Editing Family as a model for the state (section)

==Ancient Greek thought==
The family-state model was first expressed in ancient times, often as a form of justification for [[aristocracy|aristocratic]] rule.

[[Plutarch]] records a laconic saying of the [[Dorians]] attributed to [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]]. Asked why he did not establish a democracy in the Lacedæmon, Lycurgus responded: "Begin, friend, and set it up in your family." The Dorians of Crete and Sparta seemed to mirror the family institution and organization in their form of government (see Plutarch's ''The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans'' — Lycurgus, p.&nbsp;65).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lycurgus - Plutarch's Lives - translated by John Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough, Book, etext |url=https://www.telelib.com/authors/P/Plutarch/prose/plutachslives/lycurgus.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=www.telelib.com}}</ref>

[[Aristotle]] often describes personal and domestic relationships in terms of different forms of government. He gives examples such as men and their domestic animals, wives, slaves, and children. He says, for example: "the government of a household is a monarchy, since every house is governed by a single ruler."(2)/ "The rule of a household is a monarchy, for every house is under one head"<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} Politics by Aristotle |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=classics.mit.edu |place=Part VII}}</ref> Later in the same text, he says that husbands exercise a [[republic]]an government over their wives and monarchical government over their children, and that they exhibit political office over slaves and royal office over the family in general. (''Politics'' Bk I, §v, 1–2; 1259a 35–1259b 1)

However, while he is prepared to use political terms as metaphors for domestic relationships, he is equally clear that such metaphors are limited:
<blockquote>Some thinkers, however, suppose that statesman, king, estate manager, and master of a family have a common character.  This is a mistake; they think that the distinction between them is not a difference in kind, but a simple, numerical difference.” (''Politics'' Bk I, §i)<!-- standardise translations, & add full reference here and following --></blockquote>"The rule of a father over his children is royal, for he rules by virtue both of love and of the respect due to age, exercising a kind of royal power"<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} Politics by Aristotle |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=classics.mit.edu |place=Part XII}}</ref><blockquote>After discussing the various domestic relationships, he concludes: “mastership and statesmanship are not identical, nor are all forms of power the same, as some thinkers suppose. (''Politics'' Bk I, §vi)</blockquote>

Aristotle's main notion is that the ancient Greek ''polis'', or city-state, is the natural end of human beings; they start in family groups, progress naturally to forming villages, and finally come together in cities. Thus, the family forms the root of human relationships, but the city is the flower.

[[Arius Didymus]] in Stobaeus, 1st century CE, writes: "A primary kind of association (politeia) is the legal union of a man and woman for begetting children and for sharing life." From the collection of households a village is formed and from villages a city, "<nowiki>[s]</nowiki>o just as the household yields for the city the seeds of its formation, thus it yields the constitution (politeia)." Further, he claims: "Connected with the house is a pattern of monarchy, of aristocracy and of democracy. The relationship of parents to children is monarchic, of husbands to wives aristocratic, of children to one another democratic." (''Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament'', edd Boring, Berger, & Colpe)