Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/491

 The use of all the Latin and Greek terms for nets will now be explained, and in connection with this explanation of terms, will be produced all the facts which can be ascertained upon the subject.

I.

and ; dim..

[Greek: DIKTYON].

Retis or Rete in Latin, and [Greek: diktyon] in Greek, were used to denote nets in general. Thus in an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus , three brothers, one of whom was a hunter, another a fowler,and the third a fisherman, dedicate their nets to Pan. Several imitations of this epigram remain by Alexander Ætolus , Antipater Sidonius, Archias , and others. In one of these epigrams ([Greek: Ioulianon Aigyption]) we find [Greek: lina] adopted as a general term for nets instead of [Greek: diktya], no doubt for the reason above stated. In another epigram a hare is said to have been caught in a net ([Greek: diktyon]). Aristophanes mentions nets by the same denomination among the contrivances employed by the fowler. Fishing-nets are called [Greek: diktya] in the following passages of the New Testament: Matt. iv. 20, 21; Mark i. 18, 19; Luke v. 2, 4-6; John xxi. 6, 8, 11: also by Theocritus, ''ap. Athen.'' vii. 20. p. 284, Cas.; and by Plato, Sophista, 220, b. p. 134, ed. Bekker.

Netting was applied in various ways in the construction of hen-coops and aviaries; and such net-work is called rete. It was used to make pens for sheep by night. At the amphitheatres it was sometimes placed over the podium. At a gladiatorial show given by Nero, the net, thus used as a fence against, to throw. See Eurip. Bacc. 600, and the Lexicons of Schneider and Passow.]