lO George E. Hozuard, 



systems of composition and expiation, whose very instructive 

 development has recently been traced by a master hand.^ 

 Among the Greeks of the Homeric Age the prosecution of 

 the feud was condemned by moral sentiment, and the accep- 

 tance of blood-money instead seems to have been the general 

 rule ; but it was still optional on the part of the aggrieved.^ 

 The action of the state took the form of arbitration, though 

 in what we should now style civil causes she may already 

 have possessed a limited compelling authority. Of such ar- 

 bitration a most interesting picture is preserved in the often 

 cited description of the shield forged for Achilles by the god 

 Hephaestos. Engraved upon the shield was the scene of a 

 trial. " For two men contended for the ransom money of a 

 slain man : the one affirmed that he had paid all, appealing to 

 the people ; but the other denied, (averring) that he had 

 received nought." The arbiters chosen were the "gerontes," 

 who "sat on polished stones in a sacred circle," and "in the 

 midst lay two talents of gold to give to him who should estab- 



1 By Leist, Ali-Arisches Jus Gentium, 276-446, in comparison with the 

 Grseco-Italic systems. This work is a continuation of his Gracoitalische Rechts- 

 geschichte (Jena, 1884). 



^ Thus, for example, Ajax tries to appease the wrath of Achilles, Iliad, IX, 



632-9: Blackie, II, 300: 



" Man without mercy ! when a son was slain, or a dear brother, 

 Blood-money oft the kinsman moved, his just revenge to smother; 

 The blood-stained man within his clan remains when he hath paid 

 The atoning gold; the kinsman feels his vengeful ire allayed 

 By a just fine. But thou — the gods within thy breast did place 

 An evil and implacable wrath, because of a fair face, 

 One only. Seven more fair than she, and many gifts beside, 

 Here at thy feet we fling." 



For a discussion of various passages in the Homeric writings relating to com- 

 positions, see Schomann, Antiquities of Greece, 45-7; Freeman, Comparative 

 Politics, 270 ff., 480 ; Grote, History of Greece, II, 89-97; J^bb, Homer : An 

 Introduction to the Iliad and Odyssey, 54; Gladstone, yuventus Mundi, 384 ff. 

 The legendary material relating to the blood-feud, comprised in the dramas of 

 Aeschylos, as already stated, is critically examined by Leist, Alt-Arisches yus 

 Gentium, 423 ff. See also the last named author's Gracoitalische Rechtsge- 

 schichte ; Petersen, Ursprung und Auslegung des heiligejt Rechts bei den Griechen, 

 'vs\ Philologus, Erster Supplementband (i860), 153-212; Hermann, Lehrbuch der 

 griechischen Antiquitaten, II, 1 12, IV, 369; Miiller, Aeschylos Eumeniden mit 

 erldiiternden Abhandlungen (Gottingen, 1838), 126-15 1; Platner, yVb/2(7«(?j y?<rzi 

 et yusti ex Homeri et Hesiodi Carminibus, 1 19 ff. 



244 



