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New Light on the Greek House from the Zenon Papyri

Author(s): Naphtali LewisSource: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1933), pp. 397-399Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/498952 .

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NEW LIGHT ON THE GREEK HOUSE FROMTHE ZENON PAPYRI1AMONG the many intimate details of life in Hellenistic Egypt revealed by the papyriof the Zenon Archive are numerous references to the buildings of the day. Thelargest single group, that concerning the construction and decoration of the house ofthe hypodioiketes, Diotimos, consists of only eight papyri;2 yet these, taken in con-nection with the numerous stray references, bring us important new light for ourknowledge of Greek private houses.The position of the prostas, for example, has never been really understood, andthese papyri bring us considerably closer to certainty. In Vitruvius' description ofthe Greek house,3 modern investigators have been wont to see the prostas describedas a recess off the court on the side opposite the entrance,4 and have made this inter-pretation the basis of much conjecture.5 That such an interpretation, however,does violence to the meaning of the word must be evident at once from its derivation(

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398 NAPHTALI LEWISform, rp6aracts,1 s used of the three projecting porches;2 in the house of Diotimos, itis the vestibule entered through the pylon or main door of the house.a By the thirdcentury B.c., however, the meaning of the word had broadened to include any ante-room. Thus, in a bath in Philadelphia, there was a separate prostas to each of thetwo steam-rooms (06XoL),4nd in Zenon's own house a prostas to some storerooms(K6a/v~).5 The expanded meaning prevailed in succeeding centuries. Carefulstudy of Vitruvius' chapter on the Greek house will show that he considered theprostasnot as a recess of the court in front, but as an anteroom to the rooms behind;6papyri of later date show that in the houses of Roman Egypt, as in some of those atPriene, the prostas was an anteroom to a living-room or dining-room (otKos);7nd thearchaeological remains at Philadelphia show such an anteroom already in the thirdcentury B.C.8From the prostas in Diotimos' house, several doors led to the inner parts of thehouse. One led to a large court called, from the large drawing-room (rTaKXLVOS,room with seven couches) which opened on it, qavXiNo3 rETaKXvov. Another broughtone into a smaller court about which were grouped the domestic apartments (XpripLama)and which was called, accordingly, 7)aiaX)r7i- xpnlr??Piov. Now the Egyptian houseof Roman times obtained its light and air from a central court (aoptot), while aforecourt, added on one side (abX'rpoaoida), was little more than a vestibule.10 Thistype of house is a direct descendant of an Egyptian type developed in the NewEmpire."1 Evidently, then, some ancient Egyptian building traditions survivedthrough Ptolemaic times. The house of Diotimos, however, was certainly not ofthis aithrion type. There is no indication that either of the two courts I havementioned was an aAX7 pooika. The house had, in addition, an aithrion'2 whosepurpose, however, was merely to furnish light and air to the bedroom. Analogy,then, is not to be sought in Egypt, but rather, as we might expect in the reign of

1 Photius, 1.c.2 TheErechtheum,Cambridge, 1927, pp. 988-294, Inscr. II (= I.G. 12, 379), Col. I, 11.58-59, 69-63,77-78, 83-84; Col. II, 11.53-54. D. S. Robertson, Greekand Roman Architecture,1929, p. 388, justlylists 7rp6vaosnd irp(0vpovs synonymous or similar terms. Compare W. Judeich, Topographie von Athen 2,1931, pp. 9275-9276.3 P. Cairo Zenon, IV, 59764, 11.26-27. The house, contrary to the usual custom of both Greeceand Egypt, had more than one entrance.P. Cairo Zenon, IV, 59667, where Mr. Edgar translates prostas (note to 11.15-17) by "porch."5I accept here the emendation iKaIivw proposed by Miss Elizabeth Sayre, Asst. Curator of Papyriat Columbia University, for the meaningless KaXaivwvf P.S.I. IV, 396, 1. 9.6 Compare Edw. Falkener, "The Grecian House as Described by Vitruvius", J.R.I.B.A., Ser. 3, I,1893-1894, pp. 37 (Plan) and 39.SF. Luckhard, Das Privathaus im ptolemdischenund rimischen Agypten, Giessen, 1914 (Diss.), pp.63-64.8 P. Viereck and F. Zucker, Papyri, Ostraka,und Wachstafelnaus Philadelphia im Fayum( = B.G. U.VII), p. 4 and Plate 9B; Viereck, "Philadelphia," Morgenland,Darstellungenaus Geschichte nd Kulturdes Ostens,Vol. 16, p. 10 and Abb. 2.9 For this meaning of XPo7aTrpLa compare F. Preisigke, "Die Begriffe ipr-yos und zr;- bei derHausan-lage," Hermes, LIV, 1919, pp. 426-427.10Luckhard, op. cit., pp. 52-53. 11 Ibid.12 P. CairoZenon, IV, 59764, 11.39-40. This is the first and, so far, the only occurrence of the word

