For the Athenian oikos, hereditary succession meant transfer of the power belonging to the master of the oikos to a new person. This person undertook not only to own and manage the assets, but to represent the family in public. Its members' specific rights were enforceable only in family law. For the city, the person who expressed these rights was always the citizen. On his death, the city examined the rights of each member, so that the succession should be under control.

In ancient Athens, a will, just like most legal acts - need not be drawn up in writing. But witnesses were essential, where the will was only verbal. Furthermore, the principle of the validity of a more recent will did not operate. In case of an alteration to a written will, all copies of the earlier will had to be destroyed.
There were many grounds on which a will could become invalid. First of all it had to be legally in keeping with the right of bequest, as only males could draw up a will. Even then, the following were debarred: all males who had received the punishment of atimia; all public functionaries who had not yet submitted their accounts for the public money they had managed; and - by one of Solon's laws, transmitted to us by Demosthenes - all those who were not in full possession of their intellectual faculties. Senility, insanity (mania), the influence of a potion or a woman, and any exercise of coercion on the person making the will could all be taken as grounds for this last case.

As regards inheritance per se, only direct descendants could inherit as of right. Others - such as those from lateral branches - were obliged to claim inheritance by making a request to the eponymous archon. The final decision (epidikasia) could be taken by the archon, in a simple case. When more than one relative claimed the inheritance, the case was referred to the courts.