New Light on the Greek House from the Zenon Papyri

Author(s): Naphtali Lewis

Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1933), pp. 397-399
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/498952 .
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 NEW LIGHT ON THE GREEK HOUSE FROM
THE ZENON PAPYRI1
AMONG the many intimate details of life in Hellenistic Egypt revealed by the papyri
of the Zenon Archive are numerous references to the buildings of the day. The
largest single group, that concerning the construction and decoration of the house of
the 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 our
knowledge of Greek private houses.
The position of the prostas, for example, has never been really understood, and
these papyri bring us considerably closer to certainty. In Vitruvius' description of
the Greek house,3 modern investigators have been wont to see the prostas described
as 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
(<rpot0'n-ul). The facts as we now have them, moreover, indicate a very simple
development. Originally, rpooaraT denoted a porch or vestibule, similar to the
Homeric a'l0ovaa.6 In one of the Erechtheion inscriptions of 409 B.C., the variant

1 In citing references, apart from the generally recognized abbreviations (Ath. Mitt., B.C.H., J.H.S.,
J.R.I.B.A.), I use the following:
B.G.U. =Aegyptische Urkunden der staatlichen Museen zu Berlin: Griechische Urkunden (Berlin,
1895-19926).
P.S.I. = Pubblicazioni della Societl Italiana per la Ricerca dei Papiri Greci e Latini in Egitto
(Florence, 1912- ).
P. Cairo Zenon = Cataloguegendraldes Antiquit&sEgyptiennes du Musde du Caire: Zenon Papyri,
by C. C. Edgar (Cairo, 1925-1931).
P. Demot. Zenon = W. Spiegelberg, Die demotischen Urkunden des Zenon-Archivs (Leipzig, 1929).
P. Mich. Zenon = C. C. Edgar, Zenon Papyri in the University of Michigan Collection (Ann Arbor,
Univ. of Mich. Press, 1931).
Roman numerals are those of volumes.
2 Four of these (P. Cairo Zenon, III, 59445 and IV, 59766, P. Demot. Zenon, 92, and P. Mich. Zenon,

37) state that the work specified in them is to be, or was done in the house of Diotimos. The others
(P. Cairo Zenon, IV, 59763, 59764, and 59767 and P. Mich. Zenon, 38) appear, from the nature of the
operations mentioned and the names of the men who have contracted for the work, to be concerned
with the same house. P. Cairo Zenon, II, 59193, on the other hand, the suggestion of Mr. Edgar not-
withstanding, does not belong in this group. It is a letter dated Year 31, Phaophi 27 (December 21,
255 B.c.), which instructs Zenon to add twenty cubits to a house plot and alter the plans somewhat.
All that is left of the writer's name is ].os, which is applicable to any of the men for whom Zenon super-
vised the building of houses, e.g., Nestos, Artemidoros, Sostratos. Moreover, the missing part, as
measured by Mr. Edgar, does not have room for the name Diotimos, but only for one of seven letters.
And, finally, the writer speaks of "the courtyard," and the house of Diotimos had, as we shall see, at
least two courts. 3 De Architectura,VI, 7.
4E. A. Gardner, "The Greek House," J.H.S. XXI, 1901, p. 303; H. Blumner, in Jahresberichteiiber
die Fortschritteder klassischen Altertumswissenschaft,CLXIII, 1913, Part 3, pp. 19-13; B. C. Rider,
The GreekHouse, 1916, pp. 231 and 261.
5 For example, the identification of the pastas (and therefore the prostas) with a recess on any side of
the court, not necessarily opposite the entrance (Gardner, 1.c. p. 297 and XXVI, 1906, pp. 211-212;
Rider, op. cit., p. 948).
6 Photius, s.v. rpoc-raila. Compare also Hesychius, s.v. poora'5, and Etymol. Magnum, s.v. rp6&Moos.
397
THE ARCHAEOLOGICALSOCIETY
OF AMERICA
398 NAPHTALI LEWIS

