Epikleros Totally Explained

Everything about Epikleros totally explained

Epikleros (plural epikleroi) was the name given to an heiress in ancient Athens, and in other ancient Greek city states. It denoted a daughter of a man who had no male heirs. In Sparta they were called patroiouchoi, as they were in Gortyn. Athenian women were not allowed to hold property in their own name, so laws to regulate the marriages of epikleroi had to be introduced. Athenian epikleroi were required to marry the nearest male relative of their father, in order to keep their father's property in the family. Even if a woman was already married, evidence suggests that she'd have been required to divorce her spouse to marry that relative. Spartan women were allowed to hold property in their own right, and so Spartan heiresses were subject to less restrictive rules. Evidence from other city-states is more fragmentary, only allowing a few observations to be made for Gortyn and Rhegium. Plato wrote about the epikleroi in his Laws, offering idealized laws to govern their marriages. In mythology and history, a number of Greek women appear to have been epikleroi, including Agariste of Sicyon and Agiatis, the widow of the Spartan king Agis IV. The status of epikleroi has often been used to explain the number of son-in-laws who inherited from their father-in-laws in Greek mythology. The Third Sacred War originated in a dispute over epikleroi.

Overview

The epikleros (a feminine adjective acting as noun) was a term used in ancient Greece to describe the daughter of a man who had died leaving no male heir. It translates to "attached to the family property". In most ancient Greek city states, women couldn't own property, Although epilkleros is often translated as "heiress", strictly speaking the terms are not interchangeable, as the woman never owned the property and so was unable to dispose of it.

Athens

Athens is the city-state that's best documented. Athenian law on eplikleros was attributed to Solon; women with no brothers had to marry their nearest male relative on their paternal side of the family, starting with their father's brother and moving from there to the next nearest male relative on the paternal side. Solon, however, discouraged the practice of some men being adopted by relatives of epikleroi in hopes of securing a rich heiress. He also legislated that the husband of an epikleros must have sexual intercourse with her at least three times a month in order to provide her with children to inherit her father's property. Pomeroy states that most scholars lean towards the opinion that the nearest relative could only dissolve the previous marriage if the heiress hadn't yet given birth to a son, but Pomeroy also states that this opinion hasn't yet been definitely proven. As a consequence of these rules, epikleroi were the only women enrolled into the phratry, or subdivision of a tribe that was one of the requirements of citizenship.
There was a specialized procedure for the betrothal of an epikleros, a type of court judgement called epidikasia. The proceedings took place in the Archon's court. A young Athenian male serving his time as an ephebe, or military trainee, was allowed to claim epikleroi, the only legal right an ephebe was permitted in Aristotle's day. When the sons of an epikleros came of age, they gained the ownership of the inheritance.
Taking as a wife an epikleros who had little estate was considered a praiseworthy action, and was generally stressed in public speeches. However, Athenian law allowed for a man to adopt another male as a son in his will, so not all daughters without brothers would have become epikleroi.

Other city-states

Evidence for other ancient city states is more scattered and fragmentary. In ancient Sparta, women had extensive rights, including the right to inherit property and to manage both their own and their spouse's property. In Sparta the law of epikleros only applied to unmarried girls, Herodotus, in his list of Spartan royal prerogatives, said: "The kings are the sole judges of these cases only: concerning an unmarried heiress, to whom it pertains to have [her], if her father hasn't bethrothed her", but the exact meaning of this statement is debated. Some historians have interpreted this to mean that the kings had the right to give the heiress to anyone they chose, but others have suggested that the kings merely had the right to bestow the heiress on the nearest male relative, or to arbitrate between competing claims. The name given to these heiresses in Sparta was patroiouchoi, which literally translates as "holders of the patrimony." They inherited the land themselves, and retained the right to dispose of their inherited property. There were no restrictions on who they might marry.
In Gortyn, eplikleroi were also called patroiouchoi, and they were more generously treated than in Athens. If she wished, a patroiouuchoi could free herself from the obligation to marry her nearest relative by paying him part of her inheritance. Gortyn may owe the liberality of its heiress laws to the fact that it was one of the few city-states known to have allowed daughters to inherit even if they'd brothers; daughters in Gortyn received half the share of a son. Rhegium owed its laws on epikleroi to Androdamas of Rhegium, a law-giver whose views on this subject were especially esteemed according to Aristotle. In Charondas' laws, an epikleros had to be given a dowry if her nearest kin didn't wish to marry her.

Plato

Plato, in his Laws, set forth laws that governed not the ideal state, which he described in The Republic, but what he felt might be obtainable in the real world. Included amongst them were some dealing with inheritance and heiresses. In general outline, they conformed to Athenian practice, with the daughter of a man who died without male heirs becoming an epikleroi. Plato gave rules governing who the husband of the epikleros might be, and said that the inherited plot might not be divided or added to another plot. The main departure from Athenian law came if there was no direct heir, and the inheritance go to collateral relations. In that case, Plato assigned the inheritance not to one person, but to a pair, one male and one female, and ordered that they must marry and provide an heir to the estate, much like the epikleros.

History

In the tales of heroic Greece, royal succession often passed from father-in-law to son-in-law, and some historians have seen in this an early example of the epikleros pattern. Some examples include Pelops, Bellerophon, Melampus, Peleus, Telamon, and Diomedes. Not all such heroic era royal successions followed that pattern however, as in the case of Menelaus, who married Helen of Troy and succeeded Helen's father Tyndareus, even though Tyndareus had living sons, Kastor and Polydeukes.
Aristotle related that the revolt of Mytilene against Athens in 428 BCE originated in a dispute over epikleroi. The Sacred War of 356–346 BCE, which led to the defeat of the Phocians, was also started by a disagreement over epikleroi. It is likely that Agariste, the daughter of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, who married Megacles of Athens was an epikleros. Likewise, the widow of the Spartan king Agis IV, Agiatis, was forced to marry Cleomenes, the son of the man who had executed Agis, King Leonidas II. Plutarch stated that the reason Leonidas married Agiatis to Kleomenes was that Agiatis was a patroiouchoi from her father, Gylippos.

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