THE SQUARE PERISTYLE AND ITS PR FEDECESSORS
21. Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris, lines 961-969
'OpcarT)v: &b b' et 'Apelov . 6XOov ~xov, q 8Lxrv Eca)v, y?0 F:v Oarepov Xap,3v pa3Opov, T6 8' &XXo tpFape3p' %Tep iv 'Epwvucv.
eiTcv 8' &xouaao0 0' ataToog Irrp6; nifpt,
$olp6c; s' coxae (iaptupSv, Toaa
B
VotLt,/pou? 8pTl9pi0)aT IIaXXa&c CXAvT).
vtxGv 8' &nipa yc6vLa tetLpacrptLa.
6caL piv o5v S OVTO 7eLaO9?oac bLXT)L 4)yov tap' aou),v tep6v (bptoaav' EXetv.
Orestes: When I came to Ares' Hill, I stood trial, I took one of the places to stand,
she who was oldest of the Erinyes took the other.
About my mother's blood, Phoibos spoke and listened and testified and saved me. Pallas
Athena with [a gesture of] her arm certified as sum equal votes on either side.
I left the murder trial a winner.
Now all the Erinyes who accepted the verdict were assigned a shrine by the very court...
ca. 414-412 B.C.E.
The two Pa9Opa are the unworked stones of Pausanias 1.28.5 (1). Note the translation "certified as sum" for BLYpT[LO7a7. The idea is that Athena has counted through the ballots, has found them equal in number on either side, and so now makes a gesture with her hand that tells all present that Orestes has won. An amplified translation could be presented as follows: "Pallas sorted out the ballots as equal ... to my advantage ... [and signaled that she had done so by a gesture made]
with her arm."
Three Attic, Late Archaic red-figured vases with paintings of the krisis hoplon show Athena supervising an open vote wherein Achilles' weapons and armor are being awarded to Odysseus rather than Aias (Douris, Vienna 3695, ARV2 429.26, the Painter of Louvre G265, Leiden PC 75, ARV2 416.7 [bis]). In these paintings, Athena, standing behind an altar, seems to identify Odysseus as winner by means of her outstretched right arm, despite clear indications that the voting is still in progress (PI. 23). Visible accumulations of psephoi at each end of the altar show a majority of ballots for Odysseus. In another painting of the same judgment, Athena turns left and makes a forbidding gesture to Aias, telling him he has lost (Brygos, London E 69, ARV2 369.2).
The portmanteau effect of the paintings, that is, their compression of a sequence of actions into a single frame, may be analogous to Euripides' expression here: he has combined the idea of
"counting all the way through" (8&7pi9W<ae) and the signal of the outcome of the counting (aXe'vrL).
Athena's gesture in the paintings may be one that painters saw in actual life, a herald, for instance, announcing the result of a vote in assembly, lawcourt, or at dramatic competitions. For more details, see A. Boegehold, "A Signifying Gesture: Euripides IT 965-966," AJA 93, 1989, pp. 81-83. Note +qyo0< as synecdoche for tribunal.
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22. Euripides, Electra, lines 1268-1272 ca. 413 B.C.E.
At6axoupoL: xal xotOL Xoutot; 68e v6o; TeOaOeTat 0 vtxav TcaZt; t(potot x6v peUyovT' 'd.
8ecval .iev o~v 0eaxt. ;c6' &Xet ne),T7X)Yvat itayov Tap' a6cov cxaoa 8ucovXat XOov6;, ae?v6bv PpoTotaWv 'capc X)p0pLov.
Dioskouroi: And for time to come this law shall be that a defendant win if the votes are equal.
Now then the fearsome goddesses, stricken by this pain, will go down into earth's chasm, by the very [same] hill, a holy oracle, object of veneration for mortals.
Compare Euripides, Iphzgeneia in Tauris, line 969 (21).
(47) Harpokration, s.v. pouXe6uaoca
Of bouleusis: ... Isaios ... [says] that these trials were at the Palladion, but Deinarchos ... that they were on the Areopagos. Aristotle in the Constitution of Athens agrees with Isaios.
