5 - The law of adultery

Summary

Different legal systems address the social problem of adultery in a variety of ways. Some only prohibit men from engaging in intercourse with the wives of others, some punish all extra-marital intercourse, others ignore adultery altogether. Within these parameters, different societies may punish adultery as a public offense or a religious transgression, or treat it as a purely private wrong (or some combination of these). In the ancient world, for example, one finds all of these possibilities embodied in Assyrian, Babylonian, Biblical, Greek and Roman legislation permitting the summary execution of adulterers or imposing other legal penalties. Because of this diversity of possibilities, an examination of adultery may reveal much about general attitudes and patterns of regulation concerning sexuality and the family, as well as illuminating the relation of such regulation to conceptions of public and private. According to the multi-dimensional perspective set out in earlier chapters, such an analysis should encompass both legal and extra-legal forms of sanctions and control, and seek to uncover their interrelation.

Because considerable confusion has clouded previous discussions of the Athenian law of adultery, this chapter addresses the preliminary task of establishing what the relevant statutes provided, and then sets out what little we know about how the law was actually applied. The next chapter builds upon this discussion in attempting to place the practice of adultery within a broad context of social norms and practices.