Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/163

 OBAP. I. THE PHKATKY AND THE CURT. 157 of Demosthenes, lo be a member of a phratry, one must have been born of a legitimate marriage in one of the families that composed it ; for the religion of the phi-a- try, like that of the family, was transmitted only by Wood. The young Athenian was presented to the phratry by his father, who swore that this was his son. The admission took place with a religious ceremony. The phratry saci'ificed a victim, and cooked the flesh upon the altar. All the members were present. If they refused to admit the new comer, as they had a right to do, if they doubted the legitimacy of his birth, they took away the flesli from the altar. If they did not do this, if, after cooking, they shared with the yonng man the flesh of the victim, then he was admitted, and became a member of the association.' The ex- planation of these practices is, that the ancients believed any nourishment prepared upon an altar, and shared between several persons, established among them an indissoluble bond and a sacred union that ceased only with life. Every phratry or cury had a chief, a curion, or phra- triarch, whose principal function was to preside at the sacrifices.'* Perhaps his attributes were at first more <;xtensive. The phratry had its assemblies and its tri- bunal, and could pass decrees. In it, as well as in the family, there were a god, a worship, a priesthood, a legal tribunal, and a government. It was a small society that was modelled exactly upon the family. The association naturally continued to increase, and -after ihe same fashion; several phratries, or curies, were grouped together, and formed a tribe. ' Demosthenes, in Eubul. ; in Macart. Isaeus, VIII. 18. 23.
 * Dionjsius, II. G4. Varro, V. 83. Demosthenes, in Eubul.,