Ianua
（
θύρα). A door; denoting more especially the first entrance
to the house through which one entered from the street. This door was also called by the
Romans
anticum, and by the Greeks
θύρα αὐλεία,
αὐλία, etc. The back-door was termed
posticum, postica, and
posticula; in Greek,
παράθυρος, dim.
παραθύριον, and
κηπαία
(
θύρα). The doors of the inner apartments were called
ostia, and in Greek
μέσαυλοι or
μέταυλοι, etc. A secret door was styled
pseudothyrum (
ψευδόθυρον).
The complete doorway consisted of the four indispensable parts—threshold (
limen,
βηλός, ὀυδὸς ὁδός), lintel (
iugumentum, limen superum), and jambs (
postes,
σταθμοί). Vitruvius speaks of the jambs as
antepagmenta. For the hinges, see
Cardo. The
door itself was called
foris, valva, and in Greek
σανίς, κλισίας, θύρετρον. It was regularly bivalve or double, and hence spoken
of in the plural.
The threshold was an object of reverence, and it was thought unlucky to tread on it with the
left foot. On this account the steps leading into a temple were of an uneven number, because
the worshipper, after placing his right foot on the bottom step, would then place the same
foot on the threshold also (Vitruv. iii. 4). The doors of Greek houses regularly opened
inward, and of Roman houses always so, with the single exception of the house of M. Valerius
Publicola (Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xxxvi. 112),
who was exempted from the usual rule as a special honour.
As early as Homer we find mention of a contrivance for bolting or unbolting a door from the
outside,
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Temple Door. (Roman bas-relief.)
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which consisted in a leathern thong (
ἱμάς）
inserted through a hole in the door, and by means of a loop, ring, or hook (
κλείς, κληΐς), which was the origin of keys, capable of laying hold
of the bolt so as to move it in the manner required (
Odyss. i. 442; iv. 802).
The bolt by the progress of improvement was transformed into a lock, and the keys found at
Herculaneum and Pompeii and those attached to rings prove that among the Greeks and Romans the
art of the locksmith (
κλειδοποιός) approached very nearly to
its present state. See
Clavis.
By night the front door of the house was further secured by means of a wooden and sometimes
an iron bar (
sera, repagula,
μοχλός）
placed across it, and inserted into sockets, on each side of the doorway. Hence it was
necessary to remove the bar in order to open the door (
reserare). Even
chamber doors were secured in the same manner (Heliodor. vi. 9); and here also, in case of
need, the bar was employed as a further security in addition to the two bolts (Eurip.
Orest. 1551, 1571;
Iph. Aul. 345;
Androm.
951). Where, as in the case of tyrants, midnight assassination was especially dreaded, we read
of a bedchamber secured with a portcullis (
Plut. Arat.
26). To fasten the door with the bolt was
ianuae pessulum obdere,
with the bar,
ianuam obserare. At Athens a jealous husband sometimes even
sealed the door of the women's apartment (
Thesm. 427; Menand.
Incert. 1, 11). The door of a bedchamber was occasionally covered with a
curtain (
velum). See
Domus.
