Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

66 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
the citizen body belonged to a genos but it may well have been less
than 10 percent. Members of the same genos traced their descent
from a common ancestor, who, in many cases, was mythical or
divine. We know of the existence of about sixty Athenian genê
and they varied greatly in size; the most prominent was the Alkmaionidai,
to which both Kleisthenes and Perikles belonged. All
of Athens’s most venerable cults were administered by genê, and
the election to their priesthoods was hereditary. The priesthoods of
both Athene Polias (Of the city) and Poseidon Erechtheus, the two
principal state cults, were restricted to a small genos known as the
Eteoboutadai. Precisely what gennêtai (i.e., members of the same
genos ) did in common apart from worship together is not known.
We never hear of any social or other functions that brought them
together, though they may have dined together periodically. Until
the reforms of Kleisthenes at the end of the sixth century b.c.e. , genê,
because of their wealth and power, effectively controlled the political
process. Even after the democratic reforms carried out around
462 b.c.e. , they continued to wield very considerable influence at
least for another half century.
The Phratry
Whereas only aristocrats belonged to a genos, all Athenians were
members of a phratry. Phratry, from which the word fraternal is
derived, means “brotherhood.” Until Kleisthenes’ reforms, membership
in a phratry was the basis of Athenian citizenship. The blood
ties between phrateres (i.e., members of the same phratry) are likely
to have been much looser than those that bound together members
of the same genos. Phrateres gathered together to perform religious
ceremonies. They were also under an obligation to afford protection
to one another. In particular, if one of their members was murdered,
they were required to seek legal redress on the victim’s behalf. The
Athenian population was divided into at least thirty phratries, and
they are attested in Athens from the seventh to the second century
b.c.e. Phratries are, however, first mentioned in Homer and may be
of Mycenaean origin. They also existed in Sparta, Argos, Delphi,
Syracuse, and on the island of Chios.
A baby boy was admitted into his phratry usually in the first
year of his life at a festival known as the Apatouria. Admission
was contingent upon a vote of all the members of the phratry, who
were required to substantiate the father’s claim that his child “was
indeed the offspring of an Athenian woman who was married.”