DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0541
CHAP. XXII.]
FLESH-HOOKS.
435
in elegance of form, and in the design and execution of
their adornments. Here were some choice candelabra;
figured specula, or
mirrors, with my-
thological subjects;
elegant bronze han-
dles to cauldrons
or to wooden fur-
niture, which had
long since perished;
and several crea-
grtB, or flesh-hooks,
with six or eight
long curved prongs,
like grappling-irons,
which have long
puzzled modern
sages.3 Kg. i. Kg. 2.
The cabinet of creagr^, or flesh-hooes.
Egyptian articles, once to be seen at Musignano, has
3 These hooks were at first supposed
to be instruments of torture, with which
the early Christians had their flesh
torn from their bodies. But being fre-
quently found in tombs purely Etruscan,
that notion was repudiated ; and it re-
mains a question whether they were
mere kitchen-utensils, or implements
used in sacrifices, either for taking up
or turning over the burnt flesh, as such
instruments were employed by the Jews
(I. Sam. ii. 13)—for offering the entrails
to the divinity—or for putting out the
fire by pieces of fat at the end of the
prongs—or were employed at the funeral
pyre for separating from the embers
the ashes of the deceased. Bull. Inst.
1840, p. 59. There is no doubt that
they are the creagrce—Inrh toS t& Kpea
aypevew—referred to by Aristophanes
(Equit. 768-9), and described by the
Scholiast (ad locum) as culinary instru-
ments; though also mentioned by the
great comedian (Eccles. 994, Vesp.
1150), as serving more general purposes
of grappling or holding fast. It has been
supposed, from the small ring to which
the lower prong is often attached,—not
clearly shown in the above woodcut,
fig. 1,—that they may have served as
torch-holders, especially as the handle
proves them to have been generally
attached to a pole of wood. But many
are without this ring, and have a claw
instead, as shown in fig. 2 : besides, it
would be difficult to account for the
prongs at all on this supposition. From
the prongs being sometimes blunted, it
F F 2
FLESH-HOOKS.
435
in elegance of form, and in the design and execution of
their adornments. Here were some choice candelabra;
figured specula, or
mirrors, with my-
thological subjects;
elegant bronze han-
dles to cauldrons
or to wooden fur-
niture, which had
long since perished;
and several crea-
grtB, or flesh-hooks,
with six or eight
long curved prongs,
like grappling-irons,
which have long
puzzled modern
sages.3 Kg. i. Kg. 2.
The cabinet of creagr^, or flesh-hooes.
Egyptian articles, once to be seen at Musignano, has
3 These hooks were at first supposed
to be instruments of torture, with which
the early Christians had their flesh
torn from their bodies. But being fre-
quently found in tombs purely Etruscan,
that notion was repudiated ; and it re-
mains a question whether they were
mere kitchen-utensils, or implements
used in sacrifices, either for taking up
or turning over the burnt flesh, as such
instruments were employed by the Jews
(I. Sam. ii. 13)—for offering the entrails
to the divinity—or for putting out the
fire by pieces of fat at the end of the
prongs—or were employed at the funeral
pyre for separating from the embers
the ashes of the deceased. Bull. Inst.
1840, p. 59. There is no doubt that
they are the creagrce—Inrh toS t& Kpea
aypevew—referred to by Aristophanes
(Equit. 768-9), and described by the
Scholiast (ad locum) as culinary instru-
ments; though also mentioned by the
great comedian (Eccles. 994, Vesp.
1150), as serving more general purposes
of grappling or holding fast. It has been
supposed, from the small ring to which
the lower prong is often attached,—not
clearly shown in the above woodcut,
fig. 1,—that they may have served as
torch-holders, especially as the handle
proves them to have been generally
attached to a pole of wood. But many
are without this ring, and have a claw
instead, as shown in fig. 2 : besides, it
would be difficult to account for the
prongs at all on this supposition. From
the prongs being sometimes blunted, it
F F 2