Examples Of Slavery In The Odyssey

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The Odyssey by Homer is a unique way to get a unique view at the life of Ancient Greeks. By using a fictional source to relate to a real place and time, the reader must be able to find a way to apply the fiction to the fact. That being said, one of the most intriguing examples of applying fiction to a real life situation is what a reader can learn about slavery through The Odyssey. Though the topic isn’t widely covered or discussed in the book, when it is mentioned it is relatively easy to draw a conclusion about their views of slavery as well as how it might have been seen in the real world of Ancient Greece. This essay will discuss the social stigma of slaves, the loyalty of slaves, and finally, how the public viewed the worth of slaves in their society. The social stigma of slaves in Ancient Greece seemed to be equivalent to that of slaves in other times periods and regions of the world, as a reader might expect. This can be…show more content…
Zeus, being the ruler of all the gods and the god of the sky, takes away half of a man’s value as a person the day he’s enslaved. This seems to mirror how future civilizations and groups would value their slaves, such as the Three-Fifths compromise in America. To completely discount a person by half simply because of their class is to dehumanize someone. Greeks didn’t consider slaves to be human. They didn’t think that they had rights, thoughts or even a full person. This directly relates to the social stigma of slaves and how they were less than human. Even someone who seems close enough to his master to share his opinion like Eumaeus, he’s aware that he is only half a person. He belongs to someone, another man owns him and he doesn’t have his own

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