03-08-2009, 04:40 PM
Michael is right. Here is how I would translate it and its previous sentence:
"The goats'-hair cloak garment may be (made from) a prepared hide: being wrapped up in five goats'-hair cloaks, Aristophanes says. The spolas is a thorax from skin, hanging from the shoulders, as Xenophon said, "and spolas instead of thorax." Sophocles calls it Libyan: A Libyan spolas, a leopardskin."
Incidentally, the previous entry contains something of an answer to your question about words for treated versus untreated leather. A diphthera is a "prepared hide" or a "tanned skin," which is opposed to a derris, which is an "undressed hide."
"The goats'-hair cloak garment may be (made from) a prepared hide: being wrapped up in five goats'-hair cloaks, Aristophanes says. The spolas is a thorax from skin, hanging from the shoulders, as Xenophon said, "and spolas instead of thorax." Sophocles calls it Libyan: A Libyan spolas, a leopardskin."
Incidentally, the previous entry contains something of an answer to your question about words for treated versus untreated leather. A diphthera is a "prepared hide" or a "tanned skin," which is opposed to a derris, which is an "undressed hide."
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian