Ancient Greek marriage law
Encyclopedia
Ancient Greek marriage law concerns the laws and practices involving the institution of marriage
in ancient Greece
.
, where the subordination of private interests and happiness to the public was strongly exemplified in the regulations. For instance, by the laws of Lycurcus, criminal proceedings might be taken against those who married too late (graphe opsigamiou) or unsuitably (graphe kakogamiou), as well as against those who did not marry at all (graphe agamiou). These regulations were founded on the generally recognised principle that it was the duty of every citizen to raise up a strong and healthy progeny of legitimate children to the state.
So entirely, in fact, did the Spartans consider the teknopoioia (childbearing) as the main object of marriage, which the state was bound to promote, that whenever a woman had no children by her own husband, she was not only allowed, but even required by the laws, to cohabit with another man. On the same principle, and for the purpose of preventing the extinction of his family, the Spartan king Anaxandridas II
was allowed to cohabit with two wives, for whom he kept two separate establishments: a case of bigamy
, which, as Herodotus
observes, was not at all consistent with Spartan nor indeed with Hellenic
customs. Thus the heroes of Homer
appear never to have had more than one kouridie alochos: lawfully wedded wife; though they are frequently represented as living in concubinage with one or more.
Solon
also seems to have viewed marriage as a matter in which the state had a right to interfere, for we are told that his laws allowed agamiou graphe, though the regulation seems to have grown obsolete in later times; at any rate there is no instance on record of its application. Plato
too may be quoted to prove how general was this feeling, for according to his laws, any one who did not marry before he was thirty-five was punishable not only with atimia (loss of civil rights
), but also with pecuniary penalties, and he expressly states that in choosing a wife everyone ought to consult the interests of the state, and not his own pleasure.
an' hautou paradidonai). Another was the desire felt by almost every one, not merely to perpetuate his own name, but also to prevent his heritage being desolate, and his name being cut off, and to leave some one who might make the customary offerings at his grave. We are told that with this view childless persons sometimes adopted
children.
By the Athenian law a citizen was not allowed to marry with a foreign woman, nor conversely, under very severe penalties. However, proximity by blood (anchisteia), or consanguinity (syngeneia), was not, with some few exceptions, a bar to marriage in any part of Greece; direct lineal descent was. Thus brothers were permitted to marry with sisters even, if not homometrioi or born from the same mother, as Cimon did with Elpinice
, though a connection of this sort appears to have been looked on with abhorrence. In the earlier periods of society, indeed, we can easily conceive that a spirit of caste
or family pride, and other causes such as the difficulties in the way of social intercourse would tend to make marriages frequent amongst near relations and connections. (Compare Book of Numbers
^ c. xxxvi.)
, however, in the case of a father dying intestate, and without male children, his heiress
had no choice in marriage; she was compelled by law to marry her nearest kinsman not in the ascending line; and if the heiress were poor (thessa
) the nearest unmarried kinsman either married her or portioned her suitably to her rank. When there were several coheiresses, they were respectively married to their kinsmen, the nearest having the first choice (See Epikleros
). The heiress in fact, together with her inheritance
, seems to have belonged to the kinsmen of the family, so that in early times a father could not give his daughter (if an heiress) in marriage without their consent. But this was not the case according to the later Athenian law, by which a father was empowered to dispose of his daughter by will or otherwise; just as widow
s also were disposed of in marriage, by the will of their husbands, who were considered their rightful guardians (Kyrioi
).
The same practice of marrying in the family (oikos
), especially in the case of heiresses, prevailed at Sparta; thus Leonidas married the heiress of Cleomenes
, as of anchisteia, or next of kin, and Anaxandrides
, his own sister's daughter. Moreover, if a father had not determined himself concerning his daughter, it was decided by the king's court who among the privileged persons or members of the same family should marry the heiress. A resemblance to the Athenian law respecting heiresses is also found in the Jewish code, as detailed in Numbers (c. xxvii. 1 — 11), and exemplified in Ruth (c. iv.).
