Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cortina

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

CORTI'NA. A deep circular vessel, or caldron, employed for boiling meat, melting pitch (Plin. H. N. xvi. 22.), making paint (Id. xxxv. 42.), and a variety of other purposes, for which its form and character rendered it convenient, and which, when placed over the fire, was either raised upon a trivet, or supported upon large stones put under it. (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 65.) The example (Cortina/1.1) is copied from a bronze original found at Pompeii.

2. (ὅλμος, κύκλος, ἐπίθημα τοῦ τρίποδος). The lid or covering placed over the caldron or hollow part of the Delphic tripod (Virg. Aen. vi. 347. Prudent. Apoth. 506. tripodas cortina tegit, Jul. Pollux. x. 81.), upon which the priestess sat to receive the divine afflatus, and pronounce her responses. It had the form of a half globe, and is frequently represented in that manner by sculptors, lying by itself upon the ground at the feet of Apollo; but when placed upon the caldron, the two together made a complete globe; as shown in the illustration (Cortina/2.1), from a bas-relief upon an altar in the Villa Borghese. In the original, the raven, sacred to Apollo, is sitting on its top; in one of Hamilton's vases, Apollo himself is seen sitting upon the cup, without any lid, and in another, upon a lid like the present.

3. An altar in the form of a tripod, made of marble, bronze, or the precious metals, often intended to be dedicated as an offering in the temples of the gods, and likewise preserved as a piece of ornamental furniture in the houses of great and wealthy persons. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. Suet. Aug. 52. Compare Mart. xii. 66.) The illustration (Cortina/3.1) is copied from an original of marble in the Vatican.

4. The vault or ceiling over the stage in a theatre, from its resemblance to the covering of the tripod, No. 2. Sever. Aetn. 294.

• 
  Cortina/1.1
• 
  Cortina/2.1
• 
  Cortina/3.1