Aristotle\u27s Politics and Slavery in Ancient Athens

The relationship between Aristotle’s theoretical discussion of slavery in Politics and the reality of slavery in ancient Athens is complex and multifaceted. In tandem with Politics, which was my main primary source, I also drew on multiple pieces of secondary scholarship on both Politics and slavery in Athens to compare the two presentations of slavery. Additionally, I drew on the works of Euripides and Solon. In particular, my paper focuses on the process of manumission, the lack of social mobility afforded to freed slaves, and how slaves were viewed generally. A comparison of these sources reveals that there are significant parallels between Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery presented in Politics and the practical expression of the institution of slavery in Athens. As a whole, these parallels served to make synonyms of the words ‘slave’ and ‘other.