Slave-Wives, Single Women and "Bastards" in the Ancient Greek World: Law and Economics Perspectives

241 Pages·2017·6.9 MB·English

by  Morris Silver

Slave-Wives, Single Women
and “Bastards” in the
Ancient greek World
Law and Economics Perspectives
Morris Silver
Oxford & Philadelphia
Published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by
OXBOW BOOKS
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© Oxbow Books and the author 2018
Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-863-3
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-864-0 (epub)
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Front cover: Photograph of Athenian red-figure cup interior of fifth century BCE featuring man leading
woman (Odysseus and Penelope?), British Museum London, 1843.1103.11 (reproduced with permission
of the British Museum).
To my wife Sondra, my best friend for 60 years

Contents
List of Plates viii
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations x
In the Interests of Disclosure xi
I. Overview and Summary of Main Conclusions 1
II. Socioeconomic Foundation of the Pallakē Institution 13
III. Pallakē-Wife as Privileged Slave: Central Texts 19
IV. Constructing the Greek Wife: Legal Aspects 29
1. Alternative Forms of the Greek Marriage Contract 29
2. Marriage by Loan: Male Kurios Lender 30
3. Marriage by Sale: Male Kurios Seller 33
4. Marriage by Self-Sale/Auto-Ekdosis 35
5. Menander’s Glycera as Pallakē 38
6. Marriage of Persephone to Hades 41
7. Legal Enforceability of Self-Sale into Pallakia 42
8. Restrictive Covenants Generally and in the Marriage Market 44
V. Constructing the Greek-Wife: Ritual Aspects 47
1. Marriage Rituals: Fundamentals 47
2. Marriage Rituals: Oaths and Handshakes 53
3. Lifting the Bride and Riding Together in a Chariot 60
4. Chamaipous as a Symbol of Taking Ownership 61
5. Marriage Rituals: Linking Chamapous with Pallakia 63
6. Linking Chamapous with Pallakia: Additional Considerations 64
7. Marital Rituals: Torch and Pallakia 67
VI. “Wife” as a Multidimensional Status in Ancient Greece:
Supplementary Evidence 71
1. Forms of Marriage: Classical Athens 71
2. Pindar Pythian 9 and Dual Marriage Forms 73
3. The Pallakē as Understood by a Roman Legal Scholar 75
vi Slave-Wives, Single Women and “Bastards” in the Ancient Greek World
VII: “Wife” as a Multidimensional Status in Ancient greece: Testimony
of Euripides’s Electra 77
VIII. Path to Pallakia 83
1. From Male-Headed Citizen Household to Pallakia in Isaeus 3 83
2. From Single Woman Status to Pallakia 88
IX. Single Woman as Hetaira as Suppliant 91
1. Single Woman Status in Classical and Hellenistic greece 91
2. Meaning of Hetaira 92
3. Hetaira as Single Woman in the greek World 94
4. Aetiological Myth and Legal Status of the Single Woman/Hetaira:
Danaids and Amazons 100
X. Wealth Transfers in the greek Marriage Market with Emphasis
on the Roles of Distance and Single Woman Status 105
1. Relative Value of the Pallakē-Wife: Demand 105
2. Relative Value of the Legitimate Wife: Supply 108
3. Role of Distance in the Direction of Nuptial Wealth Transfers:
Theory and Evidence 109
4. Two Test Cases: Hephaestus’s Hedna and P.Eleph. 1 115
5. Additional Factors Determining the Price Paid for a Pallakē 116
6. Did greek gods Pay for their Mortal Brides? 116
7. Behind the Terminology: Dōra vs. Hedna 119
8. Behind the Terminology: Poludōros vs. Poluednos plus Proix vs. Phernē 127
XI. Wealth Transfers in the greek Marriage Market: The Spinning Hetaira 131
XII. Companionship as an Adaptation to the Dangerous Life of the
Single Woman 141
XIII. Role of Cults in the Marriage of Single Women 147
XIV. Hetaira as Textile Worker 153
1. Iconographic Evidence 153
2. Single Women as Live-in Textile Workers 154
3. What Happened in Building Z? 158
4. Brauron as a House of Textile Work 159
XV. Legal Status of Nothoi 169
XVI. Share the Wealth? Not with (Foreigner) Nothoi 177
Contents vii
XVII. Case Studies in Pallakia: Homer’s Penelope as Pallakē 179
XVIII. Case Studies in Pallakia: Hera as Zeus’s Pallakē 185
XIX. Case Studies in Pallakia: Classical Athens 193
1. Socrates the “Bigamist” 193
2. Archippe as Pallakē 194
3. Plangon as Pallakē 200
4. The Nuptial Relationship between Alcibiades and Hipparete. 201
Summary of Main Findings and Problems for Future Research 203
Bibliography 207
Index of legal and economic terms 225
List of Plates
Plate 1 Athenian red-figure lekythos from Taranto, Italy of the
fifth Century BCE featuring Ariadne, Athena and Theseus.
Taranto, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 4545. 15
Plate 2 Etruscan Red-figure crater from Vulci, Italy of the
fourth century BCE featuring Admetus and Allcestis. Paris,
Musée Du Cabinet Des Medailles De La Bibliothèque National
De France De Ridder.918. 52
Plate 3 Athenian red-figure loutrophoros of ca. 400 BCE featuring
a wedding scene in which bride and groom shake hands.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 75.2.15. 58
Plate 4 Boeotian red-figure crater of the mid-fifth century BCE
featuring Danaē receiving Zeus as a shower of gold.
Paris, Musée du Louvre CA 925. 120
Plate 5 Athenian red-figure lekythos of the early fifth century BCE
featuring Atalanta being pursued by three Erotes. Cleveland,
Cleveland Museum of Art 66.114. 124
Plate 6 Athenian hydra of mid-fifth century BCE featuring
a seated spinning woman being offered a purse by a
standing youth (once Horsfall, 1918.355). Manchester,
Manchester Art Gallery amphora 1918.346. 132
Plate 7 Limestone metope from the Temple of Hera at
Selinous of the mid-fifth century BCE featuring Zeus
grasping the wrist of Hera. Palermo, National Archaeological
Museum, Antonino Salinas 3921B. 187
Plate 8 Athenian red-figure amphora of the late fifth century
featuring “rape” of Hippodamia. Arezzo, Museo Nazionale
Archeologico 1460. 189
Acknowledgments
My research benefited greatly from the conscientious assistance of Evelyn Bodden
and her staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department in the Cohen Library in the City
College of New York. I am most grateful to Julie gardiner, Hannah McAdams and Katie
Allen of Oxbow Books for their editorial assistance.