Eponymus (ἐπώνυμος). Properly the person after whom anything is named. This was in various Greek States the unofficial title of the magistrates after whom (in default of a generally received standard of chronology) the year was designated. In Athens this would be the first archon, in Sparta the first ephor, in Argos the priestess of Hera. When the ephebi, at Athens, were enrolled in the list of the citizens who could be called out for military service, the name of the first archon of the year was attached. And when the citizens of various ages were summoned to military service, a reference was made to the Archon Eponymus, under whom they had been originally enrolled. The ancient heroes, who gave their name to the ten tribes of Clisthenes, and the heroes worshipped by the demes, were also called eponymi. The statues of the former were in the market-place, and it was near them that official notices were put up.