ABSTRACT
In early historic times marriages of any kind, monogamous or polygamous, between one man and one or more women, with the idea that the man content himself with his wife or wives, and the woman or women with the one man, had not yet become a general practice; this follows from statements as to the statesmen or rulers who first introduced marriage. For instance, the Greeks said that Cecrops introduced permanent marriages into Greece in 2590 B.C., according to the custom of the Egyptians; this implied that before that time there were no marriages in the proper sense of the word. It was not considered wrong for a man to cohabit with any woman who was conveniently available, and who could be coaxed or forced.
