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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



4413
Demosthenes, Orations, 59.10-59.16


nanThis fellow Stephanus prosecuted the case, declaring on oath that Apollodorus had killed the woman with his own hand, and he imprecated destruction upon himself and his race and his house, affirming matters which had never taken place, which he had never seen or heard from any human being. However, since he was proved to have committed perjury and to have brought forward a false accusation, and was shown to have been hired by Cephisophon and Apollophanes to procure for pay the banishment or the disfranchisement of Apollodorus, he received but a few votes out of a total of five hundred, and left the court a perjured man and one with the reputation of a scoundrel.


nanNow, men of the jury, I would have you ask yourselves, considering in your own minds the natural course of events, what I could have done with myself and my wife and my sister, if it had fallen to the lot of Apollodorus to suffer any of the injuries which this fellow Stephanus plotted to inflict upon him in either the former or the latter trial, or how great were the disgrace and the ruin in which I should have been involved.


nanPeople came to me privately from all sides exhorting me to exact punishment from my opponent for the wrongs he had done us. They flung in my teeth the charge that I was the most cowardly of humankind, if, being so closely related to them, I did not take vengeance for the injuries done my sister, my father-in-law, my sister’s children, and my own wife, and if I did not bring before you this woman who is guilty of such flagrant impiety toward the gods, of such outrage toward the commonwealth, and of such contempt for your laws, and by prosecuting her and by my arguments convicting her of crime, to enable you to deal with her as you might see fit.


nanAnd as Stephanus here sought to deprive me of my relatives contrary to your laws and your decrees, so I too have come before you to prove that Stephanus is living with an alien woman contrary to the law; that he has introduced children not his own to his fellow-clansmen and demesmen; that he has given in marriage the daughters of courtesans as though they were his own; that he is guilty of impiety toward the gods; and that he nullifies the right of your people to bestow its own favors, if it chooses to admit anyone to citizenship; for who will any longer seek to win this reward from you and to undergo heavy expense and much trouble in order to become a citizen, when he can get what he wants from Stephanus at less expense, assuming that the result for him is to be the same?


nanThe injuries, then, which I have suffered at the hands of Stephanus, and which led me to prefer this indictment, I have told you. I must now prove to you that this woman Neaera is an alien, that she is living with this man Stephanus as his wife, and that she has violated the laws of the state in many ways. I make of you, therefore, men of the jury, a request which seems to me a proper one for a young man and one without experience in speaking—that you will permit me to call Apollodorus as advocate to assist me in this trial.


nanFor he is older than I and is better acquainted with the laws. He has studied all these matters with the greatest care, and he too has been wronged by this fellow Stephanus so that no one can object to his seeking vengeance upon the one who injured him without provocation. It is your duty, in the light of truth itself, when you have heard the exact nature both of the accusation and the defense, then and not till then to reach a verdict which will be in the interest of the gods of the laws, of justice, and of your own selves. (Apollodorus, as co-pleaser, speaks.)


nanThe wrongs done me by Stephanus, men of Athens, which have led me to come forward to accuse this woman Neaera, have been told you by Theomnestus. And that Neaera is an alien woman and is living as his wife with Stephanus contrary to the laws, I wish to make clear to you. First, the clerk shall read you the law under which Theomnestus preferred this indictment and this case comes before you. The Law If an alien shall live as husband with an Athenian woman in any way or manner whatsoever, he may be indicted before the Thesmothetae by anyone who chooses to do so from among the Athenians having the right to bring charges. And if he be convicted, he shall be sold, himself and his property, and the third part shall belong to the one securing his conviction. The same principle shall hold also if an alien woman shall live as wife with an Athenian, and the Athenian who lives as husband with the alien woman so convicted shall be fined one thousand drachmae.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

7 results
1. Antiphon, Orations, 5.48 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

