Avengers of Blood

Homicide in Athenian Law and Custom from Draco to Demosthenes

by David D. Phillips

Book cover: Avengers of Blood

Extent: 279 pages

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Subjects: Classical Studies

Series: Historia - Einzelschriften

Series volume number: 202

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(July 2008)

ISBN: 9783515091237

6.65 x 9.45 inches

Price: $78.00

Out of stock

In 621/0 B.C., the Athenians appointed Draco as their first lawgiver. His homicide laws, which alone survived the general recension of Athenian law by Solon (594/3 B.C.), remained in force down through the Classical period. This book traces the development of Athenian legal and social responses to homicide from the legislation of Draco to the time of the orator Demosthenes (d. 322 B.C.), with particular attention to the Athenian institution of private enmity (echthra), the circumstances and aims of Draco’s legislation, familial and religious issues surrounding homicide, and the regime of the Thirty Tyrants and its aftermath.

  • By (author) David D Phillips