Family As A Model For The State - Ancient Greek Thought

Ancient Greek Thought

The family–state model was first expressed in ancient times, often as a form of justification for aristocratic rule.

Plutarch records a laconic saying of the Dorians attributed to Lycurgus. Asked why he didn't establish a democracy in the Lacedæmon, Lycurgus responded: “Begin, friend, and set it up in your family”. The Dorians of Crete and Sparta seemed to mirror the family institution and organization in their form of government. (see Plutarch's The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans — Lycurgus, p. 65)

Aristotle often describes personal and domestic relationships in terms of different forms of government. He gives examples such as men and their domestic animals, wives, slaves, and children. He says, for example: “the government of a household is a monarchy, since every house is governed by a single ruler”.(2) Later in the same text he says that husbands exercise a republican government over their wives and monarchical government over their children, and that they exhibit political office over slaves and royal office over the family in general. (Politics Bk I, §v, 1–2; 1259a 35–1259b 1)

However, while he is prepared to use political terms as metaphors for domestic relationships, he is equally clear that such metaphors are limited:

“Some thinkers, however, suppose that statesman, king, estate manager, and master of a family have a common character. This is a mistake; they think that the distinction between them is not a difference in kind, but a simple, numerical difference.” (Politics Bk I, §i)

After discussing the various domestic relationships, he concludes: “mastership and statesmanship are not identical, nor are all forms of power the same, as some thinkers suppose.” (Politics Bk I, §vi)

Aristotle's main notion is that the ancient Greek polis or city-state is the natural end of human beings; they start in family groups, progress naturally to forming villages, and finally come together in cities. Thus the family forms the root of human relationships, but the city is the flower.

Arius Didymus in Stobaeus, 1st century CE, writes: “A primary kind of association (politeia) is the legal union of a man and woman for begetting children and for sharing life.” From the collection of households a village is formed and from villages a city, “o just as the household yields for the city the seeds of its formation, thus it yields the constitution (politeia)”. Further, he claims: “Connected with the house is a pattern of monarchy, of aristocracy and of democracy. The relationship of parents to children is monarchic, of husbands to wives aristocratic, of children to one another democratic.” (Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament, edd Boring, Berger, & Colpe)

Of course, the structure of the family in ancient times was generally far more hierarchical – and patriarchal – than today.