amongst the Athenians. Daughters inheriting their parents' estate were obliged to marry their nearest relation; which gave occasion to persons of the same family to go to law with one another, each pretending to be more nearly allied to the heiress than the rest. The suit was called ἐπιδικασίας ἀξία; and the virgin about whom the relations contested, ἐπιδικασίας.

EPIDOTÆ, certain deities who presided over the growth of children. They were worshipped by the Lacedemonians, and chiefly invoked by those who were persecuted by the ghosts of the dead, or spectral apparitions.