Book contents
- Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Kinship ‘In the Halls’
- 2 Domesticating the Ancient House
- 3 Mind the Gap
- 4 A Family Affair
- 5 Textiles in Alkestis’ thalamos
- 6 Architectural Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Architecture
- 7 The Reconstruction of an Agricultural Landscape
- 8 Mudbricks and Papyri from the Desert Sand
- 9 Housing and Community
- 10 The Elusive vestibulum
- 11 Living in the Liminal
- 12 Experiencing Sense, Place and Space in the Roman Villa
- 13 Houses and Time
- 14 Spaces of Desire
- 15 A Response: ‘Using the Material and Written Sources’ Revisited
- Index
- References
5 - Textiles in Alkestis’ thalamos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2022
- Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Kinship ‘In the Halls’
- 2 Domesticating the Ancient House
- 3 Mind the Gap
- 4 A Family Affair
- 5 Textiles in Alkestis’ thalamos
- 6 Architectural Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Architecture
- 7 The Reconstruction of an Agricultural Landscape
- 8 Mudbricks and Papyri from the Desert Sand
- 9 Housing and Community
- 10 The Elusive vestibulum
- 11 Living in the Liminal
- 12 Experiencing Sense, Place and Space in the Roman Villa
- 13 Houses and Time
- 14 Spaces of Desire
- 15 A Response: ‘Using the Material and Written Sources’ Revisited
- Index
- References
Summary
Perhaps the most commonly invoked aspects of the home found on Athenian vases are doors, which suggest transitions. In the case of marriage scenes, these transitions are the beginnings and ends of the gamelia, the procession from the bride’s home to the groom’s. The doors represent transition and help us to envision the gamelia, as noted in textual sources, but some, perhaps more importantly, provide a glimpse into the home itself, particularly the thalamos or wedding chamber in which the marriage is culminated. A synthesis of sources here aids a more thorough understanding of the importance of the marriage bed and its room, the thalamos, in the home as well as through the wedding ritual. This in turn brings our attention most appropriately to the essential role of the home in the marriage, on the occasion of the wedding and thereafter.
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- Information
- Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean WorldMaterial and Textual Approaches, pp. 181 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022