Psycho-Analysis and Legal Origins

Ancient Greek and Roman law stemmed from the worship of the defied ancestors. According to Fustel de Coulanges,

Among the Greeks and Romans, as among the Hindus, law was at first a part of religion. … The laws concerning property and those concerning succession were scattered about in the midst of rules for sacrifices, for burial, and for the worship of the dead (1).

I have elsewhere traced the origin of ancient law to the primal crime (2), showing that the sacred laws of the ancients stemmed from the perpetuated commands of the ancestral god.1 The fear and guilt felt toward the memory of the dead father, it was shown by Fustel de Coulanges, was the source of the holy laws of the ancients, which had their origin in funeral rites. The data presented by Sir Henry Maine are also in accord with these facts:

The original Will or Testament was … a mode of declaring who was to have the chieftainship, in succession. … When Wills are understood to have this for for their original object, we see at once how it is that they came to be connected with … the sacra, or Family Rites. These sacra … are the sacrifices and ceremonies by which the brotherhood of the family is commemorated, the pledge and witness of its perpetuity (3).

Tylor wrote:

Manes-worship is one of the great branches of the religion of mankind. … The dead ancestor, now passed into a deity, simply goes on protecting his own family and receiving suit and service from them as of old; the dead chief still watches over his own tribe, still holds his authority by helping friends and harming enemies, still rewards the right and sharply punishes the wrong (4).

With the growth of larger social units, such as the tribe and the city, the same attitudes were transferred to the priest-king, who was the first magistrate, ruler, and religious authority.

Just as in the family the authority was inherent in the priesthood, and the father, as head of the domestic worship, was at the same time judge and master, so the high priest of