Chapter V Conclusion
No final word can yet be said.
In weighing the results of this essay, it would be absurd to pretend that anything of the nature of a last word can be said on the subject. The process of the early development of Greek society cannot be ascertained merely from the study of a few survivals in historic times. The comparative method must be carried much further than has been attempted here, before the secrets of antiquity can be laid bare and an authoritative statement made.
There would seem, however, to be at any rate some points, of those that have come under notice, worthy of further investigation, in so far as they indicate that Greek society was no isolated growth, but must be given a place in the general development of the systems of Europe.
Explanation of the structure of the kindred to be found in the descent of city life from earlier stage of tribal society.
It is suggested that in the continuity of city life from an earlier stage of society under some form of the Tribal System, can be found the only natural explanation of the structure of the kindred at Athens in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. Comparison with the customs of other nations,—the Hindoos, the Welsh, and the Israelites, the last two being the most typical examples of peoples of which we have written records whilst still living under the tribal system—has shown remarkable analogies in the organisation of their inner society.
Similarity between the bond of tribal blood and that of citizenship.
The actual similarity in the sentiment which surrounded the possession of the privileges of tribal blood and the title to citizenship at Athens, can hardly be exaggerated.
The threefold bond:—
The foundation of the bond in either case has a threefold aspect. The bond is one of blood, of religion, and of maintenance.
(1) the bond of blood;
The qualification for citizenship, as much as for the tribal privilege, was a question of parentage; and the citizen equally inherited, with his blood, responsibilities towards the community into which he was born, as to a larger kindred.
(2) the bond of religion;
Membership of the tribe or of the city was the only qualification, that admitted to the privilege and duty of partaking in the public religious observances. Tribesmen and citizens, by virtue of their privilege, shared in the worship of the greater gods, of Hestia in the Prytaneum, of Zeus Agoraios, and of the Heroes or special guardians of their community; in like manner as the member of the smaller group of a kindred, by virtue of his blood, shared in the worship of the Apollo Patroïos, the Zeus Herkeios or Ktesios, and the heroes or ancestors of his family. Inasmuch as citizenship depended upon purity of descent, the possession of the latter qualification carried with it the right to share in the greater ceremonies. But the converse was equally stringent, in that the possession of shrines of Apollo Patroïos and Zeus Herkeios was impossible, unless the family was one of those who had for many generations been recognised as belonging to the true stock of the community.
(3) the bond of maintenance.
Inasmuch as the worship of private or public gods consisted mainly of offerings of food, of beasts or produce of the earth, and wine, every tribesman or citizen must have had the means of providing his share in the offerings, besides supporting himself and his family. Those devoted to handicraft or merchandise were often despised by the regular tribesman or citizen, and sometimes therefore formed separate clans by themselves, like the smiths in Arabia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the membership of the tribe or city should have carried with it the right to the possession of some portion of the arable land and of the pasture, upon which all were regarded as being dependent. In this way the possession of land was intimately related to the status and the duties of the owner. It was the visible mark of his full tribal privilege, and was the practical means of his fulfilling his duty towards his fellows and the public religion, as well as to the needs of his ancestors and household. It seems also to have been believed that, in partaking of the hospitality or sharing in the sacrificial feast of any family, a bond was for the time being created which was in most respects practically equivalent to relationship by blood to the members of that family.350
Many tribal customs survived in the kindred and the household.
Apart from the tribal character of the qualification for citizenship, the most conservative organisation wherein had been stereotyped the most precious of tribal customs, was that of the kindred.
It is suggested that the vitality of the customs surrounding the bond of family relationship was due to the importance attached to the religious and social functions incumbent on all members of a household united by kindred blood. The actions of the individual members were constrained by their weighty responsibilities towards the continuance and prosperity of the composite household, in which they moved, and apart from which their existence could not but be altogether incomplete.
The worship of ancestors occupied a prominent place in the needs of the Athenian household, and, no doubt, had a corresponding influence in the preservation of its unity. The same of course cannot be said for Wales, where Christianity had replaced, in the records at any rate, whatever religious beliefs may have existed earlier. But the grouping of the kindred according to grades of relationship was adhered to by the Welsh as an intrinsic part of their very conception of a kindred; and this would point to the conclusion that such subdivisions were due to wider needs than can be found in any particular form of religious belief or worship.
But these survivals mostly found in post-Homeric records.
If, as has been suggested, in adhering to these customs, the Greeks were still treading in the tracks of their tribal ancestors, how is it that the most convincing evidence comes from as late as the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. and mainly from the most highly civilised of the cities of Greece?
The Iliad and the Odyssey may perhaps be trusted as truly portraying, so far as they go, the manners and customs of the great period of Achaian civilisation, known as Mycenean, which may be said to have culminated just before the Dorian invasion. Whence then came the public recognition of those household ceremonies of ancestor-worship, which filled such a large place in the life of the Athenian citizen, and which, it has been suggested, were consciously or unconsciously slurred over by the Homeric poets?
They perhaps belonged to the pre-Achaian inhabitants of Greece.
Mr. Walter Leaf has already found an answer to this question,351 viz. that these ceremonies were the long cherished customs of the ancient Ionian or Pelasgian inhabitants of Greece, who had formed the substratum of society under Achaian rule, and who only came into prominence on the removal of their superiors at the time of the Dorian invasion. And this continuity, underlying the superficial rule of the Achaians, seems to be borne out by recent research and discovery.352
The Athenians always boasted their Ionian descent, and may well have inherited their habits with the traditions of their origin.
But many were probably of wider parentage.
But the customs reviewed in the foregoing pages seem to have a wider parentage than can be attributed to the Pelasgians alone. Spartan customs at any rate cannot thus be accounted for.
Comparison with the history of the Jews.
