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

THE ATTIC STELAI 235
section on temple doors in Ebert, Fachausdricke, pp. 19-22, 52-58. The most usable
general article on the Greek door is that of E. Pottier in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire,
s.v. Janua, which includes a number of illustrations from vase-paintings, and a
history of the development of the door. The article by Ebert 'in R.E., s.v. Thyra is
briefer and more concerned with details of technique and terminology. On the woods
used and the care taken in constructing doors, see Theophrastos, H.P., V, 3, 5.
Most representations of doors in art show temple or palace entrances, but house
doors are by no means unknown on vases."58 References to house doors in ancient
authors are frequent, but seldom explicit enough to be very helpful. Thus the most
valuable treatment of doors for the purpose of this study is that of Robinson and
Graham."59
Houses in Olynthos had single or double doors, and in three instances the same
house had a single and a double door set side by side, one presumably for pedestrians,
the other for carts and animals. The house doors were set flush in the wall, sometimes
under a small projecting roof, and sometimes within a shallow porch or prothyron.
There were no wooden doors found at Olynthos, but from odd fittings and from
pictures of ancient doors it can be assumed that a house door of the fifth century
was made of vertical boards held together by three cross-pieces (Zvya))," the middle
one a little above center, fixed by decorative bronze nails. Doorways at Olynthos were
between 0.90 and 1.40 meters in width. The door was hung on a vertical pivot of wood
which was as a rule tipped with bronze at the bottom end and fixed in bronze or
stone sockets set in the threshold and the lintel.'61 These doors consistently opened
inward."62
The house doors at Delos were more elegant than those at Olynthos, with stone
frames and carved lintels; one in the neighborhood of the theatre measured 1.78 m.
158
In vase-painting, they were especially popular in works of the Meidian circle, and most
particularly on pyxides showing scenes of women's activities. See C.V.A., U.S.A., Robinson Collection,
fasc. 3, pl. 11 and p. 20, fig. 1; C.V.A., Bonn, pl. 27, 4; C. V.A., Copenhagen, fasc. 4, pl. 162,
5 b; Furtwangler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, pl. 57, 1 and 3; Pfuhl, Malerei und Zeichnung
der Griechen, III, fig. 580 (all double doors); C.V.A., Bonn, fasc. 1, pl. 25, 4 (single door);
Van Hoorn, Choes and Anthesteria, Leiden, 1951, no. 761, fig. 117; Pfuhl, op. cit., pl. 561 (double
door, opened).
159 Olynthus, VIII, pp. 153 ff. and pp. 249 ff. with plates 69-72. For stone doors, see the
literature cited on page 252, note 6.
160
See Ebert, Fachausdriicke, p. 53.
""The pivot was called arpoOcv", arpo'(ct$ or 4acv: the cap at the bottom was the pty$ or
xoLvLKs (xotvL'xr) : the socket was the XAvos or o'Xos (6X,dutKos), according to Robinson and Graham,
Olynthus, VIII, p. 254, note 15; actual finds of these objects are listed in Olynthus, X, p. 295, and
good pictures of them can be found in Delos, VIII, 2, fig. 157; cf. Wiegand, Priene, pp. 304 f. The
socket was also v{ro1ooxov: I.G., XI, 2, 287 A, line 116. These terms are also discussed by Klenk,
op. cit., pp. 39 ff., and Ebert, Fachausdriicke, p. 55. Some modern Greek doors still are hung in
exactly the same way; see R. H. Dawkins, B.S.A., IX, 1902-1903, p. 184.
162
Compare this description with Parmenides' Proem. 11, 11-12.