The Athenian Constitution   

suffer any penalty); injury to orphans (these actions lie against
their guardians); injury to a ward of state (these lie against their
guardians or their husbands), injury to an orphan's estate (these
too lie against the guardians); mental derangement, where a party
charges another with destroying his own property through unsoundness
of mind; for appointment of liquidators, where a party refuses to
divide property in which others have a share; for constituting a
wardship; for determining between rival claims to a wardship; for
granting inspection of property to which another party lays
claim; for
appointing oneself as guardian; and for determining disputes as to
inheritances and wards of state. The Archon also has the care of
orphans and wards of state, and of women who, on the death of their
husbands, declare themselves to be with child; and he has power to
inflict a fine on those who offend against the persons under his
charge, or to bring the case before the law-courts. He also
leases the
houses of orphans and wards of state until they reach the age of
fourteen, and takes mortgages on them; and if the guardians fail to
provide the necessary food for the children under their charge, he
exacts it from them. Such are the duties of the Archon.

Part 57

The King in the first place superintends the mysteries, in
conjunction with the Superintendents of Mysteries. The latter are
elected in the Assembly by open vote, two from the general body of
Athenians, one from the Eumolpidae, and one from the
Ceryces. Next, he
superintends the Lenaean Dionysia, which consists of a procession
and a contest. The procession is ordered by the King and the
Superintendents in conjunction; but the contest is managed
by the King
alone. He also manages all the contests of the torch-race; and to
speak broadly, he administers all the ancestral sacrifices.
Indictments for impiety come before him, or any disputes between
parties concerning priestly rites; and he also determines all
controversies concerning sacred rites for the ancient
families and the
priests. All actions for homicide come before him, and it is he that
makes the proclamation requiring polluted persons to keep away from
sacred ceremonies. Actions for homicide and wounding are
heard, if the
homicide or wounding be willful, in the Areopagus; so also
in cases of
killing by poison, and of arson. These are the only cases heard by
that Council. Cases of unintentional homicide, or of intent to kill,
or of killing a slave or a resident alien or a foreigner,
are heard by
the court of Palladium. When the homicide is acknowledged, but legal
justification is pleaded, as when a man takes an adulterer
in the act,
or kills another by mistake in battle, or in an athletic contest,
the prisoner is tried in the court of Delphinium. If a man who is in
banishment for a homicide which admits of reconcilliation incurs a
further charge of killing or wounding, he is tried in
Phreatto, and he
makes his defence from a boat moored near the shore. All these
cases, except those which are heard in the Areopagus, are
tried by the
Ephetae on whom the lot falls. The King introduces them, and the
hearing is held within sacred precincts and in the open air.
Whenever the King hears a case he takes off his crown. The person
who is charged with homicide is at all other times excluded from the