Greek scholars have produced a vast body of evidence bearing on nuptial practices that has yet to be mined by a professional economist. By standing on their shoulders, the author proposes and tests radically new interpretations of three important status groups in Greek the pallakē, the nothos, and the hetaira.
It is argued that legitimate marriage – marriage by loan of the bride to the groom – was not the only form of legal marriage in classical Athens and the ancient Greek world generally. Pallakia – marriage by sale of the bride to the groom – was also legally recognized. The pallakē-wifeship transaction is a sale into slavery with a restrictive covenant mandating the employment of the sold woman as a wife. In this highly original and challenging new book, economist Morris Silver proposes and tests the hypothesis that the likelihood of bride sale rises with increases in the distance between the ancestral residence of the groom and the father’s household.
Nothoi, the bastard children of pallakai, lacked the legal right to inherit from their fathers but were routinely eligible for Athenian citizenship.
It is argued that the basic social meaning of hetaira (companion) is not ‘prostitute’ or ’courtesan,’ but ‘single woman’ – a woman legally recognized as being under her own authority (kuria). The defensive adaptation of single women is reflected in Greek myth and social practice by their grouping into packs, most famously the Daniads and Amazons.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment
Abbreviations
In the Interests of Disclosure

I. Overview and Summary of Main Conclusions
II. Socioeconomic Foundation of the Pallakē Institution
III. Pallakē-Wife as Privileged Central Texts
IV. Constructing the Greek Legal Aspects
V. Constructing the Greek Ritual Aspects
VI. “Wife” as a Multidimensional Status in Ancient Supplementary Evidence
“Wife” as a Multidimensional Status in Ancient Testimony of Euripides’ Electra
VIII. Path to Pallakia
IX. Single Woman as Hetaira as Suppliant
X. Wealth Transfers in the Greek Marriage Market with Emphasis on the Roles of Distance and Single Woman Status
XI. Wealth Transfers in the Greek Marriage The Spinning Hetaira
XII. Companionship as an Adaptation to the Dangerous Life of the Single Woman
XIII. Role of Cults in the Marriage of Single Women
Hetaira as Textile Worker
XV. Legal Status of Nothoi
XVI. Share the Wealth? Not with (Foreigner) Nothoi
XVII. Case Studies in Homer’s Penelope as Pallakē
XVIII. Case Studies in Hera as Zeus’ Pallakē
Case Studies in Classical Athens
1. Socrates the “Bigamist”;
2. Archippe as Pallakē;
3. Plangon as Pallak
Summary of Main Findings and Problems for Future Research