Burguière, A. et. al., eds. A History of the Family, Vol. I: C. Masset, “Prehistory of the Family,” 71-91.

Pomeroy, S. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece, Introduction (1-16) and Chapter One, “Defining the Family,” 17-66.

Humphreys, S.C. Family, Women, and Death, “Oikos and Polis” 1-21, “Public and Private Interests in Classical Athens,” 22-31 and “The Family in Classical Athens: Search for a Perspective,” 58-78.

RECOMMENDED: Lacey, W.K. The Family in Classical Greece, “The Family in the City-State,” 15-32, “Family Oikoi and Athenian Democracy,” 84-99.

OR

Locate in Perseus images that reflect aspects of the Athenian oikos - check the database for sculpture, vase painting and literature.
 

Lacey, W.K. The Family in Classical Greece, Chap. Two: “The Family in Homeric Society,” 33-50.

RECOMMENDED: Sealey, R. Women and Law in Classical Greece, “The Women of Homer,” 110-150.

Sophocles. Antigone.
Pomeroy, S.B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (Shocken, 1995), pp. 93-103.

• Pomeroy, S. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece, "Heredity and Personal Identity," 67-99: Kristina
• Lacey, W.K. The Family in Classical Greece, “Property and the Family in Athens,” 125-150: Andrew
• Lacey, W.K. The Family in Classical Greece, “The Family in Plato’s State, Sparta, and Crete,” 177-216

• Pomeroy, S. Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece, “Death and the Family,” 100-140: Margo
• Lacey, W.K. The Family in Classical Greece, Chap. V: “Marriage and the Family in Athens,” 100-124: Kimberley

How does the cycle of birth, marriage, and death manifest itself in ancient Greek society? What is the importance of marriage and its rituals for men and for women? How do funeral rites reflect marriage rituals?

What is the nature of the primary sources on law, marriage, birth and death?

What interests Herodotus in his investigation of Egypt? Do differences between Greek conceptions of the oikos and the polis, and Egyptians conceptions of the community and the family, draw his attention?

NEWSGROUP

COMPARING GREECE AND EGYPT: Herodotus, Histories, selections from Book 2: Egypt: Caroline

NOT DONE:
UNDERSTANDING THE GREEK FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD

• "Some Greek Families at Work," pp. 141-160.
• "Two Case Histories," pp. 161-192.
• "Families in Ptolemaic Egypt," pp. 193-229.

Dixon, S., The Roman Family, Part One: “In Search of the Roman Family,” 1-11, 19-30

Read as many of the following primary sources as you can to get a sense of views of women and their place in the early Roman household

• Story of Lucretia (Livy) (background)
• Rape of the Sabines (Livy)
• Story of Verginia (Livy 3.44-48) (in Perseus)
• Juvenal (Satires 6) on women
• Women demonstrate and obtain repeal of Oppian Law (195 BC) (Livy)
• Republican views on women (tombstones in Lefkowitz & Fant):
• Claudia, 2nd C. BC
• Murdia, 1st C. BC
• "Turia," 1st C. BC
• Cornelia's noble nature, 2nd C. BC
• Tiberius chooses to die in place of Cornelia, 2nd C. BC

Rawson, B. ed., Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome, 9: “Houses and Households: Sampling Pompeii and Herculaneum” by A. Wallace-Hadrill (pp. 191-228) (skim only)

Some websites devoted to Pompeii and Vesuvius

• Mt. Vesuvius
• Letter to Tacitus from Pliny the Younger on the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder in 79AD
• Second letter to Tacitus from Pliny
• Aerial view, Forum and surrounding insulae, Pompeii (from "The Pompeii Forum Project")
• Pompeiian Architecture, Public & Private
• Thumbnail views of Pompeii
• Thumbnail views of Herculaneum
• Animated Roman domus
• "Animated" Reconstruction of the Casa del Larario in Ostia (the still images load quickly, showing material in situ and reconstructions; the animations combine the two and load slowly, so if interested, be patient!)

RECOMMENDED: Gardner, J. and Wiedemann, T., The Roman Household: A Sourcebook, Parts I & II, “Composition and Definition” (pp. 1-29) and “The household as a focus of emotion” (pp. 30-45).

Petronius, Satyricon. This partially preserved novel, the first ancient novel to survive, contains one complete episode, the "Dinner with Trimachio" (Cena Trimalchionis). Please read this and respond to it in the newsgroup however you wish, keeping in mind themes related to the family and community.

Dixon, S., The Roman Family, Part Two: “Roman Family Relations and the Law,” (pp. 36-60).

Lefkowitz and Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome, “Legal Status in the Roman World” (you select the documents)

Bradley, Keith R. Discovering the Roman Family, Chap. 8 “A Roman Family” about the family of Marcus Tullius Cicero (pp. 177-205).

Dixon, Roman Family: Part III: “Marriage” (pp. 61-97); Part IV: "Children in the Roman Family,” (pp. 98-132).

RECOMMENDED: LAW
Bradley, K.R. Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire, “Chapter II: The Slave Family”; Rawson and Weaver, The Roman Family in Italy, 4: “Rome and the Outside World: Senatorial Families and the World They Lived In” by Werner Eck (pp.73-100)

RECOMMENDED: MARRIAGE, ETC.
Gardner, J.F., Women in Roman Law and Society, “Marriage,” “Some Effects of Marriage,” “Divorce” and “Dowry” (pp. 31-66); Rawson, B. ed., Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome: “Remarriage and the Structure of the Upper-Class Family at Rome,” by K.R. Bradley, (pp. 79-98); “Divorce Roman-Style: How Easy and How Frequent Was It,” by S. Treggiari (pp. 31-46).

How does the cycle of birth, marriage and divorce manifest itself in ancient Roman society? What is the importance of marriage and its rituals for men and for women? What options did men and women have to divorce, and what impact did divorce have on the family structure?
NEWSGROUP

Plautus' Aulularia

Dixon, S., The Roman Family, Part V: “The Family Through the Life Cycle,” (pp.133-156).

Rawson and Weaver, The Roman Family in Italy, 6: “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Elderly Members of the Roman Family” by Tim Parkin (pp. 123-148).