Click Image for Gallery

klismos Hegeso chair

klismos (Greek: κλισμός) or klismos chair is a type of ancient Greek chair, with curved backrest and tapering, outcurved legs. Design taken from the stele of Hegeso, circa 400 B.C. in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Klismoi are familiar from depictions of ancient furniture on painted pottery and in bas-reliefs from the mid-fifth century BCE onwards. In epic, klismos signifies an armchair, but no specific description is given of its form; in Iliad xxiv, after Priam's appeal, Achilles rises from his thronos, raises the elder man to his feet, goes out to prepare Hector's body for decent funeral and returns, to take his place on his klismos.

A vase-painting of a satyr carrying a klismos chair on his shoulder shows how light such chairs were. The curved, tapered legs of the klismos chair sweep forward and rearward, offering stability. The rear legs sweep continuously upward to support a wide concave backrest like a curved tablet, which supports the sitter's shoulders, or which may be low enough to lean an elbow on.

The klismos fell from general favour during the Hellenistic period; nevertheless, the theatre of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis, Athens, of the first century CE, has carved representations of klismoi.[3] Where a klismos is represented in Roman portraits of seated individuals, the sculptures are copies of Greek works.The fall of the klismos might be due to a design flaw, the legs of the chair are bending outwards and without any further support the legs will spread out and break when sat upon.