“we have a dish that is cooked almost a day!”: heading “cooking with ours” visiting a Greek family. Family in the understanding of the Greeks

Greece is a country with a rich cultural heritage and its own customs and traditions. After all, this is the oldest state in the world, which means that a huge number of traditions developed many centuries ago.

After all, it was the Greeks who gave us the Olympic Games and such a science as philosophy, which means that even today, Greece is a kind of cultural center not only in Europe, but also in the world. Today we will try to understand what are the traditions of Greece, and also remember the customs of the country, we will try to understand them.

The holiday season lasts all year round, so it is up to you to decide when and where it is better to go to Greece. In any case, such a trip will bring only positive emotions.

Language in Greece

One of the symbols of Greek culture is language. This language was formed in the 12th century. Then, this language was spoken throughout the eastern part of the Mediterranean. Today, it has undergone strong changes, but the basis has remained the same, just a lot of new dialects have appeared, for example, Turkish or Slavic.

The Greeks are very sensitive to their language. If a tourist manages to learn at least a few words in Greek, That it will always be an advantage when communicating with local residents. In Greece, there are several features in the language, for example, in Greece, as in Bulgaria, the word "ne" means an affirmative yes.

Religion in Greece

Religion here has its roots in ancient times. Today, more than 98% of the Greek population are believers, they constantly visit Christian churches. After all, it is not for nothing that this country is today considered the center Orthodox world, in almost every part of the country, even in a small town.

It is customary to have your own "saint", as well as even a separate holiday in his honor. Such a holiday is called "pangiri" - this is a kind of cultural festival, which is celebrated by the inhabitants of a particular country, while festive events, performances with songs and dances are organized.

As in any modern society, civil marriages are officially allowed in the country, but at the same time, most residents still get married in a church, according to the rules of the Orthodox world.

Greece to this day is not only the center of the Orthodox world, but also the center of monastic life. It is here that today there are more than 800 monasteries, for example, one of the largest is located on the island of Athos. By the way, oddly enough, although the traditions of Greece are closely connected with religion, for all the religiosity of the Greeks, they are not ardent "fanatics", they calmly and respectfully treat their faith, observe all the basic rules.

Worth noting, although the residents are very devout, but at the same time, almost every local is very superstitious. Ancient pagan traditions are an integral part of modern life.

It is also ugly and tactless to praise someone especially, many use amulets, for example, they hang a blue bead on their clothes, with an eye inside. We, tourists, know this decoration as a “cat's eye”. It is such a souvenir that can be purchased at every trading shop at any point. The Greeks often follow even the strangest rules, for example, when they sense danger, they will immediately begin to spit over their shoulder, as is customary 3 times.

Holidays in Greece

Easter is one of the most traditional holidays in the country. Be sure all residents celebrate this holiday, bake Easter cakes, which they call chureki or, in our opinion, cupcakes, paint eggs. On Friday before Easter it is not customary to organize noisy festivities and feasts, on Saturday before bright holiday Greeks dress up in the most smart clothes and go to church. On the very same holiday, noisy festivities are organized with an abundance of food and drink.

How are carnivals celebrated here?

It is very strange that the majority of the world's population associate carnivals with Brazil, but this is far from the case. Carnivals in Greece resemble Maslenitsa in Russia.

Residents purchase or sew on their own carnival costumes, go to the streets, bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues and dance and sing often until the morning. When visiting Greece during this period, you need to think about what to take to Greece, you may also want to participate in the Greek carnival.

Christmas in Greece

Traditionally in Greece, Christmas is celebrated on December 25th. On Christmas, the whole family usually gathers together, they set a huge table with traditional dishes Greek cuisine. It is also customary to give the poor some food and treats on this holiday, most often Christmas cookies. By the way, each housewife has her own secret recipe for such a treat.

Family traditions

In Greece, traditionally big families, so in settlements and villages the whole family, several of its generations live in the same house. Often parents work on the land, and grandparents look after their grandchildren.

Of course, in large metropolitan areas, families increasingly live separately, but at the same time, at every opportunity, they try to get together with the whole family. At the same time, for any Greek, a family is not only parents and children, but also all cousins, cousins, uncles and aunts, and even very distant relatives, sometimes the Greeks themselves do not remember who this or that family member is.

Every Greek feels drawn to his homeland, even when he is in another country or even on another continent. If a Greek meets someone from his area, then this will be a great happiness for him. Since ancient times, farming has been a traditional occupation, and today the Greeks are trying, in addition to a house or apartment in a metropolis, to also buy a house, somewhere in a village or town. This is where the Greeks spend their weekends or holidays.

By the way, the Greeks always spend all family holidays, vacations or just weekends together, often just such a “Greek cottage” where all the countless relatives gather can happen to be a place to relax.

In Greece, the role of men and women was originally divided. So a man is considered the breadwinner and breadwinner in the family, and a woman should devote herself to the family. But at the same time, even with the advent Ottoman Empire to Greece, where a woman has always occupied a certain place in society. So today, women and men have the same rights, women can be government officials, and even take the post of head of state.

By the way, the status of mother and grandmother is very revered here, and not only in their own family. So, for example, even if a woman marries, she has the right to remain on her maiden name. It is women in Greece who are considered to be among the most emancipated throughout Eastern Europe. By the way, there is even a holiday in Greece in its northern part, which is dedicated to the relationship between a man and a woman.

Usually such a holiday is celebrated on December 8, on this day men and women change roles, so the man does household chores all day, and women meet with friends and visit bars and restaurants. Such a holiday has long been perceived with humor, and even today, more and more districts also celebrate it with great pleasure.

Life of a young family

When a young couple decides to unite by marriage, the question arises of how their life will be arranged. In Greece, as nowhere else, parents are very vehemently trying to help young people get settled in new housing. Greeks generally love their children very much, so after the wedding they give their children everything they need in the household.

In Greece, you can often see a huge number of unfinished houses. In fact, these houses were bought so that when the grown children decide to build their own separate family, they can give this building and bring it to perfection through joint efforts.

In Greece, parents traditionally finish building a house for girls - daughters, they are the heirs of their parents, while sons are the heirs of grandparents. Children for the Greeks are sacred, even after their marriage, the parents tirelessly take care of the young family and take great pleasure in taking care of their grandchildren. Often you can even meet a family that goes to work in another city, and the children are left with their grandparents, for the Greeks this is completely normal.

In general, relations in the family among the Greeks are standard, the same as that accepted in European society. Respect for elders, respect for a woman and an all-encompassing love for children.

Hospitality of the residents

For almost every Greek, a guest is something sacred. Hospitality is equated with honesty or courage. In Greece, it is customary to receive guests at home, and not to invite them to a restaurant or some other institution. The Greeks even have such a superstition that the very first of the guests came, and this will be the whole next week.

If the guest came quiet and calm, then the week will not bring any shocks. The Greeks independently organize the entire holiday, the guest is only required to follow simple, sometimes even ridiculous rules. You need to enter the house to the Greek from the right foot, at the entrance to the house, wish something good to everyone present, give a small inexpensive present to the owners of the house, and so on.

As a gift, you can present wine, chocolate or flowers. The feast of the Greeks is usually plentiful and lasts a very long time. There are no rules at the table, the main thing is a positive attitude and a sincere attitude towards the hosts.

Greece is a country that has a huge number of traditions and customs. It is sometimes very difficult to understand the traditions of Greece without visiting this fabulous country. In any case, every tourist will be imbued with the hospitality of the Greeks and their traditions, which have been preserved since ancient times.

Family in the understanding of the Greeks is one of the most important values ​​in life.

Traditions Greeks and the family way of life, which have been preserved almost unchanged for many centuries, prove this. In the Greek family, as can be seen from the outside, the head is a man. But this is only an appearance. In fact, informally, all power in the family is held by women. And, even if it seems to you when looking at village picture, where a woman drags weights on herself while a man rides a donkey importantly, that men somehow oppress women, it only seems to you. All the most important decisions in the family are made under the leadership of women. But Greek men try their best to hide the unsightly secret that they are henpecked.

attitude towards the elderly

It is worth noting the reverently respectful attitude of the Greeks towards older relatives: parents, grandparents. Often adult children live with their parents all their lives, although modern Greeks still try to break out of their native nest and live independently. This they get when they find work away from home or get married (get married). Respectful respect for elders leads to the fact that until very old age, the Greeks live surrounded by their large family. It is almost never the case that relatives send an elderly Greek to a nursing home, this is not accepted in Greece, and will be condemned by others. Therefore, nursing homes in this country are a rarity. In extreme cases, relatives try to hire a round-the-clock nurse for an elderly sick person.

Out of respect for the ancestors, the Greeks adopted interesting tradition choosing names for newborns. All babies, depending on their gender, are called the names of their grandparents (the parents of the husband and wife). To name the child by the name that they themselves like will only work if there are more than two children of the same sex. All children are given names at baptism, but Greeks are baptized at the age of one year. Before a child is given a name, the family simply calls him "bebis" ("baby"). God-parents at baptism, they should give their godson a full set of clothes and a golden cross. This is considered a good sign and means that in his life the child will not know the need for anything.