In the course of argument reference has often been made to the Jewish records in the Books of the Old Testament, and indeed a remarkable parallel is presented in the history of the two peoples. Both peoples apparently reached their greatest period about the same time. The reign of Solomon with its gold and costly workmanship must have resembled that of the Mycenean kings in more than similarity of date, and outward splendour. Taking Homer again as the courtly chronicler of the Achaian age of gold, the Books of the Kings of both peoples are curiously conscious of their former tribal conditions, through which they easily trace back to the very fountain-head of their race.
Reaction in times of distress to earlier tribal habits by the Jews, and perhaps by the Achaians.
In the period of the decay of the Jewish people under the stress of invasion by foreign kings, strenuous efforts were made by their prophet leaders to purge them from the alien blood and alien influences contracted in the careless days of their prosperity. Their aim was to restore once more those strict tribal habits which had served them so well at the time of their own victorious invasion, and which still lay dormant in their constitution. In similar wise, the period of Achaian prosperity seems to have been followed by a rise into prominence at any rate, if not an actual resuscitation, of old tribal customs.
These tribal habits probably only dormant throughout and common to all Greeks,
The actual traces of tribal institutions in Homer need not be underrated. There is much that is of a tribal character in the Homeric chieftain in his relations to his tribesmen and to their gods. Survivals of tribal custom may also be seen in the reverence for the guest, and the sacredness of the bond of hospitality lasting as it did for generations; and in the blood-feud with its deadly consequences, especially when occurring within the tribe or kindred. Indeed if only the Pentateuch of the Achaians could be found in the ruins of Mycenae and added to the Homeric Book of the Kings, would it not then probably be evident that there was much more of a tribal nature in the organisation of the kindreds of the Achaians and surviving throughout the whole period of their splendour than the aristocratic poets of the Homeric schools allowed themselves to record?
if not practically even to all tribal systems.
Although therefore nearly all our evidence of the internal structure of the kindred among the Greeks dates from the fifth century B.C., the ἀγχιστεία at Athens must not be put down as belonging merely to that period. In the light of the close analogies to be found in the structure of other tribal systems, it is probable that such subdivisions of the kindred belong to an extremely early period in the history of the Greeks, whether as Achaians or Ionians or Dorians. Are they not indeed necessary features of tribal society itself wherever it is examined?
Footnotes
1 Il. ix. 63.
2 Il. ii. 400.
3 Il. xi. 807.
4 Il. ii. 788.
5 Journal of Philology, xiv. 145 (1885), Mr. Frazer on Prytaneum.
6 Cauer, Delect. Inser. Graec. § 121. (Crete, c. 200 B.C.) “I swear by Hestia in the Prytaneum (τὰν ἐμ πρυτανείῳ), by Zeus of the Agora, Zeus Tallaios, Apellon Delphinios, Athanaia Poliouchos, Apellon Poitios, and Lato, and Artemis, and Ares, and Aphordite, and Hermes, and Halios... and all gods and goddesses.” Cf. also § 116, and Od. xiv. 158.
Plato, in Laws § 848, says Hestia, Zeus and Athena shall have temples everywhere.
7 Thuc. ii. 16.
8 Journal of Philol. xiv. 145.
9 Op. cit. p. 153.
10 Exception, however, was sometimes made in the case of the stranger as a favoured guest, v. infra, p. 99.
11 Plato (Laws 948) remarks that at the time of Rhadamanthos the belief in the existence of the gods was a reasonable one, seeing that at that time most men were sons of gods.
12 Il. xxiii. 206. It is clear from Il. i. 466 et seq. that the sacrifice was held to be a feast at which the choice portions were devoured by the god by means of the fire on his altar. Cf. p. 139, note.
13 It was not therefore only at the mouth of Hades that the dead could benefit by such offerings.
14 Od. iv. 197. Cf. Il. xvi. 455.
ἔνδα ἑ ταρχύσουσι κασίγνητοι τε ἔται τε
τύμβῳ τε στήλῃ τε: τὸ γὰρ γέρας ἐστὶ θανόντων.
15 The speculative state of mind displayed in the Iliad may be illustrated from the effect on Achilles of the apparition of Patroklos after death in a dream. As he wakes suddenly the conviction comes upon him:—“Ay me, there remaineth then even in the house of Hades a spirit and phantom of the dead, albeit the life be not anywise therein: for all night long hath the spirit of hapless Patroklos stood over me, wailing and making moan, and charged me everything that I should do, and wondrous like his living self it seemed.” Il. xxiii, 113 &c.
16 Ps. cvi. 28. v. Maine’s Early Law and Custom, p. 59.
17 1 Sam. xx. 6. Θυσία τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκεῖ ὅλῃ τῇ φυλῇ.
18 Soph. Antig. 659.
19 Coulanges, Cité Antique, p. 65.
20 Soph. Antig. 199.
21 Soph. Phil. 933. Soph. Elekt. 411.
22 Aesch. Pers. 609-618. The speaker in this case is a Persian and a woman; but many passages might be quoted from the Greek poets. Cf. Lucian, De Luctu, 9. Τρέφονται δὲ ἄρα ταῖς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν χοαῖς καὶ τοῖς καθαγιζομένοις ἐπὶ τῶν τάφων: ὡς εἴ τῳ μὴ εἴη καταλελειμμένος ὑπὲρ γῆς φίλος ἥ συγγενὴς, ἄσιτος οὗτος νεκρὸς καὶ λιμώττων ἐν αὐτοῖς πολιτεύεται.
23 Edited by C. H. S. Davis (Putnam, 1894).
24 Id. chap. liii.
25 Id. chap. lxxii.
26 Id. chap. lxxvii.
27 Cité Antique, p. 93, ἑστία δέσποινα.
28 Wks. & Days, 327-332.
29 Id. 353-5.
30 Laws § 717, Trans. Jowett, cf. 729 C and 931 A.
31 Arist, Ath. Pol. lv. 3. Isaeus, viii. 32. “The law commands us to maintain (τρέφειν) our parents even if they have nothing to leave us.” Cf. Ruth iv. 15 διαθρέψαι τὴν πολιάν σου.
Iliad iv. 477 and xvii. 302.
