Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

A.like φῦλον, a race, tribe; but acc. to Dicaearch.Hist.9 a union formed in an organized community (whether πόλις or ἔθνος): hence, tribe, i.e.

I. a body of men united

1. by supposed ties of blood and descent, clan, such as the three Dorian tribes, Rhetra ap.Plu.Lyc.6, Hdt.5.68, St.Byz. s. vv. Ὑλλεῖς, Δυμᾶνες, IG4.596 (Argos); of the four Ionic tribes, Hdt.5.69, Arist.Ath.8.3, Plu.Sol.19, etc.; of the Laconian, Hdt.4.145; of the old Roman, D.H.2.7, etc.; of the Persian, X.Cyr.1.2.5 and 12; of the Jewish, LXXNu.1.4, al. (but also of subdivisions of the tribe (σκῆπτρον), ib. 1 Ki.10.20.21), Ev.Matt.19.28, etc.

2. by local habitation, such as the ten local tribes at Athens formed by Cleisthenes, Hdt.5.69, 6.131, IG12.10.44, al.; or those formed by Servius at Rome, φ. τοπικαί, opp. γενικαί, D.H.4.14, cf. Plu. Rom.20; in Roman Egypt, BGU1113.3 (i B.C.), PFlor.39.4 (iv A. D.), etc., cf. (in general) Arist.Pol.1264a8, 1300a25, 1309a12, Pl. Lg.753c, etc.

3. subdivision of the priests in each Egyptian temple, OGI56.24 (Canopus, iii B. C.), PAmh.2.112.7 (ii A. D.), etc.

II. military contingent furnished by a tribe, among the Athenians, Hdt.6.111, IG12.1085; “ὁπλιτῶν” Th.6.98, cf. 3.90, X.HG 4.2.19, Pl.Lg.755c, 755d; “ταξίαρχος εἰς τὴν φυλὴν κατατάξας” Lys.13.79.

2. representatives of a tribe, on political bodies, φυλῆς πρυτανευούσης, προεδρευούσης, IG1.26a16, SIG589.2 (Magn.Mae., ii B.C.), etc.

III. of things, = γένος, kind, species, “κατὰ φυλὰς διεκρίνομεν τὰ ἔπιπλα” X.Oec.9.6.