Europe. Archaeologists believe that during the Paleolithic
and Mesolithic, society was organized into bands of perhaps
several dozen individuals connected by loose kinship bonds.
Subsequently, with the spread of agriculture beginning in
about 7000 b.c.e., societies were organized into households,
presumably occupied by members of a single family that in-
cluded several generations, though we do not know the pre-
cise composition of each residential group. Such households
were the fundamental social units throughout later prehis-
toric times.
Textual sources, despite their imperfections, confi rm that
ancient Europeans lived in extended family groups. Several
generations of relatives would live in households together, along
with their servants, if they were members of the social elite. Th e
most important social unit was the clan, which formed part of a
larger tribe. European peoples tried to keep wea lt h w it hin t heir
clans by marrying relatives to one another. When a German or
a Celtic man married, he paid the bride’s family a bride-price, a
fee in the form of animals or goods that compensated them for
the loss of their daughter. Th is bride-price oft en consisted of a
herd of cattle, but among the Germans it could include a pair of
yoked oxen, a saddled warhorse, a shield, a lance, and a sword.
A German bride would present her husband with weapons as
well. Th ese gift s were meant to symbolize that the couple were
partners in war and in work.
Th e Roman historian Tacitus described his impressions
about Germanic family life in his Germania. He wrote that
young men and women did not engage in romantic escapades
before marriage and that both sexes married relatively late,
aft er they had reached their full growth. He praised the chas-
tity of Germanic women, claiming that all women entered
marriage as virgins and remained committed solely to one
husband for life. According to Tacitus, adultery was rare; if
a wife committed adultery, her husband would cut off her
hair, strip her naked, and drive her through the village with a
whip. Modern historians, however, believe that many ancient
Europeans did not especially value sexual fi delity or modesty.
Ancient couples did live together without being married, and
men oft en kept concubines. Polygamy was common among
ancient European groups.
Celtic people recognized several legally defi ned forms
of marriage. All types of marriage were designed to ensure
that resulting children would be cared for; the permanence of
the union was not the primary consideration. Some couples
declared their intention to marry through handfasting, or en-
gagement; if they had sex before the end of the engagement,
they were automatically considered married. Some couples
entered into temporary marriages that would dissolve at a
prearranged time. A couple could agree to a union in which
the man was allowed to visit the woman at her home with the
consent of her family, but this union was not a true marriage.
In another kind of union the man visited the woman at home
without the knowledge of her family.
Th ere were several types of formal marriage, distin-
guished by which partner brought property into the union.
Women could own property and keep it aft er marriage; a
woman who owned property in her own right had more
power than one with no property. Marriages involving prop-
erty were usually arranged between partners of similar socialIrish myths contain numerous depictions of married
couples and lovers. The women in these stories come
across as tough and outspoken, and they are as sexu-
ally aggressive as men. Ireland’s great prose epic the
Táin b ó Cúailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley, is mainly about
a domestic dispute. A married couple, the husband
Ailil and the wife Medb (Maeve), get into an argu-
ment over which one of them owns the most prop-
erty; the dispute escalates into a nationwide war over
a bull. Medb considers herself her husband’s equal
in war and wealth, bargaining with neighboring kings
for military aid against her husband and even promis-
ing them her own “friendly thighs” as payment. She
rides to battle and strikes fear in the hearts of all her
enemies.
Another mythical wife, Derdriu, is promised in
marriage to the old king Conchobar, but when she
meets the handsome young hero Noisiu, she runs off
with him. When Conchobar kills Noisiu, Derdriu sings
a heartbreaking song of lament in which she praises
her lover’s beauty, courage, and generosity. She never
smiles again. Conchobar, piqued at her lack of inter-
est in him, decides to share her with a neighboring
king. Rather than submit, she leaps out of a chariot
and smashes her head to bits on a stone.
When the Irish hero Cuchulainn meets the girl
Emer, the fi rst thing he does is peer down her dress
and remark, “I see a sweet country. I could rest my
weapon there.” She is not at all offended but refuses
to submit to his advances until he performs a series
of tasks she sets him—killing a hundred men at every
ford on a river, striking down three groups of nine
men with a single stroke, and going without sleep for
half the year. Until he does these deeds, she will not
have him.
In Irish mythology, Irish heroines are tough even
when they are pregnant. In one story, the goddess
Macha takes human form and marries a man. He is
so proud of her legs that he forces her to run a race
against the king’s chariot when she is nine months
pregnant. She ties with the chariot but goes into la-
bor at the fi nish line. As she gives birth, she curses the
audience, announcing that the descendants of the
men who heard her scream would suffer the pain of
labor at their most desperate moments.IRISH MYTHICAL COUPLES
family: Europe 453