... οὐδὲ τοκεῦσιν
θρέπτα φίλοις ἀπέδωκε...
Hesiod, Works and Days, 118.
οὐδέ κεν οἵγε
γηράντεσσι τοκεῦσιν ἀπὸ θρεπτήρια δοῖεν
χειροδίκαι.
32 Plato, Laws, 877 C.
33 Aeschin. c. Timarch. § 13.
34 Isaeus, iv. 19 (Nicostrat.).
35 Ordinances of Manu, translated by A. C. Burnell, edited by E. W. Hopkins. London: 1884. Bk. ix. 106, 8, 182, 137, 161.
36 Laws, 721 B, Trans. Jowett, cf. 923 A.
37 Dem. c. Leoch. 1090, and Il. xxiii. 163, xvi. 455, xxiv. 793.
38 Dem. c. Macart. 1077.
39 Isaeus, ii. 36 and 42.
40 Arist. Pol. 1, 2, 4, Ἡ κτῆσις μέρος τῆς οἰκίας ἐστί.
41 Plut. Lycurg. and Numa 4. Xen. Rep. Lac. i. 7 to 9.
42 From Xen. Rep. Lac. i. 9, it would seem that such children, born into a family where there were already children of both father and mother, had no share in the family property.
43 This was the practice also in Arabia (Rob. Smith, Kinship &c., p. 110).
44 Herod. v. 40.
45 Herod. vii. 205. Quoted by Hearn, Aryan Household, p. 71.
46 Iliad xv. 497.
47 Is. vii. 30.
48 Is. ii. 36.
49 Is. iii. 59 and 60, vi. 28.
50 For want of a better translation implying “going with the property” this word will be rendered by “heiress.”
51 Is. viii. 31. Cf. συνουκεῖν in Dem. in Neaeram 1386.
52 Demosth. Steph. ii. 1134. Son. of ἐπίκληρος inherits (κρατεῖν τῶν χρημάτων) ἐπὶ δίετες; τὸν δὲ σῖτον μετρεῖν τῇ μητρί.
53 Is. vi. 14. Cf. Ar. Vesp. 583 et seq.
54 Manu ix. 131 and 132.
55 Ib. 136.
56 Ib. 135.
57 Laws, 924.
58 Cf. Terence, Phormio 125-6.
Lex est ut orbae, qui sunt genere proxumi,
Eis nubant, et illos ducere cadem haec lex jubet.
and Diod. Sic. xii. 18: ὁ δὲ ἀγχιστεὺς πλούσιος ὦν ἠναγκάσθη γῆμαι γυναῖκα πενιχρὰν ἐπίκληρον ἄνευ προικός.
59 Isaeus, iii. 64.
60 Ordinances iii. 11.
61 Isaeus, i. 39.
62 vii. 15-ix. 24. We may compare this with Odyssey vii. 60 et seq. where Alkinoos marries his niece, Arete, the only child and therefore ἐπίκληρος of his brother Rhexenor.
63 c. Macart. 1068 (Law)
64 (Plut. Solon 21. ἐν τῷ γένει τοῦ τεθηκότος ἔδει τὰ χρήματα καταμένειν. Plato, Laws 925. A heiress must marry a citizen. In the Gortyn laws, if any one marry the heiress contrary to law, the next of kin shall have the property).
65 Dem. c. Macart. 1076. Widow only allowed to remain in her deceased husband’s house on plea of pregnancy and under the guardianship of the archon.
Dem. c. Boeot. 1010. Wife leaves her husband’s house and is portioned out again by her brothers.
66 Cf. Ord. of Manu v. 147-8. “No act is to be done according to (her) own will by a young girl, a young woman, or even by an old woman, though in (their own) houses.
“In her childhood (a girl) should be under the will of her father; in her youth, of her husband; her husband being dead, of her sons; a woman should never enjoy her own will.”
67 Dem. c. Spoud. 1029. Father takes away daughter and gives her to another.
Cf. also Dem. c. Eubulid. 1311.
Isaeus, v. 10. By coming into an inheritance from his first cousin, a man also becomes guardian (ἐπίτροπος καὶ κύριος) of his three female first cousins, though all married.
68 Dem. pro Phormio. 953.
69 As in Isaeus, ii. 7 and 8.
70 ix. 70. &c.
71 vii. 11 and 12.
72 Gen. xxxviii. 10.
73 Ruth i. 8-12.
74 For the meaning of ἀγχιστεύς see below p. 55.
75 xi. 49.
76 Isaeus, vii. 31.
77 c. Macart. 1077.
78 Dem. c. Leochar. 1093. ἐκ τῶν κατὰ γένος ἐγγυτάτω εἰσποιεῖν υἱὸν τῷ τετελευτηκότι ὅπως ἄν ὁ οἶκος μὴ ἐξερημωθῇ.
79 Is. x. 17.
80 Arist. Pol. 1, 2, 4 Ἡ κτῆσις μέρος τῆς οἰκίας ἐστί.
81 Is. ii. 14.
82 Is. vii. 1, 16, 13 and 27.
83 Dem. c. Eubulid. 1315.
84 Is. vi. 25.
85 Andoc. de Myst. 126.
86 Dem. c. Macart. 1054 and 1078.
87 Dem. c. Leoch. 1091. Isaeus iii. 80 and viii. 18.
88 Isaeus ix. 7 (Astyph.) τελευτήσαντι αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνου προγόνοις τά νομιζόμενα ποισει.
89 Isaeus vi. 44; ix. 2 and 33; x. 2 and 4. Dem. c. Leoch. passim. Cf. Manu, ix. 142.
90 Dem. c. Leoch. 1094, 1099, and (lex Solonis) 1100.
91 Ib. 1090.
92 Mayne on Hindu Law (1892), p. 105 and 162.
93 Op. cit. p. 141-2 and 189. Manu ix. 142. He offers no cake to his original ancestors.
94 Thes. 5.
95 ἀπάρχεσθαι: in Homer to “begin” a sacrifice by offering the hair of the victim. Later, to “dedicate.”
