Megarons and ΜΕΓΑΡΑ: Homer and Archaeology

Mary O. Knox

doi:10.1017/S0009838800036429

Megarons and ΜΕΓΑΡΑ: Homer and Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

Mary O. Knox

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

This paper is primarily an attempt to study the Homeric evidence on houses, particularly on the , in relation to the relevant remains. The reverse procedure, illuminating the archaeological evidence by references to Homer, is a hazardous one, as we shall see. It is often unclear just what is represented by the descriptions in the poems, and what period, if any, the things described belong to. I shall be concerned with these questions here. Are the houses in the poems Mycenaean: genuine traditions from the period in which the stories are set? Or are they Geometric: contemporary? Or a memory of some time in between? Or a mixture? We know so little about the development of the epic tradition that any possible source of information is worth pursuing.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , May 1973 , pp. 1 - 21

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800036429 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 1 note 1} Cf. for example Hainsworth, Homer, 11–12.

^{page 1 note 2} Indeed, in some cases they clearly do, e.g. the of II. 18. 376.

^{page 1 note 3} Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 92.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 4} See for example Gunn, A.J.P. xci (1970), 192 ff., where further bibliography is given.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 1} Cf. Ergon, 1967, 76, Room 19 and part of 21.

^{page 2 note 2} Cf. p. 8 below.

^{page 2 note 3} Knox, J.H.S. xc (1970), 117 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 4} Both can have the ‘living-room’ meaning, though it is less common in the plural. Henceforth by I shall mean the Homeric word in both singular and plural.

^{page 3 note 1} e.g. most of the examples in the suitor-slaying, in Od. 22.

^{page 3 note 2} e.g. Priam's libation to Zeus (II. 24. 306) and the altar in Odysseus' courtyard.

^{page 3 note 3} First thing in the morning Nestor went outside and sat (Od. 3. 407); can mean either thedoors of a or other room (e.g. Od. 22. 76) or the gates of an (e.g. Od. 7. 112). There is no mention of going indoors at any stage, and nowhere in the whole passage do such phrases as so common in this type of scene, occur.

^{page 3 note 4} Wace, Mycenae, 77; PN 85.

^{page 4 note 1} xxxiii (1958), 161 ff., and cf MMA 81 f.

^{page 4 note 2} Which I take to be the eighth centur: B.c.: for a useful catalogue of the archi tectural remains of the Early Iron Age, se GB 5 ff.

^{page 4 note 3} Blegen, Korakou, 88.

^{page 4 note 4} Blegen, op. cit., 83 and 90.

^{page 4 note 5} At Zagora, for example: A.J.A. lxxiv (1970), 282 and pl. 72, fig. 40.Google Scholar

^{page 4 note 6} e.g. in Eumaeus' (Od. 14. 420 ff.), though a is a very different thing from a .

^{page 4 note 7} For example Rider, The Greek House, 170.

^{page 5 note 1} Arch. Anz. lxxix (1964), 206.Google Scholar

^{page 5 note 2} e.g. Bassett, 309: Gray, plan p. 12.

^{page 5 note 3} Bassett, 299, n. 2. See also GB 114.

^{page 6 note 1} If one imagines for example that the lintel-beam restored by Nicholls in the PG house at Smyrna, which carried the prop supporting the ridge-pole, were built into the end wall and also served as the lintel of the door. For Nicholls's reconstructions, see Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 301, figs. s and 5.

^{page 6 note 2} Od. 17. 340 f., and cf. Bassett, 299, n. 2.

^{page 6 note 3} As common in Mycenaean building, cf. below, p. 18.

^{page 6 note 4} e.g. Bassett, 298 f.: ‘Near the hearth the family gathers.’

^{page 6 note 5} Cf. above (p. 5).

^{page 6 note 6} Bassett, 297, Bérard, R.E.G. lxvii (1954), 14 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 7} e.g. at Zagora (especially room 19) (Ergon, 1967, 75 ff. and fig. 77), cf. GB 125.

