[15,0] ΠΕΡΙ ΔΟΥΛΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑΣ Β. (15,1) Ἀλλὰ μὴν ἔναγχος παρεγενόμην τισὶ διαμφισβητοῦσι περὶ δουλείας καὶ ἐλευθερίας, οὐκ ἐπὶ δικαστῶν οὐδ´ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ, οὑτωσὶ δὲ κατ´ οἰκίαν ἐπὶ χρόνον πάμπολυν. καὶ παρῆσαν ἑκατέρῳ τοῖν ἀνδροῖν οὐκ ὀλίγοι σπουδάζοντες. ἐτύγχανον γὰρ ὑπὲρ ἄλλων πρότερον ἀντιλέγοντες, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκοῦσιν· ἡττώμενος δὲ ἐν τοῖς λόγοις ἅτερος καὶ διαπορῶν εἰς λοιδορίαν ἐτράπετο, ὥσπερ εἴωθε τοῦτο συμβαίνειν πολλάκις, καὶ ὠνείδισεν ὡς οὐκ ἐλεύθερον ὄντα τὸν ἕτερον. (15,2) καὶ ὃς πάνυ πρᾴως ἐμειδίασέ τε καὶ εἶπε, Πόθεν δὲ ἔστιν, ὦ ἄριστε, εἰδέναι ὅστις δοῦλος ἢ ὅστις ἐλεύθερος; Ναὶ μὰ Δία, ἔφη· ἐπίσταμαι γοῦν ἐμαυτὸν μὲν ἐλεύθερον ὄντα καὶ τούτους ἅπαντας, σοὶ δὲ οὐδὲν προσῆκον ἐλευθερίας. καί τινες τῶν παρόντων ἐγέλασαν. καὶ ὃς οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον ᾐσχύνθη, ἀλλ´ ὥσπερ οἱ ἀνδρεῖοι ἀλεκτρυόνες πρὸς τὴν πληγὴν ἐπεγείρονται καὶ θαρροῦσιν, κἀκεῖνος ἐπηγέρθη καὶ ἐθάρρησε πρὸς τὴν λοιδορίαν, καὶ ἤρετο αὐτὸν ὁπόθεν τοῦτο ἐπίσταται τὸ περί τε αὑτοῦ καὶ περὶ ἐκείνου. (15,3) Ὅτι, ἔφη, τὸν μὲν ἐμαυτοῦ πατέρα ἐπίσταμαι Ἀθηναῖον ὄντα, εἴπερ τις ἄλλος, τὸν δὲ σὸν οἰκέτην τοῦ δεῖνος, εἰπὼν τοὔνομα. καὶ ὅς, Τί οὖν, εἶπε, κατὰ τοῦτο κωλύει με ἐν Κυνοσάργει ἀλείφεσθαι μετὰ τῶν νόθων, εἴπερ ἐκ μητρὸς ἐλευθέρας, ἴσως δὲ καὶ ἀστῆς, τυγχάνω γεγονὼς καὶ πατρὸς οὗ σὺ φῄς; ἢ οὐ πολλαὶ ἀσταὶ γυναῖκες δι´ ἐρημίαν τε καὶ ἀπορίαν αἱ μὲν ἐκ ξένων ἐκύησαν, αἱ δὲ ἐκ δούλων, τινὲς μὲν ἀγνοοῦσαι τοῦτο, τινὲς δὲ καὶ ἐπιστάμεναι; καὶ οὐδεὶς δοῦλός ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ μόνον οὐκ Ἀθηναῖος, τῶν οὕτως γεννηθέντων. (15,4) Ἀλλ´ ἐγώ σου, ἔφη, καὶ τὴν μητέρα ἐπίσταμαι ὁμόδουλον τοῦ πατρός. Εἶεν, ἔφη· τὴν δὲ σαυτοῦ οἶσθα; Πάνυ μὲν οὖν· ἀστὴν ἐξ ἀστῶν καὶ προῖκα ἱκανὴν ἐπενηνεγμένην. Ἦ καὶ ἔχοις ἂν ὀμόσας εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἐξ οὗ φησιν ἐκείνη, ἐκ τούτου γέγονας; ὁ μὲν γὰρ Τηλέμαχος οὐ πάνυ ἠξίου διατείνεσθαι ὑπὲρ Πηνελόπης τῆς Ἰκαρίου, σφόδρα σώφρονος δοκούσης γυναικός, ὅτι ἀληθῆ λέγει τὸν Ὀδυσσέα ἀποφαίνουσα αὑτοῦ πατέρα· σὺ δὲ οὐ μόνον ὑπὲρ σαυτοῦ ἂν καὶ τῆς σῆς μητρός, ἐὰν κελεύσῃ σέ τις, ὀμόσαις, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ δούλης ἡστινοσοῦν, ἐξ ὅτου ποτὲ ἐκύησεν, ὥσπερ ἣν λέγεις ἐμὴν εἶναι μητέρα. (15,5) ἀδύνατον γάρ σοι δοκεῖ εἶναι ἐξ ἄλλου ἀνδρὸς κυῆσαι ἐλευθέρου ἢ καὶ τοῦ αὑτῆς δεσπότου. οὐ πολλοὶ Ἀθηναίων συγγίγνονται θεραπαίναις αὑτῶν, οἱ μέν τινες κρύφα, οἱ δὲ καὶ φανερῶς; οὐ γὰρ δήπου βελτίους εἰσὶ πάντες τοῦ Ἡρακλέους, ὃς