Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

104 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
of a congenitally deformed infant was an expression of divine ill
will (Works and Days 235). Moreover, oaths frequently contained
the proviso that, if they were broken, the oath breaker would
give birth to children who were monsters (terata ). Such a belief
would surely have acted as an inducement to abandon a deformed
child rather than let it live as a permanent reminder of its parents’
shame.
There is no evidence to indicate that the Greeks took official
notice of abnormal births, nor that they constituted a distinctive
category of divination. This was in marked contrast to Rome,
where the birth of a deformed child, such as a hermaphrodite,
was regarded as portentous. The absence of physical blemish
was, however, a requirement for holding a priesthood. Given the
religious importance attached to physical wholeness, it is likely
that the deformed were stigmatized as second-class citizens, such
as the hunchbacked Thersites, whose humiliation at the hands of
Odysseus is greeted with approval by the entire Greek army (The
Iliad 2.211–77 ). No provision was made to facilitate the participation
of the physically disadvantaged in ceremonies and rituals of
a civic or religious nature. Not surprisingly, very few prominent
individuals are known to have been congenitally deformed. A rare
exception is the Spartan king Agesilaos, who was both diminutive
and congenitally lame. Hunchbacks, cripples, dwarfs, and obese
women were popular entertainers at drinking parties.
The majority of the severely disabled and chronically deformed
probably begged or claimed the indulgence of a well-to-do relative.
The only state known to have made any provision for its disabled
was Athens. The author of an Aristotelian treatise titled the Constitution
of Athens provides the following details (49.4):
The Council inspects the disabled. For there is a law that bids those who
have less than three minai and who are disabled and incapable of work to
be inspected by the Council, which provides them with two obols per day
at public expense.
The primary candidates, no doubt, were those who had been
injured or maimed while fighting for their country. Even so, there
was a deep suspicion of malingerers, and those claiming disability
pensions were required to undergo a physical examination by the
council or boulê. There also existed an Athenian law that enabled
high-minded (or meddlesome) citizens to bring charges against
persons whom they suspected of claiming welfare under false
pretenses.