The Murder of Eratosthenes

Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes

The following essay recounts a speech was given by Euphiletos, defending himself against the charge that he murdered Eratosthenes, after he supposedly caught him, Eratosthenes, committing adultery with his wife. Euphiletos defends himself. Euphiletos claims that the killing of Eratosthenes was justifiable homicide rather than murder in accordance with Athenian law that male adulterers could be killed if caught in the act. There is some debate over whether or not these events and characters were real or if this was constructed as a theoretical exercise and moral fable. Euphiletos means “beloved,” while Eratosthenes means “vigorous in love” causing some historians to suspect this was not a real sequence of events. Regardless, it offers key insight into gender roles and expectations in Athenian society.

 

I should be only too pleased, sirs, to have you so disposed towards me in judging this case as you would be to yourselves, if you found yourselves in my plight. For I am sure that, if you had the same feelings about others as about yourselves, not one of you but would be indignant at what has been done; you would all regard the penalties appointed for those who resort to such practices as too mild.

And these feelings would be found, not only among you, but in the whole of Greece: for in the case of this crime alone, under both democracy and oligarchy, the same requital is accorded to the weakest against the strongest, so that the lowest gets the same treatment as the highest. Thus you see, sirs, how all men abominate this outrage.

The general statement in these last words shows that the full sense of the preceding is: “the same requital is accorded to the weakest against the strongest as to the strongest against the weakest.”

Well, I conceive that, in regard to the severity of the penalty, you are all of the same mind, and that not one of you is so easygoing as to think it right that men who are guilty of such acts should obtain pardon, or to presume that slight penalties suffice for their deserts.

But I take it, sirs, that what I have to show is that Eratosthenes had an intrigue with my wife, and not only corrupted her but inflicted disgrace upon my children and an outrage on myself by entering my house; that this was the one and only enmity between him and me; that I have not acted thus for the sake of money, so as to raise myself from poverty to wealth; and that all I seek to gain is the requital accorded by our laws.

 

I shall therefore set forth to you the whole of my story from the beginning; I shall omit nothing,

but will tell the truth. For I consider that my own sole deliverance rests on my telling you, if I am

able, the whole of what has occurred.

When I, Athenians, decided to marry, and brought a wife into my house, for some time I was

disposed neither to vex her nor to leave her too free to do just as she pleased; I kept a watch on

her as far as possible, with such observation of her as was reasonable. But when a child was born

 

 

to me, thence-forward I began to trust her, and placed all my affairs in her hands, presuming

that we were now in perfect intimacy.

It is true that in the early days, Athenians, she was the most excellent of wives; she was a clever,

frugal housekeeper, and kept everything in the nicest order. But as soon as I lost my mother, her

death became the cause of all my troubles.

For it was in attending her funeral that my wife was seen by this man, who in time corrupted her.

He looked out for the servant-girl who went to market, and so paid addresses to her mistress by

which he wrought her ruin.

Now in the first place I must tell you, sirs （for I am obliged to give you these particulars）, my

dwelling is on two floors, the upper being equal in space to the lower, with the women’s

quarters above and the men’s below. When the child was born to us, its mother suckled it; and

in order that, each time that it had to be washed, she might avoid the risk of descending by the

stairs, I used to live above, and the women below.

By this time it had become such an habitual thing that my wife would often leave me and go

down to sleep with the child, so as to be able to give it the breast and stop its crying. Things went

on in this way for a long time, and I never suspected, but was simple-minded enough to suppose

that my own was the chastest wife in the city.

Time went on, sirs; I came home unexpectedly from the country, and after dinner the child

started crying in a peevish way, as the servant-girl was annoying it on purpose to make it so

behave; for the man was in the house—

… [section removed for brevity]

After this, sirs, an interval occurred in which I was left quite unaware of my own injuries; I was

then accosted by a certain old female, who was secretly sent by a woman with whom that man

was having an intrigue, as I heard later. This woman was angry with him and felt herself

wronged, because he no longer visited her so regularly, and she was keeping a watch on him

until she should discover what was the cause.

