Book Review: Ancient Greek Houses

[kirispupis]

I thought I'd start a series of book reviews for the following reasons:

• It helps me better remember the contents of the book I just read (memory through teaching)
• I've been reading a number of obscure books lately that others here may find interesting
• Others may chime in with new information I/we didn't know

Today, I finished Ancient Greek Houses by Bertha Carr Rider. My primary reason for reading it was as research for an upcoming novel. One of my main characters lives in an ancient Greek house, so I wanted to be as faithful as possible. One may argue that strict adherence to historical accuracy isn't necessary in a work of fiction where dinosaurs eat Macedonians, but I like to get things as close as possible. I chose this book because it was the only one I could find on the subject.

The author stresses at the beginning that this is more of a review of current literature and that nothing new is presented. However, most of the literature, besides being specialized, isn't even available to the reader (though this was written well before the Internet became a thing).

She then proceeds from neolithic to a very brief treatment of Roman times. Much time is spent on the reasons and transformation from round buildings, easiest to construct with basic materials, to eventually rectangular domiciles. There's also a start with funerary structures - since more of those are extant - and whether one influenced the other.

From there, it progresses to the Mycenaean era, where she spends the most time. She discusses in depth the palaces and villas in Knossos and Praisos, then moves to the mainland to Mycenaea, Tiryns, and others. There is also some discussion of houses unearthed from this era, and she considers it the apex of housing. Subsequent houses were far less complex and grand in their scope.

Next, there's a chapter treating Homeric structures, though in that case we're unable to rely as much on archeology from Troy and instead have to refer to Homer. Clearly there seems to be a mismatch, though, since what archeological remains we do have conflict strongly with Homer's layout. To me, this seems likely given that there was a several hundred-year gap between the events and when they were written.

Only a small portion of the book covers the 4th century to Hellenistic times, which bummed me a bit since that was what I most wanted to know. She covers ruins of houses found at Priene and Delos, then at the very end gives a few pages to Roman structures at Pompeii. Her main statement is that we simply don't have anything from the 4th century.

Here, I feel the book may show its age. Granted, everything I know about the field I read in this book, but it was published in 1964 and two sets of structures I wonder may change it.

• Philip II's palace at Pella. I believe most of this has been unearthed recently, but it clearly refutes the statement that 4th century Greece did not enjoy large palaces. 
• When I visited Athens, I saw the ruins of many houses underneath the archeological museum. I suspect these were unearthed more recently.

One interesting facet is the refutation of the "two courtyards" theory. This comes from a misreading of Vitruvius, in which previous historians were led to believe that the houses of the wealthy had two separate courtyards - one for men and one for women. Rider strongly disputes this and shows that there's no evidence for the statement. While there were rooms specific to men and women, with one prominent example being a dining room where men feasted without women, they typically shared the courtyard.

She points out numerous passages indicating the women's rooms were typically located upstairs, though shows an example where the husband moved upstairs to ease his wife's pregnancy, because the wooden stairs were usually steep.

Overall, I feel the book was an interesting read and I wish I'd read it before I visited Delos. I do hope there's something more recent, though, because I suspect recent archeology has taught us more about 4th century life.

Since this is a coin group, here's my best match of a coin. AFAIK there's no depiction of an actual house on ancient coinage, so you'll have to put up with these two temples.

Macedon. Koinon of Macedon
Pseudo-autonomous issue
time of Severus Alexander, 222-235 CE
Æ Tetrassarion 26 mm, 12,17 g
AΛЄΞANΔPOY Diademed head of Alexander ‘the Great’ to right.
Rev. KOI • [MA]KЄΔONΩN B NЄ Two tetrastyle temples; between, column surmounted by statue of Alexander, holding spear in his right hand and parazonium in his left.
AMNG III/1, 518

 

Here's a photo I took from Akrotiri on Santorini, which is from Mycenaean times and is not covered in the book (I assume because this dig is from later). I believe this part is a workshop, but there are houses you can see.

 

And here's a house I photographed in Delos.

 

Feel free to share whatever you feel is relevant!

[CPK]

An interesting review (and great photos.) Thanks for sharing!

[Deinomenid]

On 11/13/2024 at 8:21 PM, kirispupis said:

Feel free to share whatever you feel is relevant

There's a huge book [The Greek World] - that's probably the best value "bible" of all things  Greek, from   city planning, to  housing construction,  to painting, you name it.  I've  no idea why its so cheap used or why so copies were  made  - $15 for 800 well-illustrated pages split into sections by 70-odd scholars. It has a lot on housing including the specific period you are looking at. It's western Greek in focus but easily applicable elsewhere. 

Eg -

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-greek-world-art-and-civilization-in-magna-graecia-and-sicily/1014311/item/64867572/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=low_vol_f%2fm%2fs_standard_shopping_retention&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=689003201222&gad_source=4&gclid=CjwKCAiAxea5BhBeEiwAh4t5K2lc1viTwURRvzYpf2aMXV1grQUGRP-0LzYxsfSlCcQ_F0q6RAkxUhoCdNgQAvD_BwE#idiq=64867572&edition=6343492