[lit-ideas] Re: The Polites, the Barbaros, and the Doulos
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:32:08 EDT
R. Paul
"'Barbarian' was originally neutral; I don't think Aristotle ever uses it
pejoratively. Athenians had no need for a supply of barbarians.
'Natural slaves' (doulos) are discussed near the beginning of the Politics;
such people are slaves by nature, minimally rational, and minimally virtuous—
rational and virtuous only to the extent that they are capable of understanding
and carrying out the despotes' requests.
Natural slavery is different from legal slavery, e.g. captives and prisoners
of war who are set to work in the lead mines and elsewhere. It was in
principle possible to escape from legal bondage."
Very interesting. So I would think that in the Grecian scheme of things, you
were either 'citizen' (polites, full rights), or 'barbarian' (resident -- I
think they did have a term of 'resident barbarian' but it escapes me),
'illegal barbarians, possibly, and 'doulos' (natural or otherwise legal).
Given the poor state of Greek unification (which Geary thinks a good thing
-- "The South Shall Rise Again") I will not be surprised then that a former
Spartan (citizen) may find himself being a 'legal slave' (and thus no longer a
'citizen' for an Athenian (citizen).
It was a good thing though that the Sparta/Athens war was _won_ by Sparta
then.
Cheers,
JL
author of "The Importance of Being Dorian -- and other essays on Greek
Post-Colonialism
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