Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Taenia

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TAE'NIA (ταινία). Strictly, the flat fringed end of the ribban (vitta) that was twisted round the woollen flocks of a sacred fillet (infula), and which formed a band at each of its extremities for fastening the fillet round the head (Virg. Aen. vii. 352. aenia vittae. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. v. 269. vittae extremitas), as will be understood from the annexed illustration (Taenia/1.1), representing at the top a woollen fillet, with two taeniae at each end, from a fictile vase, and the head of a priest with the ligature round it, from a marble bas-relief underneath.

2. The flat band or ribban which fastened together the two ends of a chaplet, wreath of flowers, or honorary crown (corona), and which were left to float, like streamers, at the back of the neck, as in the annexed example (Taenia/2.1) from a bust of Antoninus. Ennius ap. Fest. s. v. Virg. Aen. v. 269. Serv. ad l.

3. A flat band, or bandeau, worn round the head, for the purpose of keeping the hair in a set form of arrangement, as exhibited by the annexed bust (Taenia/3.1) from a bronze statue found in Herculaneum. (Mart. xiv. 24.) But the reading of the passage is not free from uncertainty.

3. The Greek name for a bosom-band worn by young girls under the dress and next the skin. (Apul. Met. x. 225. Anacreont. xxii. 13.) Same as FASCIA PECTORALIS, under which term the object is described and illustrated.

5. A breast-collar for draught horses (Apul. Met. ix. 184.); as in the annexed example (Taenia/5.1) from a terra-cotta lamp.

6. In architecture, the fillet which separates the Doric frieze from the architrave (Vitruv. iv. 3. 4.); running along the whole line of the architrave between the triglyphs and guttae, like a broad band, as in the annexed example (Taenia/6.1) from a Doric entablature of the theatre of Marcellus at Rome.

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