For the full text of this passage, see 47.
23. Lykourgos, Leokrates 12-13 330 B.C.E.
ToUTCov ' aOtCLOL (i5et; &rte, S vaSpeq Tn)V yap i&ouctav rau,Tyv oeo)xaOe TOL; VOOaB' eaOLOUGoL,
xal TaOra xOaXXLtov 6XovXe TxOV 'EXX,)v&ov otapaseLtya t.O v 'ApeLot &(.a6Yt ouveptov,
8 ToGOOUTOV )peL V &XX)V 8&Xa07TY)pl(xv, XOae xaCI ap' ai3rotL 6OXOyeoetL6aL TOZ;
&XLaxoVivoL; &cxacav oLeOOcOaL T 7v xptciv. ip6q 8 UT xat OVaS; &ntopXkovtraqc pn tLTp?eLv
TOl5 w60 TOO npayvJaTo; Xyouaow.
You yourselves are to blame, gentlemen. You have given the means to the speakers who come in here, you who possess as noblest example among the Greeks the synedrion on the Areopagos, which is so much better than other lawcourts that even those whom it convicts admit that its judgments are fair. You should look to it and not permit the speakers to speak beside the point.
For just decisions on the part of the Areopagos, see Demosthenes 23.66 (6). That speakers before the Areopagos must keep to the point is also noted in Lysias 3.46 and Lucian, Anacharsis 19.
Note that the Areopagos here is called a synedrion. For discussion of the word, see Agora III, pp. 126-127.
24. Lysias 1 (On the Murder of Eratosthenes) 30 ca. 400-380 B.C.E.
&ivyvoLt Ui OL xdal TOUTov TOv VOV6OV ix x(; cT)Xn)<; T/<; : 'Apelou ta&you. NOMOE. &xoueTe, (6 &v5peq, 6tL a6TOLt xt Ltxa XTjp.tGot xt6L 6 'Apetou T:a'you, 6L xal. 7xTrp6v &rtL xal itp' htv
&7ioU8oTaL toO yp6vou nag Btxa; BxaczeLv, 5dapp8nv ?lpnrai T uTOV ov [n xaO(aYLYVoXeLv py6vou, 8; &v F1. 5Bap'aL TCLt FautToO OLX6V Xap)v Ta6vx)v TxiV TILWptLav nOLcr)y7)at.
Read this law also from the stele on the Areopagos. (The law is read.) You hear, gentlemen, that for the very court of the Areopagos, to which it has been given by ancestral custom and in our own time to try cases of homicide, it is expressly forbidden to find guilty of homicide a man who catches an adulterer with his wife and punishes him in this way.
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Note that the Areopagos is here referred to as a dikasterion. This speech can have been delivered at Delphinion, since the defendant claims that his action was justified. If, however, Eratosthenes' family did not agree to that line of defense, the trial would take place on the Areopagos.
25. [Lysias] 6 (Andokides) 14 soon after 399 B.C.E.
xaltoL xal iV ApeloL ntayx)L, iv T)L OevvoraToX'L xai 8LxaoXraOC&)L 8Txarpt)Lo, 6ooXoy&ov Vv
iSlxezv &itoOvJLaxeL, eav oe aol(pLa3)T)rL, XeX-yXatL, xal toXXot o68Cv 9o8av aS&xev.
And yet on the Areopagos, in that most august and just dikasterion, a man who admits his guilt is put to death, while if he contests the charge he is put to the proof, and many have been judged to have done no wrong at all.
26. Lysias 26 (Evandros) 11-12 382 B.C.E.
TEauTT); 8M Tt &PXYq &^i4Louevoq aCruos xaO' aU6rOv &peL, xcal eur.ta T<; iv 'ApetoL tayoLL p3ouXi);
Tov &iavra xp6vov TOv RVeyLOTCOv xupiLO yevraeoaL ... xaL cpovou 8ixaq &xa&ovTra, 8v Sei Oat6v UTO6 T/r &v 'Ape(oi 7tcayXl P3ouXf) xpLveoOaLt;
But if he is approved for this office, he will hold it by himself, and as a member of the council on the Areopagos he will control the most important matters for unlimited time ... [what will the citizens think when they find] ... a judge in homicide trials who should have been tried himself by the council on the Areopagos?
