Chapter XX

.), almost all existing examples in terracotta being of that period; it may not, however, be out of place to include here a few general remarks on the subject, pointing out the distinctive features of those of purely Greek origin.

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PLATE IV

[Illustration:

GREEK LAMPS AND “BRAZIER-HANDLES.” 1, 3, 4, 6, LAMPS FROM GREEK SITES; 2, 5 BRAZIERS FROM HALIKARNASSOS AND CYPRUS (BRITISH MUSEUM). ]

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The invention of lamps was ascribed by Clement of Alexandria to the Egyptians; and they were certainly in common use among the Greeks. Herodotos[373] describes those which he saw in Egypt as simple saucers filled with oil in which the wick floated, and this statement is partly supported by the form of the lamps found in the earlier tombs of Cyprus and on sites under Phoenician influence.[374] He also uses the phrase περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς, “about the time of lighting lamps,” to denote the evening.[375] The Greek comic writers allude to the use of lamps of terracotta or metal,[376] and they played a part in religious ceremonies.

The regular Greek name for a lamp was λύχνος (not λαμπάς, which means a torch), and a lampstand was called λυχνοῦχος; the spout or nozzle in which the wick was placed was known as μύξος or μυκτήρ, the wick itself as ἐλλύχνιον.[377] A lamp with more than one nozzle was known as δίμυξος or τρίμυξος.[378] The simple form was that derived from the Phoenician lamp, an open saucer with a bent-up lip in which the wick was placed; but commonly the Greek lamp had a circular or oval body (the receiver) with flat covered top, in the centre of which was the filling-hole. To this was sometimes attached a handle permitting the insertion of a finger, and the nozzle was usually very small and quite plain. An epithet applied by Aristophanes[379] to a lamp is τροχήλατος, “made on the wheel”; but evidence points to their being always made in moulds.

The majority of the lamps which have been found on Greek sites are of Roman date, and they frequently bear Latin inscriptions; those of the Hellenic period are seldom ornamented, and are usually covered with a thin black glaze. Others are modelled in the form of human figures, animals, heads, or sandalled feet; the British Museum possesses a good example of grey ware from Knidos in the form of a figure of Artemis (_Cat._ C 421), with the oil-receptacle on the top of her head; another from Naukratis represents Eros (see for these Plate IV.). One from Athens was inscribed [ΜΗ ΑΠΤΟΥ], “Do not touch,”[380] an inscription of similar import to those on the Roman lamps from the Esquiline described in