Читать книгу On The Structure of Greek Tribal Society - Hugh E. Seebohm - Страница 8

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Liability for bloodshed rested on a group of kinsmen.

A notable feature of the tribal system all over the world was the blood-feud, wiped out only by the death of the manslayer or by the payment of a sufficient recompense. The incidence of the responsibility for murder and for payment of the recompense upon a group instead of only on the guilty individual was of remarkable tenacity, and survived to comparatively late days.

In Arabia the whole tribe of the murderer subscribed to the blood-money, which went to all the males in the tribe of the murdered man.109

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But in Greece the responsibility fell upon the next of kin, with the help and under the supervision of the rest of the immediate kindred. He had to see that a spear was carried in front of the funeral of the slain man and planted in his grave, which must be watched for three days.110 He must make proclamation of the foul deed at the tomb, and must undergo purificatory rites, himself and his whole house (οἰκία). If the dead body be found in the country and no cause of death known, the demarch must compel the relatives to bury the corpse and to purify the deme on the same day.111

The subject is a familiar one in Homer. The wanderer (μετανάστης) is said to have no value (he is ἀτίμητος), no fine is exacted for his death.

Il. xiv. 483. “That my brother's price (κασιγνήτοιο ποινή) be not unpaid: even for this it is that a man may well pray to have some kinsman in his halls (γνωτὸν ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν) to avenge (ἀλκτήρ) his fall.”

Il. ix. 634. “Yet doth a man accept recompense of his brother's murderer: or for his dead son: and so the manslayer for a great price abideth in his own land (ἐν δήμῳ) and the other's heart is appeased and his proud soul, when he hath taken the recompense.”112

No ransom for murders within the tribe;

There are many men told of in the Iliad and Odyssey who were in the position of refugees at the court of some chief. As many of them were wealthy—chiefs' sons or even chiefs—and well able to pay large recompenses, it seems probable that (as is definitely stated in some instances), if the murder was committed on a member of the same family or tribe as the murderer, [pg 043] the only way to wipe out the stain was by death or perpetual exile, as in the case of the typical fratricide Cain. The blood-price was then only between tribe and tribe or city and city. Within the kindred there would be no ransom allowed.113

Medon had slain the brother of his step-mother and was a fugitive from his country.114

Epeigeus ruled (ἤνασσε) fairest Boudeion of old, but having slain a good man of his kin (ανεψιόν), to Peleus fled, a suppliant.115

Tlepolemos slew his own father's maternal uncle, gathered much folk together and fled across the sea, because the other sons and grandsons of his father threatened him.116

Il. xxiv. 479. “And as when a grievous curse cometh upon a man who in his own country (ἐνὶ πάτρη) hath slain another and escapeth to a land of other folk (δῆμον ἄλλων) to the house of some rich man, and wonder possesseth them that look on him. …”117

Od. xv. 272. “Having slain a man of my tribe (ἔμφυλον): and many are his relations (κασίγνητοι) and kinsmen (ἔται) in Argos: at their hands do I shun death and black fate and am in exile.”

Od. xxiii. 118. “For whoso hath slain but one man in his country (ἐνὶ δήμῳ) for whom there be not many avengers (ἀοσσητῆρες) behind, he fleeth leaving his kin (πηούς) and his fatherland, how then we who have slain the pillar of the state!”

or between citizen and citizen.

If ransom there was none for the murderer within the tribe, there was equally none for murders between citizen and citizen—in this point also the inheritors of the sentiments of tribesmen. In the law of Solon118 it [pg 044] was forbidden to take payment in compensation from the murderer:—

“The murderer can be slain in our land, not tortured, not held to ransom (μηδὲ ἀποινᾷν).”

Plato119 describes the soul of the deceased as troubled with a great anger against the murderer, so that even the innocent and unintentional homicide must needs flee at any rate for a year. The presence too of a man thus denied with bloodshed at the sacred altars was held to be a gross impiety and source of divine anger. Plato120 says:—

“The murderer shall be slain, but not buried in the country (χώρα) of the deceased, which would be a disgrace and impiety.”121

In the case of a suicide, the hand that committed the crime was to be cut off and buried separately.

In Isacus122 it is related how Euthukrates in a quarrel over a boundary-stone was so flogged by his brother Thoudippos that, dying some days after, he charged his friends (οἱκεῖοι) not to allow any of Thoudippos' people (τῶν Θουδίππου) to approach his tomb. But if the murdered man before his death forgave his murderer, the relatives could not proceed against him.

If the murderer escaped fleeing he must go forever: if he returned he could be killed at sight by any one and with impunity.123 The pollution rested on the whole kindred of the murdered man.

“Whosoever being related to the deceased on the male or female side of those within the cousinship shall not prosecute the murderer when he ought or proclaim him outlaw, he shall take upon himself [pg 045] the pollution and the hatred of the gods … and he shall be in the power of any who is willing to avenge the dead.”124

The pollution cannot be washed out until the homicidal soul has given life for life and has laid to sleep the wrath of the whole family (ξυγγένια).125

If it is a beast that has killed the man, it shall be slain to propitiate the kin and atone for the blood shed.

If it is a lifeless thing that has caused death, it shall solemnly be cast out before witnesses to acquit the whole family from guilt.126

Amongst the Israelites, treating of homicides amongst themselves, compensation was forbidden in like manner.

Numbers xxxv. 31. “Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death.

“… The land cannot be cleansed of blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it.”

Let us complete this subject with the following story told by Herodotus:127—Adrastus, having slain his brother, flees to the court of Croesus. There he becomes as a son to Croesus and a brother to Atys, Croesus' son. This Atys Adrastus has the terrible misfortune to slay, thereby incurring a three-fold pollution. He has brought down upon himself the triple wrath of Zeus Katharsios, Ephestios, and Hetaireios: he has violated his own innocence, his protector's hearth, and the comradeship of his friend.

In despair he commits suicide.