οὐδὲ τῇ Ἰαρδάνου δούλῃ συγγενέσθαι ἀπηξίωσεν, ἐξ ἧς ἐγένοντο οἱ Σάρδεων βασιλεῖς. (15,6) ἔτι δὲ {οὐ} δοκεῖ σοι, ὡς ἔοικε, Κλυταιμνήστρα μὲν, Τυνδάρεω θυγάτηρ, γυνὴ δὲ Ἀγαμέμνονος, μὴ μόνον Ἀγαμέμνονι συνεῖναι τῷ αὑτῆς ἀνδρί, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀποδημήσαντος ἐκείνου Αἰγίσθῳ συγγενέσθαι, καὶ Ἀερόπη ἡ Ἀτρέως γυνὴ τὴν Θυέστου προσδέξασθαι ὁμιλίαν, καὶ ἄλλαι πολλαὶ καὶ πάλαι καὶ νῦν ἐνδόξων καὶ πλουσίων ἀνδρῶν γυναῖκες ἑτέροις συγγίγνεσθαι καὶ παῖδας ἐνίοτε ἐξ ἐκείνων ποιεῖσθαι· ἣν δὲ σὺ λέγεις θεράπαιναν οὕτως πάνυ ἀκριβῶς φυλάττειν τὰ πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν αὑτῆς, ὥστε μὴ ἂν ἑτέρῳ συγγενέσθαι. (15,7) ἔτι δὲ καὶ περὶ σαυτοῦ καὶ περὶ ἐμοῦ διαβεβαιοῖ ὡς ἑκάτερος ἡμῶν ἐστι τῆς δοκούσης καὶ λεγομένης μητρός. καίτοι πολλοὺς Ἀθηναίων ἔχοις ἂν εἰπεῖν καὶ τῶν πάνυ γνωρίμων, οἳ ἐφάνησαν ὕστερον οὐ μόνον πατρός, ἀλλὰ καὶ μητρός, οὐχ ἧς ἐλέγοντο, ὑποβολιμαῖοί ποθεν τραφέντες. καὶ ταῦτα {σὺ} ἑκάστοτε ὁρᾷς δεικνύμενα καὶ λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν κωμῳδοδιδασκάλων καὶ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις, καὶ ὅμως οὐδὲν ἧττον ἰσχυρίζῃ καὶ περὶ σαυτοῦ καὶ περὶ ἐμοῦ, ὡς εὖ εἰδὼς ὅπως γεγόναμεν καὶ ἐκ τίνων. (15,8) οὐκ οἶσθα, ἔφη, ὅτι κακηγορίας δίδωσιν ὁ νόμος γράψασθαι τοῦτον, ὃς ἂν βλασφημῇ τινα οὐκ ἔχων ἀποδεῖξαι περὶ ὧν λέγει σαφὲς οὐδέν; καὶ ὅς, Ἐπίσταμαι γάρ, ἔφη, ὅτι αἱ μὲν ἐλεύθεραι γυναῖκες ὑποβάλλονται πολλάκις δι´ ἀπαιδίαν, ὅταν μὴ δύνωνται αὐταὶ κυῆσαι, βουλομένη κατασχεῖν ἑκάστη τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν ἑαυτῆς καὶ τὸν οἶκον, καὶ ἅμα οὐκ ἀποροῦσαι ὁπόθεν τοὺς παῖδας θρέψουσι· τὰς δὲ δούλας τοὐναντίον, τὰς μὲν πρὸ τοῦ τόκου διαφθειρούσας, τὰς δὲ ὕστερον, ἐὰν δύνωνται λαθεῖν, τὸ γενόμενον, ἐνίοτε καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν συνειδότων, ὅπως μὴ πράγματα ἔχωσι παιδοτροφεῖν ἀναγκαζόμεναι πρὸς τῇ δουλείᾳ. (15,9) Ναὶ μὰ Δία, ἔφη, πλήν γε τῆς Οἰνέως, τοῦ Πανδίονος, εἶπε, νόθου παιδός· ὁ γὰρ ἐκείνου νομεὺς ὁ ἐν ταῖς Ἐλευθεραῖς καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἡ τοῦ νομέως οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἐξετίθεσαν αὐτοὶ γεννήσαντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀλλότρια εὑρόντες ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ παιδία. οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτου ποτὲ ἦσαν, ἀνελόμενοι ἔτρεφον ὡς αὑτῶν, καὶ οὐδὲ ὕστερον ἑκόντες οὐδέποτε ὡμολόγησαν ὅτι ἀλλότριοι ἦσαν. σὺ δ´ ἴσως καὶ τὸν Ζῆθον καὶ τὸν Ἀμφίονα ἐλοιδόρεις ἄν, πρὶν φανεροὺς γενέσθαι, καὶ διώμνυσο ὡς περὶ δούλων τῶν τοῦ Διὸς υἱέων.

