‘Don’t tell anybody you are a thete!’

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores a subtle form of subordination, involving one component of the Athenian civic body: the thetes. Despite being included in the civic body as the fourth census class of the Solonic order, thetes were precluded from offices and the Boule (Council). Such restrictions were probably no longer observed in the classical period; however, they remained formally unchanged. As a socio-economic group, thetes were originally landless or owners of small plots; thus they were involved in crafts, artisanship, and constructions—including daily wage labour. Some clues in the literary record suggest that the word thetes evoked proximity with servile status, and this might be the reason for which, in Athenian oratory, court speakers who identify themselves as ‘poor’ (penetes or even ptochoi) never describe themselves as thetes. One other explanation is that the word did not reflect any specific socio-economic condition in the classical period, as thetes could be, in fact, also wealthy. However, in the common perception the word must have remained linked to the sphere of subalternity. The self-perception of thetes as workers and artisans was probably also affected by the elite-promoted public discourse, which celebrated rural labour (i.e. the hoplite–farmer) over urban labour (the citizen worker). This might account for the fact that, though a good part of Athenians were involved in activities outside the agricultural sector, manifestations of professional pride by Athenian craftsmen and artisans are fairly rare in the epigraphic record, if compared to those by metics and slaves. This form of subordination internal to the civic body represents a paradox of Athenian democracy, as democratic Athens celebrated itself as an inclusive political system.