DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0113
THE PRIVATE HOUSE AND DOMESTIC LIFE 71
temples o£ the gods alone. The fact that the flat roof is
unheard of in temple architecture shows clearly that the
Hellenes looked upon the gable roof as an inheritance from
their forefathers with an ethnic and sacred character. It is
doubtless the same feeling which controls the type of those
rock-hewn tombs, which the Mycenaeans fashioned after
the pattern of their dwellings, and in which the flat roof is
never found. That the flat roof came gradually to prevail,
in private houses, as at Athens, was largely due to the
growth of cities, whose inhabitants, shut up in contracted
quarters, would need cool living-rooms by day and airy
sleeping-places by night. Both of these desiderata were
satisfied by the deep, flat roofs through which the sun's
rays could hardly penetrate the dwelling, and which would
be delightful dormitories of a summer's night, as the Greeks
who still sleep upon their terraces can testify.1
On the other hand the pitched roof is a necessity of more
northern climes with abundant snow and rain fall. In
Greece, with a situation between north and east, both
systems can and do coexist. But the fact attested by the
rock-tombs, that the pitched roof is the more primitive and
the prevalent one in Mycenaean times, warrants the conclu-
sion that the settlers and builders of Mycenae came into
Peloponnesus from the farther North.
Of the interior furnishing of the Mycenaean house our
knowledge is limited; but we know that it included
tables, round as well as square, and easy chairs with
semicircular backs. Sometimes, however, in place of mov-
1 A good Homeric habit. So in the Odyssey (x. 552 ff.)> Elpenor goes to
sleep on Circe's housetop — " very fain of the cool air, as one heavy with wine."
Rudely roused by the bustle of bis departing comrades, "he leaped up of a
sudden and minded him not to descend again by the way of the tall ladder,
but fell right down from the roof," and, of course, broke bis neck.
temples o£ the gods alone. The fact that the flat roof is
unheard of in temple architecture shows clearly that the
Hellenes looked upon the gable roof as an inheritance from
their forefathers with an ethnic and sacred character. It is
doubtless the same feeling which controls the type of those
rock-hewn tombs, which the Mycenaeans fashioned after
the pattern of their dwellings, and in which the flat roof is
never found. That the flat roof came gradually to prevail,
in private houses, as at Athens, was largely due to the
growth of cities, whose inhabitants, shut up in contracted
quarters, would need cool living-rooms by day and airy
sleeping-places by night. Both of these desiderata were
satisfied by the deep, flat roofs through which the sun's
rays could hardly penetrate the dwelling, and which would
be delightful dormitories of a summer's night, as the Greeks
who still sleep upon their terraces can testify.1
On the other hand the pitched roof is a necessity of more
northern climes with abundant snow and rain fall. In
Greece, with a situation between north and east, both
systems can and do coexist. But the fact attested by the
rock-tombs, that the pitched roof is the more primitive and
the prevalent one in Mycenaean times, warrants the conclu-
sion that the settlers and builders of Mycenae came into
Peloponnesus from the farther North.
Of the interior furnishing of the Mycenaean house our
knowledge is limited; but we know that it included
tables, round as well as square, and easy chairs with
semicircular backs. Sometimes, however, in place of mov-
1 A good Homeric habit. So in the Odyssey (x. 552 ff.)> Elpenor goes to
sleep on Circe's housetop — " very fain of the cool air, as one heavy with wine."
Rudely roused by the bustle of bis departing comrades, "he leaped up of a
sudden and minded him not to descend again by the way of the tall ladder,
but fell right down from the roof," and, of course, broke bis neck.