Houses in which a serf living in the country does not reside: a reconsideration of Gortyn Laws column 4 lines 31–37

Dickey, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-4803 and Probert, P. (2017) Houses in which a serf living in the country does not reside: a reconsideration of Gortyn Laws column 4 lines 31–37. In: Willi, A. (ed.) Sprachgeschichte und Epigraphik. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, pp. 57-81.

Abstract/Summary

Eight different interpretations of a difficult passage in the Gortyn law code are considered in light of their linguistic, historical, and legal implications, and a new interpretation is suggested. The historical and legal discussion concerns inheritance by women and the status of 'serfs' in archaic Crete, and the linguistic discussion concerns the syntax of relative clauses in the Cretan dialect.