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A Note on Temple Equipment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R. P. Austin
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Extract

There are several inscriptions in the Greek Corpus in which occurs the word ἴκρια or its derivatives ἰκριῶσαιἰκριώματα etc., and in the majority of them it is sufficiently evident from the context that ἴκρια means ‘scaffolding,’ i.e. wooden erections used by workmen for operations carried on at a height from the ground, especially in connexion with the building or repair of temples. This is the recognised meaning of the word in such places. But there are certain exceptions—inscriptions in which, though the same word occurs, it has been given a different rendering— not ‘scaffolding,’ but ‘fence’ or ‘balustrade’ (Latin cancelli). The very full article on ἴκριον by Frickenhaus in Pauly-Wissowa will be found to include the occurrences of the word in inscriptions, and it sets out (ii. 2) the cases where this exceptional rendering ‘fence’ or ‘balustrade’ has been generally accepted. These are I.G. iv. 39; i2. 94; i2. 371, 22. It is with these three inscriptions that I propose to deal in this note.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , November 1931 , pp. 287 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1931

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References

page 287 note 1 v. I.G. i2. 374, 67. 74. 151; ii–iii2. 2.1.1672. 178 (and probably ib. 221 reading also Durrbach, , Comptes des Hiéropes (Délos), 1929, p. 141Google Scholar, l. 234.

page 287 note 2 More accurately, perhaps, ‘scaffold-platforms’: in their simplest form they seem to have been horizontal boards fixed on wooden uprights. Cf. the structurally similar ἴκρια of Herodotus, which were the wooden platforms fixed on piles on which the lake-dwellers lived, and of Aristophanes and Cratinus, which were wooden benches.

page 288 note 1 From here this version of ἴκρια found its way into the earlier editions of Liddell and Scott. In the new edition it has been removed and the correct rendering substituted.

page 288 note 2 Bericht über die Aeginetischen Bildwerke, p. 77.

page 288 note 3 Fiechter apud Furtwängler, , Aegina, p. 43Google Scholar; Pauly, l.c.

page 288 note 4 This explanation is quoted by Ziehen, , Leges 13Google Scholar, and is approved, though with misgivings, by Frickenhaus in P.-W., l.c.; the same rendering appears in Roberts-Gardner's edition of the inscription (p. 58, n. 28). For other versions of παρα τα ίκρια in this inscription v. Wheeler, , A.J.A., iii. 41Google Scholar, ‘next the staging’; Frazer, , Paus. ii. 203Google Scholar, ‘beside the scaffold.’ Cf. also Judeich, , Topogr. v. Athen. ed. 2, 1931. p. 388Google Scholar, ‘Welchem Zweck die im “Neleion” erwähnten Geruste (ἴκρια) dienten, ist nicht mehr erkennbar.’

page 289 note 1 The view that ἴκρια means ‘scaffolding’ here was put forward by Reisch, , Jahresh., i. 1898. 57Google Scholar, and is followed by Roberts-Gardner, 116. 22. Roberts-Gardner, however, explains κλιμακε in l. 18 as ‘inclined planes,’ whereas Reisch seems to be right in identifying them with the wooden frames placed round a newly-made statue, like that shown in the vase-picture of a bronze-foundry illustrated in Blümner, , Technologie und Terminologie, iv. 330Google Scholar, fig. 50.

page 289 note 2 Professor Calder kindly brought it to my notice that this information is not found in the textbooks.