PROCESSO AGLI OGGETTI, AGLI ANIMALI E CONTRO IGNOTI, IN GRECIA: IL TRIBUNALE DEL PRITANEO. AI MARGINI DEL DIRITTO ANTICO

The dissertation investigates the function of the Athenian court of the Prytaneion, which had jurisdiction over cases of homicide committed by inanimate objects, animals, or unknown perpetrators—an area largely neglected by scholarship, where the court has often been dismissed as merely “ancillary.” The aim is to restore its juridical, religious, and anthropological centrality. The Introduction establishes the theoretical framework, engaging with the Ontological Turn and Actor‑Network Theory, which attribute agency to both objects and animals. The first chapter reconstructs the legal framework of homicide in fifth‑century BCE Athens and examines the sources on the Prytaneion, with a comparison to the Roman actio de pauperie. The second chapter addresses phonos adelos (homicide by an unknown killer), analyzing forensic oratory, historiography, and tragedy, especially Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. The third and fourth chapters explore the concept of miasma and the metaphor of the pharmakos, highlighting the interplay between religious belief and judicial practice. The fifth chapter offers a philosophical‑anthropological interpretation grounded in thymos as a principle of imputability extending to non‑human agents, outlining an interconnected cosmology. The sixth presents documented case studies of trials against animals and objects; the seventh investigates their mythic‑ritual origins, with particular attention to the Bouphonia. Appendices complete the work on ancient greek law.