2. Herodotus, Histories, 6.136-6.140 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

6.136. Such was the priestess' reply to the Parians. The Athenians had much to say about Miltiades on his return from Paros, especially Xanthippus son of Ariphron, who prosecuted Miltiades before the people for deceiving the Athenians and called for the death penalty. ,Miltiades was present but could not speak in his own defense, since his thigh was festering; he was laid before the court on a couch, and his friends spoke for him, often mentioning the fight at Marathon and the conquest of Lemnos: how Miltiades had punished the Pelasgians and taken Lemnos, delivering it to the Athenians. ,The people took his side as far as not condemning him to death, but they fined him fifty talents for his wrongdoing. Miltiades later died of gangrene and rot in his thigh, and the fifty talents were paid by his son Cimon. 6.137. Miltiades son of Cimon took possession of Lemnos in this way: When the Pelasgians were driven out of Attica by the Athenians, whether justly or unjustly I cannot say, beyond what is told; namely, that Hecataeus the son of Hegesandrus declares in his history that the act was unjust; ,for when the Athenians saw the land under Hymettus, formerly theirs, which they had given to the Pelasgians as a dwelling-place in reward for the wall that had once been built around the acropolis—when the Athenians saw how well this place was tilled which previously had been bad and worthless, they were envious and coveted the land, and so drove the Pelasgians out on this and no other pretext. But the Athenians themselves say that their reason for expelling the Pelasgians was just. ,The Pelasgians set out from their settlement at the foot of Hymettus and wronged the Athenians in this way: Neither the Athenians nor any other Hellenes had servants yet at that time, and their sons and daughters used to go to the Nine Wells for water; and whenever they came, the Pelasgians maltreated them out of mere arrogance and pride. And this was not enough for them; finally they were caught in the act of planning to attack Athens. ,The Athenians were much better men than the Pelasgians, since when they could have killed them, caught plotting as they were, they would not so do, but ordered them out of the country. The Pelasgians departed and took possession of Lemnos, besides other places. This is the Athenian story; the other is told by Hecataeus. 6.138. These Pelasgians dwelt at that time in Lemnos and desired vengeance on the Athenians. Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron. They seized many of the women, then sailed away with them and brought them to Lemnos to be their concubines. ,These women bore more and more children, and they taught their sons the speech of Attica and Athenian manners. These boys would not mix with the sons of the Pelasgian women; if one of them was beaten by one of the others, they would all run to his aid and help each other; these boys even claimed to rule the others, and were much stronger. ,When the Pelasgians perceived this, they took counsel together; it troubled them much in their deliberations to think what the boys would do when they grew to manhood, if they were resolved to help each other against the sons of the lawful wives and attempted to rule them already. ,Thereupon the Pelasgians resolved to kill the sons of the Attic women; they did this, and then killed the boys' mothers also. From this deed and the earlier one which was done by the women when they killed their own husbands who were Thoas' companions, a “Lemnian crime” has been a proverb in Hellas for any deed of cruelty. 6.139. But when the Pelasgians had murdered their own sons and women, their land brought forth no fruit, nor did their wives and their flocks and herds bear offspring as before. Crushed by hunger and childlessness, they sent to Delphi to ask for some release from their present ills. ,The Pythian priestess ordered them to pay the Athenians whatever penalty the Athenians themselves judged. The Pelasgians went to Athens and offered to pay the penalty for all their wrongdoing. ,The Athenians set in their town-hall a couch adorned as finely as possible, and placed beside it a table covered with all manner of good things, then ordered the Pelasgians to deliver their land to them in the same condition. ,The Pelasgians answered, “We will deliver it when a ship with a north wind accomplishes the voyage from your country to ours in one day”; they supposed that this was impossible, since Attica is far to the south of Lemnos. 6.140. At the time that was all. But a great many years later, when the Chersonese on the Hellespont was made subject to Athens, Miltiades son of Cimon accomplished the voyage from Elaeus on the Chersonese to Lemnos with the Etesian winds then constantly blowing; he proclaimed that the Pelasgians must leave their island, reminding them of the oracle which the Pelasgians thought would never be fulfilled. ,The Hephaestians obeyed, but the Myrinaeans would not agree that the Chersonese was Attica and were besieged, until they too submitted. Thus did Miltiades and the Athenians take possession of Lemnos.
3. Isaeus, Orations, 3.70, 9.17 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

4. Isocrates, Orations, 18.52-18.54 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

5. Lysias, Orations, 4, 1 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

6. Xenophon, Hellenica, 1.4.19, 1.7.16 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

1.4.19. But when he sighted his cousin Euryptolemus, the son of Peisianax, and his other relatives and with them his friends, then he disembarked and went up to the city, accompanied by a party who were prepared to quell any attack that anyone might make upon him. 1.7.16. After this Euryptolemus mounted the platform and spoke as follows in defence of the generals: I have come to the platform, men of Athens, partly to accuse Pericles, though he is my kinsman and intimate, and Diomedon, who is my friend, partly 406 B.C. to speak in their defence, and partly to advise the measures which seem to me to be best for the state as a whole.
7. Demosthenes, Orations, 22.2, 25.2, 40.57, 47.69-47.72, 58.28-58.29, 59.1-59.7, 59.11-59.16, 59.52-59.53, 59.72 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
abortion Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
andokides, genos, herms/mysteries Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
anepsios Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
anthesteria (festival) Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
apollodoros son of pasion, lawsuits Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
apollodoros son of pasion, marriage Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 113
apollodorus against neaera, authorship Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
apollodorus against neaera, documents in Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
apollodorus against neaera, outline of the case Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
atimia Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
autochthony, and exclusiveness Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
basileis Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 186
bouleusis Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
choregos, lawsuit Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
citizen, citizenship, marriage with non-citizens Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
epikleros, marriage Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 113
graphê, paranomôn Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
half-siblings, patrilateral, same-sex Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
homicide Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
justice, king archon Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
miltiades, prosecution Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
moicheia Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
neaera Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
perikles, sons Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464
phano (daughter of neaera) Barbato, The Ideology of Democratic Athens: Institutions, Orators and the Mythical Past (2020) 109
slaves, and law/court cases Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 198
synegoros' Humphreys, Kinship in Ancient Athens: An Anthropological Analysis (2018) 464