GREEK BEDS. The Odyssey (xxiii. 190) de scribes the bed made for himself by Ulysses. The trunk of the olive tree around which he built and roofed his chamber was trimmed and used as one of the bedposts, the frame being made by the addition of three more feet and the connecting frame; the whole was inlaid with gold, silver, and ivory. The bedding was sup ported on leather straps, and on top of it were blankets to make it softer. At that time there seem to have been no stuffed mattresses. The Greek bedsteads of historic times were at first less goreous, being usually made of maple or boxwood, solid or veneered. But the custom of not sitting, but reclining at table on couches, led to a gradual increase in decorative beauty in the Sixth Century B.C. Even then the Asi aties did not think that the Gre-eks knew how to make a comfortable bed; and when the Per sian King Artaxerxes gave a bed, with all its magnificent appurtenances, to the Athenian Am bassador Timogo•as, he gave also a number of attendants skilled in preparing it. While the poor continued to use the primitive litter or the skins of animals for bedcovers, the wealthy be came more and more fastidious in the use of bed-covering and ornament. tdiletus, Corinth, and Carthage became famous centres in the dye ing, weaving, and embroidering of bedcovers, and the bedsteads and couches were inlaid or veneered with ivory, to•toise-shell, and precious metals, and even provided with feet of solid sil ver or gold. There was a class of bedmakers at Athens.
The form of Greek bedsteads and bedding at different times is illustrated not only by numer ous vase paintings, but by some marble beds found at Palatitza and Pydna, and a terra-cotta bed from Tanagra. The common elements were: (1) a wood frame; (2) a vegetable trellis for spring; (3) a mattress covered with striped or firrured linen, or woolen cloth, or leather, stuffed with dried reeds, or wool, or the fluffy product of the gnaphalion; (4) pillows, one round, and two or more square, covered with linen and filled with down or feathers: (5) bed covers of vhrious kinds, brilliantly colored, em broidered with floral and animal patterns, some of heavy woolly cloth, some of lighter texture. The bedstead had posts sometimes square, some times round (turned), crowned usually by an Ionic capital and of graceful design. Sometimes they were in the form of columns, sometimes they were turned in a succession of slender weeks and swelling bulbs. The frame itself was nar
row, the footboard was seldom raised, but the headboard commonly projected above the bed. There appears to have been, during the Fifth Century, a reaction toward a more Spartan sim plicity in bed and bedding—due, perhaps, to the fall of Athenian supremacy; but it did not last long, and the Alexandrian Age saw an even greater Oriental luxury among the Greeks.
BoMAN BEDS. In Italy the Etruscans led in lova of luxury, and their beds, as shown in the paintings and reliefs of their tombs, were of the same type as the Greek, with the added comfort of Two funeral bedsteads, veneered ill ivory, have been found in Etruscan tombs of the Fourth and Third centuries B.C. One is in the Papa Giulio Museum, Rome; the other in the Field Museum, Chicago. They are covered with fine carvings in relief. But it was not until the close of the Republic that the Romans laid aside their simplicity and combined all the good points of Etruscan, Creek, and Oriental beds. There were five classes of Roman beds and couches— (1) the ordinary sleeping-bed, or lectus cubioularis; (2) the couch, or lectus tricliniaris; (3) the smaller lounge for rest and meditation in the daytime—the iccta ins - (4) the high marriage-bed—lectus genialis; and, finally, (5) the funeral-bed, or lectus lune bris, on which the deceased was exposed and car ried in the funeral procession. There were bed steads of massive bronze, beautifully decorated; as for example, that found at Pompeii, with sil ver incrustations, Others were of massive silver, even of gold, while the majority were veneered with expensive woods, tortoise-shell, or ivory, plates of gold or silver, or gold-leaf, or else inlaid in patterns with different materials. The typical Pompeian ordinary bed is very similar to the modern wooden bedstead in its proportions and structure. Some frames were high, and were reached by footstools. Not only were there usu ally both headboard and footboard, but also in the the hack was often protected by a board. In all these particulars it varied from the (reek bed. The mattress rested either in girth or on a delicate diagonal trellis, and was for the poor stuffed with straw or dried reeds, and for the rich with wool, or even feathers. The pillows were of feathers or down. The bedcovers were rich in color—espeeially purple embroidered with gold—and made of Oriental stuffs.