Lysias's Speech In The Murder Of Eratosthenes

This story begins with Euphiletos trying to defend himself in court. He has a man named Lysias write his defense speech. In this speech the events of what went on in the past few weeks that led up to him killing Eratosthenes. He pretty much states that he was very gullible and his wife simply tricked him. He trusted her in every way and believed that she would act properly. Even when things happened out of the ordinary Euphiletos did not suspect anything of it. Only after he was approached by a slave woman of a former mistress of Eratosthenes. She told him that Eratosthenes “makes it a career to corrupt women” (pg. 98). After that moment Euphiletos started to question everything his wife has done in the past few weeks, and how it was out of the ordinary. So he questioned their servant slave and after some convincing she spilled the beans, and not only did she do that but she also offered to help catch the two in the act. After a few weeks Euphiletos has a plan, which in his speech he says it was totally unplanned. He goes and gathers all the man to be witnesses when he catches his wife in the act. At the end of his speech he says that he had no intention of killing Eratosthenes, it just all happened quickly and unintentionally. He

First of all he paid someone to write his speech, so that must mean he has wealth. Being wealthy in their society meant a lot. If a person was wealthy they could get away with many things. Also, the speech he had Lysias write for him appealed to the people in the jury, which were everyday people like farmers and merchants (lecture). Euphiletos also had many witnesses that were just random people he found, at least that is what he said. Another thing is that Eratosthenes has done this to other ladies according to some, and some of the jurors could probably relate, and also thought about it happening to their