Again an exact parallel is to be found in the _Ordinances of Manu_:--
"One who is without a son should, by the following rule, make his daughter provide him a son:--'The offspring which may be hers shall be for me the giver of offerings to the _manes_.' "
The whole property of a man is taken by this daughter's son,(54) and, by her bearing a son, _her father_ "becomes possessed of a son, who should give the funeral cake and take the property."(55)
If she die without a son, her husband would take (presumably by a sort of adoption).(56) But this would be perfectly natural, if, as in Greece, her husband was bound to be the next of kin and therefore heir failing issue from her.
(M30) At Athens it was part of the office of the archon to see that no { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} failed for want of representatives, to constrain a reluctant heiress to marry or to compel the next of kin to perform his duty. Plato(57) asks pardon for his imaginary legislator, if he shall be found to give the daughter of a man in marriage having regard only to the two conditions--nearness of kin, and the preservation of the property; disregarding, in his zeal for these, the further considerations, which the father himself might be expected to have had, with regard to the suitability of the match.(58)
(M31) A certain leniency was however allowed to the heiress who was unwilling to marry an obnoxious kinsman, and to the kinsman who had counterclaims upon him in his own house. Nevertheless the rules remained very strict. Isaeus states emphatically,(59) "Often have men been compelled by law to give up their properly wedded wives, owing to their becoming { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} through the death of their brother to their father's property and having to marry the next of kin ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~})," to prevent the extinction of their father's house.