The Greek Household and personal relationships

Abstract

Xenophon’s thought on life and relationships within the household provides compelling insights into domestic life in ancient Greek cities, and attitudes towards the personal relationships which connected citizens to each other. The household also provides a location in which values and knowledge are transmitted between husband, wife and subordinate workers (Oeconomicus), and in which discussions between friends and citizens can take place (Symposium). The presence of Socrates signals the normative and prescriptive element of these works. The good order of the household, and the behaviour of husband and wife within it, can be paralleled in Xenophon’s taxonomy of social organisation with the order of society at the level of city, army and empire. The placing of the domestic within this normative structure means that one should be cautious in interpreting his work as straightforwardly descriptive of Athenian domestic life.