A POLGÁR, AZ IDEGEN ÉS AZ ÖRÖMLÁNY
A CITIZEN, A STRANGER AND A PROSTITUTE

THE QUESTION OF "WE AND THEY" IN AN ATHENIAN SPEECH

Author(s): György Németh
Subject(s): Culture and social structure , Rhetoric
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: the Speech against Neaira; Demosthenes; Apollodoros; Athenian Stephanos;
Summary/Abstract: In the centre of the Speech against Neaira, preserved amongst the works of Demosthenes but attributed to Apollodoros, there is a prostitute of slave origin who has married her pimp, the Athenian Stephanos. He accepts the woman's children as his own and registers them as Athenian citizens. Furthermore, he marries off a girl whom he claims to be his daughter to the archon basileus, one of the leading functionaries of the town. However, according to the Athenian law a citizen cannot marry a stranger. If the stranger is found out, he or she should be sold as a slave. The person who marries off a stranger to an Athenian citizen loses his or her citizenship and wealth. It was in the authority of the Popular Assembly to naturalize strangers and the laws strictly persecutes people who try to bypass this law. On the basis of the above story the paper discusses the Athenian laws of naturalisation and of the legal position of strangers.

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