I criteri di imputazione soggettiva dell’omicidio in diritto ateniese

The Athenian law on homicide, enforced by Draco in 621/0 BC., was focused on the distinction between phonos ek pronoias and phonos akousios. Even though it is clear that these expressions designate respectively what we may generally call ‘intentional’ and ‘unintentional’ homicide, the exact meaning of ek pronoias and akousios is debated; whereas some scholars maintain that only murders committed with malice aforethought could be qualified as ek pronoias, others believe instead that pronoia should be identified with a simple ‘harmful intent’. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that neither opinion is completely correct; a detailed analysis of the most important Greek sources on the topic shows in fact the difficulty of applying the modern categories of mens rea to the Greeks notions underlying the concepts of pronoia, hekousion and akousion.