Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeance — John Shaqi
Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeanceTreston, Hubert Joseph
History
Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeance
Treston, Hubert Joseph
Criminal law (Greek law); Greece -- Civilization; Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism; Homicide (Greek law); Vendetta
In _Iliad_ vi. 190-195 we learn that a king of Lycia gave to Bellerophon,
as a dowry for his wife, half his valuables (τιμή), and the Lycians
gave him a domain (τέμενος) superior to that of others. Ridgeway and H.
Seebohm maintain that the only land which is held in private ownership,
in the _Iliad_, is the domain of kings and princes. In this passage we
admit the probable operation of tribal ownership, but we must point out
that the Lycians were not Achaeans. A more relevant citation is _Iliad_
ix. 574-84, a passage in which we are told that the Elders and Priests
of the Aetolians offered a choice of their richest lands as a ‘domain’
to Meleager. H. Seebohm holds[81] that it is improbable that the richest
lands were at the time unoccupied and that such an offer therefore proves
the existence of a communal land-tenure which would admit of such a
rapid partition and consequent readjustment. Again, we admit that tribal
ownership may be inferred from this passage, but we deny that the donors
of the domain were necessarily members of the Achaean caste. It is true
that the Achaeans ruled over Aetolia, but there still survived many
rich Pelasgian tribes. Even if we knew that the donors were Achaeans,
it would not be necessary to conclude that the Achaeans lived in tribal
groups, for the partition and readjustment might have been equally simple
for rich quasi-feudal owners acting in unison.
In _Iliad_ ix. 147-155 Agamemnon, the Achaean war-chief, says that he
will give to Achilles, as a dowry with his daughter, ‘seven cities,
around Pylos, having men abounding in flocks who will worship him with
gifts as a god and obey him.’ Those who conceive the Achaean heroes as
tribal chieftains will find it very difficult to explain how a chief can
thus wantonly confiscate the territory of his allies. Pylos was in the
‘kingdom’ of Nestor, a Minoan ally of the Achaeans. No confederation of
tribal chiefs engaged in a common war could survive such a confiscation.
But the offer of Agamemnon becomes intelligible enough if we regard him
as the leader of a dominant military power, or as the feudal over-lord
who possessed by right of office a ‘superior ownership’ of all the lands
of Greece.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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