Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cernuus

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

CER'NUUS (κυβιστητήρ). Literally, with the face turned down towards the ground; hence a tumbler, or one who entertains the public by feasts of jumping, throwing summersets in the air, falling head over heels, walking with his face downwards, and other similar exhibitions, such as we still see practised in our streets and fairs. (Lucil. Sat. iii. 20. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. x. 894.) The illustration (Cernuus/1.1) represents one of these tumblers, from the collection in the Collegio Romano. (Caylus, iii. 74.)

2. Amongst the Greeks feats of this nature were frequently exhibited by females, who were introduced with the dancing and singing girls, to amuse the guests at an entertainment, and whose skill and suppleness of body were really extraordinary. One of their favourite exhibitions consisted in making a summerset backwards, between a number of swords or knives stuck in the ground, at small intervals from one another, with their points upwards, as represented in the following illustration (Cernuus/2.1), from a Greek fictile vase; to perform this feast was termed ξίφη or εἰς μαχαίρας κυβιστᾶν. Plat. Symp. p. 190. A. Xen. Symp. ii. 11.

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  Cernuus/1.1
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  Cernuus/2.1