Analysis Of The Trail Of Euphiletos For The Murder Of Eratosthenes

This story is about the trail of Euphiletos who is been incriminated for the killing of Eratosthenes after he caught him and his wife committing adultery. Euphiletos committed the murder in front of witnesses and he has to prove that he didn’t plan the murder but acted legally instead. To achieve this he needs to explain his live before the murder and the murder itself to the jury. He does this by painting picture of an ordinary man in his speech and this gives the reader the history the Athenian people and their laws. It is interesting how Euphiletos blamed the adultery on Eratosthenes instead of his wife. He paints his wife as this weak women that couldn’t resist sleeping with Eratosthenes and that she was the real victim. I think he realized …show more content…
Another thinks that amazed me is that fact he says that when he brought his wife to his house he didn’t give here full control and points out that he thinks if he gives here too much freedom she would not make wise decisions. I believe this would make sense during this time because if the women was sheltered in here entire life before marriage and not having any kids also made her desirable to other men and I am assuming that is the reason why he didn’t give her a lot of freedoms. In the Athenian culture marriage is not secure until they have a child and maybe it was possible at the time for the women to leave the husband if their marriage doesn’t work go back to her family before they have a child. His wife accused him of wanting the young slave women instead of her. This could be also that she felt guilty of her affair with Eratosthenes and she want to accuse him first so she can have something she can use against when he discovers the affair. She was also angry with Eratosthenes because he was having an affair with another women and I think here anger was unwarranted since their relationship was based on lies and …show more content…
I think he couldn’t accuse his wife of adultery in their culture and that is why he tortured his slave to confess the truth. When he got what he wanted from his slave that was the proof he wanted even if he received the information by torture. Another interesting thing is that Euphiletos took witness to catch Eratosthenes with his wife. Euphiletos doesn’t show pride because I think no man in his situation would go and admit his wife was cheating let alone take people to witness the act firsthand. Usually you have pride on people you really love and this show that their marriage was not based on love instead it was based on arrangement. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t make the root cause of the problem Eratosthenes seeing his wife or even taking his wife to the funeral of his mother where she saw Eratosthenes, but rather he thought that the root cause of his problems was his mother dying and if it wasn’t for her dying he wouldn’t bring his wife outside of her house. Euphiletos believed that the damage done to his wife and children is irreplaceable by any financial