Parricide

Legend of the eaters of Córdoba. José María Rodríguez de Losada. 1872. (Diputation of Cordoba). The work shows the moment in which the gentleman Fernando Alfonso de Córdoba murders his wife, the lover of her and her two cousins, comendadores of the Order of Calatrava, events occurred in 1448.

Tulia the Minor passes her car over her father's body.

The parricide (from the Latin parricīdium, probably from parus, "relative", or par, «equal», and -cida, from caedere, «to kill, to cut») is the homicide of blood relatives in a direct line or other close relatives.

Legal history

Patricide, in primitive Roman Law, “parricidium”, was equivalent to voluntary manslaughter. Already in the law of the XII Tables, parricide is understood as the death of parents caused by children.

With Sulla's laws, parricide was extended to other relatives. In the Lex Pompeia de Parricidi, it is established that the victims in this crime could be the ascendants, brothers, cousins, fathers-in-law, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, husband and wife, stepfather, employer and employer; and stated that anyone who, exercising parental authority for being a pater familias , killed his wards, was excluded from penalty. An important aspect of this law consisted of recognizing the right of the father to kill his descendants, whether they were children or grandchildren. The pater familias had vitae necisque potestas ("power of life and death") over his children, his wife, and his slaves, all of whom were he said they were sub manu —under his hand.

Also with the Lex Pompeia de Parricidi, the penalty that had been established for the parricide by Augusto and Adriano was abolished; This consisted of putting the agent of the crime in a leather bag and throwing it into the Tiber River.

Later, with Constantine, parricide was limited to death between ascending and descending relatives in a straight line.

Roman definition

In the Digest, work of the century VI d. C. that compiles previous legal sentences, the jurist of the century Modestino offers a precise enumeration of the possible relationships of the victims with the parricide:

For the lex Pompeia the parricide states that if someone kills his father, his mother, his grandfather, his grandmother, his brother, his sister, a brother cousin by father, a brother cousin by mother, a father or mother, a father or mother, a paternal aunt (or a mother), a brother cousin (male or female) by the mother's sister, a wife, husband, father or daughter, lex Cornelia about the killers. And the mother who kills her son or daughter suffers from the same statute, just as the grandfather who kills her grandson; and moreover, the person who buys poison to give it to his father, even if he is unable to administer it.

Digest

Legislations

• Argentina: treated by article 80 of the Criminal Code.
• Colombia: Titled as a punitive aggravation of homicide in article 104 of Law 599 of 2000, in its numeral 1, as amended by Law 1257 of 2008, article 26.
• Ecuador: article 452 of the Criminal Code.

• Peru: article 107 of the Criminal Code.

• Paraguay: treated by article 347 of the Criminal Code.
• Dominican Republic: treated by article 299 and 323 of the Criminal Code.

• Venezuela: treated by article 406 of the Criminal Code, in its 3rd, verbatim "a".
• Brazil: treated by article 989 of the Criminal Code.
• Chile: treated in article 390 of the Criminal Code.

Fictitious parricides and parricides

Patricide: found in a bible verse in the book written to Timothy by Paul giving letters of exhortation to him and the people of God in those times. It has been especially persecuted and considered one of the most execrable crimes, although in Ancient Rome, the power of the father over the family reached such a degree that during certain periods of time the punishment inflicted on the parricidal father was less than that of others. less serious crimes.

However, throughout history there have been frequent cases of princes killing their parents to inherit their kingdoms.

Judeo-Christian tradition has drawn on the story of the sacrifice of Isaac (the test of Abraham's faith) to assert that God expressly disapproves of parricide.

• Greek mythology
  • Edipo was meant to kill his father and marry his mother. His parents tried to prevent this event by handing him over to a pastor to kill him, however the pastor decides not to kill the Edipo baby, but takes him to Mount Citeron and abandons him to his fate, being found by other pastors who hand him over to the kings of Corinto Pólibo and Peribea or Méropede who raised him as their own son, though once an adult Edipo knew
  • King Pelias was killed by his daughters.
• The novel The Karamazov brothersFiódor Dostoievski, focuses on a parricide.
• The story of the writer Ambrose Bierce The Club de los parricidas with fictitious patches.
• It is said that the Sinhala race in Sri Lanka descends from Sinhabahu, who murdered his father, who is said to be a lion. Then he married his sister, Sinhasivali. It was his son Wijeya who originated the Sinhala race. This is said in the Mahavamsathe historical chronicles of Sri Lanka.
• At the end of the fourth season Game of ThronesTyrion Lannister murders his father, Tywin.
• In 2003 Televisa produces the soap opera To love you is my sin (which was transmitted in 2004). In chapter 21 Casilda next to Isaura poison Alejandra, when she is dying, Isaura confesses to Casilda that Alejandra is her mother, who confirms her kinship moments before she died.
• In 2007 RCN Televisión produces Pure bloodin which the villain Regina Castaño/Paulina Riascos de Lagos, tired of the abuses and punishments of his parents, murders them burning the house with them inside.
• In 2008 Televisa produces Tomorrow is forever, adaptation of Pura blood, and as in its first version, the villain Rebeca Sánchez/Bárba Greco de Elizalde, to put an end to the abuses and punishments of their parents the murderers burning the house.