Winnowing Fan/Shovel
Grc: λίκνον - Liknon
Wind winnowing is an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff. It is also used to remove hay and chaff or other pests from stored grain. Threshing, the loosening of grain or seeds from the husks and straw, is the step in the chaff-removal process that comes before winnowing.
The winnowing fan was adopted and used in the rites of Dionysos Liknites ("Dionysos of the Winnowing Fan"). The winnowing fan links the god with mysteries of the agricultural cycle, and also with the cycle of mortal life, since the fan resembles a baby's cradle.
In the Odyssey, the dead oracle Teiresias tells Odysseus to walk away from Ithaca with an oar until a wayfarer tells him it is a winnowing shovel (i.e., until Odysseus has come so far from the sea that people don't recognize oars), and there to build a shrine to Poseidon.
"‘When you get home you will take your revenge on these suitors; and after you have killed them by force or by fraud in your own house, you must take a well-made oar and carry it on and on, until you come to a country where the people have never heard of the sea and do not even mix salt with their food, nor do they know anything about ships, and oars that are as the wings of a ship. I will give you this as a sign, which cannot escape your notice: a wayfarer will meet you and will say it must be a winnowing shovel that you've got upon your shoulder. At this place, you must fix the oar in the ground and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon. Then go home and offer hecatombs to the daimones of Olympos, one after the other."
Mechanics & Inner Workings
In its simplest form, winnowing involves throwing the grain/chaff mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery.
Manufacturing process
Can be constructed by any basket-maker or woodcarver.
Significance
Generic farm implement that can double as a mystical symbol.
Item type
Tool
Rarity
Common
Raw materials & Components
The winnowing fan is woven from fibers like a basket or cradle. A winnowing shovel is made from wood and looks more like a boat's oar. These are functionally interchangeable, although one may be favored over the other as a matter of preference or practicality. A winnowing fork is a winnowing shovel with tines, useful for long-stalked grains or hay, which later evolved into the metal-tipped pitchfork.
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