Phratry
Phratry ( ancient Greek φρατρία phratría , German , Brotherhood ' and φρατήρ Frater , German , brother' ) referred to in ancient Greece an association of several family groups ( genes ) of its common kinship and descent from a mostly mythical ancestors derived. A phratry could work together economically , cultivate its own religious cults , act as a political unit and, together with other phratries, form the social organization of a tribe or city-state .
In archaic Greece between about 700 and 500 BC A phratry was a medium-sized relational association within the simple structure of the ancient Greek tribe (the phyle ). The “brotherhood” consisted of several clans, which derived their patrilineal ancestry from a mostly fabulous ancestor via a common paternal line . As early as the Iliad , the Greek army in the battle for Troy is organized according to phyls and phratries; there it says: “Raise the army to Phylen and Phratrien, Agamemnon; so the phyle can support the phyle and the phratry of the phratry. "
In the time of the Athenian state from 500 to around 300 BC Chr. Phratry referred to a regional organizational subunit in politics and the military . With the reforms of Kleisthenes around 500 BC The phratria lost their previous control over the citizenship status , which now lay with the newly established local congregations ( Demen ). Until then, men were only legitimized as full citizens of the city of Athens through their membership in a phratry (and women with limited civil rights ). In the meantime the phratries were composed of various classes of the noble and non-noble free , led by a noble family; especially as cult associations, they were part of the social organization of the townspeople (see structure of the polis , ancient society ). In autumn, all phratria celebrated the three-day Apaturia festival together, during which common matters were discussed and newborn children and pubescent sons were introduced to their own brotherhood , accompanied by admission rites and hair and animal sacrifices . Nine of the Attic phratries are known by name, a total of 30 are assumed.
See also
- Anchisteia (ancient kin group)
- Hetairia (ancient friendship association)
- Orgeones , non-kin based religious association
literature
- Georg Busolt : Greek political science. Vol. 1, CH Beck, Munich 1920, pp. 248-262: § 39-41. Genders and phratries, gentilian and national phylums ( online at archive.org , partly out of date).
- Charles Webster Hedrick: The Attic Phratry. Dissertation University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 1984.
- SD Lambert: The Phratries of Attica. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1993, 2nd edition 1998, ISBN 0-472-08399-6 ( excerpt from Google book search).
- Winfried Schmitz : Phratry. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , column 962 f.
Web links
- John Roberts (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. 3rd revised edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007, sv phratry (text) .