96 Il. ii. 542 ὄπιθεν κομόωντες.
97 Herod, iii. 8. The Arabs cut their hair in a ring away from the temples.
98 Il. xxiii. 141-6.
99 Paus. i. 37, 3.
100 Char. 21.
101 Deipnosoph. xi. 88.
102 Manu ii. 65.
103 Cf. ii. 38. This was the last year that a Brahman could receive investiture.
104 Isaeus, vi. 10.
105 Anc. Grk. Inscr. Brit. Mus. cccxv. cccxvii. and cccxviii. Oath of mother required before legitimacy registered, in the island of Kalymna.
106 Cf. Aristot. Ath. Pol. xlii.
107 Isaeus, iii. 75.
108 Ib. vi. 47. Cf. Deuteronomy xxiii. i.
109 Robertson Smith, Kinship, &c. in Arabia, p. 262.
110 Dem. in Euerg. and Mnesib. 1160.
111 Dem. Macart. 1069. Cf. Deut. xxi. 1-9.
112 Cf. Od. iii. 195.
113 Il. ix. 63.
ἀφρήτωρ, ἀθέμιστος, ἀνέστιός ἐστιν ἐκεῖνος,
ὅς πολέμου ἔραται ἐπιδημίου ὀκρυόεντος.
114 Il. xiii. 695. Cf. xv. 335.
115 Il. xvi. 572.
116 Il. ii. 662.
117 Cf. Od. xiii. 259, xiv. 380.
118 Quoted in Dem. c. Aristocrat. 629.
119 Laws 865 d.
120 Ib. 871. Soph. O.C. 407. Oedipus could not be buried on Theban soil, because he had shed ἔμφυλον αἷμα.
121 Cf. Aeschines in Ctesiph. 244.
122 ix. 17-19. Cf. Dem. c. Pantaen. 983, 59.
123 Plato, Laws 871 D.
124 Plato, Laws 871 B. Cf.868.
125 Ib. 872 E. Cf. Tacitus, Germania, 21. Suscipere tam inimicitias seu patris seu propinqui quam amicitias necesse est. Nec implacabiles durant: luitur enim etiam homicidium certo armentorum ac pecorum numero, recipitque satisfactionem universa domus, utiliter in publicum, quia periculosiores sunt inimicitiae juxta libertatem.
126 Ib. 873 E.
127 Herod. i. 44.
128 v. infra p. 90 et seq.
129 c. Leoch. 1083.
130 Dem. c. Macart. 1055-6.
131 Isaeus, viii. 32.
132 Venedotian Code, ii. xii.
133 Lady Charlotte Guest’s Mabinogion, p. 234.
134 cxxviii-cxxxi.
135 Dimetian Code, ii. xxiii.
136 Manu, ix. 186.
137 Manu, iii. 5.
138 Manu v. 60.
139 Gwentian Code, ii. viii.
140 Dem. c. Makart. 1076.
141 Cf. infra, tree on p. 62.
142 Dem. c. Makart. 1055-6.
143 Dem. c. Makart. 1077.
144 Id. 1078 et seq.
145 Isaeus, vii. 22, and xi. i.
146 Isaeus, xi. 30.
147 c. Makart. 1067.
148 In Dem. c. Leochar. 1088. ἀνεψιαδοῦς is used to denote the relationship of a man to the adopted son of his great-uncle, or, as we should say, first cousin once removed.
149 c. Makart. 1053.
150 Dem. c. Makart. and c. Leoch. 1100, &c.
151 The wife’s kin are no kin to her husband, but are to her son.
152 Plato, Laws, 929 c. Trans. Jowett.
153 Dem. c. Makart. 1058.
154 Id. 1070.
155 Mentioned in Dem. c. Makart. 1056.
156 Supra, p. 56.
157 c. Makart. 1068, supra, p. 26.
158 Welsh Laws, iv. i. and x. vii. Exception is made for the son of a stranger chieftain.
159 Welsh Laws, v. ii. and Vened. Code, ii. xvi. and elsewhere.
160 Welsh Laws, v. ii.
161 Welsh Laws, xiii. ii.
162 Venedotian Code, ii. xiv. and Gwentian Code, ii. xxx. Cf. the Shunammite’s cry unto the King for restoration of her house and fields after an absence of seven years. 2 Kings viii. 3.
163 Gen. xlviii. 5. Cf. Pindar, Ol. viii. 46. Troy to be subdued by children of Aeacus in first and fourth generations.
164 Dem. in Neaer. 1376.
165 Anc. Inscrip. Brit. Mus. ccxxxviii. Citizenship had to be confirmed on son of foreigner admitted to citizenship.
166 Ath. Pol. lv. 3.
167 Cf. Pollux, viii. 85: εἰ Ἀθηναῖοί εἰσιν ἑκατερωθεν ἐκ τριγονίας.
168 Cf. Aristot. Pol. iii. 2: ὁρίζονται δὲ πρὸς τὴν χρῆσιν πολίτην τὸν ἔξ ἀμφοτέρων πολιτῶν καὶ μὴ θατέρου μόνον, οἷον πατρὸς ἢ μητρός, οἳ δὲ καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἐπὶ πλέον ζητοῦσιν, οἷον ἐπὶ πάππους δύο ἢ τρεῖς ἢ πλείους.
169 Oed. Tyr. 742 and 1063 quoted by Hearn, Aryan Household, p. 206.
θάρσει; σὺ μὲν γὰρ οὐδ᾽ ἐὰν τρίτης ἐγὼ
μητρὸς φανῶ τρίδουλος, ἐκφανεῖ κακή...
Cf. Demosth. 1327. πονηρὸς ἐκ τριγονίας.
