Murder is a special case. Hellenic law progressed gradually from the Homeric age, with its retaliation and people taking the law into their own hands, to the penalty, with the city being given the task of punishing the guilty. Very few details of the first lawgivers' legislature on killing are preserved. Specific penalties for manslaughter are attributed to Zaleucus, Charondas and Androdamas. From Drerus in Crete there is an inscription mentioning this subject, dating to the second half of the 7th century B.C.


The fullest known text of a law on manslaughter is the law of Dracon. Few details of it were known, from Aristotle, until a late-5th century marble stele reissuing the law in question came to light in the last century. Its originality lies in its explicit prosecution of anyone attempting to act in retaliation. The penalty laid down for killing not by intent was exile; but this differed from the mere escape which the doer of the deed was earlier obliged to make in order to avoid reprisals. Dracon envisaged the protection of his life even while in exile, thus assigning to the city the role of official and sole 'avenger'. The other element controlled by law was a practice that had evidently been applied for centuries: the procedure of aidesis, that is, a grant of forgiveness by the victim's relatives, which permitted the doer to avoid exile. This grant was made by offering a sum of money in exchange, and it was essential for all the victim's blood relatives (agchisteis) to unanimously agree, since they were the ones who had the right to bring a charge of killing. If there were no relatives, forgiveness could be granted by ten members of the victim's phratria.


An important innovation was the distinction between killing by intent (of malice aforethought); killing not by intent; and involuntary killing (by negligence). The fragment that regulated the penalty for killing by intent is not preserved, but we should take it that the penalty would have been the same as applied traditionally, that is, being put to death. Its execution was left to a relative of the victim, but only provided that the accused man's guilt had been certified by the Areopagus. This regulation, permitting anybody to kill the murderer 'while trying to escape' (me pheugein kteinanta), was in force up to the Classical period at least.

Solon's legislature, the intermediate stage between Dracon's legislature and that of the Classical period, also introduced new penalties besides exile. Amongst these were the solemn curse, an early form of atimia, and sacred fines. In Solon's day, atimia meant being forbidden to speak at public gatherings; and to enter the Agora and the temples; and to take part in sacrifices or athletic contests; and of course to hold public office. Until the late 5th century atimia was hereditary in nature and could fall upon the doer's children as well. It was to Solon, too, that graphai kakoseos were due: these were public lawsuits designed to protect orphans, aged parents, and epikleroi.

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