Thursday, March 21, 2024
On Calling a Slave a Slave
S. Douglas Olson, "Philological Notes on the Letter Lambda in a New Greek-English Dictionary: II. λασιόκωφος - λημψαπόδοσις," Hyperboreus 29.2 (2023) 299-325 (pp. 301-302, n. 3, discussing λάτρις):
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It is disturbing to find words such as this still glossed "servant", suggesting voluntary paid service by free persons; cf. δοῦλος, glossed "servant, slave", in that order. For all their talk of freedom and the like, the Greeks had slaves, and large numbers of them, and they often did not treat them well. This is a conspicuous black mark on their record as a civilization — which is not to say that our own is likely to win any prizes — and lexicographic white-washing of this sort does no service to anyone.
