previous next


Ἰσαγόρης Τεισάνδρου. This Tisander cannot be identical with the father of Hippoclides (vi. 127. 4, 128. 2), who was undoubtedly a Philaid, since if so H. would know he was sprung from Ajax. Nor is the statement that Isagoras was ‘a friend of the tyrants’ (Ath. Pol. 20) of much weight, since clearly he was the leader of the aristocrats.

συγγενέες = γεννῆται: gentiles, members of the clan or race

Διὶ Καρίῳ: cf. i. 171. 6 n. Plutarch (de Mal. Her. 23) criticizes this suggestion severely, regarding such a descent as a stigma comparable with the alleged Phoenician origin of Harmodius and Aristogiton (ch. 56, 57 n.). Macan ingeniously connects Carian Zeus with ‘Caria’, the citadel of Megara, where Zeus was worshipped (Paus. i. 40. 6). Cf. i. 171. 1 n.


περὶ δυνάμιος: political power, i. e. election to the archonship (Ath. Pol. 13), which Isagoras held 508-507 B. C. (Marm. Par. 46).

ἐστασιάσαν. These parties recall, and to some extent represent, the old factions of the Shore and the Plain (i. 59). At the head of the former stood the Alcmaeonids, whose liberalism may have dated from Solon's act of amnesty, which by permitting their return bound them to support his legislation. They had taken the lead in the expulsion of the tyrants (ch. 63), and the restoration of liberty. Opposed to them were the land-holding class, who hoped for an oligarchy, and the secret supporters of the exiled tyrants.

τὸν δῆμον προσεταιρίζεται. Probably (1) the poor Diacrii, who had been supporters of Pisistratus (i. 59. 3), and (2) immigrants excluded from the phratries and the four lonic tribes which remained the basis of Solon's constitution. The statement ἡττώμενος δὲ ταῖς ἑταιρείαις Κλεισθένης (Ath.Pol. 20. 1) may have been suggested by H.'s phraseology, but the definite mention of political clubs would seem, like the term προστάτης τοῦ δήμου (Ath. Pol. 20. 4), to be an anachronism.

τετραφύλους ἐόντας Ἀθηναίους. Ancient tradition rightly made these four tribes not Attic by ‘Ionic’ (ch. 69. 1; Eur. Ion 1575 f.), [whether they were borrowed by Athens from Miletus (Wilamowitz, A. and A. ii. 241), or, as is more probable, were characteristic of all purely Ionic states, since they are found in Delos (B. C. H. x. 473, xiv. 418), in Teos (C. I. G. 3078, 3079), Cyzicus (C. I. G. 3657, 3663-5), &c.], deriving them from the four sons of Ion. The view that they represent castes can hardly be maintained (Strabo 383; Plut. Sol. 23). Αἰγικορεῖς might indeed mean the ‘goat-herds’ of rocky Diacria, and Ἀργαδεῖς might = Ἐργαδεῖς (Plut. Sol. 23), and mean either husbandmen or handicraftsmen, though even these etymologies are uncertain. But Γελέοντες, undoubtedly the true form (C. I. G. 3078, 3664, 3665), remains a riddle. Some connect it with γελᾶν = splendere, and see in it a class of priests and nobles, while others, deriving it from γῆ, make them peasant proprietors. But the latter are elsewhere (Busolt, ii. 96), γεωμόροι, γεωργοί, ἄγροικοι, and there is no trace of a priestly caste in Attica, while the nobles, Eupatrids, belonged to all four tribes. Again, the Ὅπλητες can hardly be the ‘warriors’, as in that case they would not come last in order, while if they are turned into handicraftsmen, tool-makers, they overlap the Ἀργαδεῖς. It may be better with Maas (Gott. Gel. Anz. 1889, 803; 1890, 353 n.), to connect the tribal names with halfforgotten deities, the Geleontes with Zeus Geleon (C. I. A. iii. 2), the Ὅπλητες with Ὁπλόσμιοι, Ὁπλόσμιος being a title of Zeus in Arcadia, Ὁπλοσμία of Hera in Elis, while a tribe in Mantinea is Ὁπλοδμία; Αἰγικορεῖς with Αἰγίς (Eur. Ion 1580), and Ἀργαδεῖς with Ἄργος, the god of light. In any case, if the tribes ever had been castes or local divisions, no trace of the fact remained: they were in the time of Cleisthenes based on descent. Cf. Busolt, ii. 98 f. For the four Ionic tribes cf. Ramsay, Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization, pp. 243-66.

ἑτέρων: not Ionic but indigenous Attic heroes, Pausan. i. 5, Pseud. Dem. Epitaph. 27-31. The names were Erechtheis, Aegeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Acamantis, Oeneis, Cecropis, Hippothontis, Aeantis, Antiochis. Ajax was doubtless chosen as the hero of Salamis (cf. viii. 64; Il. ii. 557-8), since 560 B. C. at any rate an Attic possession. The worship of the heroes gave a certain religious unity to the new tribes; their statues stood together in the Agora at Athens. Aristotle (Ath. Pol. ch. 21) tells us that the Pythia selected the ten eponymous heroes of the tribes from a hundred names submitted to her, a characteristic method of reconciling divine and human choice.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (7 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (7):
    • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 13
    • Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 20
    • Euripides, Ion, 1575
    • Euripides, Ion, 1580
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.40.6
    • Homer, Iliad, 2.557
    • Plutarch, Solon, 23
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: