φυλή

A. like φῦλον, a race, tribe; but acc. to Dicaearch.Hist. 9 a union formed in an organized community (whether πόλις or ἔθνος): hence, tribe, i.e.

I. a body of men united

1. by supposed ties of blood and descent, clan, such as the three Dorian tribes, Rhetra ap.Plu. Lyc. 6, Hdt. 5.68, St.Byz. s. vv. Ὑλλεῖς, Δυμᾶνες, IG 4.596 (Argos); of the four Ionic tribes, Hdt. 5.69, Arist. Ath. 8.3, Plu. Sol. 19, etc.; of the Laconian, Hdt. 4.145; of the old Roman, D.H. 2.7, etc.; of the Persian, X. Cyr. 1.2.5 and 12; of the Jewish, LXX Nu. 1.4, al. (but also of subdivisions of the tribe (σκῆπτρον), ib. 1 Ki. 10.20.21), Ev.Matt. 19.28, etc.

2. by local habitation, such as the ten local tribes at Athens formed by Cleisthenes, Hdt. 5.69, 6.131, IG 12.10.44, al.; or those formed by Servius at Rome, φ. τοπικαί, opp. γενικαί, D.H. 4.14, cf. Plu. Rom. 20; in Roman Egypt, BGU 1113.3 (i B.C.), PFlor. 39.4 (iv A. D.), etc., cf. (in general) Arist. Pol. 1264a8, 1300a25, 1309a12, Pl. Lg. 753c, etc.

3. subdivision of the priests in each Egyptian temple, OGI 56.24 (Canopus, iii B. C.), PAmh. 2.112.7 (ii A. D.), etc.

II. military contingent furnished by a tribe, among the Athenians, Hdt. 6.111, IG 12.1085; ὁπλιτῶν Th. 6.98, cf. 3.90, X. HG 4.2.19, Pl. Lg. 755c, 755d; ταξίαρχος εἰς τὴν φυλὴν κατατάξας Lys. 13.79.

2. representatives of a tribe, on political bodies, φυλῆς πρυτανευούσης, προεδρευούσης, IG 1.26a16, SIG 589.2 (Magn.Mae., ii B.C.), etc.

III. of things, = γένος, kind, species, κατὰ φυλὰς διεκρίνομεν τὰ ἔπιπλα X. Oec. 9.6.