Meanings
- alternativeAlternative form of Draco (“Athenian lawgiver”).
A little later, perhaps c.620, Dracon drew up the first published Athenian law code. A probably trustworthy fifth-century BC copy of his homicide law survives, but the account of the ‘Draconian constitution’ given by Aristotle is almost certainly spurious.
1987, Ian Morris, “Introduction: the argument”, in Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-State (New Studies in Archaeology), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 252 more examples
The archaic law of Dracon which dealt with unintentional homicide, passed over a century before Cleisthenes, but reaffirmed in 409 as the law of the state, appoints that if the dead man has no close relatives ten members of his phratry shall settle with the killer.
1967, Antony Andrewes, “Tribes and kinship groups”, in The Greeks (The History of Human Society), London: Hutchinson, →OCLC, page 85In 620 BC the lawgiver Dracon drafted Athens’ first criminal code, and extremely draconian (i.e. severe) it was too, since Dracon argued that, as small crimes deserved the death penalty, so must big ones (his laws were ‘written in blood, not ink’, a later politician said).
2014, Peter Jones, “Curse and Crime”, in Eureka! Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Ancient Greeks but Were Afraid to Ask, London: Atlantic Books, published 2015, →ISBN, section IV (c. 700–593 BC: Tyranny, poetry and speculation), pages 91–92
Origin
- Ancient GreekΔρᾰ́κων
- EnglishDracon
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Δρᾰ́κων (Drắkōn). Doublet of Draco, dracone, dragon, dragoon, and drake.
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Cite this entry
Dracon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dracon
“Dracon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dracon. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Dracon,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dracon.
Source: Dracon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.