Gr. Antiq. [ad. Gr. θαλαμίτης, f. θάλαμος inner chamber, one of the compartments of a ship.] In the ancient trireme, a rower in one of the tiers of rowers, generally supposed to be that which occupied the lowest bench; but the actual arrangement is disputed: see quots. Cf. THRANITE, ZYGITE.
1722. Humphreys, trans. Montfaucon’s Antiquity Explained, IV II. viii. 143. There were three Ranges [of oars] in all, the lowest of which were call’d Thalamitæ, those in the middle Zygitæ, and the uppermost Thranitæ.
1848. J. Smith, Voyage & Shipwreck of St. Paul, 192. The thalamite I suppose to have sat on the deck, not far from the side of the vessel, and to have rowed in an oar-port little higher than the deck, and probably little more than two feet above the water.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 806/2. Behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman of the lowest bank.
1906. Athenæum, 7 April, 429/2. The three orders of rowers … there seems little reason to doubt … refer to the parts into which the ship was longitudinally divided … the thalamites [being] in the bows.
