Английская Википедия:Against the Stepmother for Poisoning
Шаблон:Short description "Against the Stepmother for Poisoning" (Шаблон:Lang-grc) is one of fifteen extant speeches by the Athenian orator Antiphon. It is a speech for the prosecution in the case of a woman accused by her stepson of arranging for the murder of his father, her husband. The speech does not provide any evidence for the claims made by the prosecution, but instead attempts to appeal to the emotions of the jurors. As with most surviving legal speeches from classical Athens, the outcome of the case is unknown.
Background
The speech was given as part of a trial of a woman for killing her husband some years previously.Шаблон:Sfn The husband had visited his friend Philoneus and had dinner with him; both had died, Philoneus at dinner and the husband twenty days later.Шаблон:Sfn Philoneus' mistress was tortured and executed for murder.Шаблон:Sfn After Philoneus' friend's son reached adulthood, he prosecuted his stepmother for his father's death; "Against the Stepmother" is a speech for the prosecution from this trial.Шаблон:Sfn The defence was conducted by the litigant's half-brother, the son of the woman on trial.Шаблон:Sfn
The charge brought against the stepmother was probably homicide (Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang).Шаблон:Sfn If it was, the case would have been tried at the Areopagus, which dealt with murder cases, including deaths caused by Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Lang, "drugs").Шаблон:Sfn Alternatively, it may have been Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Lang, "planning") of homicide, in which case it would have been tried at the Palladion.Шаблон:Sfn
The exact date of the speech is uncertain, though it is likely to have been composed in the final decade of Antiphon's life (421–411 BC).Шаблон:Sfn K.J. Dover suggests that "Against the Stepmother" was produced after what is now known as Antiphon's sixth speech, but before the fifth.Шаблон:Sfn Therefore, Dover dates the speech to between 419 and 414 BC.Шаблон:Sfn Other scholars consider that "Against the Stepmother" was the earliest of Antiphon's surviving speeches, with Michael Edwards arguing that the speech dates to some time before 421.Шаблон:Sfn
Speech
"Against the Stepmother" is Antiphon's only surviving speech for the prosecution.Шаблон:Sfn The plaintiff accuses his stepmother of having murdered his father while he was a child.Шаблон:Sfn The speech attempts to prove that the stepmother arranged for her husband to be given a drug with the intention of killing him.Шаблон:Sfn The case rests on the argument that the stepmother persuaded another woman, the mistress of her husband's friend Philoneus, to poison her husband. The speaker never explains how he came to learn of this conspiracy, and Victoria Wohl says that he may have made it up entirely.Шаблон:Sfn
Aside from the assertion that the stepmother had previously attempted to poison her husband, the speaker provides no evidence of his claims. Instead, he appeals to the jurors' fear of betrayal by their wives, and compares his stepmother's actions to those of Clytemnestra murdering Agamemnon.Шаблон:Sfn Esther Eidinow notes that the speech is also reminiscent of the story of Medea,Шаблон:Sfn while Victoria Wohl draws comparison to the myth of Deianira told in Sophocles' Women of Trachis.Шаблон:Sfn The speech also emphasises the contrast between the speaker and his step-family, claiming that he brought the case out of piety, while his stepmother behaved "godlessly" (atheos) and "profanely" (anosios) in killing her husband.Шаблон:Sfn
As women were not allowed to represent themselves in court in classical Athens, the stepmother seems to have been represented by her sons.Шаблон:Sfn The speech for the defence does not survive, but it may have argued that the stepmother had not intended to kill her husband, merely to give him a love potion.Шаблон:Sfn The Magna Moralia discusses a similar case where a woman was acquitted based on the defence that she was not trying to kill her husband, but was acting out of love.Шаблон:Sfn Additionally, Michael Gagarin suggests that the defence may have attempted to portray the stepmother as sympathetic, and the dead man as having treated her badly.Шаблон:Sfn
The charge, brought many years after the event, may have been motivated by a dispute over inheritance.Шаблон:Sfn As with most surviving Athenian legal speeches, the outcome of the case is unknown.Шаблон:Sfn Scholars have generally considered the prosecution case to be extremely weak.Шаблон:Sfn Patricia A. Watson notes that the speaker fails to explain the stepmother's motive in poisoning her husband.Шаблон:Sfn However, Gagarin argues that though the prosecution case is generally agreed to be weak, the speech is Antiphon's best narrative,Шаблон:Sfn and might still have resulted in a successful prosecution.Шаблон:Sfn While Gagarin sees the speech's use of references to tragedy as "particularly effective",Шаблон:Sfn Wohl suggests that this strategy might have backfired if the tragic allusions in Antiphon's speech instead brought to mind a more sympathetic character, such as Deianira.Шаблон:Sfn
See also
Notes
References
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