In the rear wall of the Andron facing the Andronitis is a solid
door. We are privileged guests indeed if we pass it. Only the
father, sons, or near male kinsmen of the family are allowed to go
inside, for it leads into the Gyneconitis, the hall of the women.
To thrust oneself into the Gyneconitis of even a fairly intimate
friend is a studied insult at Athens, and sure to be resented by
bodily chastisement, social ostracism, and a ruinous legal prosecution.
The Gyneconitis is in short the Athenian's holy of holies. Their
women are forbidden to participate in so much of public life that
their own peculiar world is especially reserved to them. To invade
this world is not bad breeding; it is social sacrilege.

In the present house, the home of a well-to-do family, the Gyneconitis
forms a second pillared court with adjacent rooms of substantially
the same size and shape as the Andronitis. One of the rooms in
the very rear is proclaimed by the clatter of pots and pans and
the odor of a frying turbot to be the kitchen; others are obviously
the sleeping closets of the slave women. On the side nearest to
the front of the house, but opening itself upon this inner court,
is at least one bed chamber of superior size. This is the Thalamos,
the great bedroom of the master and mistress, and here are kept all
the most costly furnishings and ornaments in the house. If there
are grown-up unmarried daughters, they have another such bedroom
(anti-thalamos) that is much larger than the cells of the slave
girls. Another special room is set apart for the working of wool,
although this chief occupation of the female part of the household
is likely to be carried on in the open inner court itself, if the
weather is fine. Here, around a little flower bed, slave girls
are probably spinning and embroidering, young children playing or