Note 30 — THE WORKS AND DAYS.
George Chapman translation
The patrimonial land.] The manner of inheritance in ancient Greece was that of gavelkind: the sons dividing the patrimony in equal portions. When there were children by a concubine, they also received a certain proportion. This is illustrated by a passage in the 14th book of the Odyssey:
An humbler mate, His purchased concubine, gave birth to me: ... His illustrious sons among themselves Portion’d his goods by lot: to me indeed They gave a dwelling, and but little more. Cowper.