“…one of the advantages we will share with each other is having children to support us and look after us as well as they can when we grow old. But what we share now is this home of ours…” Xenophon

These are the words of a newlywed groom to his bride. While looking with hope toward the future blessings of children, he focuses now on a fundamental good already shared: ‘this home of ours.’ Having pooled whatever material and spiritual resources they have, together the bride and groom make one home, already a concrete and enduring sign that two have become one. A home, so much more than just a house, is the physical embodiment of one life lived together.

Xenophon (430-354 B.C.) was a soldier, historian, and philosopher of Athens. Like Plato he wrote dialogues featuring Socrates as a great teacher. Among these dialogues is Oeconomicus, translated as The Estate Manager, in which we get an insight into the structure and principles of the ancient household.

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