Abstract
In classical Athens, the expression " jurer kata tōnhierōn " or " kath' hierōn " implies the use of an animal, or even several, in the ritual elaboration of that " vocal gesture " that is the oath. Such manipulation lends greater solemnity to the commitments made, but the details of the process remain difficult to reconstruct. Analysis of the earliest inscriptions that include the expression suggests that the " sacred shares " referred to could be burnt in certain cases, but this combustion does not fall within the same ritual perspective as that of the divine share in a thusia. Moreover, the Constitution of the Athenians of Aristotle's school refers to the swearing-in of Athenian archons on a stone containing tomia, i.e. " cuts ", which must also have been animal parts. Archaeologically identified near the Royal Portico on the Agora, this stone was probably used for other exceptional oaths in a judicial context. For example, anyone wishing to accuse a fellow citizen of murder had to swear on the tomia of a boar, a ram and a bull. There does not appear to have been any combustion in this case, but rather - if we are to believe the allusions of orators - the obligation to "seize the hiera " or " touch the sphagia' ", i.e. the " parts that result from an immolation ". This is another way of talking about tomia. The mirror-image effect between the archons' oath and the oath implied in an accusation or testimony for murder shows that the city had to take comparable precautions when the archons pledged to respect its laws and avoid corruption, and when one citizen brought against another some of the most serious accusations imaginable.
