Slavery in ancient Greece

Slavery was a common practice in ancient Greece. Slaves were used in many jobs, such as working on farms, in mines, or as servants in homes. In some places, like Athens, slaves were also used to help the public with various tasks.

There were different kinds of slaves. Some were treated more like property and could be bought and sold, while others were tied to the land they worked on and had more rights. Learning about slavery in ancient Greece can be tricky because there are not many complete records. Most of what we know comes from Athens, and stories from plays and pictures often showed slaves in a simple way.

Terminology

In ancient Greece, people used different words to talk about slaves, which can make understanding their writings tricky without the right context. Early writers like Homer, Hesiod, and Theognis of Megara called slaves dmōs, especially those captured in wars and taken as property. Later, during the classical period, they often used andrapodon, meaning "one with the feet of a man," to distinguish slaves from animals like livestock. 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 depended on the situation:

• therapōn started as "companion" in early stories 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 by removing unwanted body hair. Women had female slaves called paratiltriai who did the same work.

Pre-classical Greece

Slaves existed during the time of the Mycenaean civilization, as shown by tablets found in Pylos. There were two types of slaves: regular slaves and slaves who worked for a god, likely Poseidon. Slaves who worked for a god had names and owned land, making their status closer to free people. Many slaves came from places like Kythera, Chios, Lemnos, and Halicarnassus, often captured during piracy. Slaves could marry free people, own land, and work.

In stories like the Iliad and Odyssey, slaves were often women taken after wars, while men were either paid to leave or fought. Some male slaves, like the swineherd Eumaeus, lived closely with their owners. Even though slavery existed, it was still seen as shameful. Over time, slave trading grew more common, especially as democratic ideas began to develop in places like Athens and Chios.

Economic role

See also: Economy of ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, slaves were allowed to work in many jobs except politics. The Greeks believed that only citizens should take part in politics, and other jobs were given to non-citizens or slaves.

The most common job for slaves was in agriculture, which was the main part of the Greek economy. Some small farmers might own one or two slaves, while bigger farms had many more. Slaves helped with farming tasks, either working directly or leading other workers.

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

Slaves were also skilled workers, such as craftsmen and tradespersons. They worked in factories and workshops, sometimes in large numbers.

Having slaves for household work was normal too. Male slaves would help their owners with tasks and travel with them, while 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, and ideas about who counted as a slave changed over time. We do know that Athens had lots of 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, and having slaves was a sign that someone was not poor.

Status of slaves

The Greeks had many levels of being enslaved. There were many 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 rather than slaves.

Athenian slaves belonged to their master or the state. Masters could sell, rent, or even set their slaves free. Slaves could marry and have children, but these families were not recognized by the government. Slaves had fewer rights in court and were sometimes forced to speak under harsh conditions to give evidence.

Slaves could not own property, but sometimes they were allowed to save money to buy their freedom. In Athens, it was against the law to hit a person who looked like a slave, because many citizens dressed simply and it was hard to tell them apart. 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, making them feel like they didn’t fully exist outside of their owner. In ancient Greece, slaves were often taken from their homes and placed in new lands, making them seem very different from the people who were free. 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, and they faced harsh treatment, including punishment and violence, which set them apart from free people.

Slavery conditions

In ancient Greece, the lives of slaves were very hard and different depending on their jobs. Some slaves had tough jobs like working in mines, while others could work for themselves and even save up to buy their freedom. Slaves were often treated harshly and punished if they did not follow rules, but some had more freedom than others.

Stories from that time show that slaves could be hurt for not working hard enough. However, some writers thought that slaves in Athens had it easier than others because they could sometimes move around freely. Even so, many slaves tried to escape, showing they wanted better lives. There were very few big uprisings by slaves in Greece, likely because they were spread out and could not plan large rebellions together.

Views of Greek slavery

Historical views

Very few ancient writers questioned the idea of slavery. To writers like Homer, slavery was simply something that happened when wars were fought. 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 naturally rulers and others were naturally 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 in Byzantine Greece was under the laws of slavery in the Byzantine Empire. Large farms used many slaves at first, but over time this changed to a system where people were tied to the land instead. Slavery became less common and mostly existed in cities. Many slaves were captured in wars, especially during the 10th century. After these wars ended, slavery slowly decreased, though some slaves were still brought in for household work in later years.

Ottoman Greece

After Byzantine rule, Greece came under Ottoman control from 1458 to 1830. Slavery in Ottoman Greece followed the rules of slavery in the Ottoman Empire. During Ottoman conquests, 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. One well-known event was the enslavement of people from Chios after a violent attack in 1822. This drew attention in Europe and led to the first anti-slavery reform in the Ottoman Empire in 1830, which freed Greek prisoners of war.