Athenian Law of Adoption
“Right of the Childless to Adopt”
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 7 anchored passages
adoption · the law about adoption · the law which ordains that a man can dispose as he likes of his own property · the laws
in the texts
On The Estate of Apollodorus
The body of Athenian legal procedure governing how a man may validly adopt a son during his lifetime, including presentation to kin, an oath, a vote, and registration.
Now these bodies have a uniform rule, that when a man introduces his own son or an adopted son, he must swear with his hand upon the victims that the child whom he is introducing, whether his own or an adopted son, is the offspring of an Athenian mother and born in wedlock;
I should have thought, gentlemen, that there was one class of adoptions which could not be disputed, namely, those which are made by the adopter personally in his lifetime and in full possession of his faculties, after he has led his adopted son to the domestic shrines and presented him to his kindred and inscribed him in the official registers, and himself carried out all the proper formalities.
On the Estate of Menecles
The Athenian legal right, invoked repeatedly and read into the record, of a man without male issue to dispose of his property and adopt an heir of his choosing.
Depositions.
The law itself makes it clear that Menecles was free to adopt anyone he liked as his son;
Further, I placed before you the laws which permit those who are childless to adopt sons.