Eupatridae

The Eupatridae (literally "well-fathered", i.e. "offspring of noble fathers" or "the well-born") are thought of as the ancient nobility of the Greek region of Attica. Their existence as a class has been doubted.

==Origin== Tradition ascribes to Theseus, whom it also regards as the author of the union (synoecism) of Attica around Athens as a political centre, the division of the Attic population into three classes, Eupatridae, Geomori and Demiurgi. The lexicographers mention as characteristics of the Eupatridae that they are the autochthonous population, the dwellers in the city, the descendants of the royal stock. Philippides of Paiania, son of Philomelos, hailed from Attica nobility and was one of the richest Athenians in the age of Lycurgus of Athens. It is probable that, after the time of the synoecism, the nobles who had hitherto governed the various independent communities were obliged to reside in Athens, now the seat of government; and at the beginning of Athenian history the noble clans form a class which has the monopoly of political privilege. It is possible that, in very early times, the Eupatridae were the only full citizens of Athens; for the evidence suggests that they alone belonged to the phratries, and the division into phratries must have covered the whole citizen body. It is indeed just possible that the term may originally have signified true member of a clan, since membership of a phratry was a characteristic of each clan. It is not probable that the Eupatrid families were all autochthonous, even in the loose sense of that term. Some had no doubt immigrated to Attica when the rest had long been settled there. Traces of this union of immigrants with older inhabitants have been detected in the combination of Zeus Herkeios with Apollo Patros as the ancient gods of the phratry.