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as to render the supposition of any important revolutioninadmissible. The continuance of the same climate, andthe existence of nearly the same customs, seem to point outthe necessity for an adherence to the same principles inbuilding.
Greek houses, according to Vitruvius, appear to haveconsisted of three divisions; two of them having an opencourt surrounded by apartments for various purposes. Thesewere the andronitis and gynaeconitis: the intermediate onewas termed the oecus quadratus, or banqueting room. Inlike manner the palace of the Odyssey seems to have hadthe same number of separate divisions; which were theand wap* ywaiKw, corresponding respectively with the andronitisand gynaeconitis; and the pdyapov, or coenaculum, which, likethe great oecus of the Vitruvian palace, appears to haveserved as the banqueting room of the numerous suitors ofPenelope. It is also probable that the prothyrum andprodomus, on opposite sides of the coenaculum, correspondedwith the pastas and vestibulum which led to the two courtsof the Greek house from the great banqueting room: and inboth instances were the only avenues from one to the other.We shall therefore assume this general arrangement, andmention various passages to shew that it is consistent withthe description of Homer. If this point can be established,it will sufficiently prove that the general principle, uponwhich the houses of these different ages were constructed,were alike. And this is all the light that can be expectedto be thrown upon the subject; considering what are themeans of elucidation left to us.