Another means of carrying the various arts towards perfection, which in India and Egypt prevailed from time immemorial, is supposed to have been a practice, whether founded on law or custom, resembling the system of castes.[407] Theories, not destitute of ingenuity, have been constructed on this view of Athenian society.[408] Thus, the Dædali are supposed to have formed the sculptor caste; the Eupyridæ a caste of husbandmen; the Boutadæ of herdsmen; the Ceryces of heralds; the Hephœstiadæ of blacksmiths; the Poimenidæ of shepherds, and so on. Vestiges of this curious state of things are supposed to be discernible in the history of Attica, even so late as the age of Pericles, when we find Socrates a member of the Dædalian clan, by profession a sculptor. There were certainly in religious matters hereditary offices, which none could with propriety fill but the members of a certain family or clan. Thus, from among the Eteobutadæ was chosen the priestess of Athena Polias, who resided in the temple on the Acropolis; and the priest of Poseidon was drawn by lot from the same house.[409] To the Praxiergidæ were entrusted certain duties about the statue of Athena during the Plynterian festival.[410] The descendants of Buzyges performed those sacred ceremonies which thrice a year attended the ploughing of the soil;[411] to mention for the present no more. ----- Footnote 407: Cf. Plut. Sol. § 23. Footnote 408: The younger Ilgen, for example, has written a clever work, in which he endeavours to prove the existence of a system of castes in Athenian society. He sets out with giving an account of the four ancient tribes, and explains the appellations bestowed on them, viz. Γελέοντες or Τελέοντες, Ἀργαδεῖς, Αἰγικορεῖς and Ὅπλητες, to denote the pursuits in which the members of those tribes were engaged. This done, he draws his conclusion: “Quod si verum est,” says he, “efficitur, Tribus hasce nihil aliud fuisse, quàm ordines variis negotiis distinctos et separatos, quales apud Ægyptos et Indos cognovimus, et quos Lusitano vocabulo Castas appellare solemus. Tale vero institutum num apud Atticos exstiterit, multum à viris doctis est dubitatum. At licet sint, quæ in contrariam sententiam aliquem ducere possint, tamen argumenta, quæ revera Tribus castis orientalibus similes fuisse suadent, tam sunt et multa et gravia, ut non debeat dubitari.” Disquisit. de Trib. Att. p. 8, seq. Footnote 409: Harpocrat. in v. Apollod. iii. 15. 1. Bossier, de Gent. et Famil. Att. Sacerd. p. 5, seq. Footnote 410: Plut. Alcib. § 34. Footnote 411: Plut. Præcept. Conjug. § 42. -----