ABSTRACT
The first word in the Iliad refers to an emotion, wrath; the wrath of Achilles provoked by the slight to his honour caused by Agamemnon, claiming the girl Briseis as compensation for returning Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo. At stake in this epic about Achilles wrath are many things, to pick a few: the role of anger and honour in interpersonal conflict; the psychology of heroes such as Achilles and Agamemnon; the tension between individual valour and common good; and is politically stronger. This chapter focuses on the necessity to establish operative legal equality between parties to mete out justice between them, and that such equality conditioned on having established a legal groundwork. Finally it reflects on the spatial relation between equity and positive law, and their relation to political authority. As juridical space becomes appropriated by the emerging state, there arises a need to space adjudication and political deliberation and decision.
