07-07-2016, 11:50 PM
(07-06-2016, 12:31 PM)Dan Howard Wrote: They were turned on a lathe, reinforced across the grain on the front with thin wooden laths, and reinforced on the back with leather.
(07-07-2016, 11:15 PM)Renatus Wrote:(07-07-2016, 10:10 PM)rocktupac Wrote:(07-07-2016, 09:59 PM)M. Val. Naso Wrote: Liddell gives τορνεύω as "working on a lathe". It does surface several times in the corpus, notably Plato (finely turned ideas), Euripides (whirl), Plato again (turner as a profession), Plato yet again (something wrought into a round shape), and Plato again (carving out something), and many more.
But even LSJ lists the word that Aristophanes uses as 'lyre-turner and shield-maker', so why would someone infer any different?
Does the τορνεύω element not govern the two elements that follow, so that a literal translation would be 'turned-on-a-lathe lyre-and-shield maker'? Although I am not entirely sure how you would turn a lyre on a lathe.
τορνεύω can mean "to work with a lathe-chisel; to turn neatly; to round off" according to LSJ. Taking the literal "lathe-chisel" meaning, it does not imply on a lathe; or we could read it as someone who 'rounds off' a lyre, and this would make sense considering a lyre is round/semi-circular. I think the extremely literal translation would be something like "lyre-rounder and shield-constructor/fastener." Again, there is no outside evidence from any other source (that I can find) that suggests an ancient lathe.
Scott B.