Greek Slavery Exhibit

Captivating Aromas

Red-figure terracotta alabastron (perfume vase). ca. 440 BCE. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Description

This red-figure terracotta alabastron from classical Athens measures 17.3 cm in height and is 5.1 cm wide.

The alabastron (a type of vase used for storing perfume and scented oils for personal use) depicts two women, one on each side of the vase. Woman A (left) wears a chiton and himation and holds in her hand a plemochoe (another type of vase used to store perfume and scented oils for religious and personal use). Her hair is covered by a headdress called a sakkos (a closed cap, hood, or sack, made of coarse haircloth or elastic sprang that could be simply or ornately decorated). Woman B (right) wears a peplos and holds a mirror. Her hair is done up, presumably wrapped in fillets or woolen ribbons.

Context

Enslaved women typically wore their hair cropped, whereas the hairstyles of the women depicted on this alabastron suggest that they have long hair. (Although she is wearing the sakkos, woman A appears to wear a similar hairstyle to woman B.) The women depicted on the alabastron may be free, possibly even enslavers with enslaved attendants to anoint them with perfume.

However, their status is difficult to determine. Their posture, with outstretched arms holding perfume and a mirror, suggests that these women could be amphipoloi (enslaved handmaids to women in wealthy families). Amphipoloi, because they served in elite households, held a higher status than other enslaved women.

In The Odyssey, Homer describes the amphipoloi who attend the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa as beautiful (Hom. Od. 6.18), and those who serve the witch-goddess Circe as divine (Hom. Od. 10.349-52). Among their tasks, amphipoloi helped their female enslavers dress and anoint themselves with perfumes and oils after bathing. This may be what the women on the alabastron are offering to the owner of the vase.

Red-figure alabastron. "Seduction and preparation for marriage." ca. 470 BCE. © Bibliothèque฀Nationale, Paris. Inventory Number: De Ridder.508.

In another example, the courtship scene in the above image shows an enslaved woman (the smaller figure on the far left) attending to the bride-to-be and offering an alabastron.

Line drawing of a perfume vendor and her customer from a red-figure pelike.

Perfume Industry and Slavery

Enslaved labourers were also involved in the production and commerce of perfume. Evidence suggests that this type of employment allowed them to work on their own without supervision of their enslavers. One such enslaved labourer named Midas displayed a notable degree of autonomy in his management of the perfume shop– so much so that while in his managerial role, he accrued debt seemingly without the knowledge of his enslaver, Athenogenes. Hyperides tells us that, in order to relieve himself of the debts that Midas had accrued, Athenogenes sold Midas and his sons to a man named Epicrates (Hyp. 3 7-9). Interestingly, the fact that Midas was sold with his sons (there is no mention of the boys’ mother) suggests that he lived in a family unit, a likely rare occurrence even among house-born enslaved persons in Athens. Midas was clearly a highly skilled enslaved worker (see the Tetradrachm) and may have been one of the so-called choris oikountes (an enslaved person dwelling outside the enslaver’s household).

In the image on the left we see a vendor sitting in front of an amphora (a type of vase used for storage) as her customer stands before her offering an alabastron to be filled with scented oils or perfume. Although she is larger than her customer, her short hair suggests that the vendor is enslaved. We do not know if she had as much autonomy as Midas did, but because she worked as a vendor at a perfumery, she likely had at least some degree of independence.

In Classical Athens, perfumers' shops were frequented both commercially and socially. From Demosthenes (Dem. 25 52) and Lysias (Ath. 13.94) we know that while citizens enjoyed spending time in the agora, they were particularly fond of visiting the perfumeries. During this time, the cost for a quarter litre of perfume ranged between five and ten mina – over 500 days wages for a citizen. One mina was the equivalent of 100 drachma, and the average price of an enslaved person in Athens was between 150-200 drachma. It is unlikely that an enslaved person would have ever had the opportunity to purchase perfume for themselves, and thus scent was another demarcation between citizen and enslaved.

The images of the women depicted on the alabastra and the pelike, and the account of Midas give us a few different narratives of what life was like for enslaved persons with elevated status. While the privileged jobs that these enslaved persons worked at may imply that they had better lives than other enslaved people, it is important to remember that most of what we know about the lives of enslaved persons are not first-hand reports. If the women on the vase are amphipoloi, how did they become enslaved? Were they captured in war? Were they born into slavery? We can also only speculate what life was like for the enslaved vendor on the pelike – how must it have felt for her to smell the captivating aromas of the perfume she sold yet be unable to purchase any for herself? Did she ever "accidentally" spill a drop on her hands as she poured the perfume into the alabastron to allow herself a bit of luxury? Similarly, the details of Midas’ story are unknown to us – did Epicrates treat him well? Was he allowed to stay with his sons, or was the family separated? These are questions to which we have no definitive answers – an unfortunately common theme among enslaved persons’ histories, but these questions are crucial to keep in mind when thinking about the lives and experiences of enslaved persons.

Description

Context

Perfume Industry and Slavery

Further Reading