Children in Greece

Children in Greece are pampered in every possible way and nothing is forbidden to them. This is especially true for Greek boys. According to the wise Greek old ladies, if something is forbidden and denied to a boy in childhood, then he can grow up and become an insolvent man, simply impotent. In order to avoid such a disaster, the boys there can afford everything, and they will not get anything for it. Of course, they can be scolded and even threatened with terrible punishments, but no prohibitions. Children can run, jump, make noise, scream anywhere and at any time, and no one around them can say anything. As a result, the Greeks grow up very spoiled and unfit for life. Perhaps such upbringing is one of the reasons why the Greeks sometimes live with their parents until old age, who cannot refuse anything to their children. Including financial support for adult children (Greeks have a pretty good pension). A little to bring to life and trim the spoiled and lazy Greeks is obtained from the army and hired work. Sometimes, over time, these shortcomings disappear after marriage.

Greek bachelors

Greek bachelors middle-aged, even if they have been living separately from their parents for various reasons for a long time, they love to visit their father's house as often as possible to enjoy their mother's cooking, and also so that their mother can wash and iron their clothes. For the Greeks, mother is the ideal of a woman; they want to see their wife just like their mother. Most often, according to this principle, they choose a wife. Girls, by the way, from an early age are prepared for the image of an ideal future mother-in-law or mother-in-law.

wedding in greece

In Greece, there is still such a tradition that most often future spouses for their children are chosen by parents. After all, they know better what their children need. They arrange a family dinner where they invite a potential bride or groom for their child and introduce them. If the young liked each other, then they can continue to communicate further. If a couple of times the parents did not guess with the taste of their child, and the groom (bride) did not like their child, then then the possibility of an independent choice of the future spouse already arises.

Wedding in Greece before the wedding ceremony. In principle, after the betrothal, the young can already live together and be considered husband and wife. True, sometimes the betrothal occurs at a very young age, when the children are only 6-7 years old, and the parents of the children agree on the future relationship. This is how Greek children grow up, tuned in to the fact that in the future they will become husband and wife.

Despite strong commitment Orthodox Christianity, the Greeks turn a blind eye to the fact that young people live together before marriage. They take it in such a way that marriage is very serious, and you need to find out in advance whether these two people can spend the rest of their lives together. In Greece, divorces are quite rare, as this is a very expensive and time-consuming affair. Therefore, they try to get maximum confidence in the fortress in advance. future family. Sometimes it happens that the wedding is held only when the bride is pregnant and expecting a baby. And it also happens that the Greeks officially marry at the same time as the baptism of their first baby.

Basically, Greeks get married quite late, most often after 30 years. By this time, they have already acquired some property, sometimes they have separate housing, and there is a sense of stability. They also try to have children later.

After the wedding newlyweds in greece often remain to live in the husband's house with his parents. This state of affairs can last for many years. In general, Greek families are very large and strong. Several generations of the same family can live in one house at the same time: grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. Family celebrations among the Greeks, as well as such large Religious holidays like Christmas and Easter are held in large family circle, at the table where the whole family gathers. Even if adult children live separately from their parents, they always come to their mother and father along with their children for the holidays. Despite strong family ties, Greeks often have heated disputes over the division of inheritance.

As for the upbringing of children, both parents equally take part in their fate. Of course, the mother takes a greater part in the upbringing of the daughter, and the father takes the greater part in the upbringing of the son. They spend a lot of time with their children, spoiling them in every possible way and trying to teach them the skills and knowledge necessary in life. By the way, even if the parents divorced, the father not only pays due child support but also takes part, as far as possible, in the upbringing of children. He walks with them, plays, reads books to them and does many other things that are useful for the child. Children in old and new family a divorced man should feel the same attention from his father.

In a Greek family The rights of husband and wife are practically the same. As for duties, the woman, of course, is responsible for all household chores, full housekeeping. In the event that there are too many things to do, and the woman cannot cope alone, then the husband, of course, can help her. Children are generally not involved in household chores, they are only required to study well.

The strength and stability of family traditions in Greece is the foundation on which not only family, but also other moral values ​​​​of this country stand. And it would be very good if other Western countries could not influence beautiful Orthodox Greece, at least in this area of ​​life.

What to bring from Greece

Travel is always an adventure. However, in addition to all the joys, it is also a great responsibility to loved ones who will be waiting for you back with nothing more than gifts. Taking into account the season and, accordingly, the increased demand in shopping, what can be brought from Greece at all? Greece is a beautiful historical state with great ancient rituals and customs. This beautiful country is located on the Balkan Peninsula and its adjacent islands, washed by several seas - the Aegean, Ionian, Mediterranean and Kara.

Greek mythology

Azerbaijani wines

Azerbaijan is one of the oldest centers of winemaking. In the necropolises of Leylatepe and Sarytepe, archaeologists discovered clay vessels for storing wine - evidence of the development of winemaking in Azerbaijan in the Late Bronze Age. The creation of industrial winemaking in Azerbaijan dates back to the middle of the 19th century. In 1815, by order of Emperor Alexander I, the Germans from Wurtenberg began to create colonies in the Caucasus. About 500 families moved to Transcaucasia. The first appearance of German settlers in Azerbaijan dates back to December 1818. They settled in the suburbs of Ganja and were hospitably received by the Azerbaijanis. The city of Helenendorf (now Goygol) became the first German colony in the area, during the 19th century the settlements of Annenfeld, Georgsfeld, Alekseevka, Grunfeld, Eigenfeld, Traubenfeld and others were also founded.

Lycabettus - "Wolf Hill"

Wherever you are in Athens, you will always, looking around the surroundings, see a high hill that proudly rises above the city, like an eternal sentinel, looking into the distance and protecting native lands from enemy invasion. This elevation is called Lycabettus - "Wolf Hill". In ancient times, many wolves lived here and the Athenians did not like this place and tried to bypass it.

Good day blog readers

In continuation of the topic - an article about the Greek family.

Russian and Greek families are basically similar: they are united by the fact that both our children and Greek ones sometimes sit on their parents' necks until their gray hair. That is, Greek parents help adult children in every possible way. Otherwise, everything is the same as ours: there are friendly families, there are not very similar problems in relationships. The head of the family is tacitly considered the mother, with the visible supremacy of the father.

They marry here late, often having already lived in civil marriage and making children. Often they combine the wedding and christening of the first-born. Greeks, both boys and girls, do not tend to go out, they love stability more, there are often couples who have been together since 16 years.

Children are born late, over 30, seeking to provide themselves with housing and stability before having offspring.

In my opinion (and this is also the opinion of some of my Russian acquaintances living in Greece), the Greeks spoil their children very much. Little ones are allowed to do almost everything, run, make noise in in public places, no one pulls them up, those around them only smile, even if the children's noise interferes with them.

From matured children, it is only required to receive good grades, usually Homework they are not assigned: everything is done by mothers and grandmothers. Children are not brought up, as we do, in unquestioning obedience to adults. This also has its advantages. But Greek children are also not taught to think on their own.

But when a teenager can tell his parents whatever he wants, it’s also not very good. In a word, we need a "golden mean". I repeat that this conclusion is based on observation of several Greek families, and may not reflect the whole picture, but only the trends in education.

Very happy attitude Greek men to your children. Those who, during a divorce, evade the payment of alimony, are extremely few. Fathers want not only to financially support their children, but also to participate in their lives in every possible way: they visit, spend a lot of time with children, take them to various activities and back.

Greek women often manipulate paternal feelings, bargaining for privileges in the division of property, for example. Although a Greek woman in the event of a divorce is better protected by law than a Russian woman. Maybe that's why there are fewer divorces in Greece.

Traditionally, families get together for big holidays, such as Easter and Christmas, even if they live in different cities. Grandparents are treated very respectfully, especially if they see them once a year)

In a word, people are like people, the same as they were, as Woland said, only the housing problem spoiled them. And this is just very true for the Greeks, the division of inheritance becomes a topic that may well divide forever brothers and sisters, that is, that is.

It is characteristic that very rarely the elderly are left unattended, and they are not placed in nursing homes, which, in principle, do not exist in Greece. Usually elderly family members live with relatives, in extreme cases, they hire a round-the-clock nurse, like a companion. Which again shows how respectful the attitude towards the older generation is. I hope that the influence of the West will never negate this aspect of the life of the Greeks.

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FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

GOU VPO "Omsk State University named after V.I. F.M. Dostoevsky"

History department

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY RELATIONS IN ANCIENT GREECE

• Content

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Chapter I. Foundations of the Ancient Greek Family…………………………………………………………….. ..5

§ 1. The basis and budget of the family…………...……….……………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

§ 2. Relations between fathers and children………..…… …………..………..……….……………………………..7

§ 3. Position of a woman………………………………… .............................. .. ............................ ........9

Chapter II. Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Greece………………………….…………………………... .......14

§ 1. The concept and purpose of marriage……………………………………………………………………………..14

§ 2. Ceremonies of the marriage and divorce proceedings…………………………………………………………. .18

Chapter III. Property relations of spouses ..…………………………………………….…. .....20

Conclusion…………………………………………………… …………......................... ...................24

Bibliographic list………………………..………………………………………………....25

INTRODUCTION

The relevance of research.

As you know, the largest civilization of the Ancient World was the ancient Greek civilization. Ancient Greek civilization had a developed culture. Important role in the life of the ancient state, legislation played, which regulated almost all aspects of public life.

The study of ancient Greek society is impossible without understanding the role of the family institution in it, which was a solid foundation of the state. The formation of the institution of the family was especially important for the Greek city-states during their formation. The basis of the policy is a free citizen who was the bearer of civil rights, as well as the main element in the growth of the military force of the state, which is also necessary to protect against attack. Therefore, in the process of developing the policy, the question arises about the development family relations. It was the family that became the key to the future existence for the ancient Greek policy: it was both the guarantor of the provision of the military forces of the policy, and the key to its economic development. The family also played a significant role in the religious and aesthetic development of the policy. This concerns the observance of religious and aesthetic cults, which were aimed at maintaining traditions and sacrifices to ancestors.

