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Ὅρκου πάϊς. The punishment for the broken oath personified, yet without name or visible form. For similar phrases cf. viii. 77 n.; Epicharm. fr. 150 ἐγγύας ἄτα σ᾿τι θυγάτηρ, ἐγγύα δὲ ζαμίας. In Hesiod Ὅρκος himself punishes perjury. Theog. 231 Ὅρκον θ᾽ ὃς δὴ πλεῖστον ἐπιχθονίους ἀνθρώπους πημαίνει, ὅτε κέν τις ἑκὼν ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσῃ. Cf. also Ἔργα 219.

ἀνδρός. The line is from Hesiod, where ἀμείνων = beatior, and is contrasted with ἀμαυροτέρη. Ἔργ. 285 ὃς δέ κε μαρτυρίῃσιν ἑκὼν ἐπίορκον ὀμόσσας ψεύσεται, . . . | τοῦ δέ τ᾽ ἀμαυροτέρη γενεὴ μετόπισθε λέλειπται, | ἀνδρὸς δ᾽ εὐόρκου γενεὴ μετόπισθεν ἀμείνων. The penalty of the destruction of the house, which would leave the dead ancestors without the honours due to them, the gods without their sacrifices, the hearth without its flame, is the most fearful known to the primitive moralist. Individual punishment in the life after death is a later idea.

It was a maxim in Attic law τὸν βουλεύσαντα ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ ἐνέχεσθαι καὶ τὸν τῇ χειρὶ ἐργασάμενον (Andoc. de Myst. § 90). For the wickedness of tempting God cf. i. 159.

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