Autochthony
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
autochthony · indigenous children · nobility of birth · nobility of birth abides forever with the same possessors · sprung from the soil
in the texts
The Funeral Speech
The claim that the Athenians alone are indigenous to the very land they inhabit, rather than migrants, making their nobility of birth uniquely legitimate.
In my view also the fact that the fruits of the earth by which men live were first manifest among us, even apart from their being a superlative boon to all men, constitutes an acknowledged proof that this land is the mother of our ancestors.
For alone of all mankind they settled the very land from which they were born and handed it down to their descendants, so that justly one may assume that those who came as migrants into their cities and are denominated citizens of the same are comparable to adopted children;
Helen
The idea that noble birth, unlike other fortunes, is a permanent benefit passed on to one's descendants.
For he knew that while other blessings bestowed by Fortune soon change hands, nobility of birth abides forever with the same possessors;
Panegyricus
The doctrine that the Athenians are native to their own soil, unlike other Greeks, and that this pure lineage grounds their claim to distinction.
And yet, if men are to have good ground for pride and make just claims to leadership and frequently recall their ancestral glories, they must show that their race boasts an origin as noble as that which I have described.
but we are of a lineage so noble and so pure that throughout our history we have continued in possession of the very land which gave us birth, since we are sprung from its very soil and are able to address our city by the very names which we apply to our nearest kin;