Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Carchesium

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CARCHE'SIUM (καρχήσιον). A drinking-cup of Greek invention, having a tall figure, slightly contracted at its sides, with slender handles which reached from the rim to the bottom (Macrob. Sat. v. 21.), and used as a goblet for wine (Virg. Georg. iv. 380.), or milk. (Ovid, Met. vii. 247.) The figure in the engraving (Carchesium/1.1) is from a painting in the tomb of Caius Cestius, one of the Epulones or citizens who had the duty of providing a sumptuous banquet in honour of Jupiter. The locality where it is represented, and its perfect correspondence with the description of Macrobius, seem quite sufficient to identify the name and form.

2. An apparatus attached to the mast of a ship, just above the yard (Lucil. Sat. iii. 14. ed. Gerlach. Lucan. v. 418.), in which part of the tackle worked (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. v. 77. Non. s. v. p. 546.), and into which the seamen ascended to keep a look out, manage the sails, and discharge missiles, as seen in the illustration (Carchesium/2.1), from a painting in the Egyptian tombs. It thus answers in some respects to what our seamen call the "tops," but received its name from a real or fancied resemblance to the drinking-cup figure in the last wood-cut.

3. Carchesium versatile. The same apparatus, when made to revolve round the mast, and act as a crane for the loading and unloading of merchant vessels, by means of crossbar or crane-neck inserted horizontally into it. (Vitruv. x. 2. 10. Schneider, ad l.) Our seamen make use of the yard arm in a manner not dissimilar.

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  Carchesium/1.1
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  Carchesium/2.1