In ancient Greece, kneeling before someone and declaring some form of submission was worse than losing your life. People would rather die proud and free than to live on their knees, at least once.
Life in those years was governed by codes of honor that if you violated, you lost your reputation as a human being (something that was very important to the ancient Greeks) and even worse, you had to face the divine Nemesis. Just as in the case of someone who resisted an "Iketis" who begged for mercy. Iketis(beggar) was a desperate person who had broken a moral or political law or committed a crime and asked for forgiveness and, it is said, was protected by "Ikesius" Zeus. To beg and plead for forgiveness or mercy, a procedure had to be followed. To show his difficult situation, he had to take an olive branch in his hand and wrap it in white sheep's wool, this symbol was called Iketeria.
Then he had to go to a temple and place Iketeria on the altar of the temple, but he could also go to the house of a strong man and place Iketeria on the hearth of the house. If the local lord or the owner of the house found it difficult to accept the supplication, then Iketis would kneel down before him and rest his knees on his knees. If his petition was accepted, he would leave the house and wait for a court to hear his case and show mercy.
The supplication of Priam, the father of the murdered Hector, to Achilles was remarkable. Priam secretly pleaded with Achilles, who had killed his son, and begged him on his knees to give him the lifeless body of Hector. Achilles, who for ten days desecrated Hector's body by circling it in a chariot, accepted the request of his hated enemy, and after ordering the slaves to wash the lifeless body, he buried it with honors and promised an eleven-day truce.
In the end, if anyone failed to comply with a request, it invoked the wrath of the gods, for Iketis was considered a holy person and no one could harm him. This wrath was called Agos. Whoever had burdened Agos also burdened the land in which he lived and his descendants. Typically, the Athenians were burdened with Agos. Kylon failed in the capture of the Acropolis but escaped in the subsequent siege by the Athenians. His followers, unable to escape, took refuge and begged at the altar of Athena.
The Athenians guaranteed their safety, but as soon as they left the altar, they killed them. Because of the slaughter of the beggars, a great plague broke out in the city of Athens, killing many Athenians (Cylon Agos). Also typical is the case in which the Spartans killed the Helotian beggars of Poseidon and in return, he sent a great earthquake to Sparta.
