Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/505

 from a passage in the Shield of Hercules, attributed to Hesiod (l. 213-215). The poet says, that the shield represented the sea with fishes seen in the water, "and on the rocks sat a fisherman watching, and he held in his hands a casting-net ([Greek: amphiblêstron]) for fishes, and seemed to be throwing it from him." We apprehend that, the position of sitting was not so suitable to the use of the casting-net as standing, because it requires the free use of the arms, which a man cannot well have when he sits. In other respects this description exactly agrees with the use of the casting-net: for it is thrown by a single person, who remains on land at the edge of the water, observes the fishes in it, and throws the net from him into the water so as suddenly to inclose them.

In two of the tragedies of Æschylus we find the term [Greek: amphiblêstron] applied figuratively by Clytemnestra to the shawl, in which she enveloped her husband in order to murder him.

[Greek: Apeiron amphiblêstron, ôsper ichthyôn, peristichizô, plouton heimatos kakon.]—Agamem. 1353, 1354.

[Greek: Memnêso d', amphiblêstron hôs ekainisan.]—Choëph. 485.

Lycophron (l. 1101) calls this garment by the same name, when he refers to the same event in the fabulous history of Greece. We have seen, that in other passages the shawl so used is with equal aptitude called a purse-net ([Greek: arkys]).

One of the comedies of Menander was entitled [Greek: Halieis], "the Fisherman." The expression, [Greek: Amphiblêstrô periballetai], is quoted from it by Julius Pollus (x. 132).

Athenæus (lib. x. 72. p. 450 c. Casaub.) quotes from Antiphanes the following line, which describes a man "throwing a casting-net on many fishes":

[Greek: Ichthysin amphiblêstron anêr pollois epiballôn.]

In an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus we find the casting-net called [Greek: amphibolon] instead of [Greek: amphiblêstron][B].

The [Greek: amphiblêstron] is mentioned together with two other kinds of nets by Artemidorus, and which will be quoted presently.