An epikleros (; : epikleroi) was an heiress in ancient Athens and other ancient Greek city states, specifically a daughter of a man who had no sons. In Sparta, they were called patrouchoi (), as they were in Gortyn. Athenian women were not allowed to hold property in their own name; to keep her father's property in the family, an epikleros was required to marry her father's nearest male relative. Even if a woman was already married, evidence suggests that she was 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, mainly coming from the city-states of Gortyn and Rhegium.
Plato wrote about 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 numbers of sons-in-law who inherited from their fathers-in-law in Greek mythology. The Third Sacred War originated in a dispute over epikleroi.
Etymology The term epikleros (a feminine adjective acting as noun; from the preposition ἐπί, epí, "on, upon", and the noun κλῆρος, klēros, "lot, estate") was 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",Grant Rise of the Greeks p. 31 or "upon, with the estate". In most ancient Greek city states, women could not own property, and so a system was devised to keep ownership within the male-defined family line. Epikleroi''' were required to marry the nearest relative on their father's side of the family, a system of inheritance known as the epiklerate.Pomeroy Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves pp. 60–62 Although epikleros is often mistranslated as "heiress",Cantarella "Gender, Sexuality, and Law" Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law pp. 248–249 strictly speaking the terms are not equivalent, as the woman never owned the property and so was unable to dispose of it.Lacey Family in Ancient Greece p. 24 Raphael Sealey argues that another translation could be "female orphan".Sealey Justice of the Greeks p. 17 The term was used interchangeably, both of the woman herself, and of the property that was the inherited estate.Gould "Law, Custom and Myth" Journal of Hellenic Studies p. 43 footnote 36 The entire system of the epiklerate was unique to Ancient Greece, and mainly an Athenian institution.
Athens Athens is the city-state that is best documented, both in terms of epikleroi and in all aspects of legal history. Athenian law on epikleroi 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.Grant Rise of the Greeks p. 49 The historian John Gould notes that the order of relatives that were required to marry the epikleros coincided with the relatives required to avenge a murder. This set of relatives was known as the anchisteia () in Athens.Gould "Law, Custom and Myth" Journal of Hellenic Studies pp. 43–44Schaps Economic Rights pp. 25–26 The anchisteia was also the group of relatives who would inherit property in the absence of legal heirs.Just Women in Athenian Law and Life p. 85 If there was more than one possible spouse in a set of relatives, the right to marry the epikleros went to the eldest one. The property that was inherited could also be in debt, which would not affect the epikleros' status.
Definition of the term in Athens Although epikleros was most often used in the case of a daughter who had no living brothers when her father died, the term was also used for other cases. The Suda, a 10th-century CE lexicon and encyclopedia,Browning "Suda" Oxford Classical Dictionary gives other definitions, including an heiress who was married at the time of her father's death and an unmarried daughter without brothers still living with her father. The Suda also stated that the term could be used of a daughter who had living sisters. Although the Suda indicates that in normal usage, the mother of the heiress was also dead, this is incorrect: whether or not the mother was alive had no bearing on the status of the epikleros. Occasionally the term is also used as a feminine form of the Greek term orphanos, or "orphan". Although a scholiast of Aeschines, or a later writer amending the text, stated that the term could also be used of a daughter who was given to a man in marriage on her father's deathbed, there is no extant use of the term in that sense in literature, and the scholiast has probably misunderstood a scenario from the comic playwright Aristophanes.
