Apsȳchon Diké
(
ἀψύχων δίκη). An action against inanimate objects
(
ἄψυχα) which had caused the death of a human being. It
thus somewhat resembled the English law of deodand, lately abolished. It was tried in the
court of the Prytaneum, and, according to Schömann, partook more of the nature of a
religious ceremony than a judicial proceeding. If the instruments with which a murder had been
committed were captured, and not the murderer himself, these, after the ephetae had pronounced
their sentence, were conveyed out of the country by the phylobasileis, or presidents of the
four old-Ionic tribes. In the same way were treated such things as had accidentally caused the
death of any one. Animals likewise, by which any one had been killed, were
here condemned to death, and then conveyed out of the country (Pollux, viii. 111, 120;
c. Aristocr. p. 645.89; Schömann,
Antiq. i. 470, E.
T.; cf.
Plat. Leg. ix. 873E).