Echinus
ἐχῖνος
Echinus (ἐχῖνος), the hedgehog or sea-urchin, the name of things having a similar shape.
1. A pot or pitcher (Hesych. sub voce Pollux, 6.91; Hor. Sat. 1.6, 117, 2.8, 52).
2. The casket, probably of a cylindrical shape, in which documents were sealed up between the ἀνάκρισις and the trial [DIKÉ, p. 630 a].
3. In Doric architecture, the ovolo or convex part of the capital immediately beneath the abacus (Vitr. 4.3 and 7). See illustrations, pp. 3 a, 490.
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.