In ancient Greece, a phratry (, derived from ) was a group containing citizens in some city-states. Their existence is known in most Ionian cities and in Athens and it is thought that they existed elsewhere as well. Almost nothing is known about the functions and responsibilities of phratries outside Attica (the area around Athens). Within Athens, they played a prominent role in social and religious life, particularly in the major festival called the Apatouria. They played an important role in determining eligibility for Athenian citizenship and all citizens (with very few exceptions) and only citizens were enrolled in phratries. Particularly in anthropology, the term is also applied to similar descent groups of multiple clans in other societies.
History
Origins and etymology
The origins of the phratry in ancient Greece are unknown. It is possible that they are Ionian in origin and that their presence in Athens stems from a known migration from Ionia in the late Mycenaean period. This was the origin explanation favored by many of the classical Athenians, including Aristotle. Some scholars also favor this explanation because phratries are known to have been present in most (but not all) of the Ionian city-states, as was the major phratry festival, the Apatouria. However, almost nothing is known about the functions or prominence of the Apatouria and the phratries in Ionian city-states. It is therefore possible that they functioned differently from the Athenian phratries and perhaps even emerged separately. The linguistic origins of the word "phratry" are quite old and date back to the Indo-European period, thus giving rise to a second origin theory for phratries: that they date back to early antiquity and originated not in Ionia but elsewhere in Greece. The term "phratry" itself is quite similar to a number of words for "brother" in languages derived from Indo-European which makes it more plausible that institutions named phratries emerged independently in Attica (where Athens is) and Ionia. The existence of the Apatouria in both Ionia and Athens complicates the second theory of origin somewhat, but at present scholars are highly uncertain about how phratries actually emerged.
Phratry festivals
The biggest, most prominent and most important phratry festival was the Apatouria, a three day festival during the Athenian month of Pyanepsion. This would place the festival during October or November, depending on the year. One of the biggest festivals of the year in Athens, the Apatouria contained many different rituals within it and likely differed somewhat depending on the phratry one was a member of. Among the most important parts of the festival were the gamelia, the meion and the koureion. The gamelia was the process by which a phratry member introduced their new wife to the phratry, who welcomed and accepted her. Although females did not become phratry members, the phratry did have some supervision over the females in the households of adult male phratry members. The gamelia also gained additional importance after Pericles' new citizenship law of 451 BCE as it created a record of the history and qualifications of the wives of citizens and thus the eligibility for citizenship of their offspring.