Euphiletus, an Athenian citizen, has been accused of the unlawful murder of Eratosthenes. This essay, or argument, is being used as the speech that Euphiletus must present on his own behalf at his trial, and it has been prepared for him by the famous writer Lysias. The issue at hand is whether or not the killing was justified under Athenian law, which dictates that a man, if caught in the act of adultery with another man's wife, is to be murdered allowably. Lysias used the actual law of the city as proof for the defendant's case in this situation. On page seventy, under the sub-heading "Law", goes straight forth to use a concrete example of the law and its relevance to the aid of the defendant. He states that both men in question, Euphiletus and Eratosthenes, were both fully aware of the law, which dictates that homicide is justifiable. By then further adding in subsequent lines that there were witnesses present, he allows the jury to be persuaded into the impression that the law was all that was being upheld here, and this is an effort to completely take out all the conceivable malicious intentions that the defendant might possess. The stylistic approach that Lysias took was simplistic, as in this part of the argument, being that it was a main factor, should be communicated in easy to understand language and not complicated prose. The change in diction would grab the attention of the jury and emphasize this.
             Another argument proposed in this essay is the one which details that the action that Eratosthenes was undertaking was an undermining factor to not only Euphiletus's own family, but to the entire community. Lysias uses many examples of how it does so in various parts of this essay. He begins by describing the trust that had formed between wife and husband as being crucial to the upbringing of the children has been put in jeopardy by the adulterous actions. He uses examples that include the chil...