Epikleros
Epikleros – an only daughter-heiress in Ancient Greece, that is, a daughter who, after the death of her father, inherited or transmitted his property, including land, or kleros.
The epikleros could be a legally central figure in the transmission of inheritance, but her freedom to dispose of property was limited by the patriarchal kinship order. Her status was connected not simply with personal ownership, but with the preservation of property, land, and the family line.
By the time of Aristotle, two-fifths of all Spartan land belonged to women, who, according to the philosopher, led a luxurious and licentious life. This provoked Aristotle’s indignation and his criticism of the unequal distribution of property, which in Sparta passed by inheritance not only to men, but also to women. In fact, this order was the result of the long-term operation of a law that protected the property rights of women as transmitters of family property.
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