SOURCE: Lattimore, Steven. “Two Men in a Boat: Antiphon, On the Murder of Herodes.” Classical Quarterly XXXVII, no. 2 (1987): 502-04.

In the following essay, Lattimore focuses on several mysteries arising in Antiphon's fifth oration, regarding a thorny murder case.

Antiphon, in his fifth oration, relates that c. 422-413 b. c.¹ Euxitheos, a young Mytilenean, and Herodes, probably an Athenian cleruch in Mytilene,² embarked together on a ship bound from Mytilene for Ainos in Thrace. Shortly after they left port, a storm forced them to put into an unnamed harbour in Methymnian territory. The two men left their uncovered ship to take shelter in a covered one; whether others from their own ship went with them is not indicated. During the night, a drinking party ensued. Herodes, after heavy drinking, left the covered ship and disappeared; he could not be found in the morning, nor even after two days of...