Law of Heiresses (Epikleroi) and Next-of-Kin Marriage
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
heiress · alien or citizen · epikleros · heiresses · next-of-kin
in the texts
Against Stephanus II
A woman's inheritance status requiring lawful guardianship and adjudication, used to frame Apollodorus' mother as subject to public legal procedure.
Now in addition to this read the law which appoints that there shall be an adjudication of all heiresses, whether alien or citizen, and that in the case of those who are citizens the archon shall have jurisdiction and shall take charge of the matter, and in the case of those who are resident aliens, the polemarch;
The archon shall assign by lot days for the trial of claims to inheritances or heiresses in every month except Scirophorion;
Well then, if he had wished to proceed regularly, he ought to have entered his claim for the heiress, whether the claim was based upon a gift or upon nearness of kin, before the archon, if he claimed her as a citizen, and before the polemarch, if as an alien;
On The Estate Of Pyrrhus
Athenian law providing that a daughter left without legitimate brothers, even if already married by her father, passes into the legal claim of her nearest kinsman upon her father's death.
—in spite of the fact that they are thus married, shall, if their father dies without leaving them legitimate brothers, pass into the legal power of their next-of-kin;
Even before any action on the part of Xenocles, Pyrrhus's uncles, if they had known that their nephew had left a legitimate daughter and that none of us was willing to take her in marriage, would never have allowed Xenocles, who was an entire stranger in blood to Pyrrhus, to take and marry one who belonged to them by right of kinship.
While, then, the necessary consequence of this law is that women who have been given in marriage by their fathers are thus liable to be legally claimed, would any one of Pyrrhus's uncles, if Phile were a legitimate daughter left by him, have allowed Xenocles to take and marry a woman who belonged to them by right of kinship and thus make him heir to so large a fortune instead of themselves?