Asebeia (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: ἀσέβεια) was a criminal charge in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

for the "desecration and mockery of divine objects", for "irreverence towards the state gods" and disrespect towards parents and dead ancestors. It translates into English as impiety or godlessness. Most evidence for it comes from Athens. The antonym of asebeia is

eusebeia Eusebeia (Greek: from "pious" from ''eu'' meaning "well", and ''sebas'' meaning "reverence", itself formed from ''seb-'' meaning sacred awe and reverence especially in actions) is a Greek word abundantly used in Greek philosophy as well as in ...

( εὐσέβεια), which can be translated as "piety". As piety was the generally desired and expected form of behaviour and mindset, being called and regarded impious (ἀσεβής) was already a form of punishment.

Trials in Athens

Every single citizen, including a third party, could bring this charge (''graphē asebeias'') to the

Archon basileus ''Archon basileus'' ( grc, ἄρχων βασιλεύς ') was a Greek title, meaning "king magistrate": the term is derived from the words '' archon'' "magistrate" and '' basileus'' "king" or " sovereign". Most modern scholars claim that in Class ...

. Instead of a single law or text defining the charge and proceedings to take place in case of asebeia, there is an array of texts in which it appears.

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

Polybios Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...

and

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

refer to it in their texts. The trials were publicly held at the ''

Heliaia Heliaia or Heliaea ( grc, Ἡλιαία; Doric: Ἁλία ''Halia'') was the supreme court of ancient Athens. The view generally held among scholars is that the court drew its name from the ancient Greek verb , which means ''congregate''. Another ve ...

'' and were split into two steps: first it was established by the audience (heliasts or

dikastes Dikastes ( el, δικαστής, pl. δικασταί) was a legal office in ancient Greece that signified, in the broadest sense, a judge or juror, but more particularly denotes the Attic functionary of the democratic period, who, with his collea ...

) through voting, whether the accused was found guilty; if the majority found them guilty, because the laws didn't prescribe a fixed punishment, the audience at the ''Heliaia'' would then, in the second step, decide on the punishment. Known punishments were fines, exile, death, property confiscation and

atimia Atimia (Ατιμία) was a form of disenfranchisement used under classical Athenian democracy. Under democracy in ancient Greece, only free adult Greek males were enfranchised as full citizens. Women, foreigners, children and slaves were not fu ...

(disfranchisement), whilst death was the most common sentence. There was no right to appeal the sentence made. Sentences were carried out or supervised by the magistrates from the eleven tribes: ''The Eleven'' (οἱ ἕνδεκα). The following ancient Greeks were accused or allegedly accused (as the sources are ambiguous) of asebeia: *

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

(acquitted) * Anaxagoras (acquitted, exiled, or sentenced to death in absentia) *

Andocides Andocides (; grc-gre, Ἀνδοκίδης, ''Andokides''; c. 440 – c. 390 BC) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium an ...

was acquitted in 399 or 400 BCE. *

(fled before trial) *

Aspasia Aspasia (; grc-gre, Ἀσπασία ; after 428 BC) was a ''metic'' woman in Classical Athens. Born in Miletus, she moved to Athens and began a relationship with the statesman Pericles, with whom she had a son, Pericles the Younger. Acco ...

(acquitted) * ''Hermocopidae'': vandalizers of the Athenian hermae in 415 BCE. 22 individuals were sentenced to death. :* Alcibiades (sentenced to death, but fled) *

Demades Demades ( el, Δημάδης, BC) was an Athenian orator and demagogue. Background and early life Demades was born into a poor family of ancient Paeania and was employed at one time as a common sailor, but he rose to a prominent position at Athen ...

(fined) *

Diagoras of Melos Diagoras "the Atheist" of Melos ( el, Διαγόρας ὁ Μήλιος) was a Greek poet and sophist of the 5th century BC. Throughout antiquity, he was regarded as an atheist, but very little is known for certain about what he actually believed. ...

(fled Athens) * Diopeithes *

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

* Ninos *

Phryne Phryne (; grc, Φρύνη, Phrū́nē, 371 BC – after 316 BC) was an ancient Greek hetaira (courtesan). From Thespiae in Boeotia, she was active in Athens, where she became one of the wealthiest women in Greece. She is best kno ...

(acquitted) * Protagoras (sentenced to death or exile) *

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

: Found guilty after trial, sentenced to death, and executed in 399 BCE. *

Theodorus the Atheist Theodorus the Atheist ( el, Θεόδωρος ὁ ἄθεος; c. 340 – c. 250 BCE), of Cyrene, was a Greek philosopher of the Cyrenaic school. He lived in both Greece and Alexandria, before ending his days in his native city of Cyrene. As a C ...

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routle ...

(exile, later withdrawn)

Historicity

Even though the above individuals were alleged to have been accused of asebeia in different later sources, there is a lack of historical evidence and it was suggested that some of the accusations might have been fabricated by historians and other writers in later periods.

Outside Athens

Outside Athens asebeia was possibly seen as a wrong state of mind rather than a crime.Impiety
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References

{{reflist

Bibliography

* Filonik, J. (2013)
Athenian impiety trials: a reappraisal.
Dike-Rivista di Storia del Diritto Greco ed Ellenistico, 16, 11-96. * Leão, Delfim. (2012). “Asebeia”, in Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner (eds.), ''The Encyclopedia of Ancient History'' (Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 815-816. 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17057. Ancient Greek law Athenian democracy Blasphemy law Ancient Greek religion

Trials in Athens

Historicity

Outside Athens

See also

References

Bibliography