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Democratic Athens
November 11, 2014
A few Greek statements about slavery and related issues
Are slaves inferior to free men?
1) Words of the swineherd Eumaeus in Homer's Odyssey 17. 320- 323 (VIII century
BC):
'Servants, when their masters are no longer in authority,
are no longer willing to do their rightful work.
For Zeus of the wide brows takes away one half of the worth
of a man once the day of slavery comes upon him.'

Statements concerning the moral equality of slave and free (V c. BC)

2) Euripides, Helen 728-31 (words of a slave of Menelaus):
'Though I may have been born a slave, I would like to be counted among those slaves that are noble, and
at least have the heart and mind of a free man, if not the name.'

3) Euripides, Ion 954-56: 'A man bears only this disgrace, the name. In every other way an honest
slave is equal to the free.'

Equality of all men by nature

4) Antiphon the Sophist, Pap. Oxy. 11.1364
We praise and revere those who are born from fathers of quality, while we take care not to praise and
revere those who do not belong to a house of quality. In so doing we turn ourselves into barbarians vis-vis one another; for by nature we are all made in the same fashion to be either barbarians or Greeks. That
is what is shown by the things that are by nature necessary to all men. All men, in similar fashion, have the
possibility to enjoy them and in all this no man is marked out as a barbarian or a Greek. We all breathe the
air through our mouths and nostrils, and we all eat with our hands.

View that slavery is unjust (not very influential)

5) Aristotle, Politics 1253b 20 ff.
There are some who regard the control of slaves by masters as contrary to nature (physis). In their view the
distinction of master and slave is due to law or convention (nomos); there is no natural difference between
them: the relation of master and slave is based on force, and being so based has no warrant in justice."

Natural inferiority of barbarians to Greeks

6) Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1400 (words of Iphigenia):
'It is right for Greeks to rule over barbarians, but not
barbarians over Greeks, for they are slaves and we are free.'

Contradictory views about the moral worth of slaves

7) Plato, Laws 776C-D (words of the Athenian Stranger):
"...for in the past many slaves have proved themselves better in every form of excellence (arete) than
brothers or sons, and have saved their masters and their goods and their whole houses... And is not the
opposite kind of language also used,--that there is no element in the soul of a slave that is healthy and a
sensible man should not entrust anything to them?..."

Slaves in Athens do not look any different from citizens

8) Ps.-Xenophon, Constitution of the Athenians 10;
...if it were legal for a free man to strike a slave, a metic or a freedman, an Athenian would often have
been struck under the mistaken impression that he was a slave, for the clothing of the common people is in
no way superior to that of slaves and metics, nor is their appearance.

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A representation of normal treatment of bad slaves
9) Xenophon, Memoirs of Socrates 2.1.15-17. Conversation of Socrates with Aristippos
(topic of slaves is used by way of analogy):
'Who would care to have in his house a man who refuses to do any work and enjoys the most expensive
diet? What sort of treatment would slaves of this kind receive? Isn't it true that their masters discipline
their wantonness by starvation, and stop them from stealing by locking up any place or receptacle from
which anything can be removed, and prevent them from running away by putting them in fetters, and drive
out their idleness by beating them? Or what steps do you take when you discover that one of your house
slaves is behaving in this sort of way?'

One view on the proper way of treating slaves

10) Oeconomicus attributed to Aristotle 1.3:
There are three things that concern slaves: work, punishment and food. Having food but no work and no
punishment makes a slave insolent; giving him work and punishment without food is an act of violence and
debilitates him. The alternative is to give him work to do together with sufficient food. One cannot
manage someone without rewarding them, and food is a slave's reward.

Greek prejudice against banausic activities

11) Xenophon, Oeconomicus 4.1-4. Socrates is here speaking to the wealthy Athenian
Critobulos:
Socrates:
'...The trades known as the trades of artisans (banausikai) are decried and with good reason held in low
esteem in the cities. They impair the body of those who practice and pursue them, by compelling them to
remain seated and in the shade, and some even cause you to spend the whole day sitting by the fire. When
the bodies get softened in this way the souls lose a great deal of their strength. And especially artisans'
trades leave one very little time for friends and for the city, and the result is that men like these are very
inadequate in their relations with their friends and when it comes to defending the city. Hence in some
cities, especially those which have a military reputation, no citizen may pursue an artisan's trade.'
Critobulos:
'But, Socrates, what trade do you advise me to follow?"
Socrates:
'Must we be ashamed to imitate the Persian king? It is said that among the noblest and most necessary
obligations he reckons agriculture and the art of war, and he vigorously practices both of them.'