Eponymus
（
ἐπώνυμος). Properly the person after whom anything is
named. This was in various Greek States the unofficial title of the magistrates after whom (in
default of a generally received standard of chronology) the year was designated. In Athens
this would be the first archon, in Sparta the first ephor, in Argos the priestess of
Heré. When the
ephebi, at Athens, were enrolled in the list of
the citizens who could be called out for military service, the name of the first archon of the
year was attached. And when the citizens of various ages were summoned to military
service, a reference was made to the Archon Eponymus, under whom they had been originally
enrolled. The ancient heroes, who gave their name to the ten tribes of Clisthenes, and the
heroes worshipped by the demes, were also called
eponymi. The statues
of the former were in the market-place, and it was near them that official notices were put
up. See
Calendarium.
