Now nature has
distinguished between the female and the slave. For she is not
niggardly, like the smith who fashions the Delphian knife for many
uses; she makes each thing for a single use, and every instrument is
best made when intended for one and not for many uses. But among
barbarians no distinction is made between women and slaves, because
there is no natural ruler among them: they are a community of
slaves, male and female. Wherefore the poets say,
It is meet that Hellenes should rule over barbarians;
as if they thought that the barbarian and the slave were by nature
one.
Out of these two relationships between man and woman, master and
slave, the first thing to arise is the family, and Hesiod is right
when he says,
First house and wife and an ox for the plough,
for the ox is the poor man's slave. The family is the association
established by nature for the supply of men's everyday wants, and
the members of it are called by Charondas 'companions of the
cupboard,' and by Epimenides the Cretan, 'companions of the manger.'
But when several families are united, and the association aims at
something more than the supply of daily needs, the first society to be
formed is the village. And the most natural form of the village
appears to be that of a colony from the family, composed of the
children and grandchildren, who are said to be suckled 'with the
same milk.
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