''Phyle'' ( gr, φυλή, phulē, "tribe, clan"; pl. ''phylai'', φυλαί; derived from ancient Greek φύεσθαι "to descend, to originate") is an ancient Greek term for

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...

. Members of the same ''phyle'' were known as ''symphyletai'' ( gr, συμφυλέται), literally: ''fellow tribesmen''. They were usually ruled by a ''

basileus ''Basileus'' ( el, ) is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs in history. In the English-speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean " monarch", referring to either a " king" or an "emperor" and ...

''. Some of them can be classified by their geographic location: the Geleontes, the Argadeis, the Hopletes, and the Agikoreis, in

Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionia ...

; the Hylleans, the Pamphyles, the Dymanes, in the Dorian region.

Attic tribes

The best-attested new system was that created by

Cleisthenes Cleisthenes ( ; grc-gre, Κλεισθένης), or Clisthenes (c. 570c. 508 BC), was an ancient Athenian lawgiver credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. For these accomplishm ...

for

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

in or just after 508 BC. The landscape was regarded as comprising three zones: urban ('' asty''), coastal ('' paralia'') and inland (''

mesogeia The Mesogeia or Mesogaia ( el, τα Μεσόγεια, η Μεσόγαια/Μεσογαία, "Midlands") is a geographical region of Attica in Greece. History The term designates since antiquity the inland portion of the Attic peninsula. The term a ...

''). Each zone was split into ten sections called '' trittyes'' ('thirdings'), to each of which were assigned between one and ten of the 139 existing settlements, villages or town-quarters, which were henceforth called ''

demoi In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ea ...

''. Three sections, one each from urban, coastal and inland, were then put together to form a tribe. The 30 sections therefore yielded ten tribes, each named after a local hero and each with a geographically scattered membership roughly equal in size and hereditary in the male line thenceforward. They rapidly took on various functions. They became the brigading units for the army; constituencies for the election of magistrates, especially the ten generals ('' strategoi''), for the section of members of the Council of 500 ('' boule'') and of the 6,000 jurors, and for the selection of boards of administrative officials of every kind: and bases for the selection of competing teams of runners, singers or dancers at various festivals. They had their own corporate life, with officials and sanctuaries, and came to have an official order: 1.

Erechtheis Erechtheis ( grc, Ἐρεχθηΐς) was a phyle (tribe) of ancient Athens with fourteen demes. The phyle was created in the reforms of Kleisthenes. Although there is little specific reference to the tribe, an inscription dated to either 460 o ...

(Ἐρεχθηΐς), 2.

Aigeis Aigeis was a tribe (phyle) of Ancient Athens which contained twenty demes. The phyle comprised twenty demes named Lower and Upper Ankyle, Araphen, Bate, Diomeia, Erchia, Erikeia, Gargettos, Halai, Hestiaia, Ikarion, Ionidai, Kollytos, Kolonos, ...

(Αἰγηΐς), 3. Pandionis (Πανδιονίς), 4. Leontis (Λεοντίς), 5.

Acamantis Acamantis ( el, Ακαμαντίς) was one of the phylai (tribes) of classical Athens, created during the reforms of Cleisthenes. It was named after the legendary hero Acamas, and included the demes of Cholargos, Eiresidai, Hermos, Iphistiadai, ...

(Ἀκαμαντίς), 6. Oineis (Οἰνηΐς), 7. Kekropis (Κεκροπίς), 8. Hippothontis (Ἱπποθοντίς), 9. Aiantis (Αἰαντίς) and 10. Antiochis (Ἀντιοχίς).

Ten tribes of Thurii

When the colony of

Thurii Thurii (; grc-gre, Θούριοι, Thoúrioi), called also by some Latin writers Thurium (compare grc-gre, Θούριον in Ptolemy), for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a s ...

on the

Gulf of Taranto The Gulf of Taranto ( it, Golfo di Taranto; Tarantino: ; la, Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in Southern Italy. The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, long and wide, making it the largest gulf in Italy, and it is delimited by the ...

was settled under the support of Pericles and the command of Lampon and Xenocritus the population was organized in ten tribes, following the Athenian organization: there were tribes for the population of 1. Arcadia, 2.

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaïa'' ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. T ...

, 3. Elis, 4.

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...

, 5.

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The orac ...

, 6.

Dorians The Dorians (; el, Δωριεῖς, ''Dōrieîs'', singular , ''Dōrieús'') were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ioni ...

, 7. Ionians, 8. population of

Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poi ...

, 9. the islands and 10. Athenians. Fritz Schachermeyr, Perikles, Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart–Berlin–Köln–Mainz 1969

References

Sources

* {{Cite journal, last=Pritchard, first=David, title=Tribal Participation and Solidarity in Fifth-Century Athens: A Summary, journal=Ancient History, year=2000, volume=30, issue=2, pages=104–118, url=https://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/services/Download/mq:6229/DS01 * Traill, John S.
''The political organization of Attica: a study of the demes, trittyes, and phylai, and their representation in the Athenian Council''
Princeton : American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), 1975 Society of ancient Greece