moved out of the house. these XaXOJaL served as blankets for persons in
O1n it the Romans frequently reclined for the pur- their sleep, is seen from Odyss. xiv. 488, 500, 504,
pose of reading or writing, for the ancients when 513, 529; xx. 4. The fPysea, on the other hand,
writing seldom sat at a table as we do, but generally were probably a softer and more costly kind of
reclined on a couch; in this posture they raised woollen cloth, and were used chiefly by persons of
one knee, and upon it they placed the parchment high rank. They were, like the xaZvat, someor tablet on which they wrote. From this kind of times used to cover the seat of chairs when persons
occupation the sopha was called lecticula lucubra- wanted to sit down. (Odyss. x. 352.) To render
toria (Suet. A upq. 78), or more commonly lectulus. this thick woollenl stuff less disagreeable, a linen
(Plin. lEpist. v. 5; Ovid, Trist. i. 11. 38; compare cloth was sometimes spread over it. (Odyss. xiii.
Alstorph, De Lecticis Velerumo Diatriba, Amster- 73.) It has been supposed that the'iSyEa were
daim, 1704.) [L. S.] pillows or bolsters but this opinion seems to be
LECTICA'RII. [LECTICA.] refuted by the circumstance that, in Odyss. vi.
LECTISTE'RNIUM. Sacrifices being of the 38, they are described as beings washed without
nature of feasts, the Greeks and Romans on occa- anything being said as to any operation which
sion of extraordinLary solemnities placed imsages of would have necessarily preceded the wa.shing had
the gods reclining on couches, with tables and they been pillows. Beyond this supposition reviands before them, as if they were really partaking specting the [diyea, we have no traces of pillows
of the things offered in sacrifice. This ceremony or bolsters being used in the Homleric age. The
was called a lectistersiusos. Three specimens of bedstead (?AXos, AelcTpos, VyEvlo) of persons of
tihe couches employed for the purlllpose are in the high rank was covered with skills (Kc(ea) upon
Clyptotek at Munlich. T'l'he woodcut here intro- whichl the Syi7yEa were placed, and over t.lese linell
duced exhibits one of them, which is represented sheets or carpets were spread; the XAaeia, lastly,
with a cushion covered by a cloth hanging in served as acover or ballnket for the sleeper. (Od ss.
ample folds down each side. This beautiful lld- iv. 296, &c.; II. xxiv. (43, &c.; ix. 660, &c.)
vinar (Sueton. Jul. 76; Corn. Nep. TVlothl. 2) is Poor persons slept on skins or beds of dry herbs
wrought altogether in white marble, and is some- spread oll the ground. (Od0yss. xiv. 519; xx. 139,
&c.; xi. 188, &c.; comnpare Nitzsch, zur1 Odyss.
vol.i. p.210.) These simple beds, to which shortly
-after the Homeric age a pillow for the head was
added, contillnued to be used by the poorer classes
I l!) ~l!4lll among the Greeks at all times. Thlus the bed of
-,H —4~ on _ll] the orator Lycurgus is said to have consisted of
one sheep-skin (ics;ou8ov) alld a pillow. (Plut. Vit.
2 N ) _ t 1J \N I 1 lDec.. Oratf. ILyclug. p. 842. c.) But the complete
bed (ebsr) of a wealthy Greek in later times,
W/ ~ ~>~(~[ti genlerally consisted of the following parts: K.il'7,
1/f (((~I0 I~ I~ 4~Es7ouot/01, TUAE0or or' vuebaAo', 7rpooscucaIA-e'o) stuld
___ _______ -o~=~e~rr T ea.
The KicAtr is properly speakilg only the bed~ ~____ __ _ stead, and seems to have consisted only of posts
fitted into one another and resting upon four feet.
what more than two feet in height. At the At the head part alone there was a board (audXtcAiEpsllulzs Joyis, which was the most noted lecti- spoe or Errlel.r-VTpOv) to support the pillow and presternium at Rome, and which was celebrated in the vent its falling out. Sometimes the &'aKArvrrpo'.
Capitol, the statue of Jupiter was laid in a reclining was wanting, as we see in drawings on ancient
posture on a couch, while those of Juno and vases. (Pollux, x. 34, vi. 9.) Sometimes, however,
Minerva were seated on chairs by hsis side; and the bottom part of a bedstead was likewise prothiis distinction was observed in -alllsionll to the tected by the board, so that in this case a Greek
ancient custom, according to which only men re- bedstead resembled a modern so-called French bedclinled and women sat at table. (Val. AMax. ii. 1. stead. The cAir'i71 was genlerally nmade of wood,
~ 2.) Nevertheless it is probable that at a later which in quality varied according to the means of
period both gods and goddesses were represented the persons for whose use it was destined; for in
in the same position: at least four of them, viz. somle cases we find that it was made of solid
Jupiter Serapis anrd Juno or Isis, together with maple or box-wood, or veneered with a coating of
Apollo and NL)iaLna, are so exhibited with a table these more expensive woods. At a later period,
before them o0l the handle of a Roman lamp en- bedsteads were not only made of solid ivory or
graved by Bartoli. (Ls2c. Ant. ii. 34.) Livy (v. 13) veneered with tortoiseshell, but sometimes had
gives an account of a very splendid lectisternium, silver feet. (Pollux, 1. c.; Aelian, V. H. xii. 29;
which he asserts to have beeh the origin of the Athen. vi. p. 255.)
practice. [J. Y.] The bedstead was provided with girths (vsrot,
LECTUS (Ae'Xo, tcXtfv, ePs7), a bed. Ill the [ri'rosoE, aespuc) oil which the bed or mattress
heroic ages of Greece beds were very simple; the (ice'paXo,, rvkAE7ov, Kouvcs or rTA71) rested; inbedsteads, however, are sometimes represented as stead of these girths poorer people used strings.
ornamented (rplTa' AE'XEa, I1. iii. 448; compare (Aristoph. Av. 814, with the Schol.) The cover
Od/.ss. xxiii. 2199, &c.). The principal parts of a or ticking of a mattress was made of linen or woolbed were the XXaeat and i-yEa (Odyss. xix. 337); len cloth, or of leather, and the usual material with
the former were a kind of thick woolleus cloak, which it was filled (Tb Ete1AAiejr, ou,, 7rX/pw/ya,
sometimes coloured, which was in bad weather or yvdrpa\ov) was either wool or dried weeds. At
wvorn by meIn over their Xltc'r, and wis sometimes the head part of tile bed, and supported by the.pre.ad over a chair to render thle seat soft, That &sruc l sarpo',, lay a round pillow (urp.oeecAelov)
x X