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The House of Ulysses.
(Reprinted from The Authoress of the Odyssey.)
The only points on which I differ from Mr. Lang are in respect of the inner court, which he sees as a roofed hall, but which I hold to have been open to the sky, except the covered cloister or μέγαρα σκιόεντα, an arrangement which is still very common in Sicilian houses, especially at Trapani and Palermo. I also differ from him in so far as I see no reason to think that the "stone pavement" was raised, and as believing the ὀρσοθύρα so have been at the top of Telemachus's tower, and called "in the wall" because the tower abutted on the wall; or it may have been a window high up in the tower. These are details: substantially my view of the action and scene during the killing of the suitors agrees with Mr. Lang's. I will not give the reasons which compel me to differ from Sir Richard Jebb[1] and Mr. Platt,[2] but will leave my plan of the house and the abridged translation to the judgement of the reader.
A was the body of the house, containing the women's apartments and other rooms. It had an upper story, in which was Penelope's room overlooking the court where the suitors passed the greater part of their time.
It also contained the store-room, which seems to have been placed at the far end of the house, perhaps in a basement.
