Since the Archaic period, Greek social, legal and religious norms have regulated the worst form of interpersonal violence: homicide. In Athens, as the context we know better, the family of the victim brought before the courts a suspected killer through a dike phonou (private suit for homicide). Alongside a penal sentence, the killer was considered polluted. He was excluded from public and sacred spaces, and he could not return to his normal life until he had been ritually purified. This chapter aims to show to what degree, in Archaic and early Classical Greek society, the belief of blood pollution was connected to the custom of blood feud. The analysis of both literary and epigraphic sources allows for the highlighting of social and ritual mechanisms that contained the escalations of violence following the crime. The main case studies are: the end of the Odyssey, Draco's law, and Orestes’ vengeance in the Oresteia. The chapter stresses the weakness of law enforcement in a feuding society. It argues that blood feud may become a misleading category when applied without cautious analysis of the ancient Greek legal system. Interpersonal violence was ritualized in the idea of blood pollution, and purification rituals reinforced social stability and the cohabitation in the same city of victims and killers.

Blood Feud and Blood Pollution in Archaic and Early Classical Greece

Irene Salvo
2018-01-01

Abstract

Since the Archaic period, Greek social, legal and religious norms have regulated the worst form of interpersonal violence: homicide. In Athens, as the context we know better, the family of the victim brought before the courts a suspected killer through a dike phonou (private suit for homicide). Alongside a penal sentence, the killer was considered polluted. He was excluded from public and sacred spaces, and he could not return to his normal life until he had been ritually purified. This chapter aims to show to what degree, in Archaic and early Classical Greek society, the belief of blood pollution was connected to the custom of blood feud. The analysis of both literary and epigraphic sources allows for the highlighting of social and ritual mechanisms that contained the escalations of violence following the crime. The main case studies are: the end of the Odyssey, Draco's law, and Orestes’ vengeance in the Oresteia. The chapter stresses the weakness of law enforcement in a feuding society. It argues that blood feud may become a misleading category when applied without cautious analysis of the ancient Greek legal system. Interpersonal violence was ritualized in the idea of blood pollution, and purification rituals reinforced social stability and the cohabitation in the same city of victims and killers.
2018
9789042936027
Homicide, feud, blood pollution, Homer, Draco, Aeschylus
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1146630
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