Bedsteads were generally of common wood such as deal,[397] bottomed sometimes with planks, pierced to admit air, sometimes with ox-hide thongs,[398] which in traversing each other left numerous open spaces between them. Odysseus’s bedstead, which the hero was sufficient joiner to manufacture with his own hands, was made of olive-wood, inlaid with silver, gold, and ivory. Sometimes the bed was supported by a sort of netting of strong cord, stretched across the bedstead, and made fast all round.[399] Later ages witnessed far greater luxury,—bedsteads of solid silver,[400] or ivory embossed with figures wrought with infinite art and delicacy,[401] or of precious woods carved, with feet of ivory or amber.[402] Occasionally, also, they were veneered with Indian tortoiseshell, inlaid with gold.[403] This taste would appear to have flowed from the East, where among the kings of Persia still greater magnificence was witnessed even in very early times. Thus, speaking of the royal feast celebrated at Susa, the Scripture says, there were in the court of the garden of the king’s palace “white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings, and pillars of marble. The beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” A similar style of grandeur is attributed by Hellenic writers to the Persian king, who, according to Chares,[404] reclined in his palace on a couch shaded by a spreading golden vine, the grape clusters of which were imitated by jewels of various colours. ----- Footnote 397: Athen. xi. 48. i. 60. ii. 29. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 468. Cf. Xenoph. Memor. ii. 1, 30. Footnote 398: This bedstead was called δέμνιον; (Odyss. η. 336, seq.) when heaped with soft mattresses it was πυκινὸν λέχος (345); εὐνὴ was the term applied to the whole, bed and bedstead. Iliad. ω. 644. Odyss. δ. 297, &c. Pind. Nem. i. 3. Footnote 399: Odyss. ψ. 189, seq. Schol. ad Il. γ. 448. Footnote 400: Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 397. Footnote 401: Athen. vi. 67. ii. 30. Footnote 402: Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 530. Footnote 403: Lucian. Luc., sive Asin. § 53. Bedsteads of solid gold are spoken of in scripture.—Esther i. 6. Bochart. Geog. Sac. i. 6. 30. Footnote 404: Athen. xii. 9, 55. -----