(1) Pausanias 1.28.4-7
(8) Photios, Bibliotheca 535a22-34
27. Plutarch, Solon 19.1-4 ca. 40-ca. 120 C.E.
Euc77)aa7uevo Se TT rv iv 'ApeiLGL 7Tacy* P3ouXrv ix TOV xar' &VLauTOv &pX6ovov ... StL 8' 6p6v nv iOV 8Jov oIlo0vrca xat OpaGuvo6Vevov TT)L TG)V xpev (&p$eiL, BeuVrpav KpoaxaitVLVe POouXvJV, &7to (vXr< ExaTrT)e, TenTtap)V ouaOv, ExarUov SvSpac 7ixe^aVevoq, ou0 T7popoUXeUeLV
Tare ToO i81ou xali. Vuriv a&v (&Tpopou6Xeuov elq ~xxXnlatv etoaepeaOatL. T7v 8' &vo pouXjvv iTtxoTEov xT.v:tov xal (puXaxta Tv v6oow)v &xa9Loev.... olt ev o6v TXdlaTOL TTV i
'Apelou t&ayou pouX/v, (7Tep etpy)Tat, Eo6Xova ouo<7ia9OCOal paot' xal taptupeiv au'ozq Boxe ,XLatra co tb7a,tioO vOV Apaxovtra XyeyLv jr8' 6vo,aCeLv Apeoitay' a<x, aXX&a 'os &eTaLc a&t
B&aXeysaeO T EepL TCv YovLoXv. 6 '
TpLaXat8eLXaTo &cowv -TOU E6Xo)voq TOV 6Syoov XeXL TO:v v6ot&ov ouT' c(x aUToEL 6v6FotaoL yeypaclevov. at-&rov O6ao aTLoOL ~oav :plv t Eo6Xova
&paiL, ELTiVou; ETvaL itXrv 67oL &^ ApeLou 7tIayou ) 600 &x TOV eivVTp v Ex X HIpUTaveLou
xaTa8XaOevTeq 'Uzno TOV paiXLX&v &iT (povOL, 7) aayaLoLV int CtUpavvl8L &peuyov 6re 6 0eaO6g (; pav) 68e. TaiOta 8 ntaXLvw < ntp6 Tifg Eo6Xovoc &pxc; xat voioOetcagt Ta - V
'Apet ou &ou PouX/lv osoav v8Sexvu-atL. Tiveg yp L0cav ol ipO EY6Xovog iv 'Ap?tlo 1tayoL
xactELxarOevTe;, EL ?=p(og To6Xov EStox T)x e i 'ApeLou Ta&you pouXL rO6 xpLveLv;
After [Solon] had established the Council on the Areopagos, consisting of those who had been archons each year ... seeing that the demos was uneasy and bold because of their release from debt, he established another council by choosing 100 men from each of the four tribes. To these he assigned the duty of deliberating on public matters before the people did, and they were not to allow any matter to come before the ekklesia without such previous deliberation. Then he made the upper council an overseer of everything and guardian of the laws....
Now most say that Solon established the Council on the Areopagos as has been stated. And their view seems to be supported by the fact that Drakon nowhere speaks of or names the Areopagites, but
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always addresses the ephetai in cases of homicide. But the thirteenth tablet of Solon contains the eighth of his laws written in these very words: "Of the disfranchised, all who were disfranchised before Solon became archon shall be restored to the franchise except those who having been found guilty on the Areopagos or by the ephetai or in the Prytaneion of murder or bloodshed or attempted tyranny were in exile by action of the basileis when this law was made known." This surely proves that the Council of the Areopagos was in existence before the archonship and legislation of Solon.
