This article examines the private orations of classical Athens for evidence of the relations between brothers, brothers and sisters, and brothers-in-law. Although affection could exist between male siblings, Athenian inheritance laws, requiring equal division of the paternal estate among male heirs, stimulated conflict between brothers. Females, however, could not inherit if they had brothers, neither were their dowries equal to their brothers' share of the patrimony. The interest of the natal family in giving a substantial dowry and in contracting a secure and prestigious marriage for the daughter often led to ties between brothers and sisters and cooperation between brothers-in-law. When cross-siblings or their descendants contended for the same estate, however, conflicts did arise, at times aggravated by the institution of adoption.

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through Hippias, as Jaap Mansfeld suggests; 32 perhaps through Cratylus, as Marcovich hazards. The playful way in which Plato handles Heracliteanism, with comic and hyperbolic imagery, suggests that his audience would have known and recognized Heraclitean flux as a familiar theory from the context of contemporary oral dialectic. 33 This altered version of Heraclitus' philosophy seems to have prevented later philosophers from grasping Heraclitus' own intended point about flux: namely, its harmonious unity with stability.

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Andocides is generally not considered one of the best orators. To point up his flawed style, scholars have discussed a notoriously vindictive and humorous section in Andocides 1: in 124ff. Andocides describes the profligate lifestyle of his prosecutor, Callias III the Ceryx, the son of Hipponicus II and dadouchos of the Eleusinian Mysteries.