So the old creature accosted me where she was on the look-out, near my house, and said,—

“Euphiletus, do not think it is from any meddlesomeness that I have approached you; for the

man who is working both your and your wife’s dishonor happens to be our enemy. If, therefore,

you take the servant-girl who goes to market and waits on you, and torture her, you will learn all.

It is,” she said, “Eratosthenes of Oe who is doing this; he has debauched not only your wife, but

many others besides; he makes an art of it.”

Returning home, I bade the servant-girl follow me to the market, and taking her to the house of

an intimate friend, I told her I was fully informed of what was going on in my house: “So it is

open to you,” I said, “to choose as you please between two things,—either to be whipped and

thrown into a mill, and to be irrevocably immersed in that sort of misery, or else to speak out the

 

 

whole truth and, instead of suffering any harm, obtain my pardon for your transgressions. Tell no

lies, but speak the whole truth.”

The girl at first denied it, and bade me do what I pleased, for she knew nothing; but when I

mentioned Eratosthenes to her, and said that he was the man who visited my wife, she was

dismayed, supposing that I had exact knowledge of everything. At once she threw herself down

at my knees, and having got my pledge that she should suffer no harm,

she accused him, first, of approaching her after the funeral, and then told how at last she

became his messenger; how my wife in time was persuaded, and by what means she procured

his entrances, and how at the Thesmophoria [a festival], while I was in the country, she went off

to the temple with his mother. And the girl gave an exact account of everything else that had

occurred.

When her tale was all told, I said,—“Well now, see that nobody in the world gets knowledge of

this; otherwise, nothing in your arrangement with me will hold good. And I require that you

show me their guilt in the very act; I want no words, but manifestation of the fact, if it really is

so.” She agreed to do this.

… [section removed for brevity]

[one evening…] Eratosthenes, sirs, entered, and the maid-servant roused me at once, and told

me that he was in the house. Bidding her look after the door, I descended and went out in

silence; I called on one friend and another, and found some of them at home, while others were

out of town.

I took with me as many as I could among those who were there, and so came along. Then we got

torches from the nearest shop, and went in; the door was open, as the girl had it in readiness.

We pushed open the door of the bedroom, and the first of us to enter were in time to see him

lying down by my wife; those who followed saw him standing naked on the bed.

I gave him a blow, sirs, which knocked him down, and pulling round his two hands behind his

back, and tying them, I asked him why he had the insolence to enter my house. He admitted his

guilt; then he besought and implored me not to kill him, but to exact a sum of money.

To this I replied, “It is not I who am going to kill you, but our city’s law, which you have

transgressed and regarded as of less account than your pleasures, choosing rather to commit

this foul offence against my wife and my children than to obey the laws like a decent person.”

…. [section removed for brevity]

Read out also, please, that law from the pillar in the Areopagus.“Law”

 

 

You hear, sirs, how the Court of the Areopagus itself, to which has been assigned, in our own as in our fathers’ time, the trial of suits for murder, has expressly stated that whoever takes this vengeance on an adulterer caught in the act with his spouse shall not be convicted of murder.

…[section removed for brevity]

I therefore, sirs, do not regard this requital as having been exacted in my own private interest, but in that of the whole city. For those who behave in that way, when they see the sort of reward that is in store for such transgressions, will be less inclined to trespass against their neighbors, if they see that you also take the same view.

Otherwise it were better far to erase our established laws, and ordain others which will inflict the penalties on men who keep watch on their own wives, and will allow full immunity to those who would debauch them.

This would be a far more just way than to let the citizens be entrapped by the laws; these may bid a man, on catching an adulterer, to deal with him in whatever way he pleases, but the trials are found to be more dangerous to the wronged parties than to those who, in defiance of the laws, dishonor the wives of others.