flabellum
flabellum, a small fan, flyflap
- I Lit.: cape hoc flabellum, et ventulum huic sic facito, Ter. Eun. 595; 598; Mart. 3, 82, 10; for this a peacock's tail was used, Prop. 2, 24 (3, 18), 11; Hier. Ep. 27, 13.—*
- II Trop.: cujus lingua quasi flabello seditionis, illa tum est egentium concio ventilata, an exciter, Cic. Fl. 23, 54.
†scabellum [l. ~um ],windfona
~um, parvus ventus
cum ~a admovemus, id ideo ‥ facimus ut calorem nostrum ‥ refrigeremus
se negat aula tibi tenui defensa flabello
pulmo est ~um quo cordis calor refrigeratur
flavellum, muscarium
nisi magna pars ipsorum ab inquietudine muscarum vicissim ~is defenderet ora sociorum
hoc ~um, -li, i. illud unde muscas abigimus
musce ‥ quas utinam Abraham cum ~o abegisset a sacrificiis
cui [musce inquit ] formica "tu ‥ ut odiosa fugaris, ~o abigeris"
duo flagella pro muscis fugandis(
[cogitationes ] que tanquam musce ‥ hora presertim sacrificii glomeratim irruentes ‥ Spiritus Sancti ~o repellantur
item flavellum unum argent’ quod dominus episcopus contulit ecclesie, fractum
ij ~a de fusto [] et pergameno Arch. J. V 203: †surto
unum ~um de serico cum virga eburnea
varia est [femina ] et inconstans, leviterque lingue solum plectrum ad loquendum; et quicquid urget intrinsecus in cogitatione, lingue ~um exterius in auras eventilat
graciam infundens in corde militis sui domini G. de Warewyk, volens per ipsum ‥ rapacitatis comitivam avium et bestiarum ab ea ~o militari dispergi
in pari ~arum prole colpeyt
pro j flavello empto ad aurifabrum
pro glutino ad sarciendum ~a organorum
Ipsa assidere lectulo, Flabellum tenere, sustentare caput, etc.Hildebertus Episcopus Cenomanensis apud S. Anselmum lib. 3. Epist. 162 :
Flabellum tibimisi, congruum scilicet propulsandis muscis instrumentum.Ubi agit de flabello, cujus est usus in Missæ celebratione, et de ejus mystica significatione. Sic autem describitur a Bernardo Mon. in Consuetud. Cluniac. MSS. cap. 37. ex quo hausit, quæ habet Udalricus lib. 2. cap. 29. pag. 142 :
Unus autem ministrorum, quisemper duo debent esse, stans cum Flabello prope Sacerdotem, ex quo muscarum infestatio exurgere incipit, donec finiatur, eas arcere a sacrificio et ab altari, seu ab ipso sacerdote non negligit. Flabellum argenteum,inter ministeria sacra habetur apud Hariulfum lib. 3. cap. 3. et in Testamento S. Everardi apud Miræum in Cod. Donat. piar. cap. 21. Ecclesiasticis Scriptoribus Græcis
BuffadorsItali vocant, exstat locus insignis apud Gregor. Nazianz. orat. 16 :
Τοὺς δὲ ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς ἄνεμον ταῖς ῾ριπῖσι σοφιζομένους, καὶ ταῖς ἐκ χειρῶν αὔραις τὸ πλῆθος τῶν σαρκῶν ἀναψύχοντας.Vide Muscarium.
Item organistæ pro reparatione secreti et Flabellorum organorum ecclesiæ, xiv. sol.
- flabra, a small fan, flyflap, T., Pr.—Fig.: seditionis, exciter.
