Draconian

(Piano music) 

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Laws in Ancient Greece weren’t always as fair and democratic as we might think. Until the 7th century BC the higher classes were setting the rules and laws verbally and to their benefit. Revenge killings because of family feuds were common and there was no degree of murder. Crimes like theft, poisonous drug making, misleading slaves were all punishable by either exile, fines or death depending on who the crime was against. Around 621BC the people assigned the making of the new laws to one man. Δρακον. For the first time ever, the laws were to be written down and not change at will. Murder was divided into intentional, unintentional and accidental, revenge killing was deemed illegal and even the death of a slave was punishable by either exile or death. It’s good to mention here that exile in Ancient Greece was considered the most serious punishment, the name of the accused would be written in stone, they would never be able to return in the city and it was up to other cities whether they’d accept them or not. So essentially, you could end up wondering for months without any prospect and possibly die from the dangers of the times. It is said -although not 100% proven -that Δράκος, all good and fair laws he made aside, he also  made even the lightest of crimes punishable by death or exile unless they were forgiven by the victim. If the criminal tried to flee they would be executed and all executions were delivered by a member of the victim’s family or the victim themselves if still alive. The higher classes were in a very new and uncomfortable position so they called anything  restricting, harsh and unfair, ΔΡΑΚΟΝΤΕΙΑ  μέτρα. DRACONIAN  measures 

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