Against the Stepmother for Poisoning

"Against the Stepmother for Poisoning" (Ancient Greek: Φαρμακείας κατὰ τῆς μητρυιᾶς) is one of fifteen extant speeches by the Athenian orator Antiphon.

The speech does not provide any evidence for the claims made by the prosecution, but instead attempts to appeal to the emotions of the jurors, drawing a parallel between the stepmother's alleged plot and Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon in Greek mythology.

Scholars generally consider the stepson's case to be weak, though some such as Michael Gagarin have argued that the speech might still have resulted in a successful prosecution.

[1] Esther Eidinow notes that the speech is also reminiscent of the story of Medea,[6] while Victoria Wohl draws comparison to the myth of Deianira told in Sophocles' Women of Trachis.

[16] The speech also emphasises the contrast between the speaker and his step-family, claiming that he brought the case out of piety, while his stepmother behaved "godlessly" (atheos) and "profanely" (anosios) in killing her husband.

[13] The Magna Moralia discusses a similar case where a woman was acquitted based on the defence that she was not trying to kill her husband, but was acting out of love.

[1] Additionally, Michael Gagarin suggests that the defence may have attempted to portray the stepmother as sympathetic, and the dead man as having treated her badly.