170 Handbuch der Griechischen Staatsalterthümer, von G. Gilbert, ii. p. 298, quotation from Dittenberger 371, 4 ff.:—(ὁ) πριάμε(νος τ)ὴν ἱερητείαν τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος τῆς Περ(γα)ίας π(αρ)έξετα(ι ἱ)έρειαν ἀστὴν ἐξ ἀστῶν ἀμφοτέρων ἐπὶ (τ)ρεῖς γενεὰς γεγενημένην καὶ πρὸς πατρὸς καὶ πρὸς μητρός.
171 Nehemiah vii. 64.
172 Manu, x. 64.
173 Plato’s Laws, ix. 871 B.
174 Cf. 868.
175 872 E.
176 878 D.
177 Dem. c. Makart, 1069.
There is some uncertainty in the text of this passage, but the following is Blass’ reading adopted by Kohler:—προειπεῖν τῷ κτείναντι ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἐντὸς ἀνεψιότητος καὶ ἀνεψιοῦ συνδίωκειν δὲ καὶ ἀνεψιοὺς καὶ ἀνεψιῶν παῖδας καὶ ἀνεψιαδοῦς καὶ γαμβροὺς καὶ πενθέρους καὶ φράτορας.
I am indebted to Mr. J. W. Headlam for this information, and also for the fact of the discovery of the confirmatory inscription.
178 Dem. c. Euerg. et Mnesib. 1161. κελεύει ὁ νόμος τοὺς προσήκοντας ἐπεξιέναι μέχρι ἀνεψιαδῶν; καὶ ἐν τῷ ὅρκῳ διορίζεται ὅτι προσήκων ἐστι etc.... Cf. Pollux, viii. 118 (obviously quoting this passage).
179 Laws, 877 c.
180 Cf. 2 Sam. xiv. 7. House extinguished for fratricide.
181 Dimetian Code, ii. i.
182 Gwentian Code, ii. viii. Cf. Sapinda and Samānodaka: both owe rites at death of kinsman. Manu, ix. 186, and v. 60, quoted above.
183 Venedotian Code, iii. i.
184 Inscript. Jurid. Grecques par Dareste, &c., 1891, p. 10. Inscription found at Iulis in Keos. Fifth century B.C. Cf. Numbers xix. 14.
185 c. Makart. 1071.
186 Welsh Laws, vol. i. 229. Cf. Ord. of Manu, ix. 201, where list of those incapable of receiving inheritance includes eunuchs.
187 ὁ περὶ τῶν κλήρων καὶ ἐπικλήρων. Pol. Ath. 9.
188 Cf. Cic. de Legibus ii. 21. Nam sacra cum pecunia pontificum auctoritate, nulla lege conjuncta sunt.
189 Dem. in Calliclem, 13-14. Coulanges, Problèmes d’Histoire, p. 19.
190 Arist. Pol. Ath. lv. 3; Harpocration, ὅτι δὲ τούτοις μετῆν τῆς πολιτείας οἷς εἴη Ζεὺς ἑρκεῖος, δεδήλωκε καὶ Ὑπερείδης...
191 In other words, the devisee could not possess the property devised to him until his place as heir in the succession by blood or adoption was legally established.
192 Isaeus, i. 17. The “friendship” insured that his presence and officiating at the tomb would be acceptable to the soul of the deceased—always an important consideration.
193 Thuc. i. 2. Νεμόμενοί τε τὰ αὑτῶν ἔκαστοι ὅσον ἀποζῇν, καὶ περιουσίαν χρημάτων οὐκ ἔχοντες οὐδὲ γῆν φυτεύοντες, ἄδηλον ὃν ὁπότε τις ἐπελθὼν καὶ ἀτειχίστων ἅμα ὄντων ἄλλος ἀφαιρήσεται.
194 Od. 21. 16. Cf. Il. xi. 682 sq. where the booty consists of 50 herds of kine, 50 flocks of sheep, 50 droves of swine, 50 flocks of goats, and 150 chestnut mares, many with foals at foot.
195 Il. xx. 216-8.
196 Il. xxi. 602. Cf. Od. iii. 495.
197 Consular Reports, p. 20.
198 Ibid.
199 P. 199.
200 Consular Reports, pp. 23 and 30.
201 Ibid. p. 26.
202 Ibid. p. 40.
203 Ibid. p. 49.
204 “The Homeric Land System,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1885.
205 Isaeus, xi. 49 (Hagnias).
206 Harp. s. v. ἀφ᾽ Ἑστίας μυεῖσθαι; Ἰσαῖος ἐν τῷ πρὸς Καλυδῶνα. ὁ ἀφ᾽ Ἑστίας μυούμενος Ἀθηναῖος ἦν πάντως. κλήρῳ δὲ λαχὼν ἐμυεῖτο.
207 Isaeus, vii. 15 and 27, (Apollod.)
208 1055 et seq. Cf. 1149 where one brother lives with his father after the division, whilst his brother has a house of his own: and 1086 where two brothers live apart but with undivided estate.
209 Il. xv. 187 sq.
210 Ib. xiii. 355.
211 Cf. the use of ἠθεῖος (“revered”) as the stock epithet of the eldest brother in Homer Il. vi. 518, and elsewhere. Pollux, On. 3, 24, states that this is the right use of the word.
212 Od. xiii. 142.
213 Il. iv. 59 sq.
Καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ θεός εἰμι, γένος δὲ μοι ἔνθεν, ὅθεν σοι;
καὶ με πρεσβυτάτην τέκετο Κρόνος ἀγκυλομήτης,
ἀμφότερον, γενεῇ τε καὶ οὕνεκα σὴ παράκοιτις
κέκλημαι; σὺ δὲ πᾶσι μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισιν ἀνάσσεις.
214 Od. i. 397, cf. ix. 115.
215 xxix. Εἰς Ἑστίαν.
Ἑστιη, ἣ πάντων ἐν δώμασιν ὑψηλοῖσιν
ἀθανάτων τε θεῶν χαμαὶ ἐρχομένων τ᾽ ἀνθρώπων
ἕδρην ἀίδιον ἔλαχε, πρεσβηίδα τιμὴν,
καλὸν ἔχουσα γέρας καὶ τίμιον; οὐ γὰρ ἄτερ σοῦ
εἰλαπίναι θνητοῖσιν, ἵν᾽ οὐ πρώτῃ πυμάτῃ τε
Ἑστίῃ ἀρχόμενος σπένδει μελιηδέα οἶνον.