As they say in modern society: "The family is the cell of society." The importance of the family was already recognized by ancient Greek politicians and legislators in many policies of ancient Greece, the importance of family relations was obvious. The regulation of family relations is one of the most developed areas of law in ancient Greece.

Our analysis shows that the relevance of this topic is undeniable today. Since it is impossible to consider and compare the conditions for the existence of a family in all ancient states in one work, therefore marriage and family relations, precisely on the example of Ancient Greece, became the object of study in this work.

The degree of scientific development of the problem.

Many scientists have been and are studying this topic: Mukhaev R.T., Mikhailova N.V., Krasheninnikova N.V., Zhidkov O.A., Chirkin S.V., Batyr K. and others.

Purpose of the study.

The main goal is to study the formation, development and functioning of the institution of marriage and family in ancient Greece.

In accordance with the goal in the process of research, the following tasks were solved:

The study of the fundamental principles, the structure of the ancient Greek family;

Finding out the place of the role of men and women in the ancient Greek family;

Finding out the main goals of marriage;

Consideration of the concept of marriage and divorce;

The study of the main rites and ceremonies associated with marriage process and family life.

Empirical base of research.

When writing this term paper, the scientific, educational and regulatory framework of domestic and foreign authors, professors, doctors of law was researched and analyzed, which was necessary to achieve the above goals and objectives.

• Chapter I. Foundations of the Ancient Greek Family

1. Family basis and budget

Even at the very beginning of the process of family formation in Ancient Greece, society relied on faith in God, to which they ranked even their dead relatives. According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, the son had a strict duty to bring to his deceased father essential food, and this obligation arose not from a debt of gratitude, but from his own interests. The dead were, indeed, in some way sacred beings. The ancients gave them the most respectful names they could think of. They called them good, holy, blessed. They had for them all the reverence that is possible for a person in relation to a deity that inspires love or horror in himself. For them, every dead person was a god. Possessing the ability to bring good or evil to his loved ones, the dead did this based on how revered he was after death.

Thus, each family had special gods in the person of their ancestors and, consequently, their own religion. 1 But this religion had some peculiarities. The dead could not accept offerings from any person; they were pleased with offerings from their direct descendants. An outsider was a stranger to them, one might say, an enemy. Therefore, it was necessary to take numerous measures in order not to let the offspring die out forever. In addition, it was necessary, in the case of accepting an outsider into the family, to attach him first of all to the domestic cult and introduce him to the ancestors. From these two basic requirements, all the rules related to the ancient Greek family followed.

Family budget

The ancient Greeks were not wasteful. Especially the Athenians. They were famous in Greece for their frugality and abstinence, and they well deserved it. 2 They ate little meat and ate more fish and greens. For their existence, they needed only the bare necessities and were neither less happy nor less developed because of this.

Below are the approximate expenses of a poor family of three.

An Athenian consumed about one liter of flour daily. He drank no more than a quarter of a liter of wine, especially since he never drank undiluted wine. The rest of the money was used to buy food. Even a small amount was probably enough, since food was cheap.

The houses for the poor were very modest. The ancient Greeks cared much less than us about the comfort of their premises, since they spent almost all the time outside the walls of their dwellings. At the end of the 4th century BC, most of the houses were one-story, consisting of three or four rooms. And many of these houses were very miserable.

It must be assumed that for a family of three, the cost of acquiring three tunics, three pairs of sandals and three cloaks (moreover, sandals and cloaks served for several years) is about twenty drachmas a year.

Miscellaneous expenses.

It is difficult to imagine that an ancient Greek from the lower class could bear such expenses. He enjoyed the pleasures, but they were free. During the year he very often attended the festivities, but all these spectacles, processions, horse and chariot races, wrestling of athletes, ship races, musical and dramatic performances cost him absolutely nothing. Often he even ate at the expense of the rich. He visited the baths for free and did gymnastics - for this there were special institutions that anyone could freely come to. If he fell ill, he was treated free of charge by a public doctor. If he wished to visit Olympia or any other place, he went there on foot. Parents were required to give their children a primary education; the schools were neither public nor free, and the school fee was about six drachmas. Adding up all the expenses, we get that the budget of a poor family was approximately two hundred to three hundred drachmas, including contingencies. Of course, with such expenses, they led a very modest life, but they did not endure the need. Naturally, in order to live in contentment, more expenses were required.

1.2. Relationships between fathers and children

Children in ancient Greece were completely under the authority of the father. 3

On the seventh day after the birth of a child, a ceremony called "amphidromia" was performed. On this day, the entrance to the house was decorated with wreaths of olive leaves if the newborn was a boy, and garlands of wool if it was a girl. Women who helped the woman in labor washed their hands as a sign of purification. One of them took the child in her arms and quickly carried him around the hearth, thereby introducing him to the domestic cult; then there was a feast, which was attended by relatives and friends of the family.

On the tenth day the child was given a name. Relatives and friends gathered for sacrifice and a feast, and usually gifts were given to the child: toys or small jewelry hung around his neck.

The performance of this ceremony served as proof that the father recognized the child as his own.

But during the first few days after birth, the father also had the right not to recognize the child, if only he doubted its legitimacy. He had the right to refuse it, even if he considered it his own, sometimes this happened, especially when it came to girls. In any case, if the father was too poor to support his child, he had the right to take him to the city authorities; they were obliged to support him at public expense, and it was assumed that the person who would take him into his upbringing, in order to reimburse his expenses, would later use the child as a slave.

In addition, the father had the right to disown his son and, therefore, to deprive him of his inheritance if he behaved badly towards him. Such a right was recognized for the father in particular by the laws of Solon. It is the duty of the father in this matter to address the family council and to obey the decision of the majority. But this was not even in Athens, and it was enough for the father to declare his will publicly through the herald; he had no other control than public opinion. But such cases were very rare. 4

Finally, the father had the right to appoint guardians for his minor children and to appoint in his will a husband whom his daughter was obliged to marry.

The power of the father over the children ended with their coming of age, which coincided either with the expiration of the eighteenth year, or with its beginning. 5

The main duty of children (mostly sons) in Ancient Greece was to honor and obey their parents. These two duties were the main and most important, so that, all other duties to them fade.

Firstly, the son was obliged to take care of the maintenance of his parents, if they needed it. The law commands the maintenance of parents, while father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather and great-grandmother are considered parents. There was a close connection between the right to inherit and the obligation to provide for food.
That is, if the testator were still alive and had no means of subsistence, then the obligation to take care of his food would lie with the heir. The son was freed from this need only in one case: if the father, despite his poverty, did not take care to teach his son any trade, he lost all right to material maintenance from him.

Secondly, the son was obliged to render to his dead parents the honors prescribed by the laws of religion. It was considered a crime for the son to destroy the graves of his parents and deprive them of those funeral honors that they demanded.

A son who did not fulfill these duties towards his parents could be brought to justice. 6 The choice of punishment was left to the decision of the court, which sometimes imposed a death sentence.

1.3. Position of a woman

The position of a woman in the ancient Greek state, depending on which policy she lived in, in Sparta or in Athens, varied significantly.

Spartan women.

Women were more respected in Sparta than anywhere else in Greece. Their upbringing brought them closer to men; they were accustomed from childhood to feel like citizens and take public interests to heart. In courage, patriotism, and self-denial, they were in no way inferior to men: this is the explanation for the reverence they enjoyed. Praise or censure from women meant a lot; their opinion was taken into account even in matters that were beyond their area of ​​competence. Women's influence in Sparta it was such that the rest of the Greeks jokingly called the Spartan government the rule of women.

All this, however, did not prevent them from fulfilling the duties of wives and mothers. Having married, the Spartan woman immediately went to the care of the house. She was not engaged in either spinning or weaving, these activities were provided to slaves, but she only owned the general supervision of the economy. Together with her husband, she oversaw the upbringing of children. 7 The relationship of married women to men was less free than that of young girls. The best thing for a married woman is when nothing good or bad is said about her. Women went out into the street only in veils, while the girls went around with their faces uncovered. The Spartans explained the origin of this custom in such a way that the girl still needs to find a husband, while a married woman can only save the one she already has. These words show that in choosing a wife, personal tastes mattered more in Sparta than anywhere else in Greece.

Description of work

The study of ancient Greek society is impossible without understanding the role of the institution of the family in it, which was solid foundation states. The formation of the institution of the family was especially important for the Greek city-states during their formation. The basis of the policy is a free citizen who was the bearer civil rights, as well as the main element in the growth of the state's military force, which is also necessary to protect against attack. Therefore, in the process of developing the policy, the question arises of the development of family relations. It was the family that became the key to the future existence for the ancient Greek policy: it was both the guarantor of the provision of the military forces of the policy, and the key to its economic development. The family also played a significant role in the religious and aesthetic development of the policy. This concerns the observance of religious and aesthetic cults, which were aimed at maintaining traditions and sacrifices to ancestors.

