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23 chapters
Preface
Preface
These notes, brief as they are, owe more than can be told to my father's researches into the structure and methods of the Tribal System. They owe their existence to his inspiration and encouragement. A suitable place for them might possibly be found in an Appendix to his recently published volume on the Structure of the Tribal System in Wales. In ascribing to the structure of Athenian Society a direct parentage amongst tribal institutions, I am dealing with a subject which I feel to be open to c
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Chapter I. Introductory.
Chapter I. Introductory.
It is the object of these notes to try to put back in their true setting some of the conditions prevailing, sometimes incongruously with city life, among the Greeks in historical times, and by comparison with analogous survivals in known tribal communities, of whose condition we have fuller records, to establish their real historical continuity from an earlier stage of habit and belief. There were three important public places necessary to every Greek community and symbolical to the Greek mind o
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§ 1. The Duty Of Maintenance Of Parents During Life, And After Death At Their Tomb.
§ 1. The Duty Of Maintenance Of Parents During Life, And After Death At Their Tomb.
Plato 30 declares that honour should be given to:— 1. Olympian Gods. 2. Gods of the State. 3. Gods below. 4. Demons and Spirits. 5. Heroes. 6. Ancestral Gods. 7. Living Parents , “to whom we have to pay the greatest and oldest of all debts: in property, in person, in soul; paying the debts due to them for the care and travail which they bestowed on us of old in the days of our infancy, and which we are now to pay back to them when they are old and in the extremity of their need.” The candidates
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§ 2. The Duty Of Providing Male Succession.
§ 2. The Duty Of Providing Male Succession.
A curious instance of how this sentiment worked in practice in directly the opposite direction to our modern ideas, is mentioned in Herodotus. Leaders of forlorn hopes nowadays would be inclined to pick out as comrades the unmarried men, as having least to sacrifice and fewest duties to forego. Whereas Leonidas, in choosing the 300 men to make their famous and fatal stand at Thermopylae, is stated to have selected all fathers with sons living . 45 Hector is made to use this idea in somewhat simi
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§ 3. The Position Of The Widow Without Child And The Duties Of An Only Daughter.
§ 3. The Position Of The Widow Without Child And The Duties Of An Only Daughter.
The childless widow on the death of her husband had to return to her own family or whoever of her kindred was guardian (κύριος) of her, and if she wished, be given again in marriage by him. 65 The woman at Athens even after marriage always retained her κύριος or guardian, 66 who was at once her protector and trustee. He was probably the head of the οἶκος to which she originally belonged—her next of kin—and had great power over her. 67 A case there is 68 where the heir to the property also takes
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§ 4. Succession Through A Married Daughter: Growth Of Adoption: Introduction Of New Member To Kinsmen.
§ 4. Succession Through A Married Daughter: Growth Of Adoption: Introduction Of New Member To Kinsmen.
In another passage 76 the conduct of married sisters in not appointing one of their own sons to take his place as son in the house of their deceased brother, and in absorbing the property into that of their husbands, whereby the οἶκος of their brother became ἔρημος, is described as shameful (αἰσχρῶς). In Demosthenes 77 a man behaving in similar wise is stigmatised as ὑβριστής. Herein lay the reason that adoption became so favourite a means in classical times of securing an heir. It became almost
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§ 5. The Liability For Bloodshed.
§ 5. The Liability For Bloodshed.
But in Greece the responsibility fell upon the next of kin, with the help and under the supervision of the rest of the immediate kindred. He had to see that a spear was carried in front of the funeral of the slain man and planted in his grave, which must be watched for three days. 110 He must make proclamation of the foul deed at the tomb, and must undergo purificatory rites, himself and his whole house (οἰκία). If the dead body be found in the country and no cause of death known, the demarch mu
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§ 1. Degrees Of Blood-Relationship; The Ἀγχιστεία.
§ 1. Degrees Of Blood-Relationship; The Ἀγχιστεία.
