1 8 Slave and Free in the Odyssey 



by sale 1 to a third party. We find Odysseus ready to consign offending 

 slaves 2 to torture mutilation or death. In the story of his visit to Troy 3 

 as a spy we hear that he passed for a slave, and that part of his disguise 

 consisted in the marks of flogging. Yet the relations of master and 

 mistress to their slaves are most kindly in ordinary circumstances. 

 The faithful slave is a type glorified in the Odyssey: loyalty is the first 

 virtue of a slave, and it is disloyalty, however shewn, that justifies the 

 master's vengeance. For they live on intimate terms 4 with their master 

 and mistress and are trusted to a wonderful degree. In short we may 

 say that the social atmosphere of the Odyssey is full of mild slavery, 

 but that in the background there is always the grim possibility of 

 atrocities committed by absolute power. And we have a trace even of 

 secondary 5 slavery: for the swineherd, himself a slave, has an under- 

 slave of his own, bought with his own goods from slave-dealers while 

 his own master was abroad. Naturally enough we find slaves classed 

 as a part of the lord's estate. Odysseus hopes 6 that before he dies he 

 may set eyes on his property, his slaves and his lofty mansion. But 

 another and perhaps socially more marked distinction seems implied 

 in the suitors' question 7 about Telemachus 'who were the lads that 

 went with him on his journey? were they young nobles of Ithaca, or 

 his own hired men and slaves (Orjre^ re S//,r3e<? re)?' The answer is that 

 they were 'the pick of the community, present company excepted.' 

 The wage-earner and the slave do not seem to be parted by any broad 

 social line. Indeed civilization had a long road yet to travel before 

 levelling movement among the free classes drew a vital distinction 

 between them on the one side and slaves on the other. 



Free workers of various kinds are often referred to, and we are, 

 owing to the circumstances of the story, brought more into touch with 

 them than in the Iliad. Handicraftsmen 8 are a part of the life of the 

 time, and we must assume the smith the carpenter and the rest of the 

 males to be free: female slaves skilled in working wool do not justify 

 us in supposing that the corresponding men are slaves. Beside these 

 are other men who practise a trade useful to the community, 'public- 

 workers' (&7/uoep7ot) 9 , but not necessarily handworkers. Thus we find 

 the seer, the leech, the bard, classed with the carpenter as persons whom 

 all men would readily entertain as guests ; the wandering beggar none 

 would invite. The last is a type of 'mean freeman,' evidently common 

 in that society. He is too much akin to the suppliant, whom religion 10 



1 Selling xiv 297, xv 387, 428, 452-3, xx 382-3. Buying I 430, xiv 115, etc. 



2 xix 488-90, xxn 173-7, 189-93, 440-5, 462-4, 465-77. (Cf xvni 82-7.) 



8 iv 245 foil. 4 ix 205-7, xi 430-2, xvi 14 foil, xix 489, xxin 227-8, etc. 



5 XIV 449-52- 6 VII 22 4 -5, XIX 526. 7 IV 643-4, 652. 



8 In xix 56-7 a T^KTUV, Icmalius, is even mentioned by name. 



9 xvn 382-7, xix 134-5. 10 xiv 56-8. 



