| Honor, Masculinity, and Ritual Knife Fighting in Nineteenth-Century Greece | The American Historical Review, 105.2 | The History Cooperative

| Honor, Masculinity, and Ritual Knife Fighting in Nineteenth-Century Greece | The American Historical Review, 105.2 | The History Cooperative: "knife"

Theodoros erupted from his chair, drew his pruning knife, and demanded that Mokastiriotis stand and face him like a man. None of the other men in the room intervened as the knife-fighters traded parries and thrusts. Finally, Theodoros with a flick of his wrist delivered a telling blow that cut his victim from the tip of his chin to halfway up his cheek. As the blood flowed, Mokastiriotis fell to his knees cursing his assailant. When asked by the presiding magistrate at the police magistrate's court in the town of Kerkyra why he started fighting, Theodoros sternly replied that no man would call his wife and daughters whores and get away with it. His reputation would not allow it. As a man, he would not stand for it. He was found guilty, sentenced to forty days (less time served) in the House of Corrections at Fort Abraham, fined three Ionian dollars, charged for court costs, and bound over to keep the public tranquility.