Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mitra

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MITRA (μίτρα). In the strict generic sense, means a long scarf with ties (redimicula), at the end, which served to fasten it as required for the various uses to which it might be put. This is clear from Callixenus (ap. Athen. v. 28.), who describes the colossal figure of Nysas, in the Dionysiac procession of Ptolemy, as bearing a thyrsus in her left hand, with a mitra fastened round it, precisely as shown by the annexed example (Mitra/1.1), from a bas-relief of the Pio-Clementine Museum, on which various implements and persons pertaining to the worship of Bacchus are sculptured. Hence the Greek writers apply the same term to the virgin zone (Callim. Jov. 21. ZONA); to a broad sash worn under the bosom (Apoll. Rhod. iii. 867. STROPHIUM); and the epithet ἄμιτρος (Callim. Dian. 14.), to designate a young woman who has not arrived at her full development or at marriageable years; i. e. who did not yet require the zona, or the strophium. Also the military belt worn round the waist, at the bottom of the cuirass, as a protection to the belly, was called by the same name. Hom. Il. iv. 137. CINGULUM, 4.

2. In accordance with the preceding definition of a scarf with ties at the extremity to fasten it, the same name was given by the writers, both of Greece and Italy, to a particular kind of covering for the head, worn by the natives of Persia, Arabia, Asia Minor, and by the women of Greece, arranged so as to envelope the whole of the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck, the sides of the face, and the chin, under which it passed; whence the person who wears it is said to be veiled in it (mitra velatus. Claud. de Laud. Stilich. i. 156.), as characteristically displayed by the annexed example (Mitra/2.1), representing a Persian mitra, worn by one of the followers of Darius, in the large mosaic at Pompeii. The Asiatic mitra, worn by the Phrygians and Amazons, was a cloth cap, which covered the head as completely as the preceding, and was tied by strings or lappets under the chin (Isidor. Orig. xix. 31. 4. Serv. ad. Virg. Aen. iv. 216. ix. 616.); in the manner shown by the annexed example (Mitra/2.2), representing the head of Paris, from a Pompeian painting; and in works of art, generally, it is one of the usual characteristics of Priam, and the Trojans, which distinguish them from Greeks and Romans, amongst whom the use of it was regarded as a sign of extreme effeminacy. (Cic. Har. resp. 21.) The mitra of the Greek women was formed of a scarf of mixed colours (versicoloribus. Plin. H. N. xxxv. 35.), fastened round the head and under the chin, in a style similar to the preceding examples, as exemplified by the annexed illustration (Mitra/2.3), from a bust at Dresden; but when introduced into Italy, its use was more particularly confined to aged persons and women of abandoned character, whether foreign or native. Ov. Fast. iv. 517. Prop. iv. 5. 70. Juv. iii. 66. Ulp. Dig. 34. 2. 25., in which passage it is mentioned as of a similar description, but different from the calantica.

3. A strong cable, bound round the hull of a vessel amidship, to strengthen the timbers in stress of weather. Isidor. Orig. xix. 4. 6. quo navis media vincitur. Tertull. Carm. de Jona et Ninive. 42.

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  Mitra/1.1
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  Mitra/2.1
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  Mitra/2.2
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  Mitra/2.3