L’adoption dans la cité des Athéniens, vie-ive siècle av. J.-C.

Abstract

At Athens, the feasibility to establish a fictitious filiation had long been partaking of the strategy that provided, within the group of citizens, for the continuity of the generations, statuses and properties. In order to hand down to their descendants “the things (material and immaterial) that belong to them” and avoid their fusion into those of the eligible collateral parties, the andres had to comply with the rules that governed the organization of the projected filiation founded on legitimate reproduction – or if the latter was defective, on the rules of the filiation kata dosin, the fictitious filiation founded on a donation- that is on adoption.