I.
Retis and Rete; dim. Reticulum.
ΔΙΚΤΥΟΝ[664].
[664] From δικεῖν, to throw. See Eurip. Bacc. 600, and the Lexicons of Schneider and Passow.
Retis or Rete in Latin, and δίκτυον in Greek, were used to denote nets in general. Thus in an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus[665], three brothers, one of whom was a hunter, another a fowler, and the third a fisherman, dedicate their nets to Pan. Several imitations of this epigram remain by Alexander Ætolus[666], Antipater Sidonius[667], Archias[668], and others[669]. In one of these epigrams (Ἰουλιάνου Αἰγυπτίου) we find λίνα adopted as a general term for nets instead of δίκτυα, no doubt for the reason above stated. In another epigram[670] a hare is said to have been caught in a net (δίκτυον). Aristophanes mentions nets by the same denomination among the contrivances employed by the fowler[671]. Fishing-nets are called δίκτυα in the following passages of the New Testament: Matt. iv. 20, 21; Mark i. 18, 19; Luke v. 2, 4-6; John xxi. 6, 8, 11: also by Theocritus, ap. Athen. vii. 20. p. 284, Cas.; and by Plato, Sophista, 220, b. p. 134, ed. Bekker.
[665] Brunck, Anal. i. 225.
[666] Brunck, Anal. i. 418. Alexandri Ætoli Fragmenta, a Capelmann, p. 50.
[667] Ibid. ii. 9, Nos. 15, 16.
[668] Ibid. ii. 94, No. 9.
[669] Ibid. ii. 494, 495. Jacobs, Anthol. vol. i. p. 188, 189.
[670] Brunck, Anal. iii. 239, No 417.
[671] Aves, 526-528.