The System of Retaliation in Homer Society as a Social Institution in the Era before Formation of the Ancient Greek Polis
The article considers the value of Homeric terms related to retaliation. To refer to the process of retaliation there are several verbs: τίνω/τίνομαι, άποτίνω/άποτίνομαι, τίνυμαι, έξαποτίνω, άποτίνυμαι and the noun τίσις. Unlike τίσις, ποινή in Homer's epic poem refers not to the process, but the result of retaliation. Ποινή may be a murder the offender or the payment of a ransom. It is the concept τιμή that refers to retaliation. It is taking care of τιμή that makes a hero retaliate. Αποινα, although formed from ποινή, is not associated with a vengeance in Homer's epic poem. As υβρις, meaning the crime against the gods, denotes reason of vengeance. The reason for revenge related to the honor of a hero is λώβη-offense. The aim of eunomia'-εύνομίη. Vengeance is not evaluated negatively in the epic poem. The work also presents the results of the research methods of retaliation in the world of the Homeric poems. Seven ways of retaliation the abuser are allocated: 1) compositions, 2) exile, 3) conclusion in shackles, 4) blood feud, 5) divine retribution, 6) vengeance on the battlefield for the slain in the battle of the friend or relative, 7) massacre of a person belonging to a lower social status. Composition, exile, confinement in shackles, as a form of 'non-blood' revenge, are opposed to the blood feud, which ends with the assassination of the abuser. The revenge of the gods in the Homeric poems is actually a projection of human practices into the world of the gods The revenge on the battlefield is different from blood feud both due to the actors status (the revenge can be taken for comrades who are not relatives), and to the circumstances it is carried out wherein. If the composition, exile, confinement in shackles, vendetta, divine retribution, revenge on the battlefield can be considered as forms of vengeance, i.e. retaliation in which actor and subject have roughly equal social status, massacre of a person belonging to a lower social status (often slave) cannot be treated as revenge. The author studies the relationship of courts and private retaliation in Homer society. Court procedure and private retaliation are described through different concepts In Homer society courts do not interfere with the realm of retaliation