Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The People 105
Conclusion
“No one is responsible for the fact that I am deformed except my
own parents,” moans the crippled fire god Hephaistos in Book 8
of The Odyssey, “and I wish they had never given birth to me” (line
31If.). Nowhere else in Greek literature is there a similarly heartrending
utterance from a disabled person. Although the disabled
were numerous, they left little trace in the historical record. Evidently
they saw no advantage in trailing their misery before the
public eye. The defendant in Lysias’s Oration 24, whose right to
public support was challenged by a fellow citizen, provided the
jury with no description of his affliction, even though appeals to
pity were a conventional feature of Athenian law court speeches.
Physical pain and discomfort were not the only burdens that the
disabled had to endure. They were also routinely exposed to shame,
stigma, disgrace, and ridicule. Overall, it seems likely that the disabled
were expected to suffer in silence, make as few demands
upon society as possible, and remain hidden behind closed doors,
because their presence constituted a source of shame to both their
families and themselves. Their plight is easily overlooked when we
conjure up the image of godlike physical perfection bequeathed to
us by Greek art.
SLAVES
The vast majority of Greeks from Homer to Aristotle and beyond
regarded slavery as an indisputable fact of life. Its existence at the
heart of the Classical world is thus a source of considerable disquiet
to those who admire Greek culture for its supposedly enlightened
humanism. It is important to appreciate, however, that every known
ancient Mediterranean society practiced some form of slavery,
though the percentage of slaves to free would have varied greatly
even within the Greek world. And it goes without saying that there
was no recognition of what we call today human rights anywhere
in the ancient Mediterranean. We should also note that slavery was
not an absolute condition but one that admitted many different statuses.
It incorporated, in Moses Finley’s phrase, “a continuum of
unfreedom.” At one end of the scale were the chattel slaves, those
who, in Aristotle’s telling phrase, had the same status as “an animate
or ensouled piece of property” (The Politics 1253b 32); at the
other end were those who lived independently and remitted a part
of their income to their masters. There were three ways to become
a slave: by being born a slave, by being sold into slavery (or selling