Chapter I. Foundations of the Ancient Greek Family……………………………………………………………….
§ 1. The basis and budget of the family…………...……….……………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
§ 2. Relations between fathers and children………..………………..………..……….……………………………..7
§ 3. The position of a woman………………………………………………………………………………………. ....................................9

Chapter II. Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Greece………………………….…………………………………..14
§ 1. Concept and purpose of marriage……………………………………………………………………………..14
§ 2. Ceremonies of the marriage and divorce proceedings…………………………………………………………..18

Chapter III. Property relations of spouses ..…………………………………………….…......20

Conclusion………………………………………………………………......................... ....................24
Bibliographic list………………………..

It is easy to understand that the virtue of a man in
to deal with government
deeds ... The virtue of a woman ... consists in
to take good care of the house,
observing all that is in it, and remaining obedient
noah to my husband.

Plato. Menon, 71 e

We draw news about the family life of the ancients not only from written sources, which take us back into the depths of centuries no further than the era of Homer. We can learn something about the family in the Cretan-Mycenaean era only with the help of archeology, only relying on the monuments of material culture. However, they are unable to tell us either about the forms and procedures for concluding marriages, or about the legal foundations of family life, or about the rights and obligations of spouses at that distant time. One can only hope that the decipherment of the Cretan script (linear B) will shed new light on the private life of the ancient inhabitants of the Eastern Mediterranean.

On the basis of the archaeological finds of the Cretan-Mycenaean period, we are entitled to assume that women then enjoyed more freedom and played a more significant role in society and in the family than in the centuries later in the Greek cities proper. This is evidenced by the scenes from the life of women, presented on the frescoes of the palaces in Crete, as well as the features of the religion of the ancient Cretans. There are many female images in the pantheon of local gods, in which scientists tend to see some kind of predecessors of the later Greek goddesses. So, for example, the goddess with a shield, depicted on Cretan gems and rings, is usually associated with the Hellenic Athena, and the goddess with a dove is seen as similar to the Greek Aphrodite.

From this it is easy to explain the participation of women in the performance of religious rites. On the fresco of one of the royal palaces in Knossos, a group of women performing a sacred dance is shown, as evidenced by the axes in the hands of the priestess, and after all, the axes were one of the cult symbols in the Cretan religion. And in later centuries, women were allowed to participate in religious celebrations: this is confirmed by literary monuments, sculpture, and murals on vases. At the same time, we do not find scenes illustrating the participation of women in public entertainment, sports competitions in the future, but on the frescoes of the Crete-Mycenaean era you can see, for example, a girl who steps back in front of a bull, so that, having run up, jump over it, into while on the other side of the bull stands another girl, ready to catch her friend if the jump succeeds. A fragment of a fresco is also well known, which depicts an elegant dancer, who received the nickname “Parisian” from archaeologists and art critics, because with her spectacular pose and outfit she rather resembles elegant fashionistas of the late 19th-20th centuries, almost our contemporaries. There is no doubt that such images make it possible to judge the real position of women in the then society and in the culture of ancient Crete.

The life of women changed little in the Mycenaean era. Their manners, as well as the privileges they continued to enjoy, contributed to their frequent appearance on people. In the art of that time, one can find scenes from court life with the participation of women. Even a fragment has been preserved representing women going hunting in chariots.

The transition from the traditions of the tribal system to the state, polis structure caused many changes in all areas of the life of the ancients, both public and private. Moreover, there were many differences between different Greek city-states in the sphere of family life of their inhabitants.

But there were also phenomena common to all Hellas - obligatory monogamy and patriarchy, which was established almost everywhere. The father was recognized as having unlimited power over the children, whom he formally “adopted” into his family at the time of their infancy, after which the father only had no right to dispose of their lives and freedom, but they were obliged to him unconditional obedience. The Greeks were the first of the ancient peoples to observe the principle of monogamy, believing that bringing many wives into their home was a barbaric custom and unworthy of a noble Greek ( Euripides. Andromache, 170-180).

All Greeks, in whatever policies they lived, had general views to the institution of marriage. It was believed that marriage has two goals: national and private-family. The first purpose of marriage was to increase the number of citizens who could take over from their fathers duties towards the state: first of all, to protect its borders, repel the attacks of enemies. Pericles in Thucydides, in his speech in honor of the fallen Athenian soldiers, consoles their parents, whom their age still allowed them to hope that other children would be born to them: “New children will be a consolation to parents, and our city will receive a double benefit from this: it will not become impoverished number of citizens and security will be preserved" ( Thucydides. History, II, 44, 3).

By giving birth to children, a citizen also fulfilled his duty to the clan and family, for the children continued the race and also assumed cult duties in relation to their ancestors, making sacrifices to them, giving proper honors to the dead and supporting and preserving family traditions. Finally, entering into marriage, a person also pursued purely personal goals - in old age to find support in children.

The most important thing was still the fulfillment of one's duty to the state, and this explains why in Athens, although there was no formal legal compulsion to marry, public opinion itself forced men to start families. Single people, bachelors, did not enjoy the respect that surrounded people who were married and had children. In Sparta, the situation was even more unambiguous and definite: agamia, celibacy, single life entailed the loss of personal and civic honor - atymia. True, the atymia to which the Spartans who shied away from family ties were subjected was only partial, limited and did not completely deprive the guilty of their civil rights. However, they could not avoid humiliation and, moreover, not only from other citizens, but also from the state and officials. So, by order of the authorities, unmarried adult Spartans had to walk around the agora market naked in winter, singing a special song: in it they admitted that they deserved the punishment, because they did not obey the laws. Even the law obliging to honor the elderly and observed in Sparta especially zealously, with respect to people who did not create a family, ceased to operate. But the customary atymia, the loss of honor, was not the only punishment that bachelors had to endure in Sparta. Judicial sanctions could also be applied against them: for evading their duties to the state, a special punishment was due - a large fine for celibacy ( Pollux. Onomasticon, VIII).

Plato in the Laws, carried away by the search for a model for the ideal state he conceived, through the mouth of an Athenian, expresses his conviction in the need for such a law: “Everyone should marry from thirty years to thirty-five; whoever fails to do so will be sentenced to fines and disenfranchisement—to varying degrees.” This is, in Plato's terminology, "the simple law of marriage." However, the philosopher teaches, it is always better to choose "a twofold way to achieve your goal." A law based on such a two-fold method would sound like this: “Everyone should marry from the age of thirty to thirty-five, realizing that the human race, by its nature, participates in immortality, every desire for which is innate in every person. This is what makes you strive for glory and for your grave not to be nameless. After all, the human race is closely merged with the total time; he follows it and will follow it all the way. In this way, the human race is immortal, for, leaving behind children and grandchildren, it ... remains eternally identical and participatory in immortality. IN the highest degree it is impious to voluntarily deprive oneself of this; and meanwhile, he who does not care about having a wife and children, he deprives himself of this intentionally. Those who obey the law will not be punished. The disobedient, who did not marry before the age of thirty-five, must annually pay such and such an amount as a punishment, so that it does not seem to him that a single life brings him relief and benefit. He will not have a share in the honors that every time younger people show elders in the state ”( Plato. Laws, IV, 721 a-d).

Elsewhere, the organizer of the ideal policy significantly reduces the estimated marriageable age for men: “After a man who has reached the age of twenty-five sees the brides and they look at him, let him choose a woman at will and make sure that she is suitable for the birth and joint upbringing of children, and then let him marry - no later than thirty-five years "(Ibid., VI, 772 e).

Again and again the philosopher returns to this topic: “... a person must follow his ever-creating nature; therefore, he must leave behind his children and the children of his children, delivering servants to God in his place. But the ideal state combines admonishment with the strictest sanctions for disobedient: “... if someone does not obey of his own free will, begins to behave like a foreigner, not involved in this state, and does not marry upon reaching thirty-five years, he will annually pay a fine: a citizen belonging to the upper class - one hundred drachmas, to the second - seventy, to the third - sixty, to the fourth - thirty. This money will be dedicated to Hera (the patron goddess of marriage. — Note. per.). Those who do not pay them annually will be forced to pay double. (...) So, whoever does not want to marry will be subjected to a similar monetary penalty; as for honor, the younger ones will subject it to every possible reproach. Let none of the young obey him voluntarily...” (Ibid., VI, 773 e-774 b).

It is easy to see that Plato here follows the customs adopted in Sparta, where at one time a certain young man insulted the illustrious commander Derkillid, not giving way to him and saying: “You did not give birth to a son who would eventually give way to me” ( Plutarch. Comparative Lives, Lycurgus, XV). The influence of Spartan traditions can also be found in Plato's judgments about the choice of a wife. According to the law attributed to the Spartan reformer Lycurgus, young people in Sparta were required to choose their wives from poor families. This requirement was undoubtedly of deep economic significance, thus preventing the concentration of wealth in one family, because the accumulation of individual property did not correspond much to the fundamental idea of ​​Spartan legislation - the idea of ​​social equality of free citizens. At the same time, the Spartans preferred that their sons marry poor girls, but born and raised in Sparta itself, and not girls from wealthy families, but of foreign origin; in Sparta, marriages with foreigners were not formally prohibited, and children born from a free Spartan and the daughter of a periek or even a helot became full citizens.

