largest of these landholders, is the king (basileus) of Ithaca.
Other noble landholders compete for honor and power within
Ithaca, but there exists as well the ethos of xenia (guest friend-
ship), which governs relations between members of diff erent
households and diff erent communities. Xenia demands that
strangers be treated with respect and provides them protec-
tion, since it is viewed as a sacred bond protected by Zeus
Xenios, the god of strangers. Moreover, xenia forges recip-
rocal bonds of friendship and obligation that last from one
generation to the next. When a man of high status travels to a
distant land, he will call upon other noblemen to provide him
with shelter; the exchange of guest presents, oft en quite lavish
ones, is customary. His descendants will be governed by the
same obligations of xenia. Th e most striking example of this
practice is in the Iliad, in which Glaukos and Diomedes meet
on the battlefi eld. Upon learning that their grandfathers had
entertained each other as xenoi, the two warriors refuse to
fi ght each other and exchange armor in a gesture of mutual
friendship. (Homer remarks that Diomedes gets the better
of the exchange, receiving gold armor in return for bronze;
this observation is perhaps a commentary on the rivalry and
craft iness that might lurk behind the practice of gift giving).
Th e actual practice of xenia was perhaps less impor-
tant than its ideological signifi cance. For the upper classes
it marked a way of life that set them apart from those below
them. Contempt for merchants and those who make their
living by trade is evident in the Odyssey and shows up in
pro-aristocratic sources centuries later. Nevertheless, the Ho-
meric worldview also exhibits sympathy for those of lower
status. Th ose who overstep the limits of their class (the com-
mon soldier Th ersites in the Iliad and the beggar Iros in the
Odyssey) are treated harshly, but in general slaves and beg-
gars are accorded sympathy. Being a wanderer or an exile is
considered one of the worst possible fates (thus the poignancy
of Odysseus’s plight), especially for those who lack the safety
supplied to the upper classes by the practice of xenia. Slav-
ery was a condition to which anyone might be subject (piracy
and warfare being common), and Homer expresses compas-
sion for those who were subject to it. (Th e poems’ dominant
ruling-class ideology is refl ected, however, in the expectation
that slaves be loyal to their masters’ interests.)THE ARCHAIC PERIOD
In the eighth century through the sixth century b.c.e. the
poems of Homer became the central texts for the Greeks’
conception of themselves as a people (or group of peoples).
During this time interest in genealogy grew, with oral or
written genealogies becoming a way for noble families to
trace their descent from the great heroes of the past as well as
a foundation for the kinship systems that formed the basic so-
cial structures of archaic Greece. Th e poems of Hesiod (fl. ca.
800 b.c.e.) refl ect the importance of heroic genealogies: De-
scent from a heroic or divine ancestor guaranteed the prestige
of a particular group, whether a city or a family, and intercity
alliances were made and unmade on the basis of such gene-alogies. It was during this time that the distinction between
Dorians and Ionians solidifi ed. Greeks had always spoken a
variety of dialects (Doric and Ionic among them), but it was
during the early Archaic Period that these dialects took on an
ethnic and political dimension. Th enceforward states could
claim solidarity based on ethnicity and distant kinship, so
that the fi ft h century b.c.e. confl ict between the Spartan and
Athenian Empires could be portrayed as a Dorian versus Io-
nian struggle.
Th e structure of Greek society was permanently altered
by the events of the Archaic Period. A combination of factors
led to material prosperity and expansion, in both coloniza-
tion and trade. Th e infl ux of new wealth challenged the older
aristocratic order, and colonization allowed more Greeks
to possess more land, which remained the main source of
wealth throughout antiquity. In many cities tyrants arose to
champion the newly prosperous classes against the aristoc-
racy; in others reforms kept the cities free from one-man rule.
Material culture reveals a tendency toward equality. Th e rich
tended to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth, and taste in
art and handicraft s became relatively uniform throughout
society. Literary sources reveal a fl ourishing debate on the
nature of citizenship, wealth, and power. Some poets, such
as Archilochus (seventh century b.c.e.), claim to represent
the voice of the common soldier or citizen, while others, such
as Th eognis (sixth to fi ft h century b.c.e.), take a reaction-
ary viewpoint, expressing disdain for poorer citizens’ claims
to social and political equality. Th is point of view was rep-
resented even into the fi ft h century b.c.e., with the odes of
Pindar (ca. 522–ca. 438 b.c.e.) expressing a preference for in-
herited excellence over acquired skill and using the language
of older aristocratic institutions such as xenia in an era in
which they had long since lost their original signifi cance.
Th e reforms of the statesman Solon (ca. 630–ca. 560
b.c.e.) in Athens illustrate the social developments of the Ar-
chaic Period. A rapidly changing economy led to a situation
in which many small farmers had become heavily indebted
to their landlords or even enslaved for debt. Solon abolished
debt slavery, gave the tenant farmers ownership of their land,
and divided the citizen body into four property classifi cations,
with varying degrees of citizen rights. Th e top two classes,
for example, could hold the major elected offi ces. Th e third
could hold minor offi ces and the fourth none. All four classes
could participate in the Assembly. Solon thus reestablished
land ownership as the basis for citizenship, a tendency that
continued throughout antiquity in many Greek states and was
removed in Athens only with the advent of the democracy in
508 b.c.e. Land, however, remained the main source of wealth
for citizens even in Athens, and various measures were en-
acted to prevent the concentration of land in too few hands.PHRATRIES
Th e most signifi cant kinship groups were the phyle (tribe)
and the phratry. Membership in a phratry was determined
by heredity and was normally linked to a particular place. Its1032 social organization: Greece0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1032 1032 10/10/07 2:30:49 PM