But match-making among the ancients was not, in default of any legal regulations, entirely left to the care and forethought of parents, for we read of women who made a profession of it, and who were therefore called promnestriai or promnestrides. The profession, however, does not seem to have been thought very honourable nor to have been held in repute, as being too nearly connected with a panderer (proagogos).
speaks of the winter
generally as being so considered, and at Athens the month Gamelion
, partly corresponding to our January
, received its name from marriages being frequently celebrated in it. Hesiod
recommends marrying on the fourth day of the month and Euripides
speaks as if the time of the full moon
were thought favourable.
was also settled at the espousals.
At Sparta, the betrothal of the bride by her father or guardian (kyrios) was requisite as a preliminary of marriage, as well as at Athens. Another custom peculiar to the Spartans, and a relic of ancient times, was the seizure of the bride by her intended husband (see Herod, vi. 65), but of course with the sanction of her parents or guardians. She was not, however, immediately domiciled in her husband's house, but cohabited with him for some time clandestinely, till he brought her, and frequently her mother also, to his home. A similar custom appears to have prevailed in Crete, where, as we are told, the young men when dismissed from the agela
of their fellows, were immediately married, but did not take their wives home till some time afterwards. Muller suggests that the children of this furtive kind of intercourse were called Parthenioi.
by the wife, the Athenian law subjected the husband to Atimia, if he continued to cohabit with her, so that she was ipso facto
divorce
d. But a separation might be effected in two different ways: by the wife leaving the husband, or the husband dismissing the wife. If the latter supposed her husband to have acted without sufficient justification in such a course, it was competent for her after dismissal, or rather for her guardians, to bring an action for dismissal (dike apopompes): the corresponding action if brought by the husband was a dike apoleipseos. If, however, a wife were ill-used in any way by her husband, he was liable to an action called dike kakoseos so that the wife was not entirely unprotected by the laws, a conclusion justified by a fragment in Athenaeus in which married women are spoken of as relying on its protection. But a separation, whether it originated from the husband or wife, was considered to reflect discredit on the latter independent of the difficulties and inconveniences to which she was subjected by it. At Sparta, barrenness on the part of a wife seems to have been a ground for dismissal by the husband; and from a passage in Dio Chrysostom, it has been inferred that women were in the habit of imposing suppositious children with a view of keeping (kataschein) their husbands: not but that the word admits of, if indeed it does not (from the tense) require, a different interpretation.
The duties of an Athenian wife are stated somewhat in detail Oeconomicus (Xenophon)
.
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
in ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
.
Marriage as a public interest
The ancient Greek legislators considered the relation of marriage a matter not merely of private, but also of public or general interest. This was particularly the case at SpartaSparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
, where the subordination of private interests and happiness to the public was strongly exemplified in the regulations. For instance, by the laws of Lycurcus, criminal proceedings might be taken against those who married too late (graphe opsigamiou) or unsuitably (graphe kakogamiou), as well as against those who did not marry at all (graphe agamiou). These regulations were founded on the generally recognised principle that it was the duty of every citizen to raise up a strong and healthy progeny of legitimate children to the state.
So entirely, in fact, did the Spartans consider the teknopoioia (childbearing) as the main object of marriage, which the state was bound to promote, that whenever a woman had no children by her own husband, she was not only allowed, but even required by the laws, to cohabit with another man. On the same principle, and for the purpose of preventing the extinction of his family, the Spartan king Anaxandridas II
Anaxandridas II
Anaxandridas II was a king of Sparta, son of Leon, between 560 to 525 BC. At the time when Croesus sent his embassy to form alliance with " the mightiest of the Greeks," i. e. about 554, the war with Tegea, which in the late reigns went against them, had now been decided in the Spartans' favour,...
was allowed to cohabit with two wives, for whom he kept two separate establishments: a case of bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
, which, as Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
observes, was not at all consistent with Spartan nor indeed with Hellenic
Hellenic
Hellenic is a synonym for Greek and may refer to:* Hellenic languages* Hellenic Airlines* Hellenic College, a liberal arts college in Brookline, Massachusetts* Hellenic College of London* Hellenic FC, a football club in South Africa...
customs. Thus the heroes of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
appear never to have had more than one kouridie alochos: lawfully wedded wife; though they are frequently represented as living in concubinage with one or more.
Solon
Solon
Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
also seems to have viewed marriage as a matter in which the state had a right to interfere, for we are told that his laws allowed agamiou graphe, though the regulation seems to have grown obsolete in later times; at any rate there is no instance on record of its application. Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
too may be quoted to prove how general was this feeling, for according to his laws, any one who did not marry before he was thirty-five was punishable not only with atimia (loss of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
), but also with pecuniary penalties, and he expressly states that in choosing a wife everyone ought to consult the interests of the state, and not his own pleasure.
