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
Orphism, then, stands in the same relation to the Apolline religion of
pollution as Christianity does to Judaic religion. It supplements the
punishment which angry deities send upon criminals here on earth by
a further punishment hereafter. But, considered as modifying factors
in the evolution of social law, the Judaic and the Apolline doctrine
of pollution are incomparably more important. We have seen that
Christianity accepted wergeld in Europe,[237] while Judaism abolished
it in Israel.[238] Orphism, as we conceive it, had no effect upon the
murder-laws of Greece. Plato was, naturally, sympathetic towards the
Orphic religion: still he does not place much trust in merely posthumous
punishment for so great a crime as homicide: and hence in his penal code
he falls back on the historical Greek laws which were the offspring
of Apolline religion, because there was no other code available. Thus
he says[239]: ‘Let our prelude include a “myth” which many of those
who seriously take to heart such matters in the mysteries have heard
and believe firmly, namely, that for such persons (_i.e._ murderers)
there is a punishment in Hades: or that it is necessary for them to
come back hither to suffer punishment according to nature (by a natural
law), to suffer from others what they had done themselves ... for him
who is persuaded ... and who terribly fears such punishment, there is
no necessity to frame a law, but for him who is not persuaded let the
following law be written thus.’ Here Plato, as a prelude to his homicide
legislation, definitely states that these laws are intended for the
general public and not for Orphic votaries. So again[240] he says: ‘Death
is not the extreme punishment: the pains spoken of in regard to such
persons (_i.e._ murderers) in Hades are still more extreme: though they
who tell such truths accomplish nothing by way of deterrence (ἀποτροπή)
for people of such a character: otherwise there would never have arisen
matricides and impious attacks on parents. Hence the punishments here in
this life for such crimes should rival in efficacy those in Hades.’ Here
we see that, despite the Orphic sympathies of Plato, he has to adopt as
his legal model the historical Greek murder code which was mainly derived
from the Apolline ‘pollution’ doctrine. He has to appeal to the religious
sanctions of Apollinism, just as in modern society Christian preachers
appeal to Judaic doctrines when a more ideal and higher conception of
religion fails to deter the shedder of blood. The homicide code of Plato
was therefore not affected by Orphic ideas. It was based on the Attic
code of Dracon, and also on local traditions, or, as Glotz would describe
it,[241] ‘la vieille jurisprudence des exégètes.’
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Das attische Recht_, vol. i. p. 17.
[2] _Op. cit._ p. 377; Arist. _Ath. Pol._ 35.
[3] Pollux, viii. 125; Plutarch, _Solon_, 19.
[4] _Infra_, p. 269 ff.
[5] _Supra_, p. 180.
[6] Aristotle, _Ath. Pol._ 7.
[7] _Supra_, p. 143.
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