^{page 6 note 8} Cf. for example Gray, lo. The was probably something unusual, as it is so carefully described (Od. 22. 126 ff.). There is no firm archaeological example of a side door in a megaron: it is now clear that Wace's reconstruction of the ‘House of Columns’ at Mycenae with such a layout was unwarranted (Wace, j.H.S. lxxi [1951], 210;Google Scholar cf. Mylonas, , Mycenae's Last Century of Greatness, 14, ii.Google Scholar 12, and Hesp. xxxv [1966], 419 ff.). It is very doubtful whether the main room of the ‘House of Columns’ should be called a megaron at all.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 1} e.g. House L at Korakou (Blegen, Korakou, 81), and later, ‘Megaron B’ at Thermum ( 1900, 161 ff.).

^{page 7 note 2} R.E.G. lxvii (1954) 4 f.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 3} Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 108 ff.

^{page 7 note 4} e.g. Od. 18. 316, and cf. Wace, J.H.S. lxxi (1951), 209.Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 1} The ‘Little Megaron’ at Tiryns has a porch, the ‘Mycenaean’ megaron at Gournia (House H) an enclosed anteroom (Hawes, Gournia, 23 and plan).

^{page 8 note 2} House T at Aghios Kosmas (Fig. I (c) and Mylonas, Aghios Kosmas, fig. 15).

For summaries of the history of the megaron, see Boardman, Emporio, 36, and Shear, A Land called Crete, 58 ff.

^{page 8 note 3} Bassett, 295 f., HM 415 ff.

^{page 8 note 4} Cf. above, p. 7.

^{page 8 note 5} Ergon, 1967, fig. 77; if indeed, as seems likely, area 21 was partly roofed to form a porch.

^{page 8 note 6} Cf. p. 15 below on the Mycenaean corridor. Drerup cites a corridor in eighth-century Gordion (GB 130) but there are still none from Greek sites of the period.

^{page 8 note 7} HM 415 ff.

^{page 9 note 1} e.g. Od. 4. 297, 4. 302, and 15. 5.

^{page 9 note 2} Od. 4. 74. not found in Homer, must mean a building in (H. Mere. 103, 134, 399).

^{page 9 note 3} e.g. Od. 22. 375–6,

^{page 9 note 4} Od. 17. 266 f., and cf. Bérard, R.E.G. lxvii (1954), 32: Odysseus'is adornedGoogle Scholar

^{page 9 note 5} Contrary to this interpretation is the belief of Deroy (Ét. class. xvi (1948), 345 f.) that is in origin the collective of aads, a reed, and so basically means the palisade itself rather than the area surrounded by it. But does not seem to be used of a reed, only of anything hollow, including a reed pipe. Anyway, his claim that in Homer largely retains its ‘palisade’ meaning cannc be substantiated from the text. There ar a few passages where this meaning look plausible, e.g. II. 24. 452 f., Od. 9. 184 19 But in Od. 16. 165 and 343 we have , and the formula avails occurs twice.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 6} e.g. Od. 20. 176, where the mentioned will be the one near the oute gate, as in Od. 18. 102.

^{page 9 note 7} Od. 17. 297, if indeed this is within the . I am unable to discern that ‘the orde in p 260 f. is quite unambiguous’ on this point (Gray, 8).

^{page 9 note 8} Il. II. 774 and 24. 640.

^{page 10 note 1} Achilles, Il. 16. 231; Priam, Il 24. 306. It could be that was originally distinguished from as the dignified ceremonial court from the farmyard (cf at any rate never has the ‘farmyard’ meaning which often has) and that the two functions were before Homer's time combined in one enclosure. This would have to have happened soon enough for the formulae in which both words are used together to become established.

^{page 10 note 2} Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 13; cf. J. M. Cook, The Greeks in the East, 32 and fig. 6.

^{page 10 note 3} Hesp. xxxvii (1968), 92 ff., where references to other examples are also given.Google Scholar

^{page 10 note 4} Popham and Sackett, Excavations at Lefkandi, Euboea, 1964–6, 30 and figs. 68–70. One of the structures appears to be withina house-yard, as at Smyrna.

^{page 10 note 5} Two have ladders painted up the side, in both cases starting at the very bottom (CVA Schloss Fasanerie 2, Deutschland 16, pl. 36.10; Hesp. Supp. ii 186–6).

