Slavery in ancient Greece

Slavery was common in ancient Greece. Slaves did many jobs, like working on farms, in mines, or helping in homes. In places like Athens, slaves also helped with public tasks.

There were different kinds of slaves. Some were treated like property and could be bought and sold. Others worked on the same land and had more rights. Learning about slavery in ancient Greece is hard because there are not many full records. Most of what we know comes from Athens, and stories and pictures often showed slaves in a simple way.

Terminology

In ancient Greece, people used different words to talk about slaves. This can make it hard to understand what they wrote without knowing the right meaning.

Early writers like Homer, Hesiod, and Theognis of Megara called slaves dmōs, especially those captured in wars. Later, during the classical period, they often used andrapodon, meaning "one with the feet of a man," to show slaves were different from animals. The most common word was doulos, meaning a slave, compared to a "free man" (eleútheros). Even earlier, in Mycenaean times, they used words like do-e-ro for male slaves and do-e-ra for female slaves.

Other words for slaves changed depending on the situation:

• therapōn started as "companion" but later meant "servant."
• akolouthos meant "follower" or "companion," and there was a smaller version called akolouthiskos for young servants.
• pais meant "child" but was also used to refer to adult slaves in a disrespectful way.
• sōma meant "body" and was used when talking about freeing slaves.

Terms Denoting Slave Roles and Functions

Some words described specific jobs slaves had. oiketēs meant a household servant. An anagnostes was an educated slave whose job was to read books aloud for their master.

In Athens, there were public slaves called demosii, bought by the government to do many important tasks. They worked as police, treasury workers, clerks, record keepers, and even in mines and the navy. The government trained them for these jobs.

A paratiltrios was a slave whose job was to help people at baths. Women had female slaves called paratiltriai who did the same work.

Pre-classical Greece

Slaves were part of life during the time of the Mycenaean civilization, as shown by tablets found in Pylos. There were two kinds of slaves: regular slaves and slaves who worked for a god, probably Poseidon. Slaves who worked for a god had names and could own land, which made their lives a bit like free people. Many slaves came from places such as Kythera, Chios, Lemnos, and Halicarnassus, often taken during piracy. Slaves could marry free people, own land, and find work.

In stories like the Iliad and Odyssey, slaves were often women taken after wars, while men were sometimes paid to leave or had to fight. Some male slaves, like the swineherd Eumaeus, lived near their owners. Even though slavery existed, it was still thought to be shameful. Over time, trading slaves became more common, especially when democratic ideas started to grow in places like Athens and Chios.

Economic role

See also: Economy of ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, slaves could work in many jobs except politics. The Greeks thought only citizens should be involved in politics. Other jobs were done by non-citizens or slaves.

The most common job for slaves was in agriculture. This was a big part of the Greek economy. Small farmers might own one or two slaves, while larger farms had many. Slaves helped with farming, either by working directly or guiding other workers.

Slaves were also used in mines and quarries. They were often rented out by wealthy people. Some leaders rented out hundreds of slaves to work in the silver mines of Laurion in Attica.

Slaves could also be skilled workers, like craftsmen and tradespersons. They worked in factories and workshops, sometimes in large groups.

It was normal to have slaves for household work too. Male slaves helped their owners with tasks and traveled with them. Female slaves did jobs like baking bread and making textiles.

Demographics

It can be hard to know exactly how many slaves there were in ancient Greece because there were no careful counts back then. We do know that Athens had many slaves—maybe as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. That would mean about three or four slaves for every family.

Slaves came from many places. Sometimes people were taken as slaves after wars. Other times, they were captured by pirates or bandits. And some people were sold into slavery by others far away. In big places like Athens, most free people owned at least one slave.

Status of slaves

The Greeks had many levels of being enslaved. There were groups from free citizens to slaves who were treated like property. Some groups, like the penestae or helots, were more like workers tied to the land.

Athenian slaves belonged to their master or the state. Masters could sell, rent, or set slaves free. Slaves could marry and have children, but these families were not recognized by the government. Slaves had fewer rights in court.

Slaves could not own property, but sometimes they could save money to buy their freedom. In Athens, it was against the law to hit a person who looked like a slave. Slaves fought alongside citizens in battles and were remembered for their help.

Social death

Orlando Patterson’s idea about social death explains that slavery took away a person’s place in society. In ancient Greece, slaves were often taken from their homes and placed in new lands. This made it easier for others to treat them unfairly.

Slaves in ancient Greece could sometimes be freed, but this always depended on their owner. Even if a slave was freed, their children might still be slaves. Slaves were often seen as property, only useful for their work. They faced harsh treatment, which set them apart from free people.

Slavery conditions

In ancient Greece, life for slaves was very hard and depended on their jobs. Some slaves worked in mines, which was tough, while others could work for themselves and even save to buy their freedom. Slaves were often treated harshly if they did not follow rules, but some had more freedom than others.

Stories from that time show that slaves could be punished for not working hard enough. Some writers thought slaves in Athens had it easier because they could sometimes move around freely. Still, many slaves tried to escape because they wanted better lives. There were very few big uprisings by slaves in Greece, probably because they were spread out and could not plan large rebellions together.

Views of Greek slavery

Historical views

Very few ancient writers questioned slavery. To writers like Homer, slavery was just something that happened during wars. Heraclitus said, "War is the father of all, the king of all...he turns some into slaves and sets others free." Aristotle also believed this, saying that whatever was taken in war belonged to the winners. But he wondered, what if the war was unfair? Should the winners still be allowed to take people as slaves then?

During this time, slavery was mostly justified for economic reasons. Some thinkers even believed there was a "natural" kind of slavery. For example, Plato and Aristotle thought that some people were natural rulers and others were natural slaves. But Alcidamas disagreed, saying that "nature has made nobody a slave."

The Greeks could hardly imagine a society without slaves. Even in made-up stories and dream worlds, slaves were still present. For instance, in Aristophanes’s play The Birds, there are still slaves. Some thinkers dreamed of a world where machines or objects could do the work of slaves, but in everyday life, slaves were seen as necessary.

Modern views

In more recent times, people have debated a lot about slavery in ancient Greece. Some Christian writers in the past tried to explain it away, while others spoke out against it. In the 1800s, writers like Karl Marx saw slavery as a key part of how ancient economies worked, while others thought it was more about social and legal structures.

Today, historians still discuss whether ancient Greece can be called a "slave society" and whether slaves were a specific group within society.

Aftermath: slavery in later Greece

See also: Islamic views on prisoners of war, Islam and war, Dar al-Harb, and Slavery in the Ottoman Empire

Roman and Byzantine rule

Slavery in Ancient Greece continued under Roman rule from the 2nd century BC in the form of slavery in the Roman Empire.

During the Middle Ages, Greece was under Byzantine rule. Slavery followed the laws of slavery in the Byzantine Empire. At first, large farms used many slaves, but later people were tied to the land instead. Slavery became less common and mostly stayed in cities. Many slaves were captured in wars, especially in the 10th century. After these wars, slavery slowly decreased, though some slaves were still used in homes later on.

Ottoman Greece

After Byzantine rule, Greece was under Ottoman control from 1458 to 1830. Slavery in Ottoman Greece followed the rules of slavery in the Ottoman Empire. During Ottoman rule, many Greeks were taken as slaves because they were not Muslim.

During the Greek War of Independence from 1821 to 1829, many Greeks were enslaved by the Ottomans. This included people from Chios after a attack in 1822. This event drew attention in Europe and led to the first anti-slavery reform in the Ottoman Empire in 1830, which freed Greek prisoners of war.