FLABELLUMdim. FLABELLULUM (ῥιπίς, ῥιπιστήρ, dim. ῥιπίδιον), a fan. Ancient fans were not so constructed that they might be furled, unfurled, and fluttered, nor were they even carried by the ladies themselves. They were, it is true, of elegant forms, of delicate colours (prasino fiabello, Mart. 3.82, 11), and sometimes of costly and splendid materials, such as peacocks' feathers (Propert. 3.18, 11=2.24, 11; Claudian, in Eutrop. 1.109; Mart. 14.67); but they were stiff and of a fixed shape, and were held by female slaves (flabelliferae, Plaut. Trin. 2.1, 22, translating Philemon), by beautiful boys (Strato, Epigr. 22), or by eunuchs (Eurip. Orest. 1426-1430; Menand. fr. 49, Meineke ; and as translated by Terence, Eun. 3.5, 47, 50, 54), whose duty it was to wave them so as to produce a cooling breeze. (Brunck, Anal. 2.92.) A gentleman might, nevertheless, take the fan into his own hand, and use it in fanning a lady as a compliment. (Ovid, A. A. 1.161; Amor. 3.2, 38.) The woodcut under CATHEDRA shows a female bestowing this attendance upon her mistress. The fan which she holds is apparently made of separate feathers joined at the base, and also united both by a thread passing along the tips and by another stronger thread tied to the middle of the shaft of each feather. Another use of the fan was to drive away flies from living persons, and from articles of food which were either placed upon the table or offered in sacrifice. When intended for a fly-flapper, it was less stiff, and was called μυιοσόβη, muscarium (Menand. l. c.; Brunck, Anal. 2.388, 3.92; Mart. l. c.); and for this purpose was sometimes made of an ox-tail (Mart. 14.69; Aelian, Ael. NA 15.14). The Emperor Augustus had a slave to fan him during his sleep (Sueton. Aug. 82); for the use of fans was not confined to females. In short, the manner of using fans was precisely that which is still practised in China, India, and other parts of the East; and Euripides (l. c.) says that the Greeks derived their knowledge of them from barbarous countries.
Besides separate feathers, the ancient fan was sometimes made of linen, extended upon a light frame. (Strato, l. c.) From the above-cited passage of Euripides and the Scholia upon it, compared with representations of the flabellum in ancient paintings, it also appears to have been made by placing the two wings of a bird back to back, fastening them together in this position, and attaching a handle at the base. (Hence πτερίναν ῥιπῖδα, Brunck, Anal. 2.258 = Anth. Pal. 6.306: on this unusual prosody, cf. L. and S., s. v. ῥιπίς). Further illustrations have been discovered of late years in the Tanagra terracotta figures (Guhl and Koner, ed. 5, p. 234; Hermann-Blümner, Privatalterth. p. 196; cf. Marquardt, Privatl. p. 145). The history of fans in all ages and countries has been written by S. Blondel (Hist. des Éventails, Paris, 1875) and H. Frunberger (Gesch. des Fächers, Leipzig, 1876).
A more homely application of the fan was its use in cookery (Aristoph. Ach. 669, 888; FOCUS). In a painting which represents a sacrifice to Isis (Ant. d'Ercolano, 2.60), a priest is seen fanning the fire upon the altar with a triangular flabellum, such as is still used in Italy. This practice gave origin among classical writers to expressions corresponding to ours, meaning to fan the flame of hope (Alciphr. 3.47), of love (ῥιπίζειν, Brunck, 2.306), or of sedition (Aristoph. Ran. 360; Cic. pro Flacc. 23, § 54).
[J.Y] [W.W](ῥιπίς, ῥιπίδιον). A fan (Terent. Eun. iii. 5, 50). The fans of the Greek and Roman ladies were made with the leaves of the lotus plant, of peacock's feathers (Prop. ii. 24, 11), or some expensive material, painted in brilliant colours (Mart. iii. 82). They were not constructed to open and shut, like ours, but were stiff, and had a long handle, the most convenient form for the manner in which they were used—viz., for one person to fan another, a slave always being employed for the purpose, known as flabelliger (Plaut. Trin. ii. 129). The left-hand figure in the illustration represents a fan of lotus leaf, from a Pompeian painting; the right-hand one, of peacock's feathers, from a painting discovered at Stabia. See Uzanne, Les Ornements de la Femme (Paris, 1892).