Selecting a spouse
But independent of any public considerations there were also private or personal reasons (peculiar to the ancients) which made marriage an obligation. Plato mentions one of these the duty incumbent upon every individual to provide for a continuance of representatives to succeed himself as ministers of the Divinity (toi Theoi hyperetasHyperetes
Hyperetes was an ancient Greek title. It is derived from eresso, and therefore originally signifies a rower, but in later times the word was, with the exception of the soldiers or marines, applied to the whole body of persons who performed any service in a vessel...
an' hautou paradidonai). Another was the desire felt by almost every one, not merely to perpetuate his own name, but also to prevent his heritage being desolate, and his name being cut off, and to leave some one who might make the customary offerings at his grave. We are told that with this view childless persons sometimes adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
children.
By the Athenian law a citizen was not allowed to marry with a foreign woman, nor conversely, under very severe penalties. However, proximity by blood (anchisteia), or consanguinity (syngeneia), was not, with some few exceptions, a bar to marriage in any part of Greece; direct lineal descent was. Thus brothers were permitted to marry with sisters even, if not homometrioi or born from the same mother, as Cimon did with Elpinice
Elpinice
Elpinice was a noble woman of classical Athens.She was the daughter of Miltiades, tyrant of the Greek colonies on the Thracian Chersonese, and half sister of Cimon, an important Athenian political figure...
, though a connection of this sort appears to have been looked on with abhorrence. In the earlier periods of society, indeed, we can easily conceive that a spirit of caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
or family pride, and other causes such as the difficulties in the way of social intercourse would tend to make marriages frequent amongst near relations and connections. (Compare Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
^ c. xxxvi.)
Heiresses
At AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, however, in the case of a father dying intestate, and without male children, his heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...
had no choice in marriage; she was compelled by law to marry her nearest kinsman not in the ascending line; and if the heiress were poor (thessa
Timocracy
Constitutional theory defines a timocracy as either:# a state where only property owners may participate in government# a government in which love of honor is the ruling principle...
) the nearest unmarried kinsman either married her or portioned her suitably to her rank. When there were several coheiresses, they were respectively married to their kinsmen, the nearest having the first choice (See Epikleros
Epikleros
Epikleros was the term used to describe an heiress in ancient Athens, and in other ancient Greek city states. It denoted a daughter of a man who had no male heirs. In Sparta they were called patroiouchoi , as they were in Gortyn...
). The heiress in fact, together with her inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
, seems to have belonged to the kinsmen of the family, so that in early times a father could not give his daughter (if an heiress) in marriage without their consent. But this was not the case according to the later Athenian law, by which a father was empowered to dispose of his daughter by will or otherwise; just as widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
s also were disposed of in marriage, by the will of their husbands, who were considered their rightful guardians (Kyrioi
Kurios
Kurios is a Greek word that may apply to God, lord, master, or guardian. In ancient Greece, a woman could not enter into a contract herself and arrangements were made by her guardian or Kurios...
).
The same practice of marrying in the family (oikos
Oikos
An oikos is the ancient Greek equivalent of a household, house, or family....
), especially in the case of heiresses, prevailed at Sparta; thus Leonidas married the heiress of Cleomenes
Cleomenes
Cleomenes may refer to:* one of several kings of Sparta:** Cleomenes I ** Cleomenes II ** Cleomenes III *Cleomenes of Naucratis, a Greek administrator*Cleomenes the Cynic Cynic philosopher...
, as of anchisteia, or next of kin, and Anaxandrides
Anaxandrides
For the Spartan king, see Anaxandridas IIAnaxandrides , was an Athenian Middle Comic poet. He was victorious ten times , first in 376, according to the Marmor Parium . Inscriptional evidence shows that three of his victories came at the Lenaia For the Spartan king, see Anaxandridas IIAnaxandrides...
, his own sister's daughter. Moreover, if a father had not determined himself concerning his daughter, it was decided by the king's court who among the privileged persons or members of the same family should marry the heiress. A resemblance to the Athenian law respecting heiresses is also found in the Jewish code, as detailed in Numbers (c. xxvii. 1 — 11), and exemplified in Ruth (c. iv.).
