Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

108 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
who could read and write fetched considerably more in the slave
market than one who was only good for menial duties. Likewise, a
pretty young girl cost much more than an ugly old hag. Slaves with
management skills were extremely expensive. Nikias, mentioned
above, paid a talent (6,000 drachmas) for a slave to manage his silver
mines. A slave in good health probably cost the equivalent of
half a year’s salary. The inscription relating to the public sale of
confiscated property that belonged to those who had been found
guilty of either mutilating the Herms or profaning the Eleusinian
Mysteries in 415/14 b.c.e. prices a Syrian male slave at 240 drachmas,
a Thrakian female at 220 drachmas, and “a little Karian boy”
at 72 drachmas.
Although most Athenian slaves were purchased from abroad,
some were bred in captivity, as indicated by the following remark
made by Ischomachos in Xenophon’s Household Management: “As
a general rule, if good slaves are permitted to breed, their loyalty
increases, whereas when bad slaves live together as husband and
wife they become more adept at causing trouble” (9.5). Sparta’s
slaves, known as helots, by contrast were racially homogeneous
and spoke Greek (see p. 124). Racial homogeneity was generally
rare among slaves, though in other Greek communities it was
the rule, including Thessaly in northern Greece and Syracuse in
Sicily.
Domestic Slaves
Domestic slaves, sometimes known as oikêtai (literally, members
of an oikos or household) were the ancient Mediterranean’s ultimate
labor-saving device for the home. They served in practically every
capacity, including that of washerwoman, cook, caregiver, reader,
gardener, porter, cleaner, handyman, tutor, escort, messenger,
nurse, and traveling companion. As traveling companions, they
accompanied their masters when they were called up to serve in the
army. No doubt in the larger households, there was some division
of labor, as, for instance, among the female slaves in the palace of
the Homeric king Alkinoös, “some of whom grind the yellow grain
on the millstone, while others weave the web and turn the spindle”
(The Odyssey 7.104f.). Whether slaves were also employed in large
numbers as agricultural laborers is unclear. In other words, we do
not know to what extent the Greek economy was based on slave
labor—an ongoing debate in scholarly circles with huge implications
for our appreciation and assessment of Greek culture and its
contribution to Western civilization.