One of the things that make Ancient Greek history alternatively intriguing and frustrating is that because there were so many different city-states, in many ways the history of Greece is the attempt to make generalizations that match the realities of hundreds of different local histories.
For example, those of you know something about Sparta may recall that there was this group of people called the helots. The helots were people who originally lived in Messenia, a land west of Laconia, which is where the Spartans lived. The Messenians were originally free, as indicated by their participation in some of the earliest Olympics. Then the Spartans expanded west and enslaved the Messenians. As helots, the Messenians were reduced to serfs who belonged to certain lots of lands of Sparta. That is, when a Spartan man died and his land was handed over to either his sons or another Spartan, ownership of the helots went along with the land. This connection with the land, along with some other reasons, is part of why it can be tricky to try and include the helots in generalized discussions of slavery in Greece.
The case gets even more complex in the cases of places like Thessaly, for which we have pratically even less information than we do for ancient Sparta. There was a group of people in Thessaly called the Πενέσται (penestai), which is someways resemble the helots. Very little is known about them; indeed, Ducat, the only person to write a book on them, finds only 36 mentions of them in the entire Greek corpus. To make matters even more complicated, none of these sources are themselves Thessalian: they are all written by outsiders, some of whom are Byzantine scholars writing hundreds (if not a thousand) years after the Thessalians no longer had penestai.
For example, one of the passages that Ducat calls one of the most important of the 36 surviving passages is written by a Byzantine scholar sometime in the 15th century CE. It is a note on how Aristophanes uses the term penestai in his comedy the Wasps (originally written and performed in 5th century BCE).
Πενέστες Θετταλοὶ τοὺς μισθωτοὺς ὀνομάζουσι δούλους. Ἔθνoς δὲ ἦν πάλαι ἀπὸ Πενέστου τινὸς τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχον, ὃς ἀνέφερε τὸ γένος εἰς Θεσσαλὸν τὸν Ἡρακλέους.
Δέον δὲ εἰπεῖν “μετὰ τῶν πολιτευομένων συνῆν” εἶπε “τοῖς Πενέσταις” ἤγουν τοῖς πένησιν. Καταλυθέντος γὰρ τοῦ συστήματος τῶν Πενεστῶν ἐκείνων τοὺς πένητας καὶ θῆτας Πενέστας ἐκαλοῦν.
The Thessalians call Penestai those slaves who receive salaries. They take this name, a long time ago, from a certain Penestos, who bore the race of the sons of Heracles into Thessaliy. And so he [Aristophanes] rather than writing “he had dealings with citizens [of Thessaly]”, he writes “with the penestai”, referring to them as ‘peneses [Greek for ‘paupers’]. For after that system of penestai was dissolved, they called paupers and dayworkers peneastai. (Oxonensis Bodleianus Holkhamensis 88).
What this scholiast is trying to work out is why in Aristophanes’ play, the chorus says that this guy Amynias went to Thessaly and had dealings with the penestai. For if the penestai are simply slaves or serfs like the helots, why would an outsider come and have dealings with them? The answer that this scholiast comes up with is that while the penestai used to be slaves/serfs, they are no longer. Instead, they are free, but they have retained the name.
For example, those of you know something about Sparta may recall that there was this group of people called the helots. The helots were people who originally lived in Messenia, a land west of Laconia, which is where the Spartans lived. The Messenians were originally free, as indicated by their participation in some of the earliest Olympics. Then the Spartans expanded west and enslaved the Messenians. As helots, the Messenians were reduced to serfs who belonged to certain lots of lands of Sparta. That is, when a Spartan man died and his land was handed over to either his sons or another Spartan, ownership of the helots went along with the land. This connection with the land, along with some other reasons, is part of why it can be tricky to try and include the helots in generalized discussions of slavery in Greece.
The case gets even more complex in the cases of places like Thessaly, for which we have pratically even less information than we do for ancient Sparta. There was a group of people in Thessaly called the Πενέσται (penestai), which is someways resemble the helots. Very little is known about them; indeed, Ducat, the only person to write a book on them, finds only 36 mentions of them in the entire Greek corpus. To make matters even more complicated, none of these sources are themselves Thessalian: they are all written by outsiders, some of whom are Byzantine scholars writing hundreds (if not a thousand) years after the Thessalians no longer had penestai.
For example, one of the passages that Ducat calls one of the most important of the 36 surviving passages is written by a Byzantine scholar sometime in the 15th century CE. It is a note on how Aristophanes uses the term penestai in his comedy the Wasps (originally written and performed in 5th century BCE).
Πενέστες Θετταλοὶ τοὺς μισθωτοὺς ὀνομάζουσι δούλους. Ἔθνoς δὲ ἦν πάλαι ἀπὸ Πενέστου τινὸς τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχον, ὃς ἀνέφερε τὸ γένος εἰς Θεσσαλὸν τὸν Ἡρακλέους.
Δέον δὲ εἰπεῖν “μετὰ τῶν πολιτευομένων συνῆν” εἶπε “τοῖς Πενέσταις” ἤγουν τοῖς πένησιν. Καταλυθέντος γὰρ τοῦ συστήματος τῶν Πενεστῶν ἐκείνων τοὺς πένητας καὶ θῆτας Πενέστας ἐκαλοῦν.
The Thessalians call Penestai those slaves who receive salaries. They take this name, a long time ago, from a certain Penestos, who bore the race of the sons of Heracles into Thessaliy. And so he [Aristophanes] rather than writing “he had dealings with citizens [of Thessaly]”, he writes “with the penestai”, referring to them as ‘peneses [Greek for ‘paupers’]. For after that system of penestai was dissolved, they called paupers and dayworkers peneastai. (Oxonensis Bodleianus Holkhamensis 88).
What this scholiast is trying to work out is why in Aristophanes’ play, the chorus says that this guy Amynias went to Thessaly and had dealings with the penestai. For if the penestai are simply slaves or serfs like the helots, why would an outsider come and have dealings with them? The answer that this scholiast comes up with is that while the penestai used to be slaves/serfs, they are no longer. Instead, they are free, but they have retained the name.