Plato also condemns marriages for mercenary purposes, the pursuit of wealth and family ties with an influential person. Formally, forbidding a rich man to marry a rich woman or forcing him to marry a poor woman without fail would be absurd, the philosopher believes: such a law would only cause laughter and indignation. Rather, a well-oiled system of persuasion is needed: “Child,” as we say to the son of honest parents, “you need to enter into a marriage that would arouse the approval of reasonable people. They will not advise you to avoid poverty and especially pursue wealth when entering into a marriage. Other things being equal, a modest fortune should be preferred and then a marriage union should be concluded. After all, it would be beneficial for both this state and the families to be married.” The same reasoning should be addressed to the parents of the future groom: “we must try, as it were, to bewitch the parents and convince them that in marriage, each person should put the mutual conformity of his children above all else, and not strive insatiably for property equality. Whoever, in marriage, in every possible way pays attention only to property status, we will try to turn him away from this by censure. However, we will not force him with the help of a written law ”(Laws, VI, 773, a-e).

Hence the denial of dowry follows logically: to give and take dowry for the bride would mean to undermine the mutual equality of citizens. “All citizens of our state have what is necessary; therefore, because of money, there is less insolence among women and the low, ignoble enslavement of their husbands by them ”(Ibid., VI, 774 s).

In an earlier era, in the VIII-VI centuries. BC e., the girl's father himself chose a husband for her among several applicants who sought her hand. He invited all of them to his place at the same time, showed them hospitality during long term while observing their manner of behaving, their character, physical hardening, endurance. To this end, various sport games and competitions. Grooms came with rich gifts to the owner of the house and no less expensive gifts- outfits and jewelry - the one who was to become the bride-to-be of one of them. They also carried with them abundant food supplies and wine.

Herodotus describes in detail how in the VI century. BC e. The tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, chose his son-in-law: “Cleisthenes ... had a daughter named Agarista. He wished to give this daughter in marriage to that of the Hellenes, whom he found the most valiant. On Olympic Games Cleisthenes won with four horses and ordered to announce through a herald: whoever among the Hellenes considers himself worthy of becoming Cleisthenes' son-in-law can arrive in Sicyon on the 60th day or earlier ... Then all the Hellenes, who were proud of their ancestors and their native city, went to woo in Sikyon. To entertain the guests, Cleisthenes ordered a horse race and gymnastic competitions.

Further, the historian lists in detail the glorious suitors who came to Cleisthenes. “When these suitors arrived at the appointed time, Cleisthenes first asked each of them about the city from which he comes, and about his family. Then, by holding the suitors for a whole year, the tyrant tested their prowess, mentality, level of education and character. At the same time, he talked with each separately and with everyone together. For younger suitors, he arranged gymnastic competitions, especially observed them at common feasts. During the entire stay of the suitors in Sicyon, Cleisthenes did this and at the same time treated them luxuriously. Most of all, the suitors from Athens came to his heart, and among them, the son of Tisandra Hippocleides was the most ...

Meanwhile, the day of the wedding feast came, and Cleisthenes had to announce which of the suitors he had chosen. Then he sacrificed 100 bulls and invited the suitors and all of Sicyon to the feast. After the treat, the suitors began to compete in songs and frankly joking stories. In the midst of the feast, Hippocleides, who completely captured the attention of the rest of the guests, ordered the flutist to play a dance motif. When he began to play, Hippocleides started to dance and danced to his heart's content. Cleisthenes looked at the whole scene gloomily and hostilely. Then, after a short rest, Hippocleides ordered the table to be brought in. When the table was brought in, he first began to perform Laconian dance kneels on it, and then others, Attic. Finally, resting his head on the table, he began to kneel with his feet. Already at the first and second dances, Cleisthenes thought, albeit with horror, that this shameless dancer could become his son-in-law, but still restrained himself, not wanting to show his displeasure. When he saw how he performed pantomime with his feet, he could no longer be silent and cried out: “O son of Tisander, you really danced your wedding!” (...)

Cleisthenes, meanwhile, having established silence, addressed the audience with these words: “O suitors of my daughter! You are all kind to me, and if it were only possible, I would please you all, without giving preference to one chosen one and not rejecting the rest. But after all, it is only about one girl, and therefore it is impossible to fulfill the desire of all. To those of you who are refused, I give a talent of silver for honoring me with the honor of intermarrying with me, wooing my daughter, and having to stay so long in a foreign land. And I give my daughter Agarista as a wife to Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, according to the laws of the Athenians. Megacles announced his consent to be engaged to Agarista, and then Cleisthenes appointed the date of the wedding "( Herodotus. History, VI, 126-130).

We add that after a mutual decision on marriage was made, the chosen applicant brought rich gifts to the future father-in-law, and he, in turn, assigned a dowry to the young couple, to which the Greeks attached great importance.

In the classical era of Greek history, the same forms of choice by the father of a husband for his daughter were preserved, only now young people who were already familiar to the future father-in-law were considered applicants. The father still had full power over the fate of his daughter, especially since at that time the role of a woman in the family, her freedom were significantly limited, especially in Athens.

Unlike Sparta, in the main city of Attica, only a marriage between a free citizen and the daughter of another free-born was considered legal. If one of the parties did not have civil rights in this policy, then the children from such a marriage were considered illegitimate and therefore deprived of civil rights and the right to inherit. According to the law adopted in Athens under Pericles in 460 BC. e. and renewed by Aristophon 57 years later, after the death of their father, children born in such a marriage could receive only a one-time allowance, not exceeding a thousand drachmas. It is worth remembering that Pericles, who defended this law, himself found himself in a similar situation and had to ask the Athenians to make an exception for his son, born Aspasia, a native of Miletus, who was considered a foreigner in Athens.

Consanguinity, on the contrary, was not an obstacle to marriage. Marriages were sometimes concluded even between the children of one father. The law forbade marriage only to those who had a common mother. Girls in Athens were given in marriage early, at fifteen or even twelve years old. To Plato, this practice seemed unacceptable for his ideal state: “The term for marriage for a girl will be from eighteen to twenty years: this is the latest; For young man from thirty to thirty-five years Plato. Laws, VI, 785 b).

The marriage was preceded by a formal betrothal. The promise to the groom was made not by the girl herself, but by her father on her behalf; if she was an orphan, then her brother or other close relative spoke on her behalf; if she did not have any relatives, then all her affairs were conducted by a legally appointed guardian. The betrothal was an important legal act, because at the same time they discussed property relations future relatives, the size of the dowry, part of which, called “meiliya” (comfort), remained the personal property of the young wife and, in the event of a divorce, was returned to her family. Giving a dowry for the bride was not required by law, but by custom, often more powerful than any written law. Therefore, even orphans and girls from low-income families were not left without a dowry: it was collected for them by their fellow citizens or even by the state itself. So, for example, in Athens, after the death of Aristides, his daughters “were given in marriage by the state: the city betrothed them at the expense of the treasury and appointed each three thousand drachmas of dowry” ( Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Aristides, XXVII). Children born from a marriage that was not preceded by a formal act of betrothal could not be included in the lists of citizens and were deprived of the right to inherit.

A model marriage contract comes from a document written on papyrus in Hellenistic Egypt, in 311 BC. e., on the island of Elephantine and certified, as required by law, by six witnesses. The document says that a certain Heraclid takes as his wife a free-born woman Demetrius, daughter of Leptinos and Philotis from the island of Kos. "The free man takes her free" with a dowry - dresses and jewelry - worth a thousand drachmas. Heraclids, in turn, will provide Demetrius with everything that befits a free-born woman, and they will live together where, by mutual agreement, their son-in-law and father-in-law deem it necessary. If Demetrius does something bad that brings disgrace to her husband, she will lose everything that she brought with her, but Heraclid must prove the truth of the accusations against Demetrius in front of three respectable men, to whom both sides will express their confidence. Heraclids has no right either to bring another woman into the house, or to recognize his children born to him by another woman, since all this would bring disgrace to Demetrius, or in general, under any pretext, to harm his wife. If it turns out that the bad husband did something like that and Demetrius can prove it in the presence of three husbands, in whom both parties express their confidence, then Heraclides will have to return her dowry to Demetrius and, in addition, pay another 1000 drachmas in fine. This agreement was to be respected under any conditions, and both future spouses were given one copy of the written text of the agreement so that they kept it separately and could, if necessary, submit it for trial.

An equally interesting document is a much later papyrus - II century BC. n. e. Here the young husband confirms in all form that he received a dowry from his father-in-law, but demands some more things as "addition to the dowry." The dowry itself included gold earrings, a ring, a chain, dishes, silver shoulder pads and some other valuable items listed in the text of the document. In addition to the dowry, the newlywed wanted to receive a copper vessel, a copper chest for a pantry and a chest for clothes, a market basket, etc. The text of the document is largely damaged, so we will probably never know about other claims of the son-in-law.

The formal act of concluding a marriage was originally the private nature of a family celebration and only with time turned into a religious and public legal act. Already ancient customs provided for a wedding feast in the house of the father of the newlywed and her solemn farewell from parental home to her husband's house. On the day of the wedding, the bride's house was cleaned with flowers. Early in the morning, she performed a solemn ablution in water from a local sacred spring (in Athens it was the spring of Kalliroya south of the Acropolis). Water was drawn and carried by young girls - lutrophores ("carrying water for the font"). After bathing, the bride was dressed and decorated, and already in her wedding dress she was waiting for the start of the festivities. The invited gathered, made sacrifices to the gods - the patrons of the family and marriage: Zeus, Hera, Hestia, Artemis and Moiram, and the newlywed herself sacrificed her children's toys and a strand of hair to them. After performing religious rites, the father handed his daughter to the son-in-law who arrived, pronouncing a ritual formula confirming that from that moment the girl was free from the obligation to make sacrifices to her ancestors, and would now participate in sacrifices to her husband's ancestors. It was the most important religious and legal act: the father freed his daughter from his power and transferred her under the care of her husband, into whose family she passed.

