In
ancient Greece, a
genos (
Greek: γένος, "race, stock, kin", plural
genē - γένη) was a social group claiming common descent, referred to by a single name (see also Sanskrit "
Gana"). Most
gene seem to have been composed of noble families—Herodotus uses the term to denote noble families—and much of early Greek politics seems to have involved struggles between
gene.
Gene are best attested at
Athens, where writers from Herodotus to Aristotle dealt with them.