Lysias was a metic: a resident of Athens, but not a
full Athenian citizen. His family was associated
with the democratic movement in Athens, and his
life was deeply affected by large-scale political
changes in the country. During the revolution of
404–403 B.C., for example, the Thirty Tyrants of
Athens killed Lysias’s brother and confiscated the
shield factory that belonged to his family. Lysias
left Athens, returning only when the Thirty
Tyrants had been overthrown (403 B.C.).
His brother’s murder became the motivating
force for Lysias’s development as an orator. He is
partially known for his writing a defense speech for
SOCRATES, when the philosopher was taken to
court. Socrates rejected the speech because he
wanted to defend himself, but the simple yet eloquent
oration by Lysias became famous.
Indeed, it is Lysias’s simplicity, as well as his
clarity of thought and purity of language that
make his works profound. As an ATTIC ORATOR, he
composed speeches covering a wide range of public
and private issues, including citizenship, misuse
of public funds, the removal of a sacred olive
stump, adultery, and slander. One of his bestknown
speeches is On the Murder of Eratosthenes.
Written in Lysias’s usual direct style, the speech
paints a portrait of a simple-minded, naive peasant
who murders Eratosthenes because he could not
have acted otherwise when he caught his wife with
a lover.
Against Eratosthenes is considered the best of
Lysias’s 30 orations, and its success in his lifetime resulted
in Lysias becoming one of the best and most
highly paid Athenian speechwriters and lawyers.His
works are important for the details they provide of
ancient Athenian thought and culture.
English Versions of Works by Lysias
Lysias. The Oratory of Classical Greece Series. Translated
by S. C. Todd. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1999.
Lysias orations I, III. Commentary by Ruth Scodel.
Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Thomas Library, Bryn Mawr College,
1986.
Selected Speeches. Edited by C. Carey et al. Cambridge,
U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
A Work about Lysias
Dover, Kenneth James. Lysias and the Corpus Lysiacum,
Vol. 39. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1968.