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
For wounding with intent to kill, the penalty was perpetual exile,[161]
which was not accompanied, we think,[162] by confiscation of property.
The penalty for ‘plotting’ murder (which was successful) was death or
banishment, accompanied by confiscation. Wounding without intent to kill
was a case for civil damages, before the Heliastic courts—it was perhaps
a δίκη αἰκίας.[163]
STATE EXECUTION OF DEATH PENALTY
Before discussing the legal aspect of parricide and of kin-slaying we
must examine the question of the origin and evolution of official State
execution in the capital punishment of homicide. The establishment of
this method of execution had, we believe, an important influence on the
penalty for parricide and, probably, for all general cases of wilful
kin-slaying. The prevailing opinion on this subject tends to suppose that
the method of private execution which is found in the _Iliad_ and the
_Odyssey_ was the normal method of execution in historical Greece and
even in Athens until the time of the orators, that is to say, the fourth
century B.C. The only difference which can be found, according to this
view, between the Homeric and the historical modes of execution is that
in the former case the execution was unauthorised by any written law or
by any public trial, while in the latter case it was legally authorised
and permitted. Thus Gilbert[164] holds that the relatives of the slain
personally executed the slayer in Athens in the fifth century, and that
the exceptional instances of State execution must be attributed to the
sacred ‘right of sanctuary,’ and especially to the Athenian sanctuary of
the Semnai Theai. Glotz minimises as far as possible the change which,
he is compelled to admit, had taken place in historical Greece. It was,
he thinks,[165] from philanthropic motives that the State consented
to execute the murderer if it was requested to do so by the relatives
of the slain. The old principle of primitive society: ‘de voluntario
convictus parentibus vel cognatis occisi tradatur occidendus’ gives
place to an alternative principle that ‘murderers are put to death
sometimes by the judges, sometimes by the relatives.’[166] At Athens,
the ideals of philanthropy went one step further. ‘L’exécution étant
faite au nom du peuple par le δήμιος (_public executioner_) le parent
qui avait engagé la poursuite contre le meurtrier assistait à son
supplice.’[167] It is clear that Glotz regards this public execution as
strangely exceptional. He cannot, however, ignore the evidence of the
orators. But he seems quite certain that this custom did not apply in
the time of Dracon. ‘C’est dans l’Iliade et l’Odyssée qu’on surprend les
origines des φονικοὶ νόμοι. Ce que la famille lésée demandait à l’état,
d’après la loi de Dracon, c’était la permission de se venger. Il fallait
donc que son droit fût reconnu, non seulement au moment des poursuites
mais si elle l’emportait, au moment du supplice ou de l’expulsion. A
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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