Kabanata Kabanata 14 · How The Greeks Lived

But how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time to look after

their families and their business if they were forever running to the

market-place to discuss affairs of state? In this chapter I shall tell

you.

In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised only one

class of citizens—the freemen. Every Greek city was composed of a

small number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a

sprinkling of foreigners.

At rare intervals (usually during a war, when men were needed for the

army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to confer the rights of

citizenship upon the “barbarians” as they called the foreigners. But

this was an exception. Citizenship was a matter of birth. You were an

Athenian because your father and your grandfather had been Athenians

before you. But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if

you were born of non-Athenian parents, you remained a “foreigner” until

the end of time.

The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a king or a

tyrant, was run by and for the freemen, and this would not have been

possible without a large army of slaves who outnumbered the free

citizens at the rate of six or five to one and who performed those

tasks to which we modern people must devote most of our time and

energy if we wish to provide for our families and pay the rent of our

apartments.

[Illustration: GREEK SOCIETY]

The slaves did all the cooking and baking and candlestick making of

the entire city. They were the tailors and the carpenters and the

jewelers and the school-teachers and the book-keepers and they tended

the store and looked after the factory while the master went to the

public meeting to discuss questions of war and peace or visited the

theatre to see the latest play of Æschylus or hear a discussion of the

revolutionary ideas of Euripides, who had dared to express certain

doubts upon the omnipotence of the great god Zeus.

Indeed, ancient Athens resembled a modern club. All the freeborn

citizens were hereditary members and all the slaves were hereditary

servants, and waited upon the needs of their masters, and it was very

pleasant to be a member of the organisation.

But when we talk about slaves, we do not mean the sort of people about

whom you have read in the pages of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It is true

that the position of those slaves who tilled the fields was a very

unpleasant one, but the average freeman who had come down in the world

and who had been obliged to hire himself out as a farm hand led just as

miserable a life. In the cities, furthermore, many of the slaves were

more prosperous than the poorer classes of the freemen. For the Greeks,

who loved moderation in all things, did not like to treat their slaves

after the fashion which afterward was so common in Rome, where a slave

had as few rights as an engine in a modern factory and could be thrown

to the wild animals upon the smallest pretext.

The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, without which

no city could possibly become the home of a truly civilised people.

The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are performed

by the business men and the professional men. As for those household

duties which take up so much of the time of your mother and which

worry your father when he comes home from his office, the Greeks,

who understood the value of leisure, had reduced such duties to the

smallest possible minimum by living amidst surroundings of extreme

simplicity.

To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich nobles spent

their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked all the comforts

which a modern workman expects as his natural right. A Greek home

consisted of four walls and a roof. There was a door which led into

the street but there were no windows. The kitchen, the living rooms

and the sleeping quarters were built around an open courtyard in which

there was a small fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it

look bright. Within this courtyard the family lived when it did not

rain or when it was not too cold. In one corner of the yard the cook

(who was a slave) prepared the meal and in another corner, the teacher

(who was also a slave) taught the children the alpha beta gamma and

the tables of multiplication and in still another corner the lady of

the house, who rarely left her domain (since it was not considered

good form for a married woman to be seen on the street too often) was

repairing her husband’s coat with her seamstresses (who were slaves,)

and in the little office, right off the door, the master was inspecting

the accounts which the overseer of his farm (who was a slave) had just

brought to him.

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE]

When dinner was ready the family came together but the meal was a very

simple one and did not take much time. The Greeks seem to have regarded

eating as an unavoidable evil and not a pastime, which kills many

dreary hours and eventually kills many dreary people. They lived on

bread and on wine, with a little meat and some green vegetables. They

drank water only when nothing else was available because they did not

think it very healthy. They loved to call on each other for dinner,

but our idea of a festive meal, where everybody is supposed to eat

much more than is good for him, would have disgusted them. They came

together at the table for the purpose of a good talk and a good glass

of wine and water, but as they were moderate people they despised those

who drank too much.

The same simplicity which prevailed in the dining room also dominated

their choice of clothes. They liked to be clean and well groomed, to

have their hair and beards neatly cut, to feel their bodies strong with

the exercise and the swimming of the gymnasium, but they never followed

the Asiatic fashion which prescribed loud colours and strange patterns.

They wore a long white coat and they managed to look as smart as a

modern Italian officer in his long blue cape.

They loved to see their wives wear ornaments but they thought it very

vulgar to display their wealth (or their wives) in public and whenever

the women left their home they were as inconspicuous as possible.

In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation but

also of simplicity. “Things,” chairs and tables and books and houses

and carriages, are apt to take up a great deal of their owner’s time.

In the end they invariably make him their slave and his hours are

spent looking after their wants, keeping them polished and brushed

and painted. The Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be “free,”

both in mind and in body. That they might maintain their liberty, and

be truly free in spirit, they reduced their daily needs to the lowest

possible point.