Db DONALDSON, ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATHENIAN TRIREME, 87 



the rowers of all three tiers were furnished with seats of the same kind attached to the ribs 

 of the vessels. I shall now endeavour to show, I believe for the first time, that the names of 

 the three tiers of rowers accurately describe the manner in which they worked in the ships. 



I. The Zygitce. 



There is a very primitive description of the structure of a Greek ship in the Odyssey v. 

 243 sqq., but we can infer from it that the ribs were always bound together with cross-beams 

 before they were covered with planks. These cross-beams or cross-bits are called "iKpia in the 

 passage to which I refer, a name elsewhere limited to the planks of the partial deck fore and 

 aft, which till a late period was the only KardaTpw/jia of a war-ship. As the main-yard is 

 termed the eiriKpiov in this passage, and as the Christian cross was designated as an "iKpiov, we 

 may conclude that the word implied a transverse or cross direction of these timbers; the root 

 is probably that of i/co-ja»ji/, and therefore, as we shall see, the word is synonymous with aeXna. 

 These cross-bits are called KXtfi^es in Homer, because, like the collar-bone, they locked 

 together the two sides of the ship. The poets call them creXfiara, a word containing the old 

 root set or sal, " to go" {New Crat. ^ 269), and implying that they furnished the means of 

 walking from one end to the other of the undecked vessel. The common name, retained to 

 the last in the Athenian navy, was ^vyd, "the yokes" or bridges which joined the opposite 

 sides of the ship. There is a reason for these changes of designation. In a mere pinnace, 

 like that constructed by Ulysses, there would be no occasion for a hold, and the cross-planks 

 might be placed close together, like the foot-boards of a boat. In this case, ^Kpia would be 



TRANSVERSE SECTION OF AN ATHENIAN TRIREME. 



a. Thranus, or long stool, placed on the alternate zygon, or supported by the seUs, and extending 7 feet amidships. 



b. Zygon, or cross-plank, running athwart the vessel at intervals. 



c. Thalamitic seat, 4ft. 6in. 



d. Thalamos, or hold leading to antlos. 



e. Platform for Epibatse running along the traphex, and 6 feet wide, with bulwarks of 3 feet. 

 /. Selis, or gangway, fore-and-aft, 4 feet wide. 



.4— B, (Breadth of beam) =18 feet. C—D, (Depth) = 12 feet. 