In the Gortyn Laws we read:— The headship of the οἶκος and the ownership of the property vested in the parent as long as he lived and wished to maintain his power. Even after his death, unless they wished it, the sons need not divide up amongst themselves, but could live on with joint ownership in the one οἶκος of their deceased father. The eldest son would probably take the house itself, i.e. the hearth, with the duties to the family altars which devolved upon him as head of the family. 128 An
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§ 2. Limitations In Respect Of Succession Outside The Direct Line Of Descent.
§ 2. Limitations In Respect Of Succession Outside The Direct Line Of Descent.
This clause takes the evidence one step further, and it is noticeable how the right of inheritance is determined by the great-grandchild of the common ancestor. In the direct line, a man's descendants down to his great-grandchildren inherited his estate. In dealing with inheritance through a brother of the deceased the heirship terminates with the grandchild of the brother, who would be great-grandchild of the nearest common ancestor with the previous owner of the estate. If there is no brother,
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§ 3. Division Amongst Heirs.
§ 3. Division Amongst Heirs.
The Gortyn Laws have already been referred to as enforcing the principle. 156 If a man died, his heirs were either his sons, or his grandsons, or his greatgrandsons. If he had no children, his brothers, and their children, or their grandchildren succeeded. The Athenian law was conceived in the same spirit, but mentions a further point—viz., that in the division amongst sons, the οἶκος of any one of their number who had died before the division, could be represented by his sons or grandsons, who
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§ 4. Qualifications For The Recognition Of Tribal Blood.
§ 4. Qualifications For The Recognition Of Tribal Blood.
Under the ancient Laws of Wales no stranger's family could acquire the full privileges of a Welsh tribesman or Cymro, as regards location on land, until after many generations. But if they married Welshwomen, and held land from generation to generation, the greatgrandsons became fully privileged tribesmen. 158 Similarly if a stranger voluntarily assumed the position of serf to a Welshman, and his descendants did not choose to depart, but remained in that position to the descendants of the Welshm
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§ 5. Limitations Of Liability For Bloodshed.
§ 5. Limitations Of Liability For Bloodshed.
Ransom was forbidden; citizen was bound to citizen with ties that had inherited too much of the tribal sanctity to admit of any extenuation of the extreme penalty. It was no doubt a wise policy on the part of the legislators, with the view to the preservation of respect for life and property, to make the responsibility for murder rest as widely as possible, and include as many relations and connections on both sides as might be. In order also that the wife, in case her husband was killed, and th
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§ 1. The Κλῆρος And Its Form.
§ 1. The Κλῆρος And Its Form.
We know that the estate which descended from father to son, and was in theory inalienable from the family of its original possessors, was called a κλῆρος or “lot,” but the familiarity with which the poets, historians, and orators use the word does not afford information as to what the κλῆρος really was and how it was made use of in practice. The law concerning these family holdings, says Aristotle, 187 and concerning their possible transmission through daughters was not written. It was a typical
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§ 2. The Relation Of The Κλῆρος To The Οἶκος.
§ 2. The Relation Of The Κλῆρος To The Οἶκος.
According to Harpocration, the initiation into the mysteries of the hearth only took place on the actual assumption of the inheritance. 206 Occasionally a father feeling the weight of years would be glad to pass on to his son during his lifetime some of his burden of responsibility by making him master of his estate (κύριος τῆς οὐσίας). 207 In this case, the son would be responsible for the maintenance of his parent, a duty much insisted on by Plato and Isaeus. In fact the conclusion is justifie
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§ 3. The Householder In India: The Guest.
§ 3. The Householder In India: The Guest.
Further information on this subject is afforded by the Ordinances of Manu, where the position of the first-born with regard to his younger brothers is given at some length. 229 Likewise: “If among brothers born of one father, one should have a son, Manu said all those brothers would be possessed of sons by means of that son.” 231 But this seems to apply only to the son born to the eldest, for if a younger brother married before the eldest and performed the daily sacrifices, he sent himself, his
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§ 4. Tenure Of Land In Homer: The Κλῆρος And The Τέμενος.
§ 4. Tenure Of Land In Homer: The Κλῆρος And The Τέμενος.
