Note 16:2 — INTRODUCTION.[vii:1]

Elpinice, whose first husband was Cimon, was his father’s daughter; but they had different mothers. In the earlier ages, for obvious reasons, kindred was reckoned only on the mother’s side, and the intermarriage of the children of the same father and different mothers was legal, and not unusual. We find traces of the lawfulness of such marriages in Hebrew history as late as the time of David. Cimon’s marriage was probably lawful; but public sentiment had then advanced so far as to render such a union discreditable, if not absolutely infamous. It is worthy of remark here that the Greek names for brother and sister, ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή, in their derivation and original use denote a relation on the mother’s side alone.