RENTABILIDAD ECONÓMICA EN LA PRODUCCIÓN DE LECHE DE LOS

of legal actions which Callimachus brings (Chapter 4.4.Ü) and Todd (1993) 153-4 on the disputes outlined in Lys. 10.

8: The Ideology of Judicial Reticence and the Reality of Judicial Practice 170

attitudes to dispute in face-to-face societies and at the relational ties upon which these attitudes are founded and then use these findings to arrive at a clearer understanding attitudes to judicial activity in the age of Aristophanes.

Paul Millett has drawn attention to the almost unique qualities o f H esiod’s

Works and D ays as a source of information on face-to-face societies in Ancient

Greece. I shall discuss first the socio-economic structure o f A sera, the community described by Hesiod, and then the relationship between this structure and attitudes to dispute. Millett has described the community in the Works and Days as ‘a collection of independent o l k o l or h o u s e h o l d s . H e characterises the economic relationships

between these oikoi on the one hand as fiercely self-sufficient and on the other as mutually recip rocating.M illett notes that this apparent contradiction between self- sufficiency and reciprocity is characteristic of many face-to-face communities.^^ These economic relationships are mirrored in social relationships. Relationships within the

oikos which facilitate its self-sufficiency are prom oted.Relationships with neighbours

and friends that are characterised by mutual acts of reciprocity are similarly valued. For example, Hesiod praises the benefits of a good neighbour:

TTniiQ KQKOÇ yeiTCOv,

00001

Q Û T g TCP peTpCp, KQL K Ùl OV QL KE duVriOL,

c b ç d v y p T i L ^ c o v k q l éç uoTE p o v d p K L O v eupçiç.

A bad neighbour is as big a bane as a good one is a boon: he has got good value who has got a good neighbour. Nor would a cow be lost, but for a bad neighbour. Get good measure from your neighbour, and give good measure back, with the measure itself and better if you can, so that when in need another time you may find something to rely on.^^

Millett (1984) 84-5, 106-7, where he prefers the Works and Days as a source over and above either Aristophanes or the Attic Orators. Knox (1982) 331 takes a similar approach. In his article, Millett describes Hesiod’s world as ‘a peasant society’ (ibid.SS), and goes on to describe some of the problems in applying the definition of a peasant from contemporary studies to Hesiod’s world (ibid.90-3). Millett’s aim is rather to ‘argue that there are certain features of the world of the Works & Days that are comprehensible only when compared with institutions that anthropologists identify as being characteristic of other peasant societies’ (ibid.92). I have used the term ‘face-to-face’ rather than peasant because I wish to draw parallels between a wider range of communities, including Ascra, Andalusian Alcala, 18th century Languedoc and the Classical Athenian deme. The Works and Days is usually dated to either the end of the eighth century or the beginning of the seventh (see West (1978) 30-3).

14 Millett (1984) 93.

1^ On self-sufficiency, see Hes.WD.20-6,341,364-7, 394-404, 407-9,477-8, 453-7 with Millett (1984) 94-99. On mutual reciprocity, see Hes.WD.342-63 with Millett (1984) 99-103. See also Osborne (1987) 94.

16 Millett (1984) 100-103.

17 Hes.WD.373-80,405-6,695-705.

The community of Hesiodic Ascra consists of a collection of independent oikoi, striving for self-sufficiency but connected to each other through a series o f mutually reciprocating economic and social ties.

Secondly, disputes which threaten these socio-economic ties are inadvisable. The clearest instance in the poem is the dispute between Hesiod and his brother Perses over the division of their patrimony. At the start o f the poem, Hesiod appeals to Perses: ‘let us settle our dispute with straight judgements, the best Zeus sends.’ He goes on to lament the inequitable division of the patrimony which he received on account of Perses’ appealing to the basileis. The verdict handed down by the basileis overthrew the previous mutually agreed settlement between the two b r o t h e r s . Perses’ actions aside, Hesiod regards recourse to dispute settlement at the centre (polis) before the basileis as peripheral to his world of hard work in his village community (kome)?-^ He urges Perses to turn from ‘disputes and debates ( v e i K e a t' a y o p e a i ) ’ to agricultural work and envisages that divine judgement will fall on the basileis and their p o leis, rather than on his village community.22 Hesiod regards a dispute within the oikos as regrettable and an appeal to third party adjudication as an inappropriate method of resolving familial disputes. Similarly, Hesiod councils Perses against entering into a dispute with a friend:

| j f | ô è K a a i y v f i T y l a o v n o L e i a B a i è i a î p o v

el ô é KE T T o i n c n j , | i f | p i v i r p o T e p o g k o k o v e p ^ e i ç , p r i ô è \ | j e i J Ô e a 0 a L y ^ ü a a n ç y â p i v e t ô é a é y" a p y î ] fi TL é ï ï o ç eiTTcbv àTTo0ijpiLov n é K Qi é p ^ a ç ,

ÔLÇ TÔQQ TeLVUCJ0aL | i 6i J i vn ii é vo ç'

Do not make a friend on a par with a brother; but if you make one, do not do him ill unprovoked, or offer false tongue-favour. But if he is the one who gives you a disagreeable word or deed, make sure he pays for it double.23

Therefore it would appear that within the face-to-face society of Ascra, it is considered inappropriate to engage in disputes with either members of one’s oikos or with one’s

'a W ' au 0 L 8i aKpLVCoi i e 0a i/eÎkoç l O e i n a i 8 (ki]ç, aV t' ék Aloç e i a i i / a p i a i a i’ (Hes.WD.35-6 tr.West) and see West (1978) 149-50.

20 Hes.WD.37-9 with West (1978) 33-40, Millett (1984) 105. Gagarin (1974) offers a different