073 The Oikos and Private Life
The History of Ancient Greece
Ryan Stitt
4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2018
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the basic designs of ancient Greek homes and what type of furniture, decoration, lighting, and so forth might be found in them; the physical and idealistic seperation between the gynakeion (women's quarters) and the andron (men's quarters); the pitfalls to ancient Athens as an urban city (such as the street-side defecation), as well as the benefits (such as the gymnasia); the religious sphere of the oikos, particularly the role Hestia played in it; and the different type of clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles one might have seen on an ancient Athenian man or woman
Show Notes: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2018/04/073-oikos-and-private-life.html
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're going to be. So, The Hello and welcome back to the history of ancient Greece. |
| 0:45.0 | Episode 73, The Wakers and Private Life. |
| 0:50.0 | The urban center of ancient Athens would have struck the modern eye as a curious amalgam of both public wealth and private squaller. |
| 0:59.0 | In regards to the former, it was a city to be admired for the breathtaking beauty of its public buildings, for which in the classical period there was no equivalent in the entire Greek world. |
| 1:09.0 | The new buildings that stood in the center of the city, both atop the Acropolis and in the Agara, which |
| 1:15.3 | we discussed in episode 65 and 66, seemed so spectacular, not only because they were |
| 1:21.0 | large, well built, and |
| 1:22.8 | expensively decorated, but also because they contrasted so |
| 1:26.2 | vividly with the private architecture of Athens in the 5th century BC. |
| 1:30.8 | In regards to its housing and public amenities though, Athens may well have been inferior to many of its |
| 1:36.2 | contemporaries. The houses, as we will discuss, were small, poorly furnished, and quite dirty. They were crowded together, separated by windy, narrow, and |
| 1:47.2 | smelly streets that were usually just stone alleys with a stream of filthy water flowing down the middle. And so it may strike |
| 1:55.1 | the modern listener as quite remarkable that the Athenians, who adorn their |
| 1:59.6 | city with some of the most splendid buildings ever construct it were content to tolerate such |
| 2:05.1 | discomfort in their private homes. |
| 2:08.0 | This can be explained partly because of the climate, as life outdoors is much more possible and enjoyable in Greece than in |
| 2:15.0 | Northern Europe. It was also because they thought that public buildings, temples, |
| 2:19.5 | theaters, law courts, fountains, and so forth, held a higher importance than private houses. |
| 2:26.1 | And so it says everything about the difference in mentality between them and us that nobody ever |
| 2:31.0 | suggested that their priorities should be reversed. |
| 2:34.0 | And it would be up to the Romans later to develop the type of luxurious domestic architecture |
| 2:39.0 | that the rich and the famous would become accustomed to. |
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