Housing

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Housing

Building Materials. The needs for housing in most of ancient Greece were relatively simple because of the mild climate. Building materials varied somewhat from one region to another, but mostly consisted of stone, clay (used to make bricks and roof tiles), and timber. While marble was used for the facing of fancier buildings, especially in wealthier cities such as Athens, most of the stone used was readily available locally and was often a variety of limestone. Clay was abundant and could be baked (particularly for pottery and other nonarchitectural uses), but unbaked, sun-dried bricks were extremely common in domestic architecture. Timber was widely used in both public and domestic architecture and was available locally or from outside sources, in particular the more temperate regions in Northern Greece and Macedonia.

House Plans. In contrast to the range of architectural styles used for modern housing, the plan and style of most private Greek houses varied little from one city to another, or even from one time period to another. The typical plan consisted of a series of small rooms arranged around a central courtyard, which would be open to the elements. The house would be entered from the street via a door leading into the courtyard itself, often with a small entryway in between. (Since doors opened outward and lacked windows, it was customary in crowded cities for a person leaving home to knock on the door from within, to alert pedestrians to stand clear and avoid being hit.) Unlike most housing in the modern United States, ancient Greek houses in cities were built right next to each other with no intervening space, sharing party walls. Thus, a house would typically have immediate neighbors on three sides, a street on the fourth, and no external lawn or garden area. The courtyard, then, would serve most of the functions of the modern yard—a place to enjoy fresh air, entertain, and work—while providing a degree of privacy not found in most yards. Indeed, the Greek house was typically constructed for maximum privacy: living areas faced away from the street and onto the courtyard, and windows were few and small, in part because the use of glass for windows was unknown in antiquity. In a world in which much of the daily life took place outdoors, face-to-face with others, the oikos (house) offered a place of refuge.

Simplicity. Construction and decoration tended to be simple, even for the fairly well-to-do. Walls were built of rubble or sun-dried brick on stone foundations, held together with a mud-based mortar, and usually finished with plaster both inside and out. Often construction was fairly flimsy, so that breaking through the party walls between houses was a favorite technique for burglars (who were sometimes known as toikhorhukhoi, or “wall-breakers”). Interior walls were often painted, usually in red or white, to judge from the surviving fragments of painted walls. Floors in most rooms were simply packed earth, although these were probably covered with rugs or mats. In kitchens and dining rooms, however, floors might be made of cement, and in the case of the latter covered with decorative mosaics (which became a common feature in the better houses of the Roman period).

Design Features. Some houses had second stories, but the popularity of this design feature is difficult to determine because surviving archaeological evidence is scant. (Taller, apartment-style buildings became feasible only after stronger building materials were developed by the Romans.) The second floor would be reached by a ladder, by an exterior set of stairs (especially if the second floor was a separate apartment), or, in rare instances, by a fixed staircase. In some cities, second floors were built in such a way as to overhang the street, as a way of gaining additional living space without buying additional land. Roofs were either flat (thus offering additional storage and living space) or sloping, depending on the climate and local traditions (sloping roofs were especially useful in the north to allow the runoff of rain and snow). Sloping roofs were either covered by thatch, terracotta tiles, or some combination of the two.

Men’s Room. Many houses had a room specially set aside for receiving and entertaining guests. Called the andrôn (“men’s area,” since most guests were male), it functioned as a dining room as well. The floor was of a hard, durable material (cement or mosaic tile) in order to make cleaning easier. Couches for dining (in formal situations, the Greeks ate lying down) were arranged around the perimeter of the room, and rooms were referred to by the number of couches they could hold. An eleven-couch room was fairly large, perhaps twenty feet across, making it the largest room in the house. The floor near the walls might be raised up, with tables placed in the lower-lying floor in the middle of the room. In order not to isolate the guests on the entry side, the doorway would be off center, near the corner of the room.