aOptLovn Ptolemaic times.

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NEW LIGHT ON THE GREEK HOUSE FROM THE ZENON PAPYRI 399Ptolemy Philadelphos,' in Greece. The archaeological and literary evidence showthat the ordinary Greek house, too, centered about a single court;2but the house ofthe fifth century B.C. uncovered in 1899 at Dystos in Euboea3 shows a two-courtarrangement from which the Hellenistic house such as that of Diotimos might easilyhave been derived.4 The two types might easily have existed side by side in Greece,the single-court house in the more crowded cities and towns, the other in the ruraldistricts where space was more available. And the addition of the peristyle to theLatin atrium-house, of which Pompeii furnishes so many examples, is more reason-ably explained if we suppose that it arose from a desire to imitate the more spacious,two-court Hellenistic house, than if we consider it an unprecedented developmentoccasioned by a desire for luxury and display.5The papyri contain numerous other details concerning the house of Diotimos, ofless importance, it is true, but often of equal interest. It is possible to reconstructthe ground-plan of the house, after a fashion; but, since the amount of missing ma-terial is indeterminable, so that any real approach to exactness is impossible, I havenot reproduced any of my attempts. The prostas, as we have seen, was the vesti-bule, probably sunken rather than projecting. The two courts were probably notcontiguous, as in the house unearthed at Ghoran. But we cannot proceed beyondprobabilities.

NAPHTALI LEWISNEW YORK CITY

1 In the reign of Philadelphos, the Greek traditions of the Macedonian conquerors were only justbeginning to feel the influenceof the native Egyptian culture. In engineering,for example, the masterbuilders (apXLrkKTroVE) ere all Greeks; their assistants (br-apXLrTroVIE), however, could be Egyptians(P.S.1. VI, 6,5, 1.4). Compare J. P. Mahaffy, The Progress of Hellenism in Alexander'sEmpire, pp.72-75.2 Gardner,l.c., 1901, pp. 293-305; Rider, op. cit., pp. 216-218.Ath. Mitt. XXIV, 1899, pp. 465-466. This house was not taken into consideration by Gardnerand Rider; Robertson (op. cit., p. 298) considers it a "very individual" house.4 A two-court house of the third century B.C. was uncovered by Jouguet at Ghoran (B.C.H. XXV,1901, pp. 391-395). Vitruvius, it will be remembered, describes the Greek house as one with twocourts.I As does Gardner,I.c. p. 304. Gardner'stheory, based on the assumption that there were no Hel-lenistic houses with two courts, becomes untenable in the light of the present evidence. Indeed, someof the more pretentious Pompeian houses show an arrangementof the courtyards decidedly like that of

the house of Diotimos. The "House of the Gilded Cupids," for example, has the domestic quartersgrouped about the smaller court, the atrium, and the living quarters about the larger court, the peri-style. Other houses (e.g., the "House of the Faun," the "House of the Vettii," the "House near thePorta Marina" [Mau-Kelsey, Pompeii, Its Life and Art, Fig. 139, p. 292]) show an even further refine-ment, a second, side atrium being added to serve as abcuXi o XPrqT7rpiWv.