The Origins of Love in Greece

The expression of love for a wife remains a comparatively rare feature of Greek literature. Athenian men, though they could not officially marry a non-Athienian woman, could enter into a less formal and less binding agreement with a palaki - a term that approximates to a concubine or a common-law wife. A palaki was placed under the authority of the man with whom she lived and was included in the list of women with whom it was illegal for another man to have sex.