medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Friday, May 20, 2011, at 11:02 pm, Nancy Spies wrote:
> The ancients made this an article of commerce, greatly sought after,
> and the robes formed of it, called “tarentine”, [my note: from the
> Greek colonies in southern Italy] were very much in esteem. It is
> said that the scarf of the turban of Archytas was made of this fibre.
> … A robe of this material is mentioned by Procopius as a gift of a
> Roman emperor to the satrap of Armenia.
> Simmonds, P.L. The Commercial Products of the Sea. London: Griffith
> and Farran, 1879.
>
> Sometimes there is evident effort to distinguish byssus
> thread/material from that of linen, sometimes not. John, what is your
> source for the original Greek word meaning "linen"? Thanks.
>
Essentially, the Liddell-Scott-Jones (et al.) _Greek-English-Lexicon_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, various dates), s.v. βύσσος (ή; there's also a masculine βύσσος meaning 'depths of the sea'), where with illustrative examples the word is glossed as 'flax and the linen made from it'. Note also that when βύσσος is first recorded in Latin as _byssus_ or by its adjective _byssinus_ it does so in contexts where it is pretty clearly thought of as a costly form of linen (Pliny, _N. H._ 19. 20; Apuleius, _Met._ 11. 3).
Out of curiosity, what is the ancient source for Archytas' turban having been made from a substance called βύσσος (or _byssus_)? One needs to have a look at that text to see whether the word is there given any circumstantial description or context that would help to to identify the sort of βύσσος to which it refers.
For yet another instance of βύσσος thought of -- I won't say with how much/little accuracy -- as a costly, plant-derived fabric (and as a high-quality, high-status alternative to linen), see this from Philostratus' _Vita Apollonii Tyanensis_, tr. F. C. Conybeare, cap. 12:
"And after they had crossed the river, they were conducted by the satrap’s guide direct to Taxila , where the Indian had his royal palace. And they say that on that side of the Indus the dress of the people consists of native linen, with shoes of byblus and a hat when it rains; but that the upper classes there are appareled in byssus; and that the byssus grows upon a tree of which the stem resembles that of the white poplar, and the leaves those of the willow. And Apollonius says that he was delighted with the byssus, because it resembled his sable philosopher’s cloak. And the byssus is imported into Egypt from India for many sacred uses."
<http://tinyurl.com/423punf>
Best again,
John Dillon
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