The Deipnosophists (2.30)

. . . . . . And Plato the philosopher,

Men now distinguish the couches and coverings with reference to what is put round the couch and what is put under it.

And his namesake, the comic poet, says—

There the well-dress'd guests recline

On couches rich with ivory feet;

And on their purple cushions dine,

Which rich Sardinian carpets meet.

For the art of weaving embroidered cloths was in great perfection in his time, Acesas and Helicon, natives of Cyprus, being exceedingly eminent for their skill in it; and they were weavers of very high reputation. And Helicon was the son of Acesas, as Hieronymus reports: and so at Pytho there is an inscription on some work—

Fair Venus's isle did bring forth Helicon,

Whose wondrous work you now do gaze upon;

And fair Minerva's teaching bade his name

And wondrous skill survive in deathless fame.

And Pathymias the Egyptian was a man of similar renown. Ephippus says—

Place me where rose-strewn couches fill the room,

That I may steep myself in rich perfume.

Aristophanes says—

Oh you who press your mistress to your arms,

All night upon sweet-scented couches lying.

Sophron too speaks of coverlets embroidered with figures of birds as of great value. And Homer, the most admirable of all poets, calls those cloths which are spread below λῖτα, that is to say, white, neither dyed nor embroidered. But the coverlets which are laid above he calls

beautiful purple cloths.