But match-making among the ancients was not, in default of any legal regulations, entirely left to the care and forethought of parents, for we read of women who made a profession of it, and who were therefore called promnestriai or promnestrides. The profession, however, does not seem to have been thought very honourable nor to have been held in repute, as being too nearly connected with a panderer (proagogos).
Dates for marriage
Particular days and seasons of the year were thought auspicious and favourable for marriage amongst the Greeks. AristotleAristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
speaks of the winter
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
generally as being so considered, and at Athens the month Gamelion
Gamelion
Gamelion signifies:*a month in the ancient Greek calendar*Gamelion Studios, video game producers...
, partly corresponding to our January
January
January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day...
, received its name from marriages being frequently celebrated in it. Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
recommends marrying on the fourth day of the month and Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
speaks as if the time of the full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
were thought favourable.
Betrothal
In Athens the engyesis, or betrothal, was in fact indispensable to the complete validity of a marriage contract. It was made by the natural or legal guardian (kyrios) of the bride elect, and attended by the relatives of both parties as witnesses. The law of Athens ordained that all children born from a marriage legally contracted in this respect should be legal gnesioi, and consequently, if sons, isomoiroi, are entitled to inherit equally or in gavel-kind. It would seem, therefore, that the issue of a marriage without espousals would lose their heritable rights, which depended on their being born ex astes kai engyetes gynaikos: i.e. from a citizen and a legally betrothed wife. The wife's dowryDowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
was also settled at the espousals.
At Sparta, the betrothal of the bride by her father or guardian (kyrios) was requisite as a preliminary of marriage, as well as at Athens. Another custom peculiar to the Spartans, and a relic of ancient times, was the seizure of the bride by her intended husband (see Herod, vi. 65), but of course with the sanction of her parents or guardians. She was not, however, immediately domiciled in her husband's house, but cohabited with him for some time clandestinely, till he brought her, and frequently her mother also, to his home. A similar custom appears to have prevailed in Crete, where, as we are told, the young men when dismissed from the agela
Agela
Agela was an assembly of young men in Dorian Crete, who lived together from their eighteenth year till the time of their marriage. Up to the end of their seventeenth year they remained in their father's house ; and from the circumstance of their belonging to no agela, they were called apageloi...
of their fellows, were immediately married, but did not take their wives home till some time afterwards. Muller suggests that the children of this furtive kind of intercourse were called Parthenioi.
Divorce
In cases of adulteryAdultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
by the wife, the Athenian law subjected the husband to Atimia, if he continued to cohabit with her, so that she was ipso facto
Ipso facto
Ipso facto is a Latin phrase, directly translated as "by the fact itself," which means that a certain phenomenon is a direct consequence, a resultant effect, of the action in question, instead of being brought about by a subsequent action such as the verdict of a tribunal. It is a term of art used...
divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d. But a separation might be effected in two different ways: by the wife leaving the husband, or the husband dismissing the wife. If the latter supposed her husband to have acted without sufficient justification in such a course, it was competent for her after dismissal, or rather for her guardians, to bring an action for dismissal (dike apopompes): the corresponding action if brought by the husband was a dike apoleipseos. If, however, a wife were ill-used in any way by her husband, he was liable to an action called dike kakoseos so that the wife was not entirely unprotected by the laws, a conclusion justified by a fragment in Athenaeus in which married women are spoken of as relying on its protection. But a separation, whether it originated from the husband or wife, was considered to reflect discredit on the latter independent of the difficulties and inconveniences to which she was subjected by it. At Sparta, barrenness on the part of a wife seems to have been a ground for dismissal by the husband; and from a passage in Dio Chrysostom, it has been inferred that women were in the habit of imposing suppositious children with a view of keeping (kataschein) their husbands: not but that the word admits of, if indeed it does not (from the tense) require, a different interpretation.
The duties of an Athenian wife are stated somewhat in detail Oeconomicus (Xenophon)
Oeconomicus (Xenophon)
The Oeconomicus by Xenophon is a Socratic dialogue principally about household management and agriculture. It is one of the earliest works on economics in its original sense of household management, and a significant source for the social and intellectual history of classic Athens...
.