Women’s Room. Greek men attempted to control female members of their household as much as possible, and this included sheltering them from the outside world. Upper-class women rarely went out without supervision, and there were special areas of the house set aside for them, to which male guests were not admitted. These areas were known as the gunaikeion (women’s quarters). In some ways, the entire house except for the andron was thought of as women’s space: men were supposed to spend as much time as possible in public, and a man who chose to spend too much of his leisure time at home with women was viewed with suspicion. The gunaikeion

might be upstairs, since these areas were more remote and easier to control access to, especially in the absence of fixed staircases. Yet, this situation was not true for all houses: it is in general impossible to identify the function of most rooms from the architectural remains. Similarly, there are no ways of identifying the separate quarters which must have existed for slaves: the actual space used would have varied with the needs of the individual household.

Hearths. Although the hearth was an important concept for the Greeks (particularly in the form of Hestia, goddess of the hearth, who guaranteed the prosperity of the oikos), few houses actually had permanent hearths or fireplaces; in fact, separate, identifiable kitchen areas were not common before the fourth century. Instead, cooking could be done on small, portable braziers, either in the courtyard or in an interior room, using wood or charcoal (the latter was preferred because it contained more energy in a small volume and burned more controllably). Heating also depended primarily on charcoal, again burned in small vessels. There was no central heating, and ovens were usually found only in larger commercial establishments, such as bakeries and baths. Even so, ventilation was a problem, especially with charcoal, which produces carbon monoxide. It seems that the most common solution was to remove a tile or section of roof after the fire was lit, although some houses had holes designed for the purpose, and there are references in literary sources to terracotta smoke conduits (probably a sort of primitive chimney), which would have been found in fancier houses.

Water Supply. Greek houses lacked running water, so water had to be hauled in from nearby sources such as natural springs, but in many locations they were unavailable or had dried up during the summer. In these cases wells had to be used or cisterns had to be built to collect rainwater (which would generally be allowed to settle and clear before use). By the sixth century engineers had developed the technology for channeling water, so that springs could be tapped and the water led by ground-level terracotta pipes to collect in fountains within the city walls. Gathering water from a nearby fountain would have been a daily task for household members or slaves, who would have to bring enough for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene. Although Greece has a dry climate, the conservation of rainwater and the diligence and ingenuity of public officials seem to have ensured an adequate water supply for most cities, including Athens, whose population was larger than that of any other Greek city.

Sewage. The disposal of used water and other wastes was a constant problem. Originally, bathing took place inside the house in small, portable tubs; and in cities chamber pots were used for urination and defecation. Yet, public baths developed quickly in the cities, and were common by the fourth century b.c.e., when they had important social as well as hygienic functions. In addition, built-in baths and toilets were in use in Olynthus and presumably elsewhere. In such houses terracotta drainpipes would have led the waste out of the house and into the streets, although in the absence of plumbing it would have been necessary to pour wastewater into the pipes by hand. Even so, provisions for adequate disposal of waste are found starting only in the fourth century. Before that time, there were presumably gutters in the streets, which would accumulate waste that would be washed away by rainwater. This lack of sanitation certainly must have contributed to the spread of infectious disease such as the great plague of Athens in 430-429 b.c.e., although Greek science and medicine were not advanced enough to recognize the problem (an adequate theory of disease and contagion was developed only in the nineteenth century C.E.). Older cities, such as Athens, never achieved adequate sewage; however, in newer settlements such as Pella in Macedon urban planning allowed for more regular, wider streets with covered sewers that drained the waste from adjacent houses.

Disposal. Nevertheless, there was relatively little garbage to be disposed of in Greece. Much modern trash consists of paper, packaging (including bottles and cans), and other items unknown or rare in Greece. Greek society was far less materially rich than our own: even wealthy people had relatively few possessions, and far fewer of these were disposable than is the case in the United States. In a culture of relative scarcity objects are reused rather than discarded, and the presence of domestic animals (along with the relative scarcity of food) ensured that little food would be thrown out. Even human excrement would often be collected in pits for use as fertilizer. Even so, cities were probably rather unhygienic by modern Western standards, and rodents and insects were common.

