DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0022
ANCIENT ATHENS.
small chamber, yet more frequently the rooms are grouped in such a
manner as to show that they were evidently connected and belonged to
the same house. Many of these groups are analogous to the plan of a
good Pompeian house, and must therefore have been the habitations of
wealthy persons. These were distinguished by peculiar conveniences,
as gutters for the rain, cisterns, large courts resembling the atria and
peristyles at Pompeii, and even places for the family sepulchres. This
last circumstance proves these houses to have been very ancient, for
such a mode of interment was not permitted in the more modern and
refined days of Athens.
The relative distribution of these houses appears to be as follows :—
On the north-western hill about 100; on the Pnyx hill, 200; on the
Observatory Hill (that of the Nymphs), 40 ; on the great western
hill, 150 ; on the Museium Hill, 250; and on the Areiopagus about 60.
They vary very much in their arrangement. On the Areiopagus the
chambers are scattered j>ele-mele and without order, whilst on the hills
behind the Pnyx they are disposed regularly in lines and streets. M.
Burnouf (p. 73) recognizes in this the natural march of civilization.
Accepting the Acropolis, which was always called ttoXr, or ' the city '—
just as our old London within the walls is also distinguished by that
name—as the central point and the spot first inhabited, the earliest
additions would of course be in its immediate neighbourhood, and from
their period would be of a meaner character than the subsequent
extensions. Now, this is just what we find. The houses improve not
only in size, but also in regularity of disposition, as we advance from
the centre towards the circumference. Those on the Areiopagus and
the neighbouring portion of the Pnyx Hill show that primitive Athens
was a collection of little hovels, and this part of the town seems never
to have been improved. It is on the southern heights, which enjoyed
a prospect of the sea and received the refreshing breezes from it, that
the best houses, comparatively speaking, appear to have been built; but
even these would seem poor when contrasted with more modern habi-
tations. Quite at the extremity of this southern suburb, and at the foot
of the hills, still larger foundations are seen, but, from their level site,
small chamber, yet more frequently the rooms are grouped in such a
manner as to show that they were evidently connected and belonged to
the same house. Many of these groups are analogous to the plan of a
good Pompeian house, and must therefore have been the habitations of
wealthy persons. These were distinguished by peculiar conveniences,
as gutters for the rain, cisterns, large courts resembling the atria and
peristyles at Pompeii, and even places for the family sepulchres. This
last circumstance proves these houses to have been very ancient, for
such a mode of interment was not permitted in the more modern and
refined days of Athens.
The relative distribution of these houses appears to be as follows :—
On the north-western hill about 100; on the Pnyx hill, 200; on the
Observatory Hill (that of the Nymphs), 40 ; on the great western
hill, 150 ; on the Museium Hill, 250; and on the Areiopagus about 60.
They vary very much in their arrangement. On the Areiopagus the
chambers are scattered j>ele-mele and without order, whilst on the hills
behind the Pnyx they are disposed regularly in lines and streets. M.
Burnouf (p. 73) recognizes in this the natural march of civilization.
Accepting the Acropolis, which was always called ttoXr, or ' the city '—
just as our old London within the walls is also distinguished by that
name—as the central point and the spot first inhabited, the earliest
additions would of course be in its immediate neighbourhood, and from
their period would be of a meaner character than the subsequent
extensions. Now, this is just what we find. The houses improve not
only in size, but also in regularity of disposition, as we advance from
the centre towards the circumference. Those on the Areiopagus and
the neighbouring portion of the Pnyx Hill show that primitive Athens
was a collection of little hovels, and this part of the town seems never
to have been improved. It is on the southern heights, which enjoyed
a prospect of the sea and received the refreshing breezes from it, that
the best houses, comparatively speaking, appear to have been built; but
even these would seem poor when contrasted with more modern habi-
tations. Quite at the extremity of this southern suburb, and at the foot
of the hills, still larger foundations are seen, but, from their level site,