Slaves and Other Objects

Cloth $47.50 ISBN: 9780226167879 Published September 2003

Paper $25.00 ISBN: 9780226167893 Published March 2008

Page duBois, a classicist known for her daring and originality, turns in this new book to one of the most troubling subjects in the study of antiquity: the indispensability of slaves in ancient Greece. DuBois argues that every object and text in the world of ancient Greece bears the marks of slavery and the need to reiterate the distinction between slave and free. And yet the ubiquity of slaves in ancient societies has been overlooked by scholars who idealize antiquity, misconstrued by those who view slavery through the lens of race, and obscured by the split between historical and philological approaches to the classics.

DuBois begins her study by exploring the material culture of slavery, including how most museum exhibits erase the presence of slaves in the classical world. Shifting her focus to literature, she considers the place of slaves in Plato's Meno, Aristotle's Politics, Aesop's Fables, Aristophanes' Wasps, and Euripides' Orestes. She contends throughout that portraying the difference between slave and free as natural was pivotal to Greek concepts of selfhood and political freedom, and that scholars who idealize such concepts too often fail to recognize the role that slavery played in their articulation.

Opening new lines of inquiry into ancient culture, Slaves and Other Objects will enlighten classicists and historians alike.

Review Quotes
Contents

“[duBois'] timely and passionate book reinstates slaves at the center of the ancient household and psyche. . . . Page duBois has certainly achieved her stated goal in making it far more difficult for classicists anywhere to avoid looking ancient slaves in the face when examining the artifacts, literature, and thought of the societies which denied them liberty.”—Edith Hall, Times Literary Supplement

“A stimulating and polemical text directed primarily at a general readership, and specifically at those . . . who may idealize ancient Greek cultural achievements unaware of the ubiquity of their slave systems, or misinterpret Greek slavery under the influence of the racial basis of slavery in the Americas.”—Nick Fisher, American Historical Review

"DuBois' book is the most fundamental and advanced statement of the problems and ways forward for anyone wishing to investigate the place of slavery within ancient Greek culture."

“Slavery pervades all aspects of ancient Greek life, but its presence has remained largely invisible. In Slaves and Other Objects, Page duBois focuses a bright light on it, revealing its contours and shadows in a variety of texts and physical objects. Her lively, engaged style brings home the scandal of ancient slavery and its sinister consequences for humanity—even today.”<David Konstan, Brown University

“Guided as always by the force of social conscience, duBois’s latest engagement with classical Greece aims to restore visibility to the institution of slavery, which, as she demonstrates, can only be ignored at the price of seriously distorting our appreciation of those glorious achievements of Hellenism that we so much admire. Arguing for the need to pay attention to the condition of slaves and their ubiquity—the instrumental uses of their bodies, their status as animate objects, and the metaphorical valences their enslavement contributed to debates about freedom—duBois examines a range of different materials in a new light. This is a stimulating and rewarding piece of work.”<Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University

“Slaves and Other Objects is distinctly original, an impassioned intervention that focuses on the ways in which we obscure the centrality of slavery to ancient Greek life and thought. As in all her works, duBois deploys a unique combination of sophisticated critical models here with an awesome command of traditional classical scholarship.”<Peter Rose, Miami University

Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. OBJECTS
1. Communicating with the Dead
Slaves and Everyday Life
2. Greeks in the Museum
3. Dildos
4. The Slave Body
II. TEXTS
5. Slavery as Metaphor, Slavery and Freedom
6. The Woman Enslaved
7. The Slave Plato
8. Aesop the Fabulist
9. On Aristotle
Or, The Political Theory of Possessive Mastery
10. Irate Greek Masters and Their Slaves
The Politics of Anger
Epilogue
Material World
Notes
Bibliography
Index

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

Classical Studies

Gender and Sexuality

History: Ancient and Classical History

Literature and Literary Criticism: Classical Languages

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