MacDowell, Douglas.
Manchester University Press, 1999 (reprint of 1963 edition).
Book Number 21582
When a person was killed in Athens, it was the duty of the dead man's family to avenge the wrong done to the victim, purify the pollution of the state caused by the homicide and to deter prospective killers by pursuing prosecution. This study in English of Athenian legal procedures quotes extensively in Greek from the 4th & 5th c. Greek Orators as it examines how the various ideas of revenge, purification and deterrence were translated into a practical legal system.