Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Zophorus

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. 

ZO'PHORUS (ζωοφόρος). The frieze; a member situated between the architrave and cornice in the entablature of an order. (Vitruv. iii. 5. 10.) It covers externally the space occupied by the tiebeams (tigna) which form the timber-work of the roof (see the wood-cut s. MATERIATIO, d d d d d), and in the Doric order are represented by triglyphs on the frieze. In the Ionic order it mostly, though not always, consists of a plain marble face, as in the annexed example (Zophorus/1.1) from a temple of Bacchus at Teos; but in the Corinthian it is more frequently enriched with sculpture, representing sacrificial implements, war trophies, festoons of fruit and flowers, or altars and candelabra intermixed with fabulous animals, especially griffins, as shown by the annexed wood-cut (Zophorus/1.2) from a slab on the frieze of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina at Rome; and this practice is supposed to have suggested its ancient name, which means literally, bearing animals, or figures.

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  Zophorus/1.1
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  Zophorus/1.2