An account of the Greek family as a productive and reproductive social unit during the Hellenistic and Classical periods. The evidence for the work has been taken from literary, inscriptional, archeological, anthropological, and art historical evidence.
This highly original and authoritative account of the Greek family supersedes the only existing study in English by W. K. Lacey (published in 1968) and provides the first comprehensive survey of the subject. Taking account of a mass of literary, inscriptional, archaeological, anthropological, and art-historical evidence, some of which has only been made recently available, Sarah Pomeroy provides an excellent reference for one of the key aspects of Greek social history.
Chapter 1, "Defining the Family," is unique in offering the reader a survey of the categories of family history ... Chapter 3, "Death and the Family," is one of the most valuable in the volume in that it offers the readers a synopsis of the evidence for death and the dead. Especially useful is the inclusion of Clairmont's studies of Attic tombstones together with reports on the archaeological remains of periboloi at Rhamnous ... the material is inherently interesting.
