On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay Part 9

It is stated in the Welsh Laws that the _son_ of a stranger chief, to whom honour was to be given, entered the whole privilege of the tribe.

(M87) According to Aristotle,(166) candidates for archons.h.i.+p at Athens were asked their father's name and his deme, their grandfather's name and his deme, their mother's and her father's name and his deme;(167) whether the candidate had an Apollo Patroos and Zeus Herkeios, and where these shrines were: also if he treated his parents well and paid his taxes.

In order to be perfectly sure that the candidate was of full and pure blood, they investigated the condition of both his grandparents, and, as further proof, a.s.sured themselves that he had a house and property of his own, and that too inherited from his ancestors. Furthermore, he must be guilty of no impiety towards his parents or the State.

If it were the case at Athens that the fourth generation from a stranger was considered as having attained to the rights of a citizen, it mattered little what a man's _greatgrand_father was. He might have been an alien, yet if the intermediate ancestors were "in order," the candidate would have acquired the full blood.(168)

(M88) In the _Oedipus Tyrannus_,(169) Sophocles apparently uses the expression "slave from the _third_ mother" as implying that three descents were considered to confirm the position of the fourth generation as slave or citizen, or whatever the case might be. Oedipus a.s.sures Jokasta that _her_ pedigree and status will remain unimpugned, even though the enquiry he is prosecuting establish him thrice-born a slave from slave mother, slave grandmother, and slave greatgrandmother.

In elections for sacred offices, which appear to have been about the last things laid open to the new citizen, the possession of three generations of privileged ancestors was in some places insisted on. There is an inscription to this effect belonging to Halikarna.s.sos;(170) and some similar rule seems to have held good among the Jews.

"These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found; therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood (_????ste???sa?_ ?p? t?? ?e?ate?a?)."(171)

The book of Nehemiah closes with the triumphant verse: "Thus I cleansed them from all strangers."

(M89) The rule in the _Ordinances of Manu_ for the recovery of Brahman caste is just halfway between the tenth and the fourth generations-namely, the seventh, or _greatgrandson of the greatgrandson_ of the first halfcaste. This is only the case when each generation marries a Brahman wife.

"If (the caste) produced from a Brahman by a cudra woman keeps reproducing itself by n.o.bler (marriage) this ign.o.ble attains a n.o.ble family _at the seventh union_ (Yuga)."(172)

Thus:-

If (1) the halfcaste marries a Brahman woman and (2) his son do.

(3) his grandson do.

(4) his _greatgrandson_ do.

(5) _his_ son do.

(6) his grandson do.

(7) his _greatgrandson_ do.-at last his family is restored to their lost high caste.

- 5. Limitations Of Liability For Bloodshed.

(M90) The ????ste?a, limited to relations within the same degrees as for other purposes, seems to be the unit in the case of pollution of the kindred by the death-violent or natural-of one of their number.

"Whosoever(173) being related to the deceased on the male or female side of those _within the cousins.h.i.+p_ (??t?? ??e???t?t??), shall not prosecute the murderer when he ought and proclaim him outlaw, he shall take _upon himself_ the pollution and the hatred of the G.o.ds ... and he shall be in the power of any who is willing to avenge the dead...."(174)

"The pollution cannot be washed out until the homicidal soul which did the deed has given life for life and has propitiated and laid to sleep the wrath of the whole family" (??????e?a).(175)

"If a brother wound a brother (???????) the parents (?e???ta?) and the kinsmen (s???e?e??) to _cousins' children_ on male and female side shall meet and judge the case."(176)

Ransom was forbidden; citizen was bound to citizen with ties that had inherited too much of the tribal sanct.i.ty to admit of any extenuation of the extreme penalty.

