Lysias 1
Lysias 1: On the Murder of Eratosthenes. Based on Lysias, W.R.M. Lamb, ed. Harvard University Press (1930). Original SGML digital edition by The Perseus Project, G. Crane, ed. This derived edition, C. Blackwell, Furman University. 2026. Source texts and code for this page (and others) on GitHub. Licensed CC-BY-NC. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0540.tlg001.fucex:
Lysias (c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was an ancient Greek logographer ("speechwriter") and orator who resided in Athens as a metic, a resident foreigner. Born to a wealthy Syracusan family that had relocated to Athens, he initially managed the family's shield-making business before turning to speechwriting following the confiscation of their property by the Thirty Tyrants in 404 BC.
As a professional logographer, Lysias composed forensic speeches for clients to deliver in Athenian courts, producing over 200 works, of which 34 complete speeches and fragments of others survive.
Lysias 1 is a speech, written in the first-person, for a defendent in a trial for homicide. The speaker is a husband who killed his wife's seducer, and his argument is that the killing was a justifiable homicide.