HOUSE, a habitation, or place built with conveniences for dwelling in. See Architecture and Building. Houses, amongst the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, were flat-roofed, and had usually stairs on the outside, by which they might ascend and descend without coming into the house. Each house, in fact, was so laid out that it enclosed a quadrangular area or court. This court was exposed to the weather, and being open to the sky, gave light to the house. This was the place where company was received, and for that purpose it was strewed with mats or carpets for their better accommodation. It was paved with marble or other materials, according to the owner’s ability, and provided with an umbrella of vellum to shelter them from the heat and inclemency of the weather. This part of their houses, called by the Romans impluvium, or cava tedium, was provided with channels to carry off the water into the common sewers. The top of the house was level, and covered with a strong plaster by way of terrace. Hither, especially amongst the Jews, it was customary to retire for meditation, private conversation, devotion, or the enjoyment of the evening breezes.

The Grecian houses were usually divided into two parts, in which the men and women had distinct mansions assigned. The part assigned to the men was towards the gate, and called αy¾ωwr∕f; the apartment of the women was the farthest part of the house, and called yum /xawr/¢. Jews, Greeks, and Romans supposed their houses to be polluted by dead bodies, and to stand in need of purification.

House, in Astrology, denotes the twelfth part of the heavens. The division of the heavens into houses is founded upon the pretended influence of the stars, when meeting in them, upon all sublunary bodies. These influences are supposed to be good or bad; and to each of these houses particular virtues are assigned, on which astrologers prepare and form a judgment of their horoscopes. The horizon and meridian are two circles of the celestial houses, which divide the heavens into four equal parts, each containing three houses, six of which are above the horizon, and six below it; of these, six are called eastern and six western houses.

A scheme or figure of the heavens is composed of twelve triangles, all called houses, in which are marked the stars, signs, and planets, so included in each of these circles. Every planet has likewise two particular houses, in which it is pretended that they exert their influence in the strongest manner; but the sun and moon have only one, the house of the former being Leo, and that of the latter Cancer.

The houses in astrology have also names given them according to their qualities. The first is the house of life, which is the ascendant, extending five degrees above the horizon, and the rest below it. The second is the house of riches; the third, the house of brothers; the fourth, in the lowest part of the heavens, is the house of relations, and the angle of the earth; the fifth, the house of children; the sixth, the house of health; the seventh, the house of marriage, and the angle of the west; the eighth, the house of death; the ninth, the house of piety; the tenth, the house of offices; the eleventh, the house of friends; and the twelfth, the house of enemies.