On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society: An Essay

m the heart, the value of a hundred vases; sixteen loaves of white bread, eight round cakes, eight oval cakes, eight broad thin cakes, eight measure

er cxlviii. or

eat, incense, funereal dishes, bringing into favour with

in I

e cake-offering to the dead became a most important symbol, uniting in a common duty all descendants from certain ancestors within fi

p not necessari

lf seems widest between the living and the dead. Can this be laid to the charge of the artificial superstitions of a philosophical class of poets? Or is it due to the true evolution of such beliefs, that as long as our search touches upon the unsettled periods of semi-migratory life, the tombs of individual member

, prince or master, and [pg 013] that Hestia was sometimes designated by

tain-it would be quite natural, in the weakening of the central worship, for the titles of honour and respect to be used equally towards those meaner ancestors who henceforth occupied the religious energies of the head of each family or household. In

d the tie of

. But without pretending to come to a final decision on this the main tendency of social development, surely something may yet be said in favour of the contrary theory; that the reverence that centred in the hearth was in effect the expression of the sanctity of the tie of blood, as felt by all members of

ears the closest resemblance to the truth, but it is easy to imagine what

rse of socia

y under arms and subject to attack from the enemies they were passing through or subjugating. This constant sojourning in a strange land, surro

internal dissensions arising between different sections within the community itself. The tie of common blood, uniting all members of the tribe, would be gradually disregarded and displaced by

the relationship was obvious and well known. And it would no longer be sufficient merely to prove membership of a kin

f tribesmen

sentiment; the rites connected therewith would be delegated to an official priest; and it is with the head of each family, surrounded by those who are really conscious of

e, but in a more perfunctory and arbitrary manner; whilst the intimate connection of the membe

s are against members of the same household, defrauding orphans, or insulting an aged parent.28 Behaviour to

[pg 016] its composition the city owes to direct inheritance from the tribal system, must, as has been

ly introductory to th

could once be established, material assistance ought to have been gained for rightly understanding the structure of th

g