E´XEDRA
E´XEDRA or EXHEDRA
(
ἐξέδρα) is properly a recessed seat
built out from a portico and opening into it (Marquardt,
Privatl. 242 n.); usually of a semicircular shape, hence
called
absis in a glossary ap. Mai
Auctar. Class. 3.459; and probably identical with the
hemicyclium of
Cic.
de Am. 1, § 2 [
HEMICYCLIUM]. Hence it came
to mean, among the Greeks, a hall or colonnade furnished with recessed
seats, where people met to enjoy conversation; such as the rooms which
opened on to the peristyle of the
andronitis
[
DOMUS p. 662
a] (Vitruvius says
gynaeconitis, but this is a mistake, ib. 660
b) ; or in the gymnasia and schools of philosophers. Vitruvius
reckons exedrae with
peristylia as open
buildings, where colours would fade in the strong sunlight (7.9.2), but they
must have included also covered halls, cool and shady (Lucian,
Anachars. 16, p. 895 R; Becker-Göll,
Charikles, 2.233). Late writers (e. g. Pollux, 7.123)
sometimes identify the
ἐξέδρα with the
παστάς, a room on the side of the
peristyle facing the entrance [
DOMUS p. 662
b]; but this applies only
to Roman times and manners (Hermann-Blümner,
Privatalterth. p. 150 n.). The use of the word in
Eur. Orest. 1449 is peculiar; the slaves are
driven, some to the house, some to the stables, others to the
ἐξέδραι, i. e. apparently to
“out-houses:” the gloss
ἀπόπατοι, however supported by similar words (
ἀφεδρών, θᾶκος), would be a comic touch quite
out of keeping.
In early Greece the
λέσχη was simply a
lounge or place of gossip, not a building at all; in later times the word
denoted a larger and more public place of resort than the
ἐξέδρα [
LESCHE].
Among the Romans the word had a wider meaning, answering to both the Greek
terms,
ἐξέδρα and
λέσχη. Thus it is not only used to signify a chamber for
ordinary resort and conversation in a private house, or in the public baths
and gymnasia open to the sun and air (
Vitr.
5.11,
7.9; Cic.
Orat. 3.5.17,
de Nat. Deor. 1.6.15; Varro,
R. R. 3.5.8 ; Ulpian,
Dig. 9, 3, 5.2), but
the word is even applied to the hall attached to the theatre of Pompey,
which was used as a place of meeting by the senate (
Plut. Brut. 14,
17). The
diminutive
exedrium also occurs (
Cic. Fam. 7.2. 3).
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