If we take into account the strong responsibility feelings about the state of the Ancient Greeks and their rituals, we understand why treason was characterized as the most serious crime. And if we go deeper into the fact that all traitors were not allowed to be buried after their dishonorable execution, we will understand how great and overwhelming was the punishment imposed on them.
With treason, in ancient Greece, the deepest moral conception of state prosperity and stability was offended. Even if the betrayal had no practical effect, the intention or a simple sentiment was enough. Thus the traitor had no place in life or death. He was not considered as a human being, but something terribly monstrous to sacred tradition and dangerous to the smooth relations of the state. And, of course, he was not only to vanish, but his memory was always a reminder of a "black curse". He had to be considered an example to be avoided.
The Athenian law said the executed traitors should be thrown out of the territory of the state. The cultivated imagination of the Athenians formed very vividly the myths about the contempt that the ancestors had for the traitors. Demosthenes mentions how the Athenians stoned a certain Cyril who submitted to the demands of Xerxes, and the women did the same to his wife. The Arcadians also, according to Pausanias, killed an aristocrat with stones, and drove him out of the borders, leaving him unburied, because he had betrayed their secrets to the Spartans. We have also the story of Lycurgus where those who defended the traitor and friend of the Spartans, oligarch Phrynichus, were found guilty, killed, and their bones, like those of Phrynichus, were thrown out of Attica. , while those who killed the traitor were acquitted, and it was judged as if they had been unjustly imprisoned.
On the occasion of the severe punishment of Phrynichos, a decree was passed in which the defenders of the traitors were condemned in advance, even if the traitors had been executed already and their bodies would be thrown away from the state, even if a long time had elapsed since their treason. Thus, the defenders of the traitors were equated with the traitors, as they had justified them or had not tried to question their deed, respecting the sanctities of the state.
They were also considered dangerous and harmful to the common good because they wanted to reduce the "destructive meaning of treason". We have many such cases of traitors where, having been buried, they were then exhumed and their bones were thrown away because they were guilty in the "Cylon Agos" (Thucydides).
Theopombos tells how the Athenians in Samos, after sewing the traitor Lefkipos into a sack, threw him into the sea. The precipice from which the traitors were thrown, which was near the village of Keriades, was also their grave. We know that the place of dishonorable execution in Sparta was called Kaiadas. In Kaiadas the Spartans threw the body of their traitor king Pausanias, who they "built" in the temple of Athena, where he sought refuge, in order to die of hunger and thirst. The first stone for the building was laid - as we also know - by the traitor's mother. But the oracle of Delphi, seeking the prevail of morality, later indicated to be buried at the place he died. And they buried him near the temple (Thucydides).
Cave Kaiadas
Lycurgus says about this:
The first tendencies to change the way of 'moral execution', i.e. leaving the dead unburied, established in Attic times, were formed when the progressive conception of 'hygienic policies' began to prevail. We see this in Sophocles' "Antigone." This perception is that with burials "the ground on which they lie is polluted, and with the sacrificial ritual may be profaned".
Euripides and Sophocles were also concerned with the question of whether death purifies crime and secures the right of the guilty dead.
The orators did not cease at that time to remind the judges of their oath and to teach them that their own inner bliss also depended on the strict performance of duty. Demosthenes, in the preface to his speech "On the Crown", emphasizes that perfect impartiality contributes to the glorification of the "wisdom of justice" and ensures the rigor of the application of state principles.
Aeschines argues that the corrupt judge abrogates the justice he serves. An unjust acquittal or judicial leniency are characterized by the Deinarch as contempt for divine laws. Lycurgus believes that although the judge votes secretly, he nevertheless acts openly before the gods. This is why the just vote was called "pious" not only by Deinarchus and Demosthenes but also by Euripides.
The ancient texts do not mention a single case of vigilante justice against traitors that led to a judicial conviction of the crimes against traitors. And we do have a few such acts of vigilante justice, most of them "unofficial." These, of course, show the unbridled hatred against traitors and the absence of waiting for their judicial conviction. But the acquittal of those who have convicted of such crimes is a typical sign of tacit reward for their deeds.
