Oikos
Oikos - (correct Answer) - smallest unit of Dark age society (demos)
basleus - (correct Answer) - warrior and persuasive speaker.
Hetairoi - (correct Answer) - companions for raids
kleros - (correct Answer) - allotment of ancestral land
thetes - (correct Answer) - Poor landless man who worked as hired hands for the Oikos
info 1 - (correct Answer) - From Homer we may infer that the smallest unit of Dark Age society was the
household (oikos). The oikos was the center of a person's existence; and every member was preoccupied
with its preservation, its economic well-being, and social standing. The word oikos signified not only the
house itself but also the family, the land, livestock, and all other property and goods, including slaves.
Greek society was patrilineal and patriarchal. The father was supreme in the household by custom and
later by law. Descent was through the father, and on his death the property was divided equally among
his sons. Although daughters did not inherit directly they received a share of their parents' wealth as a
dowry.
info2 - (correct Answer) - The new bride took up residence in the house of her husband; thus their
children belonged to the husband's oikos, not to hers. Among chieftain families—which are the only
ones described in Homer—married sons continue to reside in the paternal oikos with their wives and
children. Not infrequently, though, the custom is reversed. A powerful chief brings his daughter's new
husband into his own household instead. In this way, he gets to keep his daughter and acquires a new
man to fight and work for the oikos. Another means of increasing the oikos is for the father to beget
additional children by slave women. But that could cause friction in the family. Odysseus' father did not
sleep with a newly bought slave woman and so "avoided his wife's anger." Although the male children of
slaves are inferior to the legitimate sons in respect to inheritance rights, they are otherwise full members
of the family and part of its fighting force and workforce. Illegitimate daughters seem to have the same
status as their legitimate half-sisters. All members of a basileus' oikos do a share of the work. Odysseus,
Homer tells us, built a bedroom and bed for him and his wife Penelope all by "himself and no one else."
The sons of basileis tend the flocks and herds, the main wealth of the family. Homeric wives work
alongside the women slaves in the tasks of spinning and weaving, while young daughters do other tasks,
such as fetching water from the communal fountain, or washing clothes by the river.
info3 - (correct Answer) - Most of the labor of a wealthy household, however, was provided by female
and male slaves (either bought or captured), and by thetes (sing. thes), poor free men who worked as
hired hands. The main economic resource for each of the families in a village or town was its ancestral
plot of farmland called a kleros (literally an "allotment"). Without akleros a man could not marry. A
lotless man (akleros) had two options: He could eke out a precarious existence on a poor patch of
unclaimed marginal land, or worse, hire on as a thes. The latter was a galling life, not only because it was
hard work for very little pay (essentially his keep), but also because working for another man's family
was felt to be an indignity. The economies of ordinary and elite households in the Dark Age differed
Oikos - (correct Answer) - smallest unit of Dark age society (demos)
basleus - (correct Answer) - warrior and persuasive speaker.
Hetairoi - (correct Answer) - companions for raids
kleros - (correct Answer) - allotment of ancestral land
thetes - (correct Answer) - Poor landless man who worked as hired hands for the Oikos
info 1 - (correct Answer) - From Homer we may infer that the smallest unit of Dark Age society was the
household (oikos). The oikos was the center of a person's existence; and every member was preoccupied
with its preservation, its economic well-being, and social standing. The word oikos signified not only the
house itself but also the family, the land, livestock, and all other property and goods, including slaves.
Greek society was patrilineal and patriarchal. The father was supreme in the household by custom and
later by law. Descent was through the father, and on his death the property was divided equally among
his sons. Although daughters did not inherit directly they received a share of their parents' wealth as a
dowry.
info2 - (correct Answer) - The new bride took up residence in the house of her husband; thus their
children belonged to the husband's oikos, not to hers. Among chieftain families—which are the only
ones described in Homer—married sons continue to reside in the paternal oikos with their wives and
children. Not infrequently, though, the custom is reversed. A powerful chief brings his daughter's new
husband into his own household instead. In this way, he gets to keep his daughter and acquires a new
man to fight and work for the oikos. Another means of increasing the oikos is for the father to beget
additional children by slave women. But that could cause friction in the family. Odysseus' father did not
sleep with a newly bought slave woman and so "avoided his wife's anger." Although the male children of
slaves are inferior to the legitimate sons in respect to inheritance rights, they are otherwise full members
of the family and part of its fighting force and workforce. Illegitimate daughters seem to have the same
status as their legitimate half-sisters. All members of a basileus' oikos do a share of the work. Odysseus,
Homer tells us, built a bedroom and bed for him and his wife Penelope all by "himself and no one else."
The sons of basileis tend the flocks and herds, the main wealth of the family. Homeric wives work
alongside the women slaves in the tasks of spinning and weaving, while young daughters do other tasks,
such as fetching water from the communal fountain, or washing clothes by the river.
info3 - (correct Answer) - Most of the labor of a wealthy household, however, was provided by female
and male slaves (either bought or captured), and by thetes (sing. thes), poor free men who worked as
hired hands. The main economic resource for each of the families in a village or town was its ancestral
plot of farmland called a kleros (literally an "allotment"). Without akleros a man could not marry. A
lotless man (akleros) had two options: He could eke out a precarious existence on a poor patch of
unclaimed marginal land, or worse, hire on as a thes. The latter was a galling life, not only because it was
hard work for very little pay (essentially his keep), but also because working for another man's family
was felt to be an indignity. The economies of ordinary and elite households in the Dark Age differed