216 Pol. I. 2, 6. πᾶσα γὰρ οἰκία βασιλεύεται ὑπὸ τοῦ πρεσβυτάτου. Cf. use of πρεσβεύεσθαι in Aesch. Ag. 1300, Choeph. 486 and 631.
217 Gortyn Law, iv. 24, supra p. 47.
218 In the island of Tenos, according to an inscription of the second or third century B.C., the transfer of undivided fractions of houses and property was of exceedingly common occurrence. Sales are recorded of a fourth part of a tower and cistern; half a house, lands, tower, &c. Inscr. Jurid. Gr.: Dareste, &c. p. 63.
219 Gortyn Laws, iv. 29-31.
220 Cf. Ordinances of Manu, ix. 213-4. “If an eldest (brother), through avarice, commit an injury against his younger (brothers), he should be made a not-eldest and shareless, and be put under restraint by kings.”
“None of the brothers who perform wrong acts deserve (share in) the property,...”
221 Laws, 877 c.
222 Lev. xxv. 25; Jerem. xxxii. 8.
223 Another version runs:
“The fader to the bonde
And the son to the londe.”
Sandys, History of Gavelkind, 1851, pp. 5 and 150.
224 Od. xiv. 209. Cf. Pindar, Ol. ix. 95-100. Bastard prince named after his mother’s father and given one πόλιν λαόν τε διαιτᾶν.
225 Is. vi. 23.
226 Cf. Eur. Ion 1541.
... τοῦ θεοῦ δὲ λεγόμενος
οὐκ ἔσχες ἄν ποτ᾽ οὔτε παγκλήρους δόμους
οὔτ᾽ ὄνομα πατρός.
227 See inscriptions quoted in Mittheilungen Athen. vol. 9, pt. 1, p. 60. εὐεργέτῃ γενομενῳ τῆς πόλεως δοῦναι πολιτείαν, κλῆρον ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ, οἰκίην, κῆπον κυάμων διηκοσίων ἀμφορέων, ἀτέλειαν... αὐτῷ καὶ ἐκγόνοις.
... δοῦναι ἡμικλήριον δασείης κτήνειον (?) ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ, οἰκίην, κῆπον κυάμων ἀμφορέων ἑκατὸν, &c.... αὐτῷ καὶ ἐκγόνοις.
Cf. Cauer Delect. § 221. αὐτοῖ καὶ ἐκγόνοις, καὶ ἔγκτησιν γᾶς καὶ οἰκίας καὶ ἐπινομίας, &c.... and § 232.
Do. § 395 (4th cent. B.C.). So many plethra each ἔχειν πατρουέαν τὸμ πάντα χρόνον.
Do. § 27. The importance of the grant of ἔγκτησις must lie in its being the evidence of admission to full privilege. V. infra, p. 139.
228 p. 122, note A.
229 Manu, ix. 104-106.
230 iv. 184. “An elder brother is equal to a father.”
231 ix. 182.
232 iii. 171-2.
233 ix. 110 and 213.
234 ix. 111.
235 iii. 77 et seq.
236 vi. 90.
237 iii. 67, 70, and 72.
238 iii. 108.
239 Elektra, 784.
240 Elektra, 637.
241 Od. viii. 546. ἀντὶ κασιγνήτου ξεῖνός θ᾽ ἱκέτης τε τέτυκται ἀνέρι, ὅς τ᾽ ὀλίγον περ ἐπιψαύῃ πραπίδεσσιν.
242 Od. iii. 30-80.
243 Cf. Manu, ix. 163. “The son of the body is the one and only lord of the paternal wealth: but to do the others no harm he should afford (them something) to support life.”
244 Manu, ix. 115.
245 ix. 214.
246 ix. 118.
247 ix. 47.
248 ix. 210.
249 ix. 209.
250 ix. 208. Though viii. 416 states the contrary. “A wife, son, and slave are said to be without property: whatever property they acquire is his to whom they (belong).”
251 ix. 207.
252 Il. xx. 165.
253 Od. xiv. 96.
254 Il. vi. 194.
255 Il. ix. 574; cf. xx. 184.
256 Il. xiv. 121.
257 Or “belonging to a basileus.”
258 Cf. Il. xi. 67. “As when reapers over against each other drive their swaths through the ploughland of a rich man of wheat and barley, and thick fall the handfuls”...
This contrast is drawn by Professor Ridgeway: op. cit. p. 19 Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1885.
259 Il. xviii. 541.
260 Il. xxi. 602.
261 Ridgeway, op. cit.
262 Plato, Laws, 842. E. Διὸς ὁρίου πρῶτος νόμος ὅδε εἰρήσθω; μὴ κινείτω γῆς ὅρια μηδεὶς... νομίσας τὸ τἀκίνητα κινεῖν τοῦτο εἶναι... καταφρονήσας δὲ, διτταῖς δίκαις ἔνοχος ἔστω, μιᾷ μὲν παρὰ θεῶν, δευτέρᾳ δὲ ὑπὸ νόμου.
263 Il. xi. 558.
264 Il. xii. 421; v. Ridgeway, op. cit.
265 Isaeus, ix. 17-19.
266 πίονες ἀγροί. Il. xxiii. 832. v. Ridgeway, op. cit. p. 16.
267 Il. xii. 313. Cf. Il. ix. 297. A good king also has power over the crops, etc., to bring plenty. See Od. xix. 110-5. Frazer, Golden Bough, i. 8 et seq.
268 Il. vi. 191.
269 Il. xii. 313. καὶ τέμενος νεμόμεσθα μέγα (not τεμένεα).
270 Od. vi. 291-3. Xenophon states that choice portions of land in the territory of many neighbouring towns were set apart for the king of Sparta. Rep. Laced. xv. 3.