For how could men have been condemned on the Areopagos before the time of Solon, if Solon was the first to give the council of the Areopagos its jurisdiction?
Pollux 8.125 (9), in stating that the Areopagos was established by Solon, may have been using as a source one of the majority (nTXetcaTo) cited by Plutarch. But Aristotle's descriptions in the Adthenaion Politeia of a pre-Solonian council of the Areopagos and Plutarch's reasoning, if his quotation from the amnesty law preserves the original wording, seem persuasive. Most modern authorities believe in a very early date for the Areopagos (Bonner and Smith 1930, pp. 88-89; MacDowell 1963, p. 39;
Wade-Gery 1958, "Eupatridai, Archons and Areopagos," pp. 86-115). See above, Andokides 1.78 (14), for similar language and exceptions to an amnesty law included in the decree of Patrokleides (405 B.C.E.).
(2) Pollux 8.117
The lawcourts [dikasteria] at Athens: the Areopagos used to try cases of homicide and wounding with intent, arson, and poison, if the one who gave the poison succeeded in killing. An oath was taken by both parties and the trial was held after the oath. Neither an introductory speech nor lamenting was permitted. After the first speech, the accused could go into exile, but not if he had killed his parents. They would judge every month on three successive days, namely, the fourth, third, and second days from the end of the month. The nine annual archons, after giving their accounts, were on each occasion always added to the Areopagites. They held the trials under the open sky. Cousins [and closer relatives only] could prosecute for homicide, and in the oath they could ask who was related to the man who had been killed. And if he be a house servant, one is allowed to denounce him.
(9) Pollux 8.125
28. Agora I 6524, lines 11-16 and 22-26 337/6 B.C.E.
... Ji i{evaL F TOv pouXeurcIv tOV -riq pouXIN TIU ) ' Apecou itayou xaTaXeXu[V]ivou troO 8btou V) :Tq 5r)iooxpat[ao; TT) 'AOv)aOLV &VL&vat et[ TApetov nayov i7)5 auvxaOcteLv iv rtI)
auvepLot)L plf)S 3ouXeuMv p)eS nepl ev6<....
avaypaaJ be T6vMe TOV v6'ov iv 0raXaK; XWLOLvaL; Sow Uov - ypa, vaa .Trt p3ou)XJ xal
raTT7)aaOL -I Lev iTEl T)<; eto60ou -rC; e; 'Apetov itayov TrTq sie; TO PouXeuT)rpLov etoavrTL t'rv 5 gv TLt XxxXn7cliat....
... If the demos and the democracy at Athens are overthrown, the members of the Council of the Areopagos are not to be allowed to go up to the Areopagos nor to sit together in the synedrion nor to deliberate about anything....
The secretary of the boule is to inscribe this law on two stone stelai and set one up at the entrance to the Areopagos, the entrance for a person going to the bouleuterion, and the other in the ekklesia....
A decree contaniing provision for action to be taken or not taken in case the government is overthrown, inscribed on a marble stele. Found under the north end of the Stoa of Attalos, it
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is the antityranny decree of 336 B.C.E.; see B. D. Meritt, "Greek Inscriptions," Hesperia 23, 1952 [pp. 340-380], pp. 355-359; SEG XII 87.
This decree, which has no direct bearing on the homicide court, is cited because of the topographical points it raises. The bouleuterion (lines 25-26) beyond the entrance to the Areopagos is probably a meeting place of the Council of the Areopagos on the hill and is the same as the synedrion of line 15; see Wycherley 1955, pp. 118-121 and Agora III, pp. 126-128. If this bouleuterion/synedrion was a covered building, there had to be another meeting place within the precinct that was open to the sky, as was required for homicide trials (Antiphon 5.10-11 [62]).
But neither word, bouleuterion or synedrion, necessarily implies "roofed structure".
THE COURT AT DELPHINION
The Delphinion was a sanctuary shared by Apollo Delphinios and Artemis Delphinia and is said to have been founded by Aigeus. The court that met at Delphinion tried persons who admitted that they had killed but claimed that they had done it justly.
