The palaces of Crete and their builders . seats. The old mill wheel makes a strange sound, sometimes like aburst of laughter : I think of the choruses, the Dionysiac songswhich once awoke the echoes of the vallev, and I imagine thesplendour of the processions which passed into the cavea. II. I quote a fragment of the great inscription : ^ The daughterheiress shall marry the eldest living brother of her father. Ifthere are more heiresses and (more) brothers each shall marry thenext in age, and if there be no brothers of the father but onlysons of brothers, she shall marry the eldest (son of the
The palaces of Crete and their builders . seats. The old mill wheel makes a strange sound, sometimes like aburst of laughter : I think of the choruses, the Dionysiac songswhich once awoke the echoes of the vallev, and I imagine thesplendour of the processions which passed into the cavea. II. I quote a fragment of the great inscription : ^ The daughterheiress shall marry the eldest living brother of her father. Ifthere are more heiresses and (more) brothers each shall marry thenext in age, and if there be no brothers of the father but onlysons of brothers, she shall marry the eldest (son of the eldestbrother). And if the one who has the right to marry her be under ageor she should be under age, the heiress shall have the house ifthere be one, and he who has the right to marry her shall havethe half of all produce. And if there should be none having the right to marry her,as it is written, let her keep all her property and marry whomshe will of her own tribe. But if none of the tribe will marry Comparetti, «/> a/., p. 71 a . — ^ c ^ a ?- - ^ I ^ - S < S 3 o £ X ^ -I THE RUINS OF GORTYNA 97 her, the relations of the heiress shall go among the tribe saying, Will no one marry her ? and if some one will marry her, letit be done within thirty days trom when we have said (thus) : ifnot let her marry whom she can. This somewhat cruel law represents the primitive state ofcivilisation when families had drawn together and formed thetown, but were not yet fused together. The tribe or clan is unwilling to lose control of the land andbinds the woman like a slave to the glebe. In the patriarchalfamily solidarity is a force which proceeds from instinct. Manycenturies passed before this animal form of the clan came to anend and the common right of citizens suppressed the groups andbrought about the independence of the individual. This brutallaw written on the wall of a temple is the expression of asentiment which still influences the mass of the peasants—the loveof
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishe, booksubjectpalaces
