If ransom there was none for the murderer within the tribe, there was equally none for murders between citizen and citizen,—in this point also the inheritors of the sentiments of tribesmen. In the law of Solon[118] it [pg 044] was forbidden to take payment in compensation from the murderer:—
“The murderer can be slain in our land, not tortured, not held to ransom (μηδὲ ἀποινᾷν).”
Plato[119] describes the soul of the deceased as troubled with a great anger against the murderer, so that even the innocent and unintentional homicide must needs flee at any rate for a year. The presence too of a man thus denied with bloodshed at the sacred altars was held to be a gross impiety and source of divine anger. Plato[120] says:—
“The murderer shall be slain, but not buried in the country (χώρα) of the deceased, which would be a disgrace and impiety.”[121]
In the case of a suicide, the hand that committed the crime was to be cut off and buried separately.
In Isacus[122] it is related how Euthukrates in a quarrel over a boundary-stone was so flogged by his brother Thoudippos that, dying some days after, he charged his friends (οἱκεῖοι) not to allow any of Thoudippos' people (τῶν Θουδίππου) to approach his tomb. But if the murdered man before his death forgave his murderer, the relatives could not proceed against him.
If the murderer escaped fleeing he must go forever: if he returned he could be killed at sight by any one and with impunity.[123] The pollution rested on the whole kindred of the murdered man.
“Whosoever being related to the deceased on the male or female side of those within the cousinship shall not prosecute the murderer when he ought or proclaim him outlaw, he shall take upon himself [pg 045] the pollution and the hatred of the gods ... and he shall be in the power of any who is willing to avenge the dead.”[124]
The pollution cannot be washed out until the homicidal soul has given life for life and has laid to sleep the wrath of the whole family (ξυγγένια).[125]
If it is a beast that has killed the man, it shall be slain to propitiate the kin and atone for the blood shed.