271 Od. xi. 184.
272 Il. xx. 391, ὅθι τοι τέμενος πατρώιόν ἐστιν.
273 τὸ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ ἀπὸ προγόνων.
274 Vide Il. ii. 46 and 101-8. Agamemnon’s σκῆπτρον πατρῴιον had been handed down to him in succession from Thyestes, Atreus, Pelops, Hermes, and Zeus, for whom it had been made by Hephaistos.
275 Od. i. 386. Cf. Od. ii. 22. δύο δ᾽ αἰὲν ἔχον πατρώια ἔργα.
Cf. Od. i. 407. ποῦ δέ νύ οἱ γενεὴ καὶ πατρὶς ἄρουρα?
Cf. Od. xi. 185. Telemachos νέμεται τεμένεα of Odysseus.
Cf. Od. xx. 336. πατρώια πάντα νέμηαι.
276 Pindar, Pyth. iv. 255 et seq.
277 Od. xiv. 211.
278 Cf. Il. xii. 421. περὶ ἴσης.
279 Od. xiv. 62.
280 Od. xiv. 211.
281 Wks. and Dys. 405. The next line which explains that the woman is to be slave and not a wife is evidently a later addition. Aristotle did not know it, and interpreted γυνη as wife.
282 Pol. i. 2, 5-7.
283 I am indebted to Professor Ridgeway for the right meaning and derivation of this word, which stands for ὁμόκηποι, having the α long and not short as stated in Liddell and Scott’s Dictionary. Another reading is ὁμόκαπνοι which would mean sharers of the smoke or hearth.
284 Pindar, Nem. ix. 11.
285 Œcon. i. 2. μέρη δὲ οἰκίας ἄνθρωπός τε καὶ κτῆσίς ἐστιν. Pol. i. 4, 1. ἡ κτῆσις μέρος τῆς οἰκίας ἐστί.
286 Od. iv. 318.
287 Od. xiv. 158; xvii. 155; xx 230. ἴστω νῦν Ζεὺς πρῶτα θεῶν ξενίν τε τράπεζα ἱστίν τ᾽ Ὀδυσῆος ἀμύμονος, ἥν ἀφικάνω.
288 Il. vi. 230.
289 Il. xv. 497.
290 p. 75. Mr. Leaf mentions other countries where the father takes a new name as father of his eldest son.
291 Od. iv. 754-7
οὐ γὰρ ὀίω
πάγχυ θεοῖς μακάρεσσι γονὴν Ἀρκεισιάδαο
ἔχθεσθ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι πού τις ἐπέσσεται, ὅς κεν ἔχῃσιν
δώματα θ᾽ ὑψερεφέα καὶ ἀπόπροθι πίονας ἀγρούς.
“Far away” implies width of sway and extent of influence; and the protection of outlying properties would necessitate a great name and a strong hand.
292 Il. v. 151 et seq.
293 Od. vii. 150.
294 Od. xi. 184. Cf. xx. 336. ὄφρα σὺ μὲν (= Telemachos) χαίρων πατρώια πάντα νέμηαι.
295 1 Kings xxi 3.
296 Ezekiel xlvi. 16.
297 Od. i. 392.
298 βασιλεύς in Homer means “prince” and is applied to a class, not a single chieftain. Il. xii. 319 of Sarpedon and Glaukos. Il. iv. 96 of Paris. Od. i. 394 of the Ithakans. Od. viii. 41 and 390 of the Phaeakians. Cf.
299 Il. xvii. 250.
300 Il. xxiv. 262.
301 Od. ii. 74.
302 Od. xiii. 13.
303 Od. xix. 195.
304 Il. ix. 291. Cf. Il. ix. 483. Peleus enriched Phoinix, and gave him much people (πολὺν λαόν) to be ἄναξ over.
305 Od. iv. 174.
306 Manu, vii. 118.
307 vii. 123.
308 Herod, i. 192.
309 Ibid.
310 1 Kings iv. 7-27. One of these officers was over “threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars.”
311 Herod. ii. 109.
312 Genes. xlvii. 26.
313 Pind. Nem. vi. 11 (Trans. Myers), cf. Ridgeway, op. cit. p. 20.
314 Ezekiel xlv. 8, 9.
315 Ez. xlvi. 18.
316 Od. xxiv. 207.
317 Mahaffy, Rambles in Greece, 3rd ed. p. 200.
318 Rennell Rodd’s Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 58.
319 Od. vi. 293.
320 Ib. 259.
321 The κλῆρος is spoken of as capable of good cultivation by means of a yoke of oxen.
322 Works and Days 637. Possession of land would presuppose admission to full civic rights. V. supra, p. 97.
323 Il. ix. 648; xvi. 59.
324 W. and D. 345 &c. γείτονες ἄζωστοι ἔκιον, ζώσαντο δὲ πηοί.
325 Arist. Pol. VIII. ii. 5. ἦν δὲ τό γε ἀρχαῖον ἐν πολλαῖς πόλεσι νενομοθετημένον μηδὲ πωλεῖν ἐχεῖναι τοὺς πρώτους κλήρους; ἔστι δὲ καὶ ὅν λέγουσι Ὀξύλου νόμον εἶναι τοιοῦτόν τι δυνάμενος, τὸ μὴ δανείζειν εἴς τι μέρος τῆς ὑπαρχούσης ἑκάστῳ γῆς. Cf. Id. iv. 4 ὥσπερ ἐν Λοκροῖς νόμος ἐστὶ μὴ πωλεῖν.... ἔτι δὲ τοὺς παλαιοὺς κλήρους διασῴζειν.
326 Laws 741.
327 Laws 923.
328 Lycurg. xvi.
329 Suidas; and Harpocration s.v. ἀμφιδρόμια:—Λυσίας ἐν τῷ περὶ τῆς ἀμβλώσεωσ, εἰ γνήσιος ὁ λόγος. ἡμέρα τις ἤγετο ἐπὶ τοῖς νεογνοῖς παιδίοις, ἐν ᾗ τὸ βρέφος περὶ τὴν ἑστίαν ἔφερον τρέχοντες, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων καὶ φίλων πουλύποδας καὶ σηπίας ἐλάμβανον. Octopus is still a staple article of food on the shores of the Mediterranean.
