CHAPTER X.

IONIC PORTION OF HELLAS. — ATHENS BEFORE SOLON.

History of Athens before Drako — only a list of names. — No king after Kodrus. — Life archons. — Decennial archons. — Annual archons, nine in number. — Archonship of Kreôn. B. C. 683 — commencement of Attic chronology. — Obscurity of the civil condition of Attica before Solon. — Alleged duodecimal division of Attica in early times. — Four Ionic tribes — Geleontes, Hoplêtes, Ægikoreis, Argadeis. — These names are not names of castes or professions. — Component portions of the four tribes. — The Trittys and the Naukrary. — The Phratry and the Gens. — What constituted the gens or gentile communion. — Artificial enlargement of the primitive family association. Ideas of worship and ancestry coalesce. — Belief in a common divine ancestor. — This ancestry fabulous, yet still accredited. — Analogies from other nations. — Roman and Grecian gentes. — Rights and obligations of the gentile and phratric brethren. — The gens and phratry after the revolution of Kleisthenês became extra-political. — Many distinct political communities originally in Athens. — Theseus. — Long continuance of the cantonal feeling. — What demes were originally independent of Athens. — Eleusis. — Eupatridæ, Geômori, and Demiurgi. — Eupatridæ originally held all political power. — Senate of Areopagus. — The nine archons — their functions. — Drako and his laws. — Different tribunals for homicide at Athens. — Regulations of Drako about the Ephetæ. — Local superstitions at Athens about trial of homicide. — Attempted usurpation by Kylôn. — His failure, and massacre of his partisans by order of the Alkmæônids. — Trial and condemnation of the Alkmæônids. — Pestilence and suffering at Athens. — Mystic sects and brotherhoods in the sixth century B. C. — Epimenidês of Krete. — Epimenidês visits and purifies Athens. — His life and character. — Contrast of his age with that of Plato. 48-88