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In Ancient Sparta, the subordination of private interests and personal happiness to the good of the public was strongly encouraged by the laws of the city.One example of the legal importance of marriage can be found in the laws of Lycurgus of Sparta, which required that criminal proceedings be taken against those who married too late (graphe opsigamiou) [5] or unsuitably (graphe kakogamiou ...
Polygamy (from Late Greek πολυγαμία polygamía, "state of marriage to many spouses") [1] [2] [3] [4] is the practice of marrying multiple spouses.When a man ...
Polyandry (/ ˈ p ɒ l i ˌ æ n d r i, ˌ p ɒ l i ˈ æ n-/; from Ancient Greek πολύ (polú) 'many' and ἀνήρ (anḗr) 'man') is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females.
Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. [2] Some scholars theorize that the slave trade's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio was a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa.
Sparta is one of only three states in ancient Greece, along with Athens and Gortyn, for which any detailed information about the role of women survives. [4] This evidence is mostly from the Classical period and later, but many of the laws and customs we know of probably date back to the Archaic period. [4]
Although usage of the word concubina during the Roman Empire poses ambiguities of role and status, the difference between the Imperial-era concubine as a subject of legal interest and a paelex or extralegal concubine during the Republic is fairly straightforward: the paelex was a woman "installed" by a married man as a sexual rival to his wife, [8] whereas the concubina was a wife-like ...
Detail of a gold glass medallion with a portrait of a family, from Alexandria (Roman Egypt), 3rd–4th century (Brescia, Museo di Santa Giulia) [2]. Marriage (conubium) was one of the fundamental institutions of Roman society, as it joined not only two individuals but two families.
The term is a loanword from Ancient Greek παλλακίς, [160] [161] [162] meaning "a mistress staying in house". According to the Babylonian Talmud , [ 153 ] the difference between a concubine and a legitimate wife was that the latter received a ketubah and her marriage ( nissu'in ) was preceded by an erusin ("formal betrothal"), which was ...