Oikos

The Ancient Greek word oikos (Ancient Greek: οἶκος (pronunciation oi•kos^(Note)); plural: οἶκοι; English prefix: eco- in (eg) ecology and economics) referred to three related but distinct concepts: the family, the family's property, and the house.^(Note) Its meaning shifts even within texts.^(p.290)

The oikos was the basic unit of society in most Greek city-states. In normal Attic usage the oikos, in the context of families, referred to a line of descent from father to son from generation to generation.^(p.15) Alternatively, as Aristotle used it in his Politics, the term was sometimes used to refer to everybody living in a given house. Thus, the head of the oikos, along with his immediate family and his slaves, would all be encompassed.^(p.190) Large oikoi also had farms that were usually tended by the slaves, which were also the basic agricultural unit of the ancient Greek economy.