ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...

, a ''genos'' ( Greek: γένος, "race, stock, kin", plural γένη ''genē'') was a social group claiming common descent, referred to by a single name (see also Sanskrit " Gana"). Most ''gene'' were composed of noble families—Herodotus uses the term to denote noble families—and much of early Greek politics seems to have involved struggles between ''gene''. ''Gene'' are best attested in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, where writers from Herodotus to Aristotle dealt with them. Early modern historians postulated that ''gene'' had been the basic organizational group of the Dorian and Ionian tribes that settled Greece during the

Greek Dark Ages The term Greek Dark Ages refers to the period of History of Greece, Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean civilization, Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic Greece, Archaic age, around 750 ...

, but more recent scholarship has reached the conclusion that ''gene'' arose later as certain families staked a claim to noble lineage. In time, some, but not necessarily all, ''gene'' came to be associated with hereditary priestly functions.Lambert, Stephen, "A Polis and its Priests: Athenian Priesthoods before and after Pericles' Citizenship Law," Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 59, H. 2 (2010), pp. 143-175

References

*Fine, John V.A. ''The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History''. Harvard University Press, 1983. *Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth ed. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary''. Oxford University Press, 2003. {{ISBN, 0-19-866172-X Society of ancient Greece Clans

See also

References