[15,0] The Fifteenth Discourse : On Slavery and Freedom II. 1 Recently, I assure you, I was present when two men were disputing at great length about slavery and freedom, not before judges or in the market-place, but at their ease at home, taking a long time about it; and each of the two men had a considerable number of warm adherents. For they had been debating other questions before that, as is my impression; and the one who was worsted in the debate, being at a loss for arguments, became abusive, as often happens in such cases, and taunted the other with not being a freeman. Whereupon the first very gently smiled and said: 2 A. "But how can you say that? Is it possible, my good friend, to know who is a slave, or who is free?" B. "Yes, it certainly is," replied the other. "I know at any rate that I myself am free and that all these men here are, but that you have no lot or share in freedom." At this some of those present laughed, and yet the first man was not one whit more abashed, but just as gallant cocks are aroused at the blow of their masters and take courage, so he too was aroused and took courage at the insult, and asked his opponent where he got his knowledge about the two of them. (p147) 3 B. "Because," said he, "I know that my father is an Athenian, if any man is, while yours is the slave of so-and-so," mentioning his name. A. "According to this, then," said the first man, "what is to prevent me from anointing myself in the Cynosarges along with the bastards, if I really am the son of a free-born mother — who is, perhaps, a citizen into the bargain — and of the father whom you mention? Have not many women who are citizens, embarrassed by the scarcity of eligible men, been got with child either by foreigners or by slaves, sometimes not knowing the fact, but sometimes also with full knowledge of it? And of the children thus begotten none is a slave, but only a non-Athenian." 4 B. "Well, in your case," he rejoined, "I myself know that your mother is a slave in the same household as your father." A. "Very well!" said the first man, "Do you know who your own mother is?" B. "Why certainly; a citizen born of citizens, who brought to her husband a pretty good dowry too." A. "Could you actually take your oath that you are the son of the father of whom she says that you are? Telemachus, you know, did not care at all to insist in support of Penelope, the daughter of Icarius, who was regarded as a very chaste woman, that she spoke the truth when she declared that Odysseus was his father. But you, not only in support of yourself (p149) and of your mother, would take oath apparently, if anyone should bid you, but in regard to any slave woman as to who the man was by whom she was got with child, such a slave woman as you say that my mother was. 5 Pray, does it seem to you impossible that she should have been got with child by some other man, a freeman, or even by her own master? Do not many Athenian men have intercourse with their maidservants, some of them secretly, but others quite openly? For surely it cannot be that every Greek is superior to Heracles, who did not think it beneath him to have intercourse even with the slave woman of Iardanus, who became the mother of the kings of Sardis. 6 And further, you do not believe, as it seems, that Clytemnestra, the daughter of Tyndareüs and the wife of Agamemnon, not only lived with Agamemnon, her own husband, but also, when he was away, had relations with Aegistheus, and that Aeropê, the wife of Atreus, accepted the advances of Thyestes, and that many other wives of distinguished and wealthy men in both ancient and modern times have had relations with other men and sometimes have had children by them? But she who you say was a maidservant was so scrupulously faithful to her own husband that she would not have had relations with any other man! 7 And further, in regard to yourself and me as well you asseverate that each of us was born of the woman who is reputed to be and is called his mother. And yet you might name many Athenians, and very prominent ones too, who turned out later not only not to have been the sons of the father but not even those of the mother to whom they were attributed, having been supposititious children of unknown origin who had (p151) been reared as sons. And such incidents you yourself are constantly seeing exhibited and described by the writers of comedy and in tragedies, but nevertheless you go on in the same old way, making positive statements about yourself and about me, as if you knew for a certainty the circumstances of our birth and the identity of our parents. 8 Do you not know," he continued, "that the law permits anyone to bring an action for libel against the man who slanders without being able to adduce any clear proof of his statements?" B. And the other man replied, "Yes, I know that freeborn women often palm off other persons' children as their own on account of their childlessness, when they are unable to conceive children themselves, because each one wishes to keep her own husband and her home, while at the same time they do not lack the means to support the children; but in the case of slave women, on the other hand, some destroy the child before birth and others afterwards, if they can do so without being caught, and yet sometimes even with the connivance of their husbands, that they may not be involved in trouble by being compelled to raise children in addition to their enduring slavery." 9 A. "O yes, certainly," the first man replied, "if you make an exception of the slave girl of Oeneus, the bastard son, as he alleged, of Pandion. For Oeneus' herdsman, who lived at Eleutherae, and that herdsman's wife, so far from exposing their own children, took up other people's children whom they found by the roadside, without having the least notion whose children they were, and reared them as their own, nor at any time afterwards were they willing to admit that they were not their own. But you, (p153) perhaps, would have abused both Zethus and Amphion before their identity became known, and would have taken solemn oath that the sons of Zeus were slaves."