The Clans of Athens and the Historiography of the Archaic Period

51 THE CLANS OF ATHENS AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ARCHAIC PERIOD In 1976 two French scholars (Denis Roussel in Tribu et Cite and Felix Bourriot in Recherches sur la Nature du Genos) independently brought forth major revisions to the traditional understanding of the Athenian clans or~. If these challenges are correct, it follows that many of the problems of Archaic Greek history need to be reviewed. To quote N.R.E. Fisher in his review of Bourriot in JHS (1979) 193-195, "if only some (of his arguments) are right, our picture of archaic Athens must be radically altered. II So far, however, most scholars working in this area seem either to have ignored these findings 1 or to have paid little real attention to them, either implying that these revisions are ingenious but erroneous 2 or while citing the findings with general approval, rejecting any portion of them that would challenge their own interpretation of the archaic period. 3 It would appear useful, therefore, at least to consider in more detail the arguments of Roussel and Bourriot, particularly since their works are so far not accessible to many scholars, and to indicate their relevance to some of the problems of archaic history. It should not be assumed, of course, that their new arguments are necessarily the definitive evaluations of either the clans of Athens or the manifold 1E.g. A. Andrewes in CAH, ed.2, 111.3 (Cambridge 1982) 360-402. 2E. g . A. Snodgrass, Archaic Greece (Berkeley 1980) 25-26. 3E.g . J. H. Oliver, II From Gennetai to Curiales, II Hesperia 49 (1980) 30-56. 52 RICHARD C. SMITH problems of Athenian constitutional history. 4 But any evaluations must take into account, even if not accepting, the understanding of the ~ presented by Roussel and Bourriot. Since both writers have similar opinions on the clans (or ~) and since Bourriot's work is devoted primarily to this topic and treats it much more exhaustively, in general, the arguments commented on will be Bourriot's unless otherwise noted. It should first be pointed out that the normal definition of the Greek clan among historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries rests upon that originally formulated by George Grote, that is, that a ~ has the following characteristics: (1) common religious ceremonies and the exclusive privilege of having the priest for the cult of a god held to be founder-ancestor of the clan; (2) a common burial plot; (3) mutual rights of inheritance of land and possessions; (4) reciprocal rights of assistance, of defence and reparation for wrongs; (5) the right and mutual obligation of intermarriage in certain instances, notably when a heiress was involved; and (6) the possession of common property, in certain cases with an archon and treasurer to supervise such property on behalf of the group.5 Other scholars of the nineteenth century quickly identified this ~ in miniature with the Roman ~ and drew parallels with groups ranging from the I roquois Indians to the Highlanders of Scotland. Soon the clans were identified as the collective aristocratic holders of the Dark Age equivalents of medieval fiefs and the rise and fall of 4A few scholars are already tending to regard Bourriot's treatment of the clans in this way, e.g., Robert Drews, Basileus (New Haven 1983) 1,n.1 and 50. (Drews ' attack on the traditional view of kingship in the Dark Ages is another indication that established interpretations of archaic history should be re-evaluated.) 5Denis Roussel, Tribu et cite: etudes sur les groupes sociaux dans les cites grecques aux epoques archal que et classique, Ann. litt. de l'Univ. de Besanc;:on, 193: centre de recherches d'hist. ancienne, 23 (Paris 1976), 19; Felix Bourriot, Recherches sur la nature du genos: etude d'histoire sociale Athenlenne - perlodes archalque et c1assique (Lille and Paris 1976) 98. THE CLANS OF ATHENS 53 their nearly anonymous barons became the basis of historical treatments of the Dark and early Archaic Age. 6 Though still upheld in standard historical texts today, 7 the theories noted above rest more on hypothesis than evidence. There is, for instance, no evidence in Homer of clan ownership of property, of clan cults or of...