Male Heirs. Because the oikos (household) was transmitted from father to son, the birth of male children was critical to the survival of the family. Male children guaranteed that the family line would not die out and that the oikos would remain in the hands of blood relatives. The continued existence of the oikos was so important to men in Classical Athens that the worst curse an enemy could utter was a wish for its destruction. The death of an oikos, in terms of Athenian ideology and religious belief, was a disaster. The commonplace plea in the courts, "that an oikos should not be made empty," indicates the emotional force such a loss evoked in the Athenian jurors. In fact, Athenian law required that children maintain their parents in old age, making offspring vital to the economic and social welfare...