After the sacred ritual, the guests were invited to the wedding feast. Invitations were sent out officially and made according to a certain pattern. We are informed about the content of such an invitation by the Oxyrhynchus papyrus of the 3rd century BC. n. e., but, apparently, we are dealing here with a long tradition. Someone Geraid asks the addressee to come to him on the morning of his daughter's wedding day. Anyone who for some reason could not take advantage of the invitation and participate in wedding celebrations sent a letter of congratulations and warm wishes. Another papyrus preserved the text of such a congratulatory letter, received by the same Heraid from a certain Heraclid: Heraclid warmly shares his friend’s joy over his daughter’s “good, God-fearing and happy marriage” and regrets that he cannot come to the wedding feast.

We add that at the wedding itself, the newlywed, whose face was hidden under a veil, sat separately from the guests, in the circle of her peers.

Chilo from Sparta, whom later tradition ranked among the seven great sages of Hellas, the same one who, according to legend, wrote “Know thyself” on the temple in Delphi, left a lot of brief advice and aphorisms, instructions and teachings: one of them, as he tells Diogenes Laertes, it sounded like this: “Celebrate marriage without pomp” ( Diogenes Laertes. On the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers, I, 70). The idea of ​​a modest, devoid of noisy splendor wedding was close to Plato. In his ideal policy, he intended to introduce a special law limiting the cost of wedding feasts and warning against drunkenness.

“To the marriage feast, each side should invite no more than five friends or girlfriends, and the number of relatives and household members on both sides should be the same. The costs of no one should be greater than his condition allows, namely: for citizens of the richest class - one mine, for the second - half a mine, and so on ... To all who obey, the law must express approval; the disobedient is punished by the guardians of the laws as a person deprived of a sense of beauty and not brought up in the laws of wedding muses. It is never appropriate to drink to the point of intoxication, with the exception of festivities in honor of the god - the giver of wine; besides, it is not safe for a person who is serious about marriage. Here both the groom and the bride should be very reasonable: after all, this is a considerable change in their lives. Yes, and offspring should come from the most intelligent parents; meanwhile, after all, it is almost unknown on what night - or day - a child will be conceived with God's help. Therefore marriage should not take place when the body is heavy with wine. On the contrary, a child should be born, as it should be, strong, calm ... And a drunk person himself rushes about in all directions, and drags everything along with him; he rages both in body and soul; therefore, he who is drunk does not control himself and is not fit for procreation. (...) Therefore ... throughout life, and most of all when the time comes to bear children, one should beware and not do anything harmful, impudent and unjust of one's own free will. For all this is indelibly imprinted on the soul and body of the child, and children are born bad in every way. Plato. Laws, VI, 775, a-e).

The tragic consequences of drunkenness at a wedding feast were well known to the Greeks, including those of which Plutarch relates. Once, on the island of Chios, during a wedding, when the newlywed was being taken to the house of her young husband, King Hippocles, the groom's friend, got tipsy and merry, jumped onto the wedding wagon. He did not at all intend to offend the young couple, but did it only as a joke. Alas, the drunken joke cost him dearly: the groom's friends attacked him and killed him.

Solemnly escorted to her husband's house, the newlywed most often rode in a wagon decorated with flowers, accompanied by her young husband and one of her close relatives - the best man. Behind their wagon was the entire wedding cortege. The bride's mother held a burning torch in her hands, lit from the hearth. With this torch, they then kindled the hearth in the house of the newlyweds, thereby transferring the fire from one family to another. This symbolic ritual was supposed to firmly bind both families - old and young - by mutual ties, and also to win the patronage of Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, to the house of the newlyweds. Even greater solemnity of this procession was given by hymens - wedding songs in honor of the god of marriage, performed by groups of youth. The motorcade stopped in front of the newlyweds' house, and the young husband led his wife into the house, carrying her over the threshold in his arms. The origin of this custom was interpreted in different ways: some saw it as a legacy of ancient times, when girls were kidnapped to marry them; others - and this seems more plausible - believe that the rite of transfer through the threshold was to emphasize the importance and special position of the wife in the house, her difference from other women who crossed the threshold of this house. At the entrance, the newlyweds were showered with dates, nuts, figs, and small coins. This custom, called “katahisma”, was also common at other family celebrations and symbolized the wishes of success and prosperity, and perhaps it also meant a kind of sacrifice to household deities in order to enlist their benevolence towards the young spouses. Then they kindled the hearth with a torch, made sacrifices to the ancestors and made a joint meal with bread and fruits. Young people began family life.

During the feast, the guests brought valuable gifts to the newlyweds, which Athenaeus mentions in his extensive work at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. n. e. (See: Feast of the Wise Men, IV, 128 b). After the feast, the young couple was escorted to the bridal chamber - talam, and the familiar youth, standing under the door, loudly sang wedding hymns - epitalams, not without playful and sometimes immodest allusions. The next day, the feast resumed, and the turn of gifts came again. The gifts presented to the newlyweds on this, the second day of the wedding, were called anacalyptras, and this day itself was called anacalypteria, because the newlywed went out to the guests already without a wedding veil - calyptra.

As already mentioned, in classical Greece, the freedom of women, especially Athenian women, was subject to significant restrictions. That even a free-born woman did not have civil rights was in ancient society a ubiquitous phenomenon. However, in private life, a woman was increasingly dependent on a man, more and more subordinate to his power and guardianship. As a girl, in her father's house, she had to obey the will of her parent in everything, and in the event of his death, the will of her brother or guardian, appointed to her by her father's will or by decision of state officials. Becoming a married woman, she completely lost all independence. She could not decide for herself concerning her property affairs, nor did she have such freedom of movement as women of an earlier era had. Almost all the days the Athenians spent in the female half of the house - in the gynaecium, doing housework, weaving and sewing, as well as raising children while they were very young. An Athenian woman always went out into the street accompanied by a slave, and modesty forced the lady to cover her face from the eyes of oncoming men. The Athenians were convinced that a woman should act and behave in such a way that neither good nor bad could be said about her; she was simply not supposed to attract anyone's attention to herself at all, and she managed to go out into the street more often after reaching only such an age when one could rather ask about her: whose mother is this, rather than: whose wife is this. Only participation in religious ceremonies and festivals allowed Athenian women to briefly leave the gynoecium and join the cheering crowd.

Already the ancient authors themselves noted great differences in the position of women in different Greek policies. These differences even affected the appearance of women. It was believed, for example (pseudo-Dikearchos writes about this in the 2nd-1st centuries BC), that Theban women stand out among other Greek women tall and especially attractive gait and demeanor. They covered their faces with a white cloth, so that only their eyes were visible. The Theban women were noticeably different in their hairstyles, shoes, and way of life. The women of Boeotia, like the inhabitants of the islands of the Aegean Sea, were famous for their refinement, education, and penchant for poetry. In Sparta, they cared primarily about the health and physical conditioning of girls and young women, so that their children would be healthier, stronger, stronger - in Sparta this was given much more attention than in Athens. Xenophon, a fan of the Spartan political system, also admires the way the inhabitants of Lacedaemon treat women. Other Greeks, especially the Athenians, see the destiny of women in spinning wool in solitude - can women brought up in this way produce something great? The Spartans, the writer notes, have believed since the time of Lycurgus that slaves are also capable of making clothes, while free-born Spartans have a different purpose - to give birth to strong, healthy and courageous defenders of the state. Therefore, girls had to engage in physical exercises, participate in games and competitions on an equal footing with young men and even with them. After all, the laws of Lycurgus provided that real, full-fledged citizens could be born only if both their father and mother were equally hardened and physically developed ( Xenophon. Lacedaemon watered, I, 3-5).

Similar differences were also seen in relation to marital fidelity to divorce. In Athens, a wife's infidelity was regarded as a sufficient reason for the dissolution of a marriage; however, Plato condemned the infidelity of any of the spouses: “... our citizens should not be worse than birds and many other animals born in large herds, which, right up to the time of childbearing, lead a celibate, chaste and pure life. When they reach the proper age, males and females, by inclination, unite among themselves in pairs, and all the rest of the time they lead a pious and just life, remaining true to their original choice. Our citizens must be better than animals. (...)

The law... will, by means of labor, moderate the development of pleasures as far as possible, restraining their influx and growth, and giving the needs of the body the opposite direction. This can succeed if love pleasures are not shameless. If people rarely indulge in them out of shame, this will weaken the power of shamelessness due to the rare recourse to love pleasures ”( Plato. Laws, VIII, 840 d-841 b).

All this, however, was only a theory. In fact, the Athenians punished only women for treason. The wife lost her good name, and the husband had the right to kill her lover. It is precisely this situation that one of the court speeches of the famous Athenian orator Lysias describes. The deceived husband, convinced that his wife was cheating on him, took with him reliable witnesses and, entering the chambers of his unfaithful wife, found her with her lover in an unambiguous position. Using the ancient Attic law appropriate to him, he immediately killed the culprit. Accused of murder, the unfortunate zealot of marital honor repeatedly repeated in court that he acted in full accordance with the law. He told the judges in detail how it all happened:

“When I got married and brought my wife into the house, at first I made it a rule not to pester her with excessive severity, but also not to give her too much will - in a word, I looked after her, as it should be. And when the child was born, I completely trusted her, believing that the child is the strongest guarantee of marital fidelity. So, Athenians, at first there was no wife better than her: she was an excellent housewife, diligent, thrifty, diligent. And all my troubles began with the death of my mother. During the funeral, my wife accompanied the body of the deceased, and then this man saw her. And after some time, he seduced her: having tracked down a maid who went to the market for shopping, through her he began to make proposals to his wife and eventually ruined her. (...)