The possession of large estates and of multitudinous flocks and herds was one of the privileges of the chieftain or tribesman of princely rank. Bellerophon migrated from his own country and settled under the patronage of the king of Lykia. 254 He married the king's daughter, and to complete his qualification and to confirm his princely status as a βασιλεύς of Lykia, he was allotted by the Lykians an estate where the plain was fattest on the banks of the river, consisting half of arable, half of
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§ 5. Early Evidence continued: The Κλῆρος And The Maintenance Of The οἶκος.
§ 5. Early Evidence continued: The Κλῆρος And The Maintenance Of The οἶκος.
Eumaios, the swineherd, says that Odysseus would have given him a property (κτῆσις), both an οἶκος and a κλῆρος and a shapely wife. 279 And Odysseus in one of his many autobiographies speaks of taking a wife as if it were the necessary sequel to coming into his inheritance. 280 Even Hesiod, the son of a poor settler, without much property to keep together, if we can take Aristotle's reading of the line, gives the necessary outfit for a peasant farmer in occupation of a small κλῆρος, as a house,
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§ 6. Early Evidence continued: The Τέμενος And The Maintenance Of The Chieftain.
§ 6. Early Evidence continued: The Τέμενος And The Maintenance Of The Chieftain.
The levies were claimed under the name of gifts , and earned for the princes the title of δωροφάγοι. As Telemachos declares, “it is no bad thing to be a βασιλεύς, and quickly does his house become rich and he himself most honoured.” 297 The royal family and nobles 298 levied contributions on their own or conquered peoples apparently at will in Homer. Agamemnon calls together the Greek chiefs:— Priam chides his sons:— Telemachos declares that if the wooers eat up all his sheep and substance, he w
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§ 7. Summary Of The Early Evidence.
§ 7. Summary Of The Early Evidence.
This share of the tribesman was, as in later times, called a κλῆρος, it being possible for a man to enjoy several such holdings and deserve the epithet πολύκληρος, whilst the lowest class of freemen consisted of those who possessed no land, under the ignominious title of ἄκληρος. The κλῆρος, descending from father to son, was apparently connected with the οἶκος or household, and supplied its maintenance. The οἶκος grew fat or was consumed in accordance with the capacity of its head, and its cont
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§ 8. Hesiod And His Κλήρος.
§ 8. Hesiod And His Κλήρος.
Hesiod and his brother Perses had divided the κλῆρος of their father into two, and lived apart. Perses had squandered his half, and spent his time and his livelihood in the gay life of the town, but none the less seems to have expected to be allowed to draw still further on the resources of the paternal property, to the distress of his industrious brother. Hesiod does not contemplate any possible means of making a living other than by tilling the soil; and his quaint ideas may be taken as typica
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§ 9. Survivals Of Family Land In Later Times.
§ 9. Survivals Of Family Land In Later Times.
Plutarch and Heraclides say that the same law against the sale of the κλῆρος existed anciently at Sparta. Plutarch's evidence, late as it is, of the ancient customs among the Spartans is worthy of further consideration. In his Life of Agis he states that the κλῆρος passed in succession from father to son—ἐν διαδοχαῖς πατρὸς παιδὶ τὸν κλῆρον ἀπολείποντος—until the Peloponnesian war. In his Life of Lycurgus he says that— Elsewhere in Greece at the introduction of the new-born child to the relation
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§ 10. The Idea Of Family Land Applied Also To Leasehold And Semi-Servile Tenure.
§ 10. The Idea Of Family Land Applied Also To Leasehold And Semi-Servile Tenure.
There were mainly two methods of enjoying the possession of a landed estate. Either the land was cultivated by the owner himself with the help of bought slaves or hired servants, few or many, as described in Hesiod and the Oeconomics of Xenophon; 335 or the owner resided in the city or a neighbouring town, and the land was tilled by aliens or serfs (called sometimes κλαρῶται), like the Helots of Sparta, who paid an annual contribution from the produce to their landlord. The serf was often attach
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Chapter V. Conclusion.
Chapter V. Conclusion.
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
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