Decoration. Throughout the Classical Period (480-323 b.c.e.), decoration and furnishings in private houses were usually modest. This situation was in part because of the relative difficulty of getting luxury goods, but also because of an ideology of equality, in which ostentatious displays of wealth were frowned upon (especially true in Athens and Sparta). In addition to the sort of simple wall paintings mentioned above, there are references to other types of wall decoration: bronze plaques, tapestries, and embroideries. Ceiling decorations are also referred to in wealthy houses, and the Athenian Alcibiades, famous for his extravagant lifestyle, is said to have hired a famous painter to paint frescoes on his walls.

Furniture. As is the case today, furniture and other household objects could be both useful and decorative. A major difference, however, is in the size and portability of ancient furniture, which could be moved easily from room to room and house to house. Tables, chairs, couches, stools, and beds were the primary items of furniture; large cabinets, dressers, and armoires were unknown, with smaller, movable chests and boxes being used for storage (nor were there closets, since clothing was folded and stored flat). Since wood survives only in exceptional conditions, there are few surviving examples of Greek furniture.

Chair Types. Chairs typically had curving backs but no armrests. The most common type was the klismos, which might be translated as “easy chair,” with a curved, slightly reclined back and plain, curved legs. A fancier variation was the thronos (throne), a more solid and upright chair, often highly decorated, and found in palaces and temples rather than in private households. At the low end of the scale was the diphros (stool), backless and with four straight legs; a common variant—easy to transport and store—was the folding stool, in which the legs crossed, somewhat like a director’s chair without arms or back.

FEMALE EXCELLENCE

The lives of Greek women were lived mostly in private, with little opportunity for participation in public life. Pericles, in his Funeral Oration of 431 b.c.e., (as reported by Thucydides), comments on “female excellence,” saying that “the best reputation consists of not falling short of their natural character, and that their glory is greatest when they are spoken of least by men—whether they are praised or blamed.” In other words, the safest way for a woman to maintain a good reputation is to avoid becoming an object of public scrutiny and to remain in the private world of the oikos (household).

A major exception, however, was religious ritual. In Athens, women of the citizen class were priestesses in several public cults and took part in processions at the major festivals. In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 b.c.e.), an old woman declares her devotion to the city by giving her pedigree, listing the honorific positions she has held:

At the age of seven, I carried the sacred objects; then atten I ground the barley for Athene; and wearing a saffron robe, I played the Bear-girl in the festival of Brauronian Artemis, After I grew up, and was beautiful, I carried the sacred basket, and wore a necklace of dried figs.

Spartan women had a different way of life, involving much more physical exercise and exposure to the public eye. Plutarch describes the intentions of the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus in this way:

Lycurgus took particular care about the women as well as the men. He made the young women exercise their bodies by running and wrestling and throwing the discus and the javelin, so that their offspring would have a sound start by taking root in sound bodies and grow stronger, and the women themselves would be able to use their strength to withstand childbearing and wrestle with labour pains. He freed them from softness and sitting in the shade and all female habits, and made it customary for girls no less than boys to go naked in processions and to dance naked at certain festivals and to sing naked while young men were present and looking on. . . . There was nothing shameful in the girls’ nakedness, because it was accompanied by modesty and self-control. It produced in them simple habits and an intense desire for good health, and gave the female sex a taste for noble sentiments, since they shared with the males virtue and desire for glory.

Bed and Couch. The klinê combined the functions of both bed and couch and was used not only for sleeping and rest, but also for dining, which was often done in a reclining position. It lacked a back and was designed for reclining rather than sitting, typically having one end slanted upward for the purpose. Legs could be slightly curved or straight, and sometimes took the form of animal legs (compare the lions’ feet found on sofas and bathtubs in the modern era). The frame of the couch was wooden, but its actual weight-bearing surface consisted of interlaced webbing (of leather or rope) on top of which a thin mattress would be placed. In wealthier homes coverlets, blankets, and pillows might be placed on the kline. Couches were light enough to allow transport from one room to another, and perhaps outdoors or onto the roof for sleeping during hot weather. Sheets were unknown, and mattresses probably not very soft, so the ancient bed would seem a bit uncomfortable by modern standards.

