‘appeasement’ and finally remove the barriers to ‘purgation.’ The fact that the involuntary kin-slayer could never re-enter his home we attribute to the tradition of Pelasgian domestic religion.[81] This solution reconciles, we think, the law of Dracon, the code of Plato, and most of Demosthenes’ references. It is also in harmony with our general theory[82] of the compromise between ‘pollution,’ tribal wergeld, and State law, which is expressed in the murder-code of historical Greece. JUSTIFIABLE AND JUSTIFIABLY ACCIDENTAL HOMICIDE In our analysis of the Attic laws concerning justifiable homicide, we will begin by drawing a distinction between three possible contingencies. First of all, we can conceive that blood has been shed without any intent to kill, but with a certain element of neglect (ἀφυλαξία), which has however been expressly mentioned and declared to be justifiable in law. Secondly, we may suppose that there was a certain degree of intent to kill and a certain amount of deliberation, but also that there was an extenuating element of impulse or passion which has been decreed guiltless, in certain circumstances, by the law. Thirdly, we may suppose that the person slain was an outlaw or a State-criminal, whose life was forfeit by the laws of the land, and whose citizen-slayer was declared to be justified in advance. Homicide of the first class has so much in common with ordinary accidental homicide that we think it probable that they were often confused in Greek thought, if not in law. The words ἄκων and ἀκούσιος which, we have seen,[83] were applied indiscriminately to denote cases of different degrees of guilt in accidental slaying and in manslaughter, were also used to denote such forms of accidental slaying as were expressly ‘justified’ by law. Perhaps this confusion may help to explain still further the apparent discrepancies in Demosthenic references to ‘release’ and ‘private settlement.’ For the case which we are now discussing, there was no penalty, no exile, or loss of property, not even a fine. Pleas of justifiably accidental homicide were doubtless frequently made in answer to charges of manslaughter or of wilful murder. The King-Archon (and perhaps also the Tribe Kings) had to decide between the merits of the ‘charge’ and of the ‘plea.’ Obviously, it was always as a result of a ‘plea,’ never as a result of a ‘charge,’ that homicide cases were referred to the Delphinium court.