page_title: Slavery in ancient Greece
section_title: Terminology
hierarchical_section_title: Slavery in ancient Greece / Terminology
caption_attribution_description: English: Phlyax scene: a master and his slave. Side A from a Silician red-figured calyx-krater, ca. 350 BC–340 BC. Français&#160;: Scène phlyaque&#160;: un maître et son esclave. Face A d'un cratère en calice à figures rouges de Sicile, v. 350–340 av. J.-C.
context_page_description: Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Some Ancient Greek writers described slavery as natural and even necessary. This paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues; the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery.
  The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, and as domestic servants. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, with an average of three or four slaves per household, except in poor families. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens.
  Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery versus land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs. The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel.
  The academic study of slavery in ancient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems.
context_section_description: The ancient Greeks had several words to indicate slaves, which leads to textual ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context. In Homer, Hesiod and Theognis of Megara, the slave was called δμώς (dmōs). The term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty (in other words, property). During the classical period, the Greeks frequently used ἀνδράποδον (andrapodon), (literally, "one with the feet of a man") as opposed to τετράποδον (tetrapodon), "quadruped" or livestock. The most common word for slaves is δοῦλος (doulos), used in opposition to "free man" (ἐλεύθερος, eleútheros); an earlier form of the former appears in Mycenaean inscriptions as do-e-ro, "male slave" (or "servant", "bondman"; Linear B: 𐀈𐀁𐀫), or do-e-ra, "female slave" (or "maid-servant", "bondwoman"). The verb δουλεὐω (which survives in Modern Greek, meaning "work") can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children. Finally, the term οἰκέτης (oiketēs) was used, as meaning "one who lives in house", referring to household servants.
  Other terms used to indicate slaves were less precise and required context: 
  θεράπων (therapōn) – At the time of Homer, the word meant "squire" (Patroclus was referred to as the therapōn of Achilles and Meriones that of Idomeneus); but during the classical age, it meant "servant".
  ἀκόλουθος (akolouthos) – literally, "the follower" or "the one who accompanies". Also, the diminutive ἀκολουθίσκος, used for page boys.
  παῖς (pais) – literally "child", used in the same way as "houseboy", also used in a derogatory way to call adult slaves.
  σῶμα (sōma) – literally "body", used in the context of emancipation.
caption: A master (right) and his slave (left) in a phlyax play, Silician red-figured calyx-krater, c. 350 BC–340 BC. Louvre Museum, Paris.
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