^{page 10 note 6} See Nicholls's reconstruction, Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 301. Graham objected to their identification as granaries, saying that ‘other people have preferred (granaries) raised’ (J.H.S. lxxxv [1963], 219) but about the same time at Tarsus-not so very far away-underground granaries were in use (Goldman, Tarsus iii 6).Google Scholar

^{page 10 note 7} e.g. Brann, Agora viii, 72 and pl. 21.

^{page 10 note 8} Hesp. xxxvii (1968), 92, ii. 41.Google Scholar

^{page 10 note 9} Greece in the Bronze Age, 166.

^{page 10 note 10} Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 97.

^{page 10 note 11} Gray, plan p. 12.

^{page 11 note 1} Atkinson, J.H.S. supp. iv (1902), pl. 2.

^{page 11 note 2} Particularly Miss Gray's plan (p. 12), in spite of her comment that there are now Mycenaean parallels for everything in the Homeric house. In a more recent article. Tamm also fails to appreciate this difference. She makes, however, a fairly sharp distinction between the of a Homeric palace and that of a Homeric , whereas this difference was, I believe, one rather of degree (i.e. size or elaboration or decoration) than of type. (Tamm, B., Stockholm Studies in Classical Archaeology v [1968], 141–3).Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 3} Smyrna: several of the yard-walls can be found on the plan in B.S.A. liii (1958–9), and cf. Nicholls's drawing in Greeks in the East (J. M. Cook), 32 fig. 5. Lefkandi: Popham and Sackett, op. cit., fig. 68.

^{page 11 note 4} II. 6. 243: such enormous dormitory wings could never have been fitted into the space available on the citadel at Hisarltk, which probably reflects more on poetic method than on the identification of the site with Troy.

^{page 11 note 5} Gray, plan p. 12.

^{page 11 note 6} J.H.S. lxxi. (1951), 207.Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 1} J.H.S. lxxi (1951), 207 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 2} Palmer, Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 114.

^{page 12 note 3} This possibility was suggested by Pro. fessor Webster (in discussion).

^{page 12 note 4} Homerische Paläste, 49 ff.

^{page 12 note 5} Il. 3. 125, 142, 6. 377, 22. 440, 460.

^{page 12 note 6} e.g. the ‘House of Columns’ area al Mycenae (Hesp. xxxv [1966], 425 and fig. 2).Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 7} The remains of charred beams were found across one of these rooms, and were interpreted by Akurgal as supports for a flat roof (Kunst Anatoliens, 9 ff.). Until the site fully published, however, the possibility cannot be ignored that they were the float joists of an upper storey. The floors of these rectangular rooms were at a lower level than their surroundings. Nicholls describes them cautiously as ‘basement-like houses’, and they could in fact have been basements (B.S.A. liii-liv [1958-g], 84).Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 8} However, it is noteworthy that the practice at Emporio was to level the site to take a one-storey house, or to build a ‘split-level’ house with a mere step between the two levels, rather than to build part of the house over a basement which could contain storerooms, although the site would seem to have been suitable for this (Boardman. Emporio, 40 ff.).

^{page 12 note 9} J.H.S. lxxi (1951), 209.Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 10} Six out of twenty-four in the Iliad, nine out of forty-five in the Odyssey.

^{page 12 note 11} e.g. Il. 14. 166 ff., Od. 21. 42 ff.

^{page 13 note 1} Od. 15. 517, though it is implied that were it not for the unwelcome presence of the suitors, she would do her spinning and weaving downstairs, as other queens do (cf. Od. 4. 121 ff.).

^{page 13 note 2} The second-floor situation of the treasure-room is inferred from Penelope's mounting the stairs to reach it (Od. 21. 5).

^{page 13 note 3} Ergon, 1967, 78.

^{page 13 note 4} e.g. Od. 18. 316, 19. 30, 19. 60.

^{page 13 note 5} I am grateful to Professor Webster forsuggesting this parallel. For a fifth-century example in Athens, cf. Hesp. xx (1951), 206, and for a full discussion of such rooms at Olynthus, Mylonas, Olynthus xii (Robinson), 369 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 13 note 6} For example the big room beside the megaron-like suite in the house in squares F.XII, G.XII, F.XIII, G.XIII on the plan in B.S.A. (1958–9), and cf. Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 184.

