Pyxis

| View Cart ⇗ | Info

“A casket, a jewel-box. Quintilian produces this term as an example of catachresis, because it properly denoted that which was made of box, but was applied to things of similar form and use made of any other material. In fact, the caskets in which the ladies of ancient times kept their jewels and other ornaments, were made of gold, silver, ivory, mother of pearl, tortoise shell, etc. They were also much enriched with sculpture. A silver coffer, two feet long, one and a half wide, and one deep, most elaborately adorned with figures in bar-relief, is described by Bottiger. The annexed woodcut, from the antique, represents a plain jewel-box, out of which a dove is extracting a riband or fillet.” — Smith, 1873

Keywords

pyxis, Jewel-box

Source

William Smith, A School Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1873) 269

Downloads

TIFF (full resolution)

2400×743, 275.8 KiB

Large GIF

1024×317, 38.3 KiB

Medium GIF

640×198, 20.9 KiB

Small GIF

320×99, 8.5 KiB