DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1038#0080
66
as to lean against a pillar, many have supposed that the
hall was decorated with a colonnade regularly fluted ac-
cording to the rules of architecture, and consequently of
the Doric order. This idea may have arisen from what has
been said of the invention of fluting among the ancients,
which might have been first used on account of the conve-
nience and security it afforded for the reception of the
spears of those who entered the house, yet the poet seems
only to mention one column in the hall of Ulysses, and that
probably supported the roof. It is not however impossible
that there might have been more of these pillars, especially
as the room was of such considerable dimensions. The
beams or rafters were certainly ornamented.' There was
also a place whence Penelope, unseen by the suitors, could
see and hear all that passed in the hall.1
There is no mention of windows in the hall; and, in-
deed, the house is often said to be dark.3 After sunset the
1 Od. 20. 354. The expression xxXxlli ptsoS^xi which has often been ren-
dered " the beautiful intercolumniations" seems to have no such meaning,
and to signify only the horizontal traverse beams, which were equally ne-
cessary whether the roof was flat or pointed.
1 Od, 20. 387. 3 Od. 18. 398. Od. 4. 768.
as to lean against a pillar, many have supposed that the
hall was decorated with a colonnade regularly fluted ac-
cording to the rules of architecture, and consequently of
the Doric order. This idea may have arisen from what has
been said of the invention of fluting among the ancients,
which might have been first used on account of the conve-
nience and security it afforded for the reception of the
spears of those who entered the house, yet the poet seems
only to mention one column in the hall of Ulysses, and that
probably supported the roof. It is not however impossible
that there might have been more of these pillars, especially
as the room was of such considerable dimensions. The
beams or rafters were certainly ornamented.' There was
also a place whence Penelope, unseen by the suitors, could
see and hear all that passed in the hall.1
There is no mention of windows in the hall; and, in-
deed, the house is often said to be dark.3 After sunset the
1 Od. 20. 354. The expression xxXxlli ptsoS^xi which has often been ren-
dered " the beautiful intercolumniations" seems to have no such meaning,
and to signify only the horizontal traverse beams, which were equally ne-
cessary whether the roof was flat or pointed.
1 Od, 20. 387. 3 Od. 18. 398. Od. 4. 768.