^{page 14 note 1} Bassett, 300 f., HM 414. Cf. also Myres, J.H.S. xx (1900), 134 ff., Palmer, Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 111.Google Scholar

^{page 14 note 2} e.g. Telemachus' sneeze, Od. 17. 541 f.

^{page 14 note 3} Trans. Phil. Soc. 1948, 112.

^{page 14 note 4} Ergon, 1967, 75 ff.; 1969, 132 ff.

^{page 14 note 5} Dörpfeld in Tiryns (Schliemann), 218 ff., 248 f., and pl. 3; Muller, Tiryns 189 ff. This view is now accepted by most authorities.

^{page 15 note 1} Les Origines de l'édifice hypostyle, 51 f.

^{page 15 note 2} So Lorimer, HM 422 f.

^{page 15 note 3} Cf. Shear, A Land Called Crete, 61 f.

^{page 15 note 4} Advocated by Dinsmoor (Architecture of Ancient Greece, 19 f.), Baldwin Smith (A.J.A. xlvi [1942], 99 ff.), and Clark Hopkins (Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici xxvii [i968], 48 ff.).Google Scholar

^{page 15 note 5} A.J.A. xlix (1945), 35 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 15 note 6} A.J.A. xlvi (1942), 370–2.Google Scholar

^{page 15 note 7} Rodenwaldt, Fries des Megarons eon Mykenai.

^{page 15 note 8} The ‘relieving triangle’ over gateways had its own structural function, lessening the weight on the lintel-stone, and cannot (contra Leroux, op. cit., 60, and Hopkins, op. cit., 52) be considered to represent a housefaçade.

^{page 16 note 1} Karphi: B.S.A. xxxviii (1937–1938), 57 ff. Vrokastro: Hall, Excavations in Eastern Crete: Vrokastro.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 2} Iolkos: Ergon, 1960, 58. Naxos: B.C.H. lxxxvi (1962), 858 ff., lxxxviii (1964), 803 ff., and cf. GB 69. Lefkandi: Popham and Sackett, Excavations at Lefkandi, Euboea, 1964–6, figs. 12, 14, 21.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 3} Ergon, 1960, 57.

^{page 16 note 4} See Nicholls's drawings in Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 305.

^{page 16 note 5} A.M. lxxiv (1959), 18; iv (1930), 16 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 6} e.g. Zagora (Ergon, 1967, 75 ff.), Smyrna (Akurgal, Kunst Anatoliens, 9 ff.).

^{page 16 note 7} A.M. lxxii (1957), 43, 51, and pl. 84. 1 and 2.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 8} Athens: Hesp. ii (1933), 542–640,Google Scholar and cf. Hesp. xxxvii (1968), 60.Google Scholar Solygeia: B.C.H. lxxxiii (1959), 608,Google ScholarArchaeology xv (1962), 184 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 9} R. M. Cook, The Greeks before Alexander, 39.

^{page 17 note 1} The Greeks in the East, 33.

^{page 17 note 2} Cf. Hodge, The Woodwork of Greek Roofs, 118.

^{page 17 note 3} Like that on the oval Samos model, A.M. lv (1930), 16

^{page 17 note 4} Drerup makes this point (GB 116).

^{page 17 note 5} See for instance GB 109, where some of the many other interpretations that have been suggested are also discussed. Drerup argues that the cannot have been part of the roof-frame as this would have been out of range of the blood spattered during the slaughter (Od. 20. 354). However, Mr. F. Hurst, of the Forensic Section, Chemistry Division, New Zealand D.S.I.R., kindly informs me that ‘blood from short swords used for stabbing or cutting couldeasily be flung onto beams 8 feet or more above the floor. This would be the case particularly when swords caused neck wounds cutting the jugular vein, or head wounds.’ Just such a wound is described in Od. 22. 328.

^{page 17 note 6} Griechisches etymologisches Wiirterbuch, s.v.

^{page 17 note 7} Od. 2. 424, 15. 289. On the strength of the nautical meaning, Lorimer is tempted to regard it as a vertical member (432, n. 5), but there is no agreement on the precise nature of the nautical Morrison calls it a thwart on the grounds that in architecture the word means a cross-beam (Greek Oared Ships, 52)!