Everyone I could, I gathered and led. In a shop near my house, we stocked up on torches and entered the house with the whole crowd, fortunately outer door was previously unlocked by a maid. Having kicked down the door leading to the bedroom, we caught him right on the bed with my wife ... With a blow of my fist, I, the judge, knocked him down, twisted and tied his hands behind his back and began to interrogate how he dared to climb into my house. He did not even try to deny his guilt, but only tearfully begged not to kill him, offering to pay off with money. To this I answered: “It is not I who will kill you, but the law that you have broken by placing it below your pleasures. You yourself chose to commit a serious crime against my wife, my children and myself, instead of keeping the laws and being an honest citizen.

So, Judges, he endured exactly what the law says to do with such criminals. (...) I... punished him with the punishment that you yourself established and which you considered fair for this kind of criminals. ... The Areopagus itself, who from time immemorial ruled the court in cases of murder and to whom this right has been granted even today, decided in completely clear and definite terms that the one who punishes the adulterer with death if he catches him with his wife is innocent of murder . (...)

I think that for that state they establish laws in order to refer to them in controversial cases and find out how to proceed. So, in my case, the law tells the victim to punish the guilty in this way. I hope that you will agree with me, otherwise you will ensure such impunity for adulterers that even thieves will begin to impersonate libertines, knowing that they will not be touched if they say that they entered someone else's house to meet their mistress: everyone will know that the laws of debauchery can be disregarded... (...)

I believe, judges, that I punished him not only for myself, but also for the state. If you agree with me, such people will beware of harming their neighbor, seeing what reward awaits them for such exploits. And if you do not agree with me, then cancel the existing laws and introduce new ones, which will punish those who keep their wives in strictness, and justify seducers. So, at least, it will be more honest than now, when the laws set a trap for citizens, saying that the one who caught the adulterer can do anything to him, and the court then threatens with a sentence rather the victim than the one who violates the laws and dishonors other people's wives "( fox. Exculpatory speech in the case of the murder of Eratosthenes, 6-8, 24-27, 29-30, 35-36, 47-49).

Based on the general principle that the purpose of marriage is to have children, to provide the state with new citizens, Greek thinkers considered it necessary to forcibly terminate childless marriages. Translating this idea into the language of laws, Plato speaks about this very categorically: “The term for the birth of children ... let it be ten years, no more ... If, during this time, some spouses do not have offspring, then they are for mutual benefit - disperse, having consulted jointly with relatives ... "( Plato. Laws, VI, 784 b).

In Sparta, the legislator Lycurgus provided a different solution in situations where the husband was much older than his wife and they had no children. In this case, taking care of multiplying the number of citizens in their own country, old husband had to choose a decent, strong and handsome young man and bring him into your house, to your wife, and recognize the child born to them as their own. And vice versa - if someone liked someone else's wife, prolific, capable of giving birth to many children, then he could, having previously agreed with her husband, go in to her and live with her as with his own ( Xenophon. Lacedaemonian polity, I, 9-10; Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Lycurgus, XV).

Conflicts between spouses had different causes, sometimes the husband sought a divorce, and sometimes the wife. As women regained greater freedom over household property, as well as other rights in family life, conflicts between spouses became more acute.

If a wife sought a dissolution of the marriage, she, in a letter addressed to the archon, stated the reasons why she wanted to divorce her husband. In the event that the husband did not object to the divorce, the wife could leave her husband without any legal proceedings and other legal formalities. If, however, any property disputes arose during a divorce (for example, on the return of a dowry, the division of personal property, etc.), the matter naturally became more complicated. If the husband did not agree to the termination of the marriage bond, the wife turned to the archon and the case was referred to the court. The outcome of the litigation depended to a large extent on how much the marriage contract provided for the circumstances and consequences possible divorce and how he determined the mutual obligations of the spouses in this case.

If the initiative for divorce belonged to the husband, events developed more quickly and easily: the husband would send his wife, along with the dowry, to her father or guardian, without even giving any motives. This act of dissolution of marriage was called "removal".

Papyrus documents from the Hellenistic era provide many examples family conflicts leading to the breakdown of marital relations. Here we have a complaint filed by a certain weaver Tryphon to the local strategist Alexander. It says: “Demeter, the daughter of Heraclides, was my wife, and I provided her with everything that was due, as far as I could. She did not want to live with me any longer and finally left, taking with her my things, a list of which I am enclosing here. Therefore, I ask: order me to bring her to you, so that what she deserves will befall her, and in order to force her to return my things.

Sometimes the spouses parted peacefully, by mutual agreement, as the following agreement between the former husband and wife testifies. A certain gravedigger Sulid and his wife Senpsaida announced the annulment of their marriage and the renunciation of any future property claims against each other. The man kept the wedding gifts he once made to his bride, and the woman took back her dowry, as well as the property acquired by her and constituting her personal property. From that moment on, their divorce was considered complete and final, and each of them could, if he wished, enter into new marriage at your discretion.

Since the birth of children was, as has been said more than once, the main goal of the marital union, Greek legislators and philosophers paid special attention to creating favorable conditions for expectant mothers. “The newlyweds should think about giving the state, as far as possible, the most beautiful and best children. (...) Let the young husband pay attention to his wife and to childbearing. Let the young wife do the same, especially during the period of time when their children have not yet been born. Plato. Laws, VI, 783 e). The most necessary environment for the successful development of the fetus is calm. Plato continues: “... all pregnant women ... should take special care during pregnancy not to experience many violent pleasures, as well as suffering; it is desirable that they live this period of time in a joyful, serene and meek mood ”(Ibid., VII, 792 e).

This concern for the health of the child did not go beyond a certain psychological preparation. Neither before childbirth, nor during childbirth, women were not under the supervision of a doctor. The Greeks considered the presence of a midwife, or even just an experienced slave in such matters, to be quite sufficient. In especially difficult moments of childbirth, all hopes were placed on the goddess Eiletia, the patroness of women in childbirth, identified with Artemis. People turned their prayers to her, asking her to put aside her sacred bow and come to the aid of a suffering woman, to ease her suffering. Of course, these prayers did not always help: with the primitive means that the ancient midwives used, childbirth often ended tragically. The mother died, or the child, or both at the same time. Then bitter gravestone inscriptions appeared, like the one that Heraclitus of Halicarnassus compiled: “Here is a fresh grave. The leaves of the wreaths on the tombstone have not withered yet. Read the inscription, O traveler! Look whose poor bones this stone has covered. “Passer-by, I am Artemias. Cnidus is my fatherland, Euphron took me to wife, and the time of birth came. I was pregnant with two children; she left one thing for her father - it will be his support in old age; I took the other with me - in memory of my beloved husband.

Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights, X, 2) relates the story of Aristotle about how a certain woman in Egypt gave birth to five twins. At the same time, the Greek philosopher, according to Gellius, claimed that he had not heard that a woman had ever managed to give birth to more than five children at the same time, and this happened very rarely. (In Rome itself, according to Aulus Gellius, five twins were born only once, but the mother did not survive the birth.) One can only assume that especially difficult and difficult births caused too much trouble for inexperienced and not ready for this kind of situations random midwives, so newborns did not always survive.

The birth of a child was a solemn event for the family, even regardless of how the father reacted to the child. When a boy was born, the doors of the house were decorated with olive branches, and when a girl was born, with woolen threads. The baby was bathed in water, which in Athens was poured olive oil, and in Sparta - wine. Then he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a cradle woven from wicker. If the father decided to recognize the child and take him into the family, then on the fifth or seventh day after the birth, they arranged a family holiday called “amphidromia” (circling): the father raised the child from the ground in recognition and quickly carried him around the hearth. At the same time, grains of wheat, barley, as well as peas and salt were scattered in order to win the favor of the patron spirits and thereby protect the baby from all evil forces. Now he, as a new member of the family, was entrusted with the care of household gods.

If the father did not recognize the child, he was simply thrown out of the house, which was tantamount to a death sentence. However, it also happened that someone found an abandoned baby, began to take care of him, educate him. Some scholars dispute the existence of such a right for fathers to abandon their own children and thereby doom them to death, and yet the Greeks often sought to get rid of the child, mainly for economic reasons. No matter how inhuman this custom may seem, we are forced to accept the fact of infanticide in ancient Greece as reliable and fully proven. There is no doubt that in the Greek states, primarily in Sparta, babies born weak or crippled were deprived of their lives, fearing that in the future they would become not a support for the state, but a heavy burden. In Sparta, the fate of the child was determined not by the father, as in Athens and some other policies, but by the elders of the city. Immediately after his birth, the baby was presented to the elders, who decided whether he was healthy and strong enough to be brought up and prepared for civilian life, or it would be preferable to immediately kill him.

