Ancient Greeks :: essays research papers

HesiodWorks and Days, c. 750 BCFirst of all, get a house, and a cleaning wo human and an ox for the plough--a break ones back woman and not a wife, to follow the oxen as well--and make everything ready at home, so that you may not name to ask of another, and he refuse you, and so, because you are in lack, the season pass by and your work come to nothing. StraboGeographia circa 550 BCEAnd the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth was so rich that it owned more than than a thousand templesSlaves---prostitutes---whom both free men and women had dedicated to the goddess. And therefore it was in like manner on account of these temple-prostitutes that the city was crowded with people and grew rich for instance, the enrapture captains freely squandered their money, and hence the proverb, "Not for every man is the voyage to Corinth."AntiphonOn the Choreutes, c. 430 BCESo powerful is the compulsion of the law, that even if a man slays one who is his own chattel i.e., his slave and wh o has none to avenge him, his fear of the ordinances of god and of man causes him to purify himself and withhold himself from those places prescribed by law, in the hope that by so doing he will best avoid disaster.DemosthenesAgainst Timocrates. c. 350 BCEIf, gentlemen of the jury, you will turn over in your minds the question what is the difference between being a slave and being a free man, you will find that the biggest difference is that the body of a slave is made responsible for all his misdeeds, whereas corporal punishment is the refinement penalty to inflict on a free man. AristotleThe Politics---On Slavery, c. 330 BCELet us first speak of master and slave, looking to the needs of practical life and also seeking to attain some better theory of their relation than exists at present. Property is a theatrical role of the household, and the art of acquiring property is a part of the art of managing the household for no man can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he be pro vided with necessaries. And so, in the arrangement of the family, a slave is a living possession, and property a of such instruments and the slave is himself an instrument which takes precedence of all other instruments. The master is only the master of the slave he does not belong to him, whereas the slave is not only the slave of his master, but wholly belongs to him.