The term in Athens seems to have always been somewhat loosely used in legal proceedings. Apollodorus, an Athenian politician and litigant from the 4th century BCE,Trevett "Apollodorus" Oxford Classical Dictionary in one of his speeches attempted to use an Athenian law about betrothal to make his mother an epikleros. He claimed that the law defined an epikleros as a female without father, a brother who shared a father with her, or a paternal grandfather. His opponent, however, seems to have disputed this interpretation of the law. A speech by Isaeus, a 4th-century BCE speechwriter,Davies "Isaeus" Oxford Classical Dictionary rests on the claim that the speaker's mother only became an epikleros after her young brother died following their father's death. Whether the legal authorities recognized the speaker's claim as valid is unknown. It appears, at least according to some plays, that a woman with a brother who died after their father was considered the epikleros of her brother, not her father.Macdowell "Love versus the Law" Greece & Rome p. 48
Development of the practice It is unclear if there were laws dealing with epikleroi prior to Solon's legislative activity around 594 BCE. According to the 1st century CE writer Plutarch, Solon authored legislation covering the epikleros. Solon's laws attempted to prevent the combination of estates by the marriage of heiresses.Lacey Family in Classical Greece p. 89 Modern historians have seen this as part of an effort by Solon to maintain a stable number of households.Lape "Solon" Classical Journal p. 133 According to Plutarch, Solon also legislated that the husband of an epikleros must have sexual intercourse with her at least three times a month to provide her with children to inherit her father's property, but by the time of Pericles (d. 429 BCE) this law is definitely attested.Schaps "What was Free?" Transactions of the American Philogical Association pp. 165–166 It is unclear whether or not the nearest relative had the power to dissolve an epikleros' previous marriage to marry her himself in all cases.Lacey Family in Ancient Greece pp. 139–145Carey "Apollodoros' Mother" Classical Quarterly p. 88 The historian Sarah Pomeroy states that most scholars lean towards the opinion that the nearest relative could only dissolve the previous marriage if the heiress had not yet given birth to a son, but Pomeroy also states that this opinion has not yet been definitely proven. Roger Just disagrees and has argued that even if the epikleros had a son she could still be forced to marry her nearest relative.Ormand "Marriage, Identity, and the Tale of Mestra" American Journal of Philology pp. 332–333 footnote 84 Athenian law also required that if the next of kin did not marry the heiress, he had to provide her with a dowry. It may have been Solon who legislated that if the new spouse was unable to fulfill his thrice monthly duties to his wife, she was entitled to have sex with his next of kin so that she could produce an heir to her father's property. Alternatively, she might have been required to divorce and marry the next nearest relative.Carey "Shape of Athenian Laws" Classical Quarterly p. 104
Legal procedures When a man died leaving an epikleros, the heiress was felt to be epidikos, or as it literally translates, "adjudicable". This made her available for the specialized procedure for the betrothal of an epikleros, a type of court judgement called epidikasia.Lacey Family in Classical Greece p. 106 The proceedings took place in the archon's court, for citizen epikleroi. For the epikleroi of resident aliens in Athens, the metics, the polemarch was in charge of their affairs.Schaps Economic Rights pp. 33–35 It was also the case that if a man made a will, but did not give any of his daughters their legal rights as epikleroi in the will, then that will was held to be invalid.Lacey Family in Classical Greece p. 131 A young Athenian male, prior to coming of age and 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, besides that of taking office as a priest in an hereditary priesthood.Patterson Family in Greek History p. 97 It is also unclear if a man who was eligible to marry an epikleros but was already married could keep his previous wife while also claiming the epikleros. While all evidence points to the ancient Athenians being monogamous, there are two speeches by Demosthenes implying that men did indeed have both a wife acquired through the normal betrothal procedure and another who was adjudicated to them through the epidikasia () procedure. The archon was also responsible for overseeing the treatment of epikleroi, along with widows, orphans, widows who claimed to be pregnant and households that were empty.Roy "Polis and Oikos in Classical Greece" Greece & Rome pp. 11–12
When sons of an epikleros came of age, they gained the ownership of the inheritance.Hodkinson "Land Tenure and Inheritance in Classical Sparta" Classical Quarterly p. 395 In Athens, this age was given in an extant law, and was two years past the age of puberty of the son. In Solon's laws, it appears that the eldest son of the epikleros was considered the heir of his maternal grandfather, with any further sons being considered part of their father's household. The son's inheritance of his maternal grandfather's property happened whether or not his father and mother were alive, unlike most other inheritances. And the son of an epikleros did not inherit anything from his father, and was named after his grandfather. The heir could further consolidate his position by being posthumously adopted by his maternal grandfather, but this was not required.Ashari "Laws of Inheritance" Historia: Zeitschrift pp. 16–17 By the 4th century BCE, legal practices had changed, and the son could also inherit from his father, as well as from his maternal grandfather. And if there was more than one son, they divided the estate passed by the epikleros between themselves. After the heir secured possession of his inheritance, the law specified that he was to support his mother. It is likely that the debts of the grandfather were also inherited along with any property.