Athenian Society In Lysias's On The Murder Of Eratosthenes

In order to support the patriarchal nature of Athenian society, every aspect of their society emphasized the power and significance of males. The oikos, or the household, was the basic foundation of the society with many oikoi coming together to form their polis, Athens. Each oikos consisted of a man, who was the head of that oikos, and everybody else that lived in his household, including his wife, children, and slaves. Since the society greatly stressed masculinity, this was also central to the oikos as well. Adultery’s threat to Athenian society is represented in Lysias’s speech, On the Murder of Eratosthenes. Adultery was seen as a social rather than a personal issue and a more atrocious crime than rape because it demasculinized men and

The Greek word for adultery is moicheia, and the adulterous man is called the moichos (Carey, n.p). According to Euphiletos, moicheia was the “greatest of wrongs,” (Lysias, 45). This is an extreme issue in their society because it diminishes the power of the husband because he is her kurios, and failed protect her. Adultery was always considered to have been committed upon the woman because she is weak and unable to control her desires. However, moicheia was always done with her consent. In Xenophon’s Hieron, it is stated that adultery corrupts a woman’s affection to her husband, as she becomes attached to the other man both personally and sexually (Carey, n.p). Therefore, a key issue in adultery was interfering with the connection of the

He says to Eratosthenes, “Your executioner is not I, but the law of the city, whose violation you thought less important than your pleasures. It was your choice to commit an offence like this against my wife and my children, rather than to obey the laws and behave properly,” (Lysias, 26). In this quote, Euphiletos expresses the threat adultery posed to society, and shows adultery in the light of a public offence, rather than a personal conflict simply within the oikos. Euphiletos later follows up this statement and takes it a step farther saying, “So then, gentlemen, not only do the laws acquit me of doing wrong, but they also require me to exact this punishment.” (Lysias, 34). Here Euphiletos directly states that he was mandated by law to carry out the murder of Eratosthenes. However, the law clearly states that the husband is permitted impunity for murder in this case, not that the husband is by any means obligated to complete this