ABSTRACT
In Greek culture slaves and free women, despite significant differences, shared certain marginalizing characteristics. Neither was allowed full development of potential beyond the limited roles they were to play, and both were inducted into these roles as soon as they were capable of performing them. Thus slaves were put to work as children, and females of citizen status were married at, or perhaps even before, puberty. (In contrast, free male citizens were not fully incorporated into their social and political roles until about 30.) And while both women and slaves left childhood behind very early, neither could ever achieve full legal maturity. Moreover, this incapacity was marked by similar nomenclature: both were commonly identified by the possessive of their kyrios, or master, as were free male children. Both slaves and free women as wives were necessary members of the oikos (household), but they were also both outsiders, and the ceremony welcoming them into the household was the same for both – a showering of fruits and nuts to symbolize the abundance their arrival promised to the household (Theopompus, Kock 1880, frag. 14; Aristophanes, Wealth 768).
