Slavery in ancient Greece

Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens.

About Slavery in ancient Greece in brief

Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens. Some Ancient Greek writers described slavery as natural and even necessary. This paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues; the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery. Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery versus land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs. The term dmōs is not considered pejorative, and Eaeus, the swineherd, was a prime example of being a member of the core of the oikos. Slavery remained, however, a disgrace, as the Greek heroes Eaeus declares himself, ‘Zeus, the half-borne, takes away the voice of the far-borne and the far away, and takes the voice away of the Greek hero, Laertes, the dmôs’ The word dmous is also used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, such as that of one city over another or parents over their children. The academic study of slavery inAncient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems.

Documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on the city-state of Athens. It appears that the major division in Mycenaean civilization was not between a free individual and a slave but rather if the individual was in the palace or not. There is no continuity between the MycENaean era and the time of Homer, where social structures reflected those of theGreek dark ages. These slaves were servants on the battlefields of the Iliad, especially in the Odyssey, and sometimes concubines on the Odyssey and in the Iliad. In Homer, Hesiod and Theognis of Megara, the slave was called  ‘slaves of the god’ The term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty. The most common word for slaves is ‘one who lives in house’. Other terms used to indicate slaves were less precise and required context: ‘do-e-ro’, ‘female slave’ and ‘dmou-ro,’ as well as ‘slavery’ or ‘slave’ in the Greek word for ‘servant’ ‘Dmou’ (‘slave’). Slaves are mentioned by name and own their own land; their legal status is close to that of freemen. The names of common slaves show that some of them came from Kythera, Chios, Lemnos or Halicarnassus and were probably enslaved as a result of piracy.

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