DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0675
OF THE MISCELLANY CUSTOMS OF GREECE. 647
company with harlots are not supposed to design the procreation of child-
ren, but their own pleasure, and therefore have no pretence to upbraid
them with ingratitude, whose very birth they mnde a scandal and reproach
to them (I).
As the unkindness of parents was made a sufficient excuse for child-
ren to deny them relief in their old age, so the disobedience or extra-
vagance of children, whether natural or adopted (2), frequently depriv-
ed them of the care and estate of their parents ; yet the Athenian law-
giver allowed not fathers to disinherit their children out of passion, or
slight prejudices, but required their appearance before certain judges ap-
pointed to have cognizance of such matters, where, if the children were
found to deserve so severe a sentence, the public crier was ordered to
proclaim, that such a person rejected the criminal, whose name was then
repeated, from being his son ; whence, to disinherit a son is called ktwr\-
gjgou rovuiov, and the person so disinherited uirexigvxros (3). To be disin-
herited was likewise called sxtfiVrsiv r£ yzvzs. to be received again. »m-
"ku^avsddai sis rh-yivo^. It mry be farther observed, that parents were
allowed to be reconciled to their children, but after that could never ab-
dicate them again, lest airtgavroi rSv ireu&Tv ai n/xw^/ai, xai <po§o£ £«5io£, the
punishments of children should become endless, and their fears -perpetual,
according to Lucian (4).
When any man, either through dotage or other infirmities, became un-
fit to manage his estate, his son was allowed to impeach him before the
((p£a<ro££g) men of his own ward, who had power to invest him with the
present possession of his inheritance. There is an allusion to this law
in Aristophanes, who has introduced the son of Strepsiades thus speak-
ing (5) :
Tlonpov Tnt^uvoiet; ctvrhv tia-a.ya.ytxv, 'ixci.
And there is a remarkable story concerning Sophocles, who being accus
ed by Iophon and his other sons, of neglecting his affairs through dotage,
read to his judges his tragedy called Oedipus Coloneus, which he had then
lately composed ; whereupon he was acquitted (6).
CHAP. XV*.
OF THEIR TIMES OF EATlttG.
The following account of the Grecian entertainments may not unfitly
be divided into five parts, wherein shall be described,
First, The times of eating.
Secondly, The several sorts and occasions of entertainments.
Thirdly, The materials whereof those entertainments consisted.
Fourthly, The ceremonies before entertainments.
^1) Plutarchus Solone.
(2) Demosthenes in Spudiam-
(3) Hesychius, v. dn-oxTijuKTOf
{4)Isa:usde haered, Cironi?.
(5) Nub. act. iii. sc. i.
(6) Cicero de Senectute, Auctor vita? Sopho
clis. Aristophanis Scholiastes ad Ranas,
company with harlots are not supposed to design the procreation of child-
ren, but their own pleasure, and therefore have no pretence to upbraid
them with ingratitude, whose very birth they mnde a scandal and reproach
to them (I).
As the unkindness of parents was made a sufficient excuse for child-
ren to deny them relief in their old age, so the disobedience or extra-
vagance of children, whether natural or adopted (2), frequently depriv-
ed them of the care and estate of their parents ; yet the Athenian law-
giver allowed not fathers to disinherit their children out of passion, or
slight prejudices, but required their appearance before certain judges ap-
pointed to have cognizance of such matters, where, if the children were
found to deserve so severe a sentence, the public crier was ordered to
proclaim, that such a person rejected the criminal, whose name was then
repeated, from being his son ; whence, to disinherit a son is called ktwr\-
gjgou rovuiov, and the person so disinherited uirexigvxros (3). To be disin-
herited was likewise called sxtfiVrsiv r£ yzvzs. to be received again. »m-
"ku^avsddai sis rh-yivo^. It mry be farther observed, that parents were
allowed to be reconciled to their children, but after that could never ab-
dicate them again, lest airtgavroi rSv ireu&Tv ai n/xw^/ai, xai <po§o£ £«5io£, the
punishments of children should become endless, and their fears -perpetual,
according to Lucian (4).
When any man, either through dotage or other infirmities, became un-
fit to manage his estate, his son was allowed to impeach him before the
((p£a<ro££g) men of his own ward, who had power to invest him with the
present possession of his inheritance. There is an allusion to this law
in Aristophanes, who has introduced the son of Strepsiades thus speak-
ing (5) :
Tlonpov Tnt^uvoiet; ctvrhv tia-a.ya.ytxv, 'ixci.
And there is a remarkable story concerning Sophocles, who being accus
ed by Iophon and his other sons, of neglecting his affairs through dotage,
read to his judges his tragedy called Oedipus Coloneus, which he had then
lately composed ; whereupon he was acquitted (6).
CHAP. XV*.
OF THEIR TIMES OF EATlttG.
The following account of the Grecian entertainments may not unfitly
be divided into five parts, wherein shall be described,
First, The times of eating.
Secondly, The several sorts and occasions of entertainments.
Thirdly, The materials whereof those entertainments consisted.
Fourthly, The ceremonies before entertainments.
^1) Plutarchus Solone.
(2) Demosthenes in Spudiam-
(3) Hesychius, v. dn-oxTijuKTOf
{4)Isa:usde haered, Cironi?.
(5) Nub. act. iii. sc. i.
(6) Cicero de Senectute, Auctor vita? Sopho
clis. Aristophanis Scholiastes ad Ranas,