The Andronitis is the true living room of the house: here the
master will receive his visitors, here the male slaves will work,
and the women also busy themselves (promptly retiring, however,
on the appearance of masculine strangers). The decoration is very
plain: the walls are neatly tinted with some kind of wash; the
floor is of simple plaster, or, in a humbler house, common earth
pounded hard. Under the colonnade at all four sides open the
various chambers, possibly twelve in all. They really are cells
or compartments rather than rooms, small and usually lighted only
by their doors. Some are used for storerooms, some for sleeping
closets for the male slaves and for the grown-up sons of the
house, if there are any. Dark, ill ventilated, and most scantily
furnished, it is no wonder that the average Athenian loves the
Agora better than his chamber.

The front section of the house is now open to us, but it is time
to penetrate farther. Directly behind the open court is a sizable
chamber forming a passage to the inner house. This chamber is the
Andron, the dining hall and probably the most pretentious room in
the house. Here the guests will gather for the dinner party, and
here in one corner smokes the family hearth, once the real fire for
the whole household cooking, but now merely a symbol of the domestic
worship. It is simply a little round alter sacred to Hestia, the
hearth goddess,[*] and on its duly rekindled flame little "meat
offerings and drink offerings" are cast at every meal, humble or
elaborate.

[*]Who corresponds to the Roman goddess Vesta.