Table Types. Tables were probably not as popular as in most modern American households, simply because the Greeks had fewer things to put on them—books were rare and lamps were small and stood on separate stands. In wealthier houses there may have been displays of decorative objects, such as the vases, signed by famous artists, which must have been too good for everyday use. But most tables were used during meals, and were light enough to take away when not needed. Tables could have three or four legs and were made of wood, sometimes with metal legs or feet for added durability.

Lighting. Indoor lighting was accomplished with oil-burning lamps. These could be placed on stands, or suspended from chains or cords. Made of metal or clay, they survive in abundance, in a wide variety of sizes. The most common fuel was olive oil, which was stored in a reservoir; a wick was inserted into the lamp nozzle and lit. The technology was far from perfect: such lamps do not produce a lot of light and give off heat as well, unwanted in the summer. They posed a fire hazard, and the use of cheaper grades of olive oil could fill a room with smoke. Even lighting a lamp could prove a problem, since kindling fire was not easy (the usual practice was to keep a flame or embers burning, from which a fire could be rekindled). Outdoors, it was possible to use torches, which would burn with a brighter flame and were necessary to find one’s way through the streets on dark nights (there was no street lighting). Insufficient lighting was, however, less of a problem than it might appear, since the Greeks, like most preindustrial peoples, lived according to the rhythm of the day, rising at dawn and spending few of their waking hours in the dark.

Architectural Variations. In addition to the basic plan outlined above, some houses were more elaborate in terms of the courtyards and the rooms that led off them. A common variation in fancier houses was to have a peristulê—that is, a series of columns around the courtyard, supporting a small roofed-over area that would provide an outdoor space sheltered from rain and sun. Other houses had a large room off the courtyard that faced south in order to catch as much winter sunlight as possible, with a shallow porch to protect from midday sun. This type is called the prostas; a similar design, but with more than one room leading off the porch, is called the pastas.

Oikos. The word oikos refers to the physical house, but also refers to what is called the “household”: the house and its inhabitants. For the Greeks, this was not merely a family unit, but an economic one: occupations and trades tended to be passed from one generation to the next, and all family members were participants. In addition, the oikos included nonfamily members: slaves, freedmen or freedwomen, and perhaps guests and lodgers. These social arrangements have important implications for the quality of daily life. First, households tended to be quite a bit larger than the nuclear family: aged parents often lived with their grown children (three- and even four-generation households must have been common given Greek longevity). In addition, there is evidence for various types of extended families, including unmarried female relatives, who would have to be under the care of a kurios (head of household). Greek houses were not large: Olynthus, a wealthy fourth century community that took advantage of urban planning, had houses ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet; other, older cities had smaller houses. Therefore, they would have seemed extremely crowded by our standards.

Economics. The oikos as economic unit also affected daily life by making the physical house a center of commerce and trade. Artisans did not always have separate premises for their trade: instead, they worked out of the home, so some of the already-precious living area of the house would be given over to work space for shoemaking, metalsmithing, and other crafts. Farmers (including those with houses in town) used their courtyards for activities such as pressing olives or grapes and for storing grain; excavations have revealed wells, cisterns for rainwater, and manure pits in household courtyards.

Lodgers. Not every physical oikos, however, contained a single family. Many households took in lodgers, either renting individual rooms or, sometimes, the entire second floor (more convenient when there was a separate, exterior entrance). This practice was especially common in the larger cities such as Athens, where there was a large transient population, because of the presence of traders and foreign residents (known as metoikoi, or metics) and of country residents who had come into town for business or political purposes. Sometimes there were rooms fronting onto the street rather than the courtyard, which could be used as shops and thus rented to outsiders or used by members of the oikos.