the attic stelai - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

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The economic picture which emerges from this chapter on Greek furniture is of
a relatively simple mode of life. The words of Rostovtzeff, descriptive of the later,
Hellenistic, period, could equally well be cited for the fifth century: " House furniture
was very scanty: it consisted of a. few couches, chairs, tables, and chests of
various forms. In rich houses, couches for example-the best known pieces of
furniture-were real products of art, being adorned with bronze sculptures (on the
legs, backs, and side-supports), inlaid with ivory and coloured glass, and covered with
fine mattresses, rugs, and pillows. But in the average houses all the articles of furniture
were of plain design and cheap material. Table and domestic utensils, including
lamps, were mostly of clay and of comparatively few shapes and plainly made." 6
Rostovtzeff's statement may be compared with the opening sentence of Richter's book
on Greek furniture: " When we begin to study Greek furniture nothing is more
striking than the comparative simnplicity of the life of the Greeks." By modern standards,
certainly, the Greek house must have been relatively empty.
The present chapter can be regarded only as an approach to the study of Greek
furn'iture. Probably in no other section of this work has the need been more obvious
for an authoritative work defining and illustrating all of the words studied. The
present writer has of course restricted his investigation to those terms which occur
in the Attic Stelai. But there is unquestionably material for an investigation of the
meaning of numerous related words. Present studies do not begin with the literary
material and are concerned for the most part with artistic representations and their
development.
Miscellaneous household furnishings, like pillows, bedspreads, and curtains, have
been considered with the furniture. From archaic times Greeks were fond of piling
their couches and chairs with colored cushions, and of draping them with rugs and
tapestries.7 It may have been in his choice of furnishings that an Attic householder
6 Soc. and Ec. Hist. of Hell. World, II, pp. 1203-1204.
7 See G. M. A. Richter, Ancient Furniture, Oxford, 1926, figs. 6, 7, 69, 113, 118, 121, 152, 159,
161, 162, etc.