330 Nouvelles Recherches, 1891, p. 63.
331 Arist. Pol. Ath. 2 and 5.
332 Dareste, &c, Recueil des Inscr. Jurid. Gr. xi.
333 Isaeus, iii. 60 and 42; vi. 48.
334 Isaeus, iii. 73 and 80.
335 Cf. Thuc. ii. 16 for Attica. Such are the numerous small farmers who appear in the plays of Aristophanes.
336 Athen. vi. 85. Βοιωτῶν (φησὶν Ἀρχέμαχος) τῶν τὴν Ἀρναίαν κατοικισάντων οἱ μὴ ἀπάραντες εἰς τὴν Βοιωτίαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐμφιλοχωρήσαντες παρέδωκαν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς Θετταλοῖς δουλεύειν καθ᾽ ὁμολογίας, ἐφ᾽ ῴ οὔτε ἐξάξουσιν αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῆς χώρας οὔτε ἀποκτενοῦσιν, αὐτοὶ δὲ τὴν χώραν αὐτοῖς ἐργαζόμενοι τὰς συντάξεις ἀποδώσουσιν. Cf. Strabo, xii. 3, 4.
337 Gortyn. v. 25. αἱ δὲ μὴ εἶεν ἐπιβάλλοντες τᾶς ϝοικίας οἵτινες κ᾽ ἴωντι ὁ κλᾶρος, τούτονς ἔκεν τὰ κρήματα. The words τᾶς ϝοικίας should be taken with οἵτινες, &c, rather than with the preceding words. οἵτινες κ᾽ ἴωντι ὁ κλᾶρος is equivalent to οἱ κλαρῶται.
See Dareste, &c, Inscript. Jurid. Gr. p. 463.
338 Mittheil. Inst. Ath. ix. p. 117. The original number of κληροῦχοι in this case was apparently five hundred.
339 Thuc. iii. 50.
340 κατεκληρούχησαν.
341 ἐμίσθωσαν.
342 Aelian, V. II. vi. I. Cf. Herod, v. 77 and vi. 100.
343 Smith’s Dicty. of Antiquities, s.v. colonia.
344 Bekker, Charicles, p. 218.
345 Ridgeway, Origin of Currency, &c., p. 324.
346 The ordinary Athenian dicast is supposed to have subsisted largely upon his pay of three obols or a half-drachma per diem.
347 Dareste, &c, Recueil Inscr. Grec. p. 256 xiii.
348 Cauer, Delectus, § 263.
Συνθέκα[ι] Θέρον[ι κ]αἰχμάνορι πὰρ τᾶρ γᾶρ τᾶρ ἐν Σαλαμόναι, πλέθρον ὀπτὸ καὶ δέκα. Φάρεν κριθᾶν μανασίος δύο ταὶ ϝίκατι Ἀλφιόιο μενόρ; αἰ δὲ λίποι, λυσάστο τό διφυίο. Πεπάστο τόν πάντα χρόνον.
349 Dareste, &c, Inscr. Jurid. Grec. xiii. quater. (Mylasa in Karia. Second century B.C.) summarised:—
A. The tribe (φυλή) of the Otorkondeis at the advice of their treasurers and led by the priest of Artemis, decide to purchase from Thraseas, son of Polites son of Melas of Grab... and adopted son of Heracleitos son of Heracleides of Ogonda, lands (γέας) in the Ombian plain with the sixty-two ranks of vines, three olive trees, and all the other trees without reserve, also lands elsewhere with the trees without reserve for 5,000 drachmae of light Rhodian silver, provided that Thraseas has the sale registered with sureties. Moreover, Thraseas coming to the ekklesia declared that he was ready to manage these things: and the sale having taken place of the said (properties) to the trustees in the name of the god. Thraseas himself then and there took on lease all the said (properties) from the treasurers of the tribe: and he shall hold them (εἰς πατρικά) for his patrimony, himself and his issue or those to whomsoever the inheritance of his goods passes, and he shall pay annually to the treasurers of the tribe 100 and... drachmae, without fail or fraud.
B.... all the land and trees which Thraseas has bought from Artemisia, daughter of Hekataios of Ketambissos, without exception in these places either in the matter of the share he took in the division with his brother or of what he bought from Artemisia, all for 7,000 drachmae of light silver of Rhodes, provided that Thraseas register the sale and give sureties. And coming before the ekklesia Thraseas declared that he was prepared to manage this; and the sale of the foregoing having taken place to the trustees in the name of the god, Thraseas himself then and there took on lease all the foregoing from the treasurers of the tribe: and he shall hold them (εἰς πατρικά) for his patrimony, himself and his issue or those to whom the inheritance passes, and he shall pay annually to the treasurers of the tribe 300 drachmae.
The rent forms part of the revenues of the god. If Thraseas gets more than two years in arrear, the contract is annulled.
He shall not divide the land or share the rent (οὐ παραχωρήσει δὲ Θρασέας ἑτέρῳ οὐδενὶ.... καταμερίζων τὰς γέας οὐδὲ καταδιελεῖ τὸν φόρον).
350 Robertson Smith (The Religion of the Semites) holds that the object of sacrifice was thus to maintain this imaginary kinship between the deity and the worshippers.
351 Companion to the Iliad, pp. 6-7.
352 Since the foregoing chapters were in print, I have had the benefit of seeing Herr Erwin Rohde’s admirable work, entitled Psyche (Freiburg and Leipsig, 1894). His view is that the worship of Heroes had the complete form of ancestor-worship: that, ancestors being buried at the hearth, or in the family tomb on private ground, death made no break in the membership of the family. And he claims that the Seelencult or ancestor-worship of the later Greeks must have been continuous from pre-Homeric times.