form, rp6aracts,1is used of the three projecting porches;2 in the house of Diotimos, it
is the vestibule entered through the pylon or main door of the house.a By the third
century 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 the
two steam-rooms (06XoL),4 and in Zenon's own house a prostas to some storerooms
(K6a/v~).5 The expanded meaning prevailed in succeeding centuries. Careful
study of Vitruvius' chapter on the Greek house will show that he considered the
prostas not as a recess of the court in front, but as an anteroom to the rooms behind ;6
papyri of later date show that in the houses of Roman Egypt, as in some of those at
Priene, the prostas was an anteroom to a living-room or dining-room (otKos);7and the
archaeological remains at Philadelphia show such an anteroom already in the third
century B.C.8
From the prostas in Diotimos' house, several doors led to the inner parts of the
house. One led to a large court called, from the large drawing-room (rTaKXLVOS,
room with seven couches) which opened on it, q avXiN ro3 vov. Another brought
rETaKX
one into a smaller court about which were grouped the domestic apartments (XpripLama)9
and which was called, accordingly, 7) aiaX) r7i- xpnlr??Piov. Now the Egyptian house
of Roman times obtained its light and air from a central court (aoptot), while a
forecourt, added on one side (abX' rpoaoida), was little more than a vestibule.10 This
type of house is a direct descendant of an Egyptian type developed in the New
Empire."1 Evidently, then, some ancient Egyptian building traditions survived
through Ptolemaic times. The house of Diotimos, however, was certainly not of
this aithrion type. There is no indication that either of the two courts I have
mentioned was an aAX7rpooika. The house had, in addition, an aithrion'2 whose
purpose, 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 The Erechtheum,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, justly
lists 7rp6vaos
and irp(0vpovas 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 Greece
and 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
proposed by Miss Elizabeth Sayre, Asst. Curator of Papyri
iKaIi•vw
at Columbia University, for the meaningless
6
KaXaivwvof P.S.I. IV, 396, 1. 9.
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,Darstellungen aus Geschichteund Kultur
des Ostens, Vol. 16, p. 10 and Abb. 2.
9 For this meaning of XPo7aTrpLa compare F. Preisigke, "Die Begriffe bei der Hausan-
ipr-yos und zr;-
lage," Hermes, LIV, 1919, pp. 426-427.
10 Luckhard, op. cit., pp. 52-53. 11 Ibid.
12 P. Cairo
Zenon, IV, 59764, 11.39-40. This is the first and, so far, the only occurrence of the word
aOptLovin Ptolemaic times.
 NEW LIGHT ON THE GREEK HOUSE FROM THE ZENON PAPYRI 399

Ptolemy Philadelphos,' in Greece. The archaeological and literary evidence show

that the ordinary Greek house, too, centered about a single court;2 but the house of
the fifth century B.C. uncovered in 1899 at Dystos in Euboea3 shows a two-court
arrangement from which the Hellenistic house such as that of Diotimos might easily
have 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 rural
districts where space was more available. And the addition of the peristyle to the
Latin 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 development
occasioned by a desire for luxury and display.5
The papyri contain numerous other details concerning the house of Diotimos, of
less importance, it is true, but often of equal interest. It is possible to reconstruct
the 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 have
not 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 not
contiguous, as in the house unearthed at Ghoran. But we cannot proceed beyond
probabilities.
NAPHTALI LEWIS
NEW YORK CITY

1 In the
reign of Philadelphos, the Greek traditions of the Macedonian conquerors were only just
beginning to feel the influence of the native Egyptian culture. In engineering, for example, the master
were all Greeks; their assistants
builders (apXLrkKTroVE) (br-apXLrTroVIE), however, could be Egyptians
(P.S.1. VI, 6,5, 1. 4). Compare J. P. Mahaffy, The Progress of Hellenism in Alexander's Empire, 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 Gardner
and 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 two
courts.
I As does Gardner,
I.c. p. 304. Gardner's theory, based on the assumption that there were no Hel-
lenistic houses with two courts, becomes untenable in the light of the present evidence. Indeed, some
of the more pretentious Pompeian houses show an arrangement of the courtyards decidedly like that of
the house of Diotimos. The "House of the Gilded Cupids," for example, has the domestic quarters
grouped 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 the
Porta 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 abcuXiro
XPrqT7rpiW•v.