The Importance of Marriage
Marriage became an integral component for the ancient Athenian identity and social structure because of its value in producing legitimate children for the Athenian state. Illegitimate children did not receive the same treatment or opportunities that legitimate ones did, and a legal marriage would have secured a better future for a couple's descendants.[1] It was not until the Athenian social structure was collapsing during the Peloponnesian War that leaders relaxed the laws for legitimacy because of the drastic decline in the number of citizens during this time.[2] A young man could point to the legitimate marriage of his two Athenian parents to prove citizenship and enjoy the educational, social and political benefits which attended that status (although his parents’ legal marriage was not in itself a requirement for his citizenship).[3] Part of this is evidenced in the oath a father took when he presented his son to his phratry; he was required to swear that “the boy had been born of an Athenian woman…living in legitimate wedlock.”[4] This sort of legitimacy was also important for adoption in ancient Athens – some phratries required that a father swear that an adopted son be born from a legitimate marriage as if the son were biologically his own.[5]
Legitimacy, which depended heavily on a legitimate marriage, allowed the Athenian citizen rights within his family – to arrange for his female relatives’ marriages as the head of a household, claim an estate, etc. – and allowed him membership in his father’s phratry and in the Athenian state itself.[6] Roger Just, in his book Women in Athenian Law and Life, characterizes Athens as “a closed and tighly knit political and religious unity in which the break-down of regularly conducted marriage would threaten the existence of the community itself.”[7] Although it seems that the Greeks did not have a term for the marriage relationship itself (gamos refers to the sexual union, although it is usually translated into English as “marriage”), it was this legally and socially recognized union which formed the backbone of the Athenian social structure for centuries.[8]
[1] Marriage Law, 76.
[2] Marriage Law, 85.
[3] Just, 42; Marriage Law, 76.
[4] Marriage Law, 76.
[5] Marriage Law, 79.
[6] Just, 41.
[7] Just, 29-30.
[8] Just 30.
Legitimacy, which depended heavily on a legitimate marriage, allowed the Athenian citizen rights within his family – to arrange for his female relatives’ marriages as the head of a household, claim an estate, etc. – and allowed him membership in his father’s phratry and in the Athenian state itself.[6] Roger Just, in his book Women in Athenian Law and Life, characterizes Athens as “a closed and tighly knit political and religious unity in which the break-down of regularly conducted marriage would threaten the existence of the community itself.”[7] Although it seems that the Greeks did not have a term for the marriage relationship itself (gamos refers to the sexual union, although it is usually translated into English as “marriage”), it was this legally and socially recognized union which formed the backbone of the Athenian social structure for centuries.[8]
[1] Marriage Law, 76.
[2] Marriage Law, 85.
[3] Just, 42; Marriage Law, 76.
[4] Marriage Law, 76.
[5] Marriage Law, 79.
[6] Just, 41.
[7] Just, 29-30.
[8] Just 30.