οἰκίαδ' ϵστί τις Φιλία: Love and the Greek Family

The phrase, ????a d' est? t?? f???a, taken fromAristode's .£«¿¿S7#¿Z» Ethics (1242a.26), defines the subject, or rather the problem, that I address in this paper. What didAristode mean by this apparendy straightforward claim, and how may we best translate it? Does it in fact encapsulate in some important sense the essence of the ????? in classical Athens, and, if so, is it informative about the emotional bonds that united the Greek family? Historians of the family commonly speak of the difficulties of recapturing the quality of sentiment among kin in earlier societies. Sarah Pomeroy, for example, has recendy written (1997, 3): "I am pessimistic about our ability to discover very much about the emotional experiences ofthe past, andwhether they changed over time."1 The difficulties A version ofthis paper was presented in November 1998 to the History Seminar at Cambridge University at the invitation of Paul Cartledge, Lene Rubinstein, and Dorothy Thompson. I should like to thank them, and all those who participated in the seminar, for stimulating discussion and commentary. Alan Boegehold read the present version, and was generous with advice and encouragement.