Pausanias, after mentioning the statue of Pythian Apollo near the Olympieion, continues,
"There is also another sanctuary of Apollo with the epithet Delphinios," but he uses no connecting place word. According to Plutarch, the house of Aigeus stood "where now is the periphrakton in the Delphinion" and "the Hermes to the east of the sanctuary is called that at Aigeus' gate." There was a temple in the sanctuary, according to Pausanias, which was being built when Theseus came to Athens.
John Travlos, in excavations conducted in 1962, uncovered the foundations of a large temple and a public building just south of the Olympieion. He sees in this complex the Temple of Apollo Delphinios and the lawcourt at Delphinion (1971, p. 83). This location is in accord with Pausanias in that it is near the Olympieion and (inferentially) the sanctuary of Pythian Apollo, close to the city wall (and so a gate), and in the region of other early sanctuaries between the Olympieion and the Ilissos. Wolf Aly ("Delphinios. Beitrage zur Stadtgeschichte von Milet und Athen," Klio 11, 1911 [pp. 1-25], p. 8, note 2) suggested that the Pythion and Delphinion were one and the same. This suggestion, based on a passage in Hesychios which states that Peisistratos built the temple in the Pythion, is rejected by udeich (1931, p. 386, note 5), who believes that there was no temple at the Pythion.
Orators do not indicate any case specifically as being or having been tried at the Delphinion. This is perhaps not surprising, because the name of the specific court in which a case was being tried rarely appears in any of the speeches. Lysias' first oration (On the Killing of Eratosthenes) provides an example of a trial for justifiable homicide, which, according to Aristotle and Demosthenes, should be tried at the Delphinion. It is generally agreed by modern scholars that the trial was held there, although the court is not specifically named (MacDowell 1963, pp. 71-72; Bonner and Smith 1930, p. 271).
The Delphinion is named in two speeches, however, as the place at which an oath was taken before a diaitetes, or arbitrator. In both cases a mother is testifying as to the paternity of her sons, that is, in a question of family relationship or citizenship ([Demosthenes] 40.11 [30] and Isaios 12.9 [33]). Neither has any connection whatsoever with homicide. Lipsius (1905-1919, p. 228, note 33) points out that in these two texts the Delphinion is named only as the place in which an oath was taken before an arbitrator and that it does not necessarily follow that a panel of diaitetai held regular meetings at the Delphinion. The panels of diaitetai acting for the tribes Oineis and Erechtheis met in the Heliaia ([Demosthenes] 47.12 [118], ca. 353 B.C.E.), and a meeting ofdiaitetai is recorded at the Stoa Poikile (Demosthenes 45.17 [162], ca. 351 B.C.E.). Assuming, however, that the diaitetai did witness oaths at their regular meeting place, one might suggest that the panels for the tribes
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Akamantis (all the Thorikians of [Demosthenes] 40) and Aigeis (Erchians of Isaios, hypothesis to 12) met regularly at the Delphinion. The arbitration at the Stoa Poikile possibly was being held by the panel acting for the tribe Aiantis (ifAmphias, who deposited the document in question, was in fact from Aphidna). See Lipsius, op. cit., p. 227 for the ten panels of diaitetai, one from each tribe.
As further testimonia for the cult and sanctuary of Apollo Delphinios and Artemis Delphinia, two inscriptions are often cited, both fragmentary and uninformative.
(1) IG II-III2 3725 (= III 939), known only "ex schedis Fourmonti", has been much restored and emended to read as a dedication by a priestess to Apollo Delphinios and Artemis Delphinia.
(2) IG II-III2 4743 (= III 138), formerly built into the Akropolis wall, seems to be a dedication of the 1st and 2nd century C.E. by a herald who has recovered from an illness. The dedication may be to AeXpq[vLoL 09tei ... ].
(14) Andokides 1 (On the Mysteries) 78 (3) Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 57.3
(4) Aristotle, Politics 1300b27-28
See 4 above, where functions of the court at Delphinion are described, but the court is not