Oikos in Greek

Oikos

Greek: οἶκος

(Modern: Economy, ecology…)

Oikos refers to three related but distinct concepts:

the family,

the family’s property,

and the house.

The oikos was the basic unit of society in most Greek city-states.

In normal Attic usage the oikos, in the context of families, referred to a line of descent from father to son from generation to generation.

Alternatively, as Aristotle used it in his Politics, the term was sometimes used to refer to everybody living in a given house.

Thus, the head of the oikos, along with his immediate family and his slaves, would all be encompassed.

Large oikoi also had farms that were usually tended by the slaves, which were also the basic agricultural unit of the ancient economy.