Dr DONALDSON, ON PLATO'S COSMICAL SYSTEM 



sides." That the viro^mnaTa were ropes is implied by Plato himself {Leges, p. 945 c), and 

 this is distinctly stated by Hesychius, who says (s. v. ^wnev/ixaTa): vno^wjuara, ayoivla Kara 

 /j.ear]v t»)i' vavv SecTfxevotxeva. In the inscriptions published by Bockh (Seewesen, No. xiv. 

 c. 105), the vTro^tu/uara are classed among the Kpefiacjra aKevrj and are opposed to the ^vXtvd. 

 And Apollonius Rhodius {Argon, i. 368) describes the process thus : e^wtrai' Tra/nirpwTov 

 'vaTpefpet evhoQev 07rX<j> reivdfxevoi eKarepQev, But even Schneider, who is acquainted with 

 these passages, understands a rope passing from stem to stern {Germ. Transl. of the Republic, 

 p. 316). He is led to this by the description of the column of light stretching right through the 

 heaven and earth. But the old commentator on this passage, quoted by Suidas (p. 3529 c, Gais- 

 ford), saw the truth ; he says: TeTUfievov (pw^ evOii otov Ktova: to ovpaviov XeyeC to yap 

 (rweves tj)i/ virocpopdv, to viroyixTfia tov Kocr/xov. The fact is, that when a vessel went to sea, 

 she had a number of these vTro^w/xaTa passed under her, very often two or more fastened 

 together in a common knot, from which hung a loose rope, intended to be drawn tight across 

 the ship, whenever the emergency occurred. In one of the inscriptions (No. ix. 1. 26) we read 

 of a ship in dock: avTij vTre^wTai. And in the Acts of the Apostles (xxvii. 17) we read: 

 fioTjOeiaK e-^pwvTo, inroXuivvvvTe^ to nXolov, which implies that the tackle was ready at hand 

 and had only to be used. Strictly it seems that ^la^oovvv/ui indicated the process of fastening 

 the ends of the vTro^w/xaTU across the ship (Appian, B. C. v. 91). But the whole of the tackle 

 was called viroCi^ixa, and inrotwvwai denoted the whole operation. The 



o ' 5 "^ I Section of Trireme. 



name mitra given to the inr6'(wixa by Isidore (xix, 4, 6) : mitra, funis, v / 



quo navis media vincitur, exactly expresses the loose hanging ends of '1 Hypozome. ij 



the ties {redimicula) before they were fastened. And there cannot be 'A /■ 



any doubt that Plato regarded the central column of light as the ''^^^Trr'vfrrrrr^*' 

 ends of this mitra fastened in the middle and so pulling taut all the 

 girding bands which passed round the solid sphere of the universe — section of hemisphere. 



the only difference being that in the sphere the fastening came from (Column). 



all sides, in the trireme only from below. After this explanation, it is 

 quite unnecessary to criticise the supposition of C. E. C. Schneider, in 

 his edition of the Republic, that the bands of the universe are described 

 by Plato as fastened to the centre of the axis. ^iV5e,r^ot. 



The next difficulty in the Greek is occasioned by the description of the spindle of Neces- 

 sity. The words are: e/c oe twv aKpcuv Tera/ixevov 'AvayKtjs aTpuKTov, 01 ov Tra'cray eiricrTpe- 

 <be<j9ai Tas irepi(popdi' ov Triv fxev rfKaKdrtjv re koi to dyKtaTpov eivai 6^ dSdfxai'TO^, tov Se 

 acbovSuXov fiiKTov 6K Te TovTov KUL aXKo)v yevwv. That the word aTpaKTos signifies "a 

 spindle," and not, as the English translators most absurdly render it, " a distaff," is a well- 

 known fact, and the whole context shows that the reference is to the spindle with its rotatory 

 motion, and not to the distaff, which was thrust into the ball of flax or wool, and held firmly 

 in the left hand of the spinner, or, as we see in an ancient Mosaic at Rome, fixed in the girdle'. 

 Nothing can be simpler than the process of spinning among the ancients, and no person pre- 



Sir J. G. Wilkinson also confuses between the distaff and the spindle in his Ancient Egyptians, ill. p. 136. Some of 



the tigures which he gives as spindles are distaffs. 