It was no doubt a wise policy on the part of the legislators, with the view to the preservation of respect for life and property, to make the responsibility for murder rest as widely as possible, and include as many relations and connections on both sides as might be. In order also that the wife, in case her husband was killed, and the daughter, in case her father was killed, might be fully protected and represented among the prosecuting kindred, the law of Draco seems to lay the necessity for action also on the father-in-law and the son-in-law. The _phratria_, being such a compact organisation and exacting such formal admission of its members, would naturally be concerned to see that justice was dealt to any of its number. Though we cannot include the _phratores_ amongst those directly responsible equally with the near kinsmen for crimes committed by one of their number, they would always have to take a certain part in whatever was necessary to bring him to justice, besides being generally concerned in all matters relating to kins.h.i.+p, which affected any member of their _phratria_.

(M91) "Proclamation shall be made against the murderer in the agora within [? his] cousins.h.i.+p and (the degree) of a first cousin, and prosecution shall be made jointly by cousins and _cousins' children and descendants of cousins_, and sons-in-law and fathers-in-law and _phratores_."

That Demosthenes here quotes a genuine law of Draco is proved by an inscription found at Athens belonging to the year 409 B.C., recording this sentence as part of the law of Draco about murder.(177)

In another place Demosthenes thus refers to the action of this law:-

"The law commands the relations to go forth and prosecute as far as descendants of cousins; and in the oath it is defined what the relations.h.i.+p actually is, etc."(178)

The use of ??e??ad?? in addition to ??e???? pa?de? in Draco's law above is emphatic as implying that as regards pollution the group of relations to second cousins were treated _en ma.s.se_ as under the stain; they had not yet, so to speak, reached the point where they could divide up their responsibility.

(M92) If the murder was committed within the narrow limits of the ????ste?a itself, the double pollution of the bloodspilling and the blood spilled rested upon the whole group with overwhelming force.

Plato(179) treats of such a calamity and prescribes the remedy. If a man slay his wife, or she her husband, his children are orphans; their debt of maintenance to their parent is cancelled; he must flee; they possess his goods. If he is childless, his relations shall meet _to the children of his cousins_ on the male and female side (_i.e._ all his possible heirs) and shall elect not one of themselves, but a younger son of some other and pious family to bring in new blood with better fortune to counteract the curse, as heir to the house (????????? e?? t?? ?????), introducing him to the father of the banished (or deceased) man and to those further back in the family (t??? ??? t?? ??????), calling him their _son_, the continuer of their family (?e???t??), their hearth-keeper (?st??????), and minister of their sacred rites.... But the guilty man they shall "let lie,"

nameless, childless, portionless for ever.(180)

(M93) In the ancient Laws of Wales the blood-fine takes a very important position. But whereas all the relations of the murderer are liable to be called upon to pay the "Spearpenny," as it is called, only the inner kindred within fixed degrees contribute proportionally to the payment of the price. The group upon which this responsibility falls is twice as large in the Welsh Laws as at Athens, and includes _fifth_ cousins, or the greatgrandchildren of greatgrandchildren of a common ancestor.

The Dimetian Code describes the relations who pay galanas as follows.(181) Those beyond only pay "spearpenny."

Father and mother.

Grandfather.

Greatgrandfather.

Brother and sister.

First cousins.

Second cousins.

Third cousins.

Fourth cousins.

Fifth cousins.

According to the Gwentian Code, _fifth_ cousins share. "There is no proper share, no proper name in kin further than that."(182)

The Venedotian Code states that galanas is paid by the kindred: two parts by the relations of the father, one part by the relations of the mother, to _sixth cousins_. All kindred after sixth cousins pay spearpenny.(183)

The sixth cousin is also called "kinsman son of a fifth cousin, and then _the father (i.e. the fifth cousin) pays it_, because his relations.h.i.+p can be fixed, _but the relations.h.i.+p of his son to the murderer cannot_."

(M94) The defilement of carrying out a corpse and a.s.sisting at a funeral also covered the same area of relations.h.i.+p at Athens-_i.e._ the ????ste?a.

The house of the dead man was only to be entered by those naturally polluted.

"After the funeral no woman to enter the house save only _those defiled_; to wit-mother, wife, sisters, and daughters; beside these not more than five women and two girls, _daughters of first cousins_: beyond these, none."(184)

Demosthenes quotes the law of Solon to the effect that-