At the same time, the Greeks often sought to get rid of quite healthy children, especially girls. This can be explained by the economic conditions that gave rise to a tendency towards self-regulation of the population. Society itself, with the help of such cruel customs, controlled and regulated demographic processes. The number of children in a family was usually limited to two, rarely three, while families with two daughters were considered rather exceptions. The reasons for this are clear: women could not perform the tasks that the younger generation of citizens of Greek policies expected. Women did not protect the borders of the state, did not perform sacred functions, supporting the cult of ancestors, and were not of value as a labor force in the economy. Aristotle writes: “... should put a limit on procreation rather than on property, so that no children are born beyond a certain number. This number could be determined by taking into account all sorts of accidents, such as the fact that some of the newborns will die or some marriages will be childless. If, however, this question is left without attention, which happens in most of the states, then this will inevitably lead to the impoverishment of citizens, and poverty is a source of indignation and crime. Aristotle. Politics, II, 3, 7, 1265 b). From these reasonings of Aristotle it is clear that it was about property issues: with an increase in the number of children, family property would have to be further divided, citizens would go bankrupt, and with them the state.

In the IV century. BC e. the problem of overpopulation was already seriously disturbing the Hellenes. Approximately at the turn of the IV-III centuries. BC e. the Greeks, according to Polybius, decided henceforth to confine themselves to the education of one, at most two children. Polybius himself strongly opposes the practice of birth control and sees a much greater danger in the fact that the country may eventually become completely depopulated. “... The whole of Hellas,” he writes, “has been beset in our time by the barrenness of women and, in general, the decline in population, so that the cities were depopulated, crop failures began, although we did not have either continuous wars or the horrors of the plague. ... If someone advised us to turn to the gods with the question of what speeches or actions can make our city more crowded and happier, then would such an adviser not seem like a fool to us, because the cause of the disaster is obvious, and its elimination is in our power. The fact is that people have deteriorated, become vain, covetous and pampered, do not want to marry, and if they do get married, they do not want to feed their adopted children ... "( Polybius. General History, XXXVII, 9).

Based on written sources, it is estimated that in the 4th c. BC e. 61 Athenian families had 87 sons and 44 daughters. In 228-220 years. BC e. in 79 Greek families who moved to Miletus in Asia Minor and received citizenship rights there, there were 118 sons and 28 daughters, and among the families in Miletus itself, 32 had one child each, and 31 families had two. The Greeks made sure that if possible two sons remained in the family - in case of the death of one of them. How merciless the ancients were to their daughters is evidenced by a letter from a certain Greek Gilarion from Alexandria, where he went to look for work, to his wife Alida (1st century BC). Showing touching concern for little son Apollinka, the father punishes his wife, who was expecting a second child at that time: “If you give birth happily and it will be a boy, leave him alive, and if it’s a girl, leave her.”

Neither religion, nor morality, nor law condemned this cruel practice of infanticide. People who found abandoned babies and saved their lives also did this not out of compassion, but out of selfish calculation: they raised a faithful slave or slave for themselves, for whom in the future one could get a lot of money. Girls most often fell into the hands of pimps and brothels in this way.

The Greek city-states were not afraid of population decline even during periods of major wars, because they always had the opportunity to replenish the ranks of their citizens at the expense of people from other, overpopulated policies. In this regard, we can find frequent references in the sources to the granting of citizenship rights to foreigners. Only King Philip V of Macedon after the Battle of Cynoscephalae in Thessaly in 197 BC. e., fearing a decrease in his military forces in the future, opposed the custom of abandoning or killing children and supported large families in every possible way.

The legal status of foundlings was very different in different policies. On the island of Lesvos, a child abandoned and found by a stranger was regarded as free-born, as if the man who found him, according to custom, “raised” him from the ground and thereby recognized him as his own and adopted him into the family. In Athens, a person who discovered and left a foundling had the right to treat him in the future both as a free man and as a slave. At the same time, the father, who had once thrown out the child, formally continued to maintain paternal power over him, and over the son or daughter of a slave - his rights of master and owner. In both cases, he could eventually, having again found the abandoned child, make undeniable claims against him and demand his return. In Sparta, the legal status of abandoned children was not defined at all, because they cared about raising only strong, healthy citizens, and physically weak offspring were doomed to death. Here, the law directly compelled parents to publicly kill the "unfortunate" child. The Spartans did not kill or abandon healthy children.

If the father recognized his child and accepted him into the family - an expression of which was the solemn rite of amphidromy - then on the tenth day of the baby's life, he was finally given a name. The names were chosen not from any established list of common, generally accepted names, but on their own whim, often inventing new ones suitable for the circumstances, or they called the boy the name of his grandfather, and the girl - the name of the grandmother. The rite of naming was also a solemn event, involving the invitation of numerous guests; they gave gifts to parents, congratulating them on this important family holiday. A year later, the father represented the son of his phratry (the inhabitants of Athens were then subdivided into phyla and phratries), which was tantamount to including him among full citizens.

The child, both boy and girl, was under the care of a mother or nanny who later young girl she found a confidant of her heart secrets and a faithful assistant in everything, and over time, having married, she took her with her to her new home. Boys at the age of seven passed under the guardianship of their father.

Mothers did not always feed babies themselves, often they gave them to wet nurses. The nurses, mothers, were usually impoverished women from among the free or slave. In Athenian families, Spartan women were most willingly taken as nurses: they were famous for their excellent health and skillful, albeit harsh, methods of education. Children were fed with milk, honey, and when the baby could already be given more solid food, they did this: the nurse or nanny took a piece in her mouth and, chewing it, fed the child with this crushed mass. Modern hygiene would no doubt raise many objections to such a practice, but in antiquity it was quite common.

On the contrary, the method used in Hellas, how to calm and lull a baby, is well known and recognized as correct today. The child was picked up and carried, rocking: “For both the body and the soul of babies, let us take as a starting point breastfeeding and movements made, if possible, throughout the night and day. This is useful for all children, and especially for the youngest ones, so that they live permanently, if possible, as if on the sea. In every possible way we should strive to do just that with newborns. (...) Indeed, when mothers want the child to fall asleep, but he cannot sleep, they do not use rest at all, but, on the contrary, movement, all the while rocking the child in their arms. They resort not to silence, but to some kind of melody, as if playing a flute to children. Plato. Laws, VII, 790 s.).

The Greeks well understood how important, although it was not easy in the upbringing of small children, to maintain the measure, not resorting to too harsh methods, but not allowing the child to grow up spoiled and pampered. “Delicacy makes the character of children heavy, quick-tempered and very impressionable to trifles; on the contrary, the excessively rude enslavement of children makes them humiliated, ignoble, hating people, so that in the end they become unfit for life together» (Ibid., VII, 791 d). The harsh methods of influence used by mothers or nannies included the intimidation of a child by fantastic monsters, ready to pounce on a naughty little boy or girl. In Greece, such a monster was "Mormo" - a ghoul, a ghoul.

Little by little, the child's horizons became wider, the world of his ideas - richer, and then in this Child's world fairy tales, toys began to enter, different games and entertainment. The kids were amused with rattles and toys made of terracotta, wood or metal. Among them were all kinds of animals, cubes, tops, set in motion by pressing the handle, dolls - also made of terracotta or more expensive: ivory; many dolls could even move arms and legs. There was also a miniature doll furniture, strollers. So, in the temple of Hera in Olympia, a bed for a doll, decorated with ivory, was found.

In written monuments, we now and then find references to moving figures, puppets and other moving toys, controlled imperceptibly with the help of threads or chains. For example, Aristotle compares the movement of animals with the movements of puppets, when invisible strings are either taut or loosened, or with the movement of a baby carriage, in which the smaller wheel is the driving one (see: Aristotle. On the Movement of Animals, VII, 701b).

Older children, full of imagination and rich creative ideas, sculpted toys for themselves from clay, wax, or even from bread crumbs. In addition, they built sand palaces, rode on sticks, harnessed dogs or goats to carriages or small carts, played blind man's buff (for some reason they called this game "bronze fly"). Little Hellenes knew swings and hoops and kites. Imitating the elders, they organized running and jumping competitions in their circle, and, finally, the ball game remained indispensable for the boys at all times. In games, children came up with rewards and punishments. So, playing ball (this game was called "basilinda"), the children assigned the title of king - "basileus" to the winner, while the loser received the nickname "donkey". The boy who lost in the run had to wear his more successful rival on his back for some time, and he, in order to complicate the game, covered the eyes of the loser with his hand. This fun is known as "ephedrism" (from "ephedridzo" - to ride on someone's back). In the game called "hitrind", one of the participants sat on the ground and had to grab one of his comrades, who at that time molested him and hurt him in every possible way; at the same time, the boy, who was sitting in the center, was not allowed to leave the ground for a minute or leave his place.

Back in the III century. BC e. Chrysippus, the Stoic philosopher, pointed out that nurses and nannies are obliged to take care of the child for three years, but even during this period, his character should be formed, good habits and inclinations should be instilled in him ( Quintilian. The Education of the Orator, I, 1, 3).

But long before Chrysippus, the Greeks were not only fully aware that "a child is much more difficult to pick up than any other living being" ( Plato. Laws, VII, 808 d), but also tried to approach him with an understanding of his needs and requirements. “... In their mental make-up, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds and even six-year-olds need fun. But effeminacy must be avoided, children must be punished, but in such a way as not to offend their vanity ... ”(Ibid., VII, 793 e). In the ideal state, created according to the project of the great philosopher, there should have been a special system of preschool education, which he describes as follows:

“All children ... from three to six years old, let them gather in the sanctuaries in the places of settlement, so that the children of all the inhabitants are there together. Nurses should see to it that children of this age are modest and undisciplined. Twelve women will be placed over the nurses themselves and over this entire flock of children - one for each flock, to keep its order ... After the children reach the age of six, they are divided by sex. Boys spend time with boys, just like girls with girls. But both of them must turn to the doctrine” (Ibid., VII, 794 a-s).