(M73) In confirmation of this view the following passage may be quoted from _Plato's Laws_:--
"He who in the sad disorder of his soul has a mind, justly or unjustly, to expel from his family a son whom he has begotten and brought up, shall not lightly or at once execute his purpose; but first of all he shall collect together his own kinsmen, extending to (_first_) _cousins_ ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}), and in like manner his son's kinsmen by the mother's side,(151) and in their presence he shall accuse his son, setting forth that he deserves at the hands of them all to be dismissed from the family ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~})."(152)
Before dishonouring one of the family and so bereaving it of a member owing duties which, by his disinheritance, may fall into abeyance or be neglected, the parent calls together all to whom his son might perhaps ultimately become the only living representative and heir, and who might at some future time be dependent on him for the performance of ancestral rites. That this was in Plato's mind when he wrote is shown by the next sentence, in which he provides for the possibility of some relation already having need of the young man and being desirous to adopt him as his son, in which case he shall by no means be prevented. The concurrence of all relations in such a position was therefore necessary.
In other cases where Plato mentions similar gatherings of the kin but for different purposes, he extends the summons to _cousin's children_. But here it can be seen they would have no place. They would be second cousins to the disgraced youth; they might have to share privilege or pollution with him, but had no claim on him for duties towards themselves. He would be "cousin's son" to his father's first cousins--the limit of such a claim in the { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}.