(filia), a female child. See the article CHILDREN.

Daughters, among the ancients, were more frequently exposed than sons, as requiring greater charge to educate and settle them in the world. See EXPOSING OF CHILDREN. Those who had no legitimate sons were obliged, by the Athenian laws, to leave their estates to their daughters, who were confined to marry their nearest relations, otherwise to forfeit their inheritance; as we find to have been practised likewise among the Jews, many of whose laws seem to have been transcribed by Solon.

If an heiress happened to be married before her father's death, this did not hinder the nearest relation to claim the inheritance, and even to take the woman from her husband; which is said to have been a common case.