shaft
subs.
Shaft of a spear: Ar. and V. κά̆μαξ, ὁ or ἡ, P. ῥάβδος, ἡ (Xen.).
Shaft of a carriage: P. ῥυμός, ὁ (Hdt.); see pole.
Weapon: P. and V. βέλος, τό (rare P.); see dart.
Arrow: P. and V. τόξευμα, τό, οἰστός, ὁ (rare P.), βέλος, τό (rare P.), V. ἰός, ὁ, ἄτρακτος, ἡ, πτερόν, τό ; see arrow.
Something rising upward; hence e.g. the spire of a steeple fastigium turris.
The shaft of an arrow etc. hastile (opposed to spiculum; i.e. the iron point): of a gun *lignum (litterally the wood): of a tree truncus; sapinus or sappinus (of the fir-tree).
Of a column scapus.
The handle of an instrument [Vid: HANDLE.]
The pole of a carriage perhaps brachium or as we may say temo bifurcus (the temo was PROP. a single pole).
A narrow perpendicular pit (from the context) puteus or specus: fodina (a pit in general).
I. A missile:
1. săgitta: v.
2. tēlum (poet. in this sense): to aim s.s from the bow, tela dirigere arcu, Hor. Od. 4, 9, 17. Fig.: the s.s of fortune, tela fortunae, Cic. Fam. 5, 16, init.
II. The handle of a weapon: hastīle, is, n. (of a spear, opp. to spiculum, the iron point): leaning on the s. of his spear, hastili nixus, Cic. Rab. perd. 7, 21: the iron point, which (separated) from the s. had remained in his body, ferrum, quod ex h. in corpore remanserat, Nep. Epam. 9, fin.
III. The narrow opening forming the descent to a mine:
1. pŭtĕus (well, mine, excavation of any kind): Plin. 37, 4, 21: Vitr.: to sink a s., *puteum demittere: v.
2. arrūgia: Plin. 33, 4, 21, § 77.
IV. In architecture; the s. of a column:
1. scāpus: Vitr. 3, 2, 59.
2. truncus: Vitr. 4, 1, 7.
V. Of a carriage: tēmo, ōnis, m. (a single pole or s. fixed to the middle of the chariot or carriage): Caes. B. G. 4, 33: Virg. The s.s, perh. *temo bifurcus.
The tapering, cylindrical portion of a column that rests upon the base and below the capital.
Description: The shaft tapers from the bottom upward, often taking a delicate curve, called entasis. The Doric column springs directly from the stylobate. Its shaft usually has twenty flutes, though sixteen flutes are found in the earliest Doric temple columns (but this is rare after the early sixth century B.C.), and examples are also found which have twenty-four flutes. The shaft is usually built of separate drums, to which the fluting was applied after the drums were erected. Monolithic shafts, of one piece save for the capital, are rare. The joins between the drums usually fitted closely along the exterior edges only; this fitting was termed anathyrosis. Within the drum of the column, upon both its upper and lower surfaces, was an unfinished shallow depression containing at its center a deep, rectangular hole which held a wooden block, the empolia, fixing the drums in place.
- Base
- Capital
- Drum
- Entasis
- Monolithic