Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/58

 52 THE FAMILV. POOK 17 a single body, both in tliis life nnd in the next. The ancient family was a religious rather than a natural association ; and we shall see presently that the wife was counted in the familj' only after the sacred cere- mony of marriage had initiated her into the wo;ship ; that the son was no longer counted in it when lie had renounced the worship, or had been emancipated ; that, on the otlier hand, an adopted son was counted a real son, because, though lie had not the ties of blood, he had something better — a community of worship ; that the heir who refused to adopt the woiship of this fam- ily had no right to the succession; and, finally, that relationship and the right of inheritance were governed not by birth, but by the rights of participation in the worship, such as religion had established tnem. Re- ligion, it is true, did not create the family, but certainly it gave the family its rules; and hence it comes that the constitution of the ancient family was so different from what it would have been if it had owed its foun- dation to natural affection. The ancient Greek language has a very significant word to designate a family. It is ^rj/anor, a word which signifies, literally, that which is near a hearth. A fiiniily was a group of persons whom religion per- mitted to invoke the same sacred fire, and to offer the f'ineral repast to the same ancestors.