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To show you that this man is already
accursed by you, and that religion and piety forbid you to acquit one who has
been guilty of such falsehoods,—recite the curse.1 Take and
read it from the statute: here it is.“
Prayer
”This imprecation, men of Athens, is pronounced, as the law directs,
by the marshal on your behalf at every meeting of the Assembly, and again before
the Council at all their sessions. The defendant cannot say that he is not
familiar with it, for, when acting as clerk to the Assembly and as an officer of
the Council, he used to dictate the statute to the marshal.
1 Every meeting of the Assembly and of the Council opened with a form of prayer, which included a curse on the enemies of the state and was recited by the “marshal” （κῆρυξ） at the dictation of an under-clerk. The curse has nowhere been preserved, but a parody will be found in Aristoph. Thes. 331 ff.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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