Catapirates
καταπειρητηρίη
Catapirates (-er or--a; καταπειρητηρίη, Hdt. 2.5, 28), a sounding lead. It consisted of a small piece of unwrought lead fastened to twisted cord. The lead was covered with grease, so that specimens of the kind of bottom might attach to it. See Lucilius, 3.32 (p. 16, ed. L. Müller): Hunc catapiraten puer eodem deferat unctum Plumbi pauxillum rudus linique mataxam.
The unit of measurement in soundings was a fathom (ὄργυια): see Hdt. 2.5; Act. Apost. 27.28. To sound
is βολίζειν; and by βολὶς in the sense of a sounding-line the Schol. explains μολύβδαινα, in Il. 24.80. The fact that it was hung from the prow (see picture in Guhl and Koner, p. 317) will not justify the alteration of catapiraten, the best-attested MS. reading, in Lucilius to cataproraten, which has no sufficient authority. (See L. Müller, l.c.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.