^{page 17 note 8} Garrido-Božić, G.R. xv (1946), 109.Google Scholar

^{page 18 note 1} Cf. Hodge, The Woodwork of Greek Roofs, 118, HM 432.

^{page 18 note 2} II. 17. 744, Od. 19. 38, 22. 176 and 193.

^{page 18 note 3} Hodge, op. cit., 123.

^{page 18 note 4} HM 431: she suggests on p. 214 that (Il. 10. 267) is an oblique reference to mud-brick, but a thief could also burrow through a rubble wall.

^{page 18 note 5} II. 16. 212 (a simile); Od. 10. 211; II. 6. 244–8 and Od. 23. 193, the latter two passages referring to walls of built after the house was completed.

^{page 18 note 6} As postulated in the bathroom at Tiryns (Dörpfeld in Schliemann's Tiryns, 231 f.).

^{page 18 note 7} In the Artemis Orthia temple at Sparta, there were ‘small flat stones in the wall set among the round stones … forming a kind of socket in the foundation course’ (J.H.S. supp. v (1924), 10 f.).Google Scholar This is the only evidence I know of for the use of timber actually set into the wall (as opposed to timber columns, roofs, and door-and window-frames) during the Early Iron Age, and it is of course very late in the relevant period (Boardman, B.S.A. lviii [1963], 1 ff.).Google Scholar

^{page 18 note 8} Cf. above, pp. 5–6.

^{page 18 note 9} Od. 21. 120 ff. and 22. 455 ff., cf. Od. 23. 46 ‘firm-floored’.

^{page 18 note 10} C.R. lxii (1948), 12f. and 113 respectively.Google Scholar

^{page 19 note 1} e.g. Mycenaean: Blegen, Korakou, 82. Geometric: Boardman, Emporio, 41, 42, 47. etc.

^{page 19 note 2} Boardman, Emporio, 43. (On p. 46 of the same book, the dimension 0.80 m. given for the threshold of house G should surely be length, not width?)

^{page 19 note 3} Od. 4. 718, cf. HM 420.

^{page 19 note 4} Unless just means ‘ap proached’-however, Meleager's father definitely did ‘mount’ the threshold.

^{page 19 note 5} Cf. Wace, Mycenae, 66, PN 38.

^{page 19 note 6} J.H.S. xx (1900), 136–9.Google Scholar

^{page 19 note 7} See above, with n. 5.

^{page 19 note 8} Boardman, Emporio, 37.

^{page 19 note 9} e.g. Od. 21. 43 ff., where the fine craftsmanship of Penelope's is described.

^{page 20 note 1} li. 23. 712 f., cf. p. 17 above.

^{page 20 note 2} See below, p. 21.

^{page 20 note 3} II. 6. 313 ff. Walcot ignores the passage in arguing that the varied practical skills of Odysseus were for Homer and his audience something exceptional andastonishing (Greek Peasants, 34 ff.).

^{page 20 note 4} Cf. Finley, The World of Odysseus, 51–2, Walcot, Greek Peasants, 8–9.

^{page 20 note 5} R. Maunier, La Construction collective de la maison en Kabylie (Paris, 1926).

^{page 21 note 1} Cf. Roebuck, Ionian Trade and Colonisation, 36.

^{page 21 note 2} Ventris and Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 123.

^{page 21 note 3} Since the excavations at Zagora, cf. p. 14, n. 4 above.

^{page 21 note 4} See above, pp. 18–19, on the axe-episode. Similarly, Phoinix' escape must have been devised after it was normal to surround acourtyard with a mere wall.

^{page 21 note 5} See above, p. 8 and n. 6.

^{page 21 note 6} Cf. Gray, Fatty rears of Classical Scholarship (ed. Platnauer), 29 f.

^{page 21 note 7} The same conclusion is yielded by a study of town plans, which I hope to discuss elsewhere. Admittedly the quantity of evidence is still small, and I do not claim an overwhelming statistical probability.

Article contents

Megarons and ΜΕΓΑΡΑ: Homer and Archaeology

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests