Ancient Greece: City and Society

Having looked at some practical issues regarding ancient Greek slavery, in this second lecture Dr Gillian Shepherd examines some of the attitudes of the ancient Greeks towards their slaves – including terminology, approaches to treating slaves, “rights” of slaves, debates about the justification and morality of slavery, and the notion of the “natural slave”.

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Dr. Heather Sebo begins by discussing the proposal in the parabasis of Aristophanes Frogs that clemency be extended to citizens exiled for their involvement in the oligarchic coup of 411 BCE. An instance of Aristophanes’ immersion in the issues and debates of his times is the way he alludes to the debasing of the coinage (discussed in a previous lecture), using it as a metaphor for the idea that good citizens are in exile while slaves become citizens. Also revealing of contemporary attitudes is the shift in Dionysos’ initial intention to bring Euripides back from Hades because he finds his poetry thrilling and stimulating to his ultimate decision for Aeschylus as the poet most likely to encourage patriotism and unquestioning self-sacrifice in the current military emergency.

Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

One of the most intriguing problems in investigating ancient Greece is reconstructing the lives of women. In the first of several lectures on women in this lecture series, Dr Heather Sebo explores some of the ideology, legislation and cultural practices surrounding and integral to the lives of women in ancient Greece. As usual, most of the evidence comes from Athens – with the added problem here that it was largely generated by men and the agency of women is hard to detect.

Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

In this second lecture on sources for ancient Greece, Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at some of the practicalities surrounding the study of material culture (such as the dating of objects) and also at issues of survival, excavation and the methodological issues to bear in mind when assessing the significance of archaeological evidence. She goes on to describe two “success stories” where archaeological and textual evidence have been successfully combined to reconstruct two features of the Athenian navy which was so critical to Athenian prosperity: the Arsenal at Pireaus, the monumental building where the rigging for the ships was stored, and the trireme Olympias, a modern reconstruction of an ancient warship.

Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

In the first of two lectures on Ancient Greek slavery, Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at two important slave systems – chattel slavery in Athens and the helots of Sparta – and how they might have come into being. Concentrating on Athenian slavery, the lecture goes on to examine some essential features of ancient Greek slavery, including sources and numbers of slaves, the work undertaken my slaves and their role in the ancient economy.

Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.