[3] In a scene which draws heavily on comic tropes, Euphiletos places himself in the role of the bumbling husband, describing how the pair carried out the affair under his nose.
[4][5] Euphiletos then recounts how an unnamed old woman revealed the affair and the existence of Eratosthenes to him and how he confirmed her story by interrogating the slave girl.
[6] He then waited until Eratosthenes returned, at which point he gathered his friends, stormed into his bedroom and killed Eratosthenes, declaring, “It is not I who am going to kill you, but our city's law, which you have transgressed and regarded as of less account than your pleasures, choosing rather to commit this foul offence against my wife and my children than to obey the laws like a decent person.”[7] In the third section, the pisteis (arguments), Lysias has Euphiletos justify his actions legally.
Euphiletos argues that he was legally entitled to murder Eratosthenes for committing adultery with his wife, citing several laws whose text is no longer preserved, including one inscribed on a column on the Areopagus.
He denies that Eratosthenes was dragged into the house or sought sanctuary at the household hearth – situations under which the murder would not have been legal.
Witnesses are summoned to affirm that Eratosthenes confessed and offered monetary compensation, which Euphiletos argues he was under no obligation to accept, "as I held that our city's law should have higher authority.
It accomplishes the former by presenting him as too simple and straightforward to have engaged in the kind of deception and premeditation alleged by his accusers, and the latter by encouraging the audience of jurors to identify with him and his situation.
Finally, Porter argues that the speech focuses excessively on the diegesis, giving little attention to matters that would be important if Euphiletos were a real defendant facing the death penalty.