The first Greeks were small nations, frequently dispersed, pirates at sea,
unjust on land, without government and without laws. The mighty actions
of Hercules and Theseus let us see the state of that rising people. What
could religion do more to inspire them with horror against murder? It
declared that the man who had been murdered was enraged against the
assassin, that he would possess his mind with terror and trouble, and
oblige him to yield to him the places he had frequented when alive.
[22]
They could not touch the criminal, nor converse with him, without being
defiled:
[23]
the murderer was to be expelled from the city, and an
expiation made for the crime.
[24]
