Embedded Files
Grave Stele. “Marble stele (grave marker) of Phainippe.” ca. 400-390 BCE. © 1953 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City / Fletcher Fund. Accession Number: 53.11.7.
Description
Description
This grave marker from 400 to 390 BCE depicts a woman named Phainippe, the deceased woman the tomb stone seeks to pay tribute to, and an unnamed enslaved girl. As the Met Museum object description suggests, the scene depicts Phainippe sitting on a chair with a mirror in her left hand as the enslaved girl in front of her attends to her while carrying a casket and box.
The scene appears to fit within dominant representations of femininity for the time period with Phainippe and her accompanying enslaved worker in a domestic space. It has been outlined how there was gendered division of labor in Greek slavery, and thus female slaves were often put with female enslavers in a domestic context.
Context
Context
Given what is known about the opportunity for close interpersonal relationships to form between enslaved folks in the households and their enslavers, it is not surprising that the enslaved girl is depicted in this scene at all. Because female enslaved people were often working on domestic tasks together or in close quarters with the enslaver, close bonds could form between them and between the enslaved person and other free members of the household. It is possible in this scene that the enslaved attendant was someone close to Phainippe and that is why she specifically is depicted on the grave alongside her. It is important to consider this potential relationship from the perspective of both the enslaved and enslaver, however. While the enslaver may have seen this as a positive relationship, the enslaved person's role may have been performative and she may have used her proximity to the enslaver to create better conditions for herself or find some sort of opportunity for agency in her situation. Such proximity may also have been a cause of stress for enslaved people who were constantly under the supervision of the enslaver.
The enslaved girl wears a dress with sleeves and no belt, attire that would suggest she has origins in Thrace or Asia Minor (Met Museum, n.a.). This is not surprising given much of the literature on enslavement in antiquity has suggested that the Greeks brought in many enslaved folks, especially women and children, from these geographical sectors. The slave supply in classical Greece depended mainly on capturing non-Greek citizens, since the dominant ideology of how one gained subjectivity and privilege in society relied on ideas of the natural slave being foreign and thus inherently less than a true Greek resident. War and colonial projects thus served as a major supply of enslaved bodies; after the seizing of a nation or community, it was common practice that the men would be killed and the women and children would be enslaved. The ethnic and national identity of many of the enslaved folks brought to Greece, noting that quite a few came from Thrace, make it unsurprising that the enslaved girl depicted here has the same origin.
Significance
Significance
This artifact, and others like it, is significant for the glimpse it provides of the identity and role enslaved people had in ancient Greek society. There is a lack of primary sources from the enslaved perspective, so scholars must rely on objects such as this, while also understanding that what we have today was preserved through the ideology and potentially biased perspectives of the elites of the time who had the power and control to have their voices heard. Yet, keeping that in mind, this marble stele stills provides valuable insight into the gendered dynamics of enslavement in the ancient world. The visual depiction of the enslaved girl is also significant for what it does and does not say about her. The free woman has her name listed and preserved through history while the enslaved girl remains nameless yet depicted, possibly for the purpose of indicating the status and significance of the free woman.
Further Reading
Further Reading
duBois, P. 2021. "How to Tell a Slave." In The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries, edited by S. Hodkinson, M. Kleijwegt, K. Vlassopoulos. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199575251.013.6
Glazebrook, A. 2017. "Gender and Slavery" in The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries.
Golden, M. 2011. “Slavery and the Greek Family” in The Cambridge World History of Slavery, vol. 1, edited by Bradley and Cartledge. 134-52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, P. 2018. “Ancient Greece as a ‘Slave Society.’” In What is a Slave Society? The Practice of Slavery in Global Perspective, edited by N. Lenski and C.M. Cameron, 61-85. Cambridge.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse