CIRCULAR HUMAN HABITATIONS. 907 



the mills for grinding meal close to the large hall, and we 

 can understand how the pseudo- beggar, lying on the pave- 

 ment, heard distinctly the lamentations of the unhappy girl 

 who was kept up late at night to grind for the importunate 

 suitors. There is the entrance from the back street, which 

 was so carefully guarded, and the narrow passage, against 

 the wall of which the naughty girls who had so misbehaved 

 themselves were made to stand in a row whilst the halters 

 were adjusted round their necks ; and with this plan before 

 us, the whole scene becomes vividly real, and we have no 

 doubt that Homer's description was not ideal, but perfectly 

 realistic, and that we have handed down to us in the 

 Pompeian mansion a faithful tradition of the plan of the 

 Greek house of Homer's time. 



Now Homer speaks of the principal apartment in the 

 palace as the " tholos," which Butcher and Lang translate as 

 the " hearth dome," a term evidently handed down from 

 former ages, when the " house " was simply a round domical 

 hut with a central hearth, on which burned continually the 

 sacred fire, which symbolized the leading object of worship. 



Grecian architecture, however, whether domestic, civil, or 

 religious, was essentially of a rectangular type, no suggestion 

 being apparent of circular plans or of domed roofs, which 

 came into use at a later date with the development of Roman 

 forms. 



We must therefore conclude that the term tholos had been 

 handed down probably for many centuries, and had come to 

 mean par excellence the " house place," without any 

 reference to the original meaning of the word. 



An exception must, however, be nuide from the generally 

 j'ectangular style of Greek architecture in respect of the 

 circular stone domes known as " treasuries," of which the so- 

 called Treasury of Atreus, at Mycenae, is one of the best 

 examples. It has three special characteristics — the entrance 

 passage, the circular domed hall, and the small adjacent 

 chamber, rectangular in plan. And this noted examjile of 

 structures of this class fulfils in every respect the conditions of 

 the building in which Danee was confined, which has been 

 described as a brazen tower, a treasure house, and a tomb. 

 It was customary to deposit treasures in tombs for the sake 

 of the security aftbrded by the respect shown to the memory 

 of the dead, and the brazen character of the structure is 

 evidenced by the nails still remaining with which the bronze 



