Review
Everyone who is interested in ancient Greek society will want to think seriously about [Patterson's] conclusions...The ancient Greek family is more complex and flexible than has usually been supposed, and relationships by marriage and adoption could be as valid in determining inheritance as blood relationships...Contrary to previous assumptions, there does not appear to have been a moment in Greek history when membership in a larger kinship group, such as a clan, took precedence over the smaller unit of the family...As Patterson shows, the spheres of public and private always overlapped, and their separation from one another has been much exaggerated, especially by historians who seek to portray the ancient Greeks as keeping women in an oriental seclusion or for treating them as socially and morally inferior beings. The complex data in Patterson's book shows that it is grossly unfair to portray the ancient Greeks as misogynists. Greek literature and drama accurately reflect women's importance, both in the family and in the larger society. (Mary Lefkowitz
Washington Times )
Patterson...offers an attack on the continuing influence of century-old paradigms concerning the ancient Greek family. She argues convincingly that the
oikos (household) and the state were closely interrelated, the state did not supersede or suppress the
oikos, and there was no clear public/private split, because one's civic identity derived largely from one's
oikos...[She] also explores the family in Hesiod, Homer, and early Greek law; marriage and adultery in Athens; and the family in Menander's plays. (J. M. Williams
Choice )
[
The Family in Greek History] is a welcome and useful addition to the very recent body of scholarship that has appeared on the ancient Greek family and, although the title might not at first explicitly indicate it, to the much more considerable scholarship on the role of women in the Greek world. It is a book with both a broad ambitious and a definite thesis...It is an important contribution to several on-going revisionist debates in the field of Greek social history...Certainly all scholars with a particular interest in ancient gender studies and the history of the ancient family should read this book. (Tim Parkin
Bryn Mawr Classical Review )
Patterson is to be commended for demonstrating so clearly that some of the premises which stand at the basis of research into the Greek family are not tenable in the face of the available evidence...Patterson's study is eminently useful and has the potential of becoming a fundamental work in the field of the Greek family and society. It presents a forceful argument to rethink the basic premises of how the transformation of Greek society from the archaic through to the Hellenistic period defined the family. By attacking historical myths such as that of the
genos as the quintessential family or the emergence of the state at the expense of the public role of the family and of women Patterson makes clear that ideas about the family in Greek history have been seriously misconstrued. The result is an excellent and challenging piece of scholarship. (Marc Kleijwegt
Scholia Reviews )
About the Author
Cynthia B. Patterson is Associate Professor of History, Emory University.
