In the past post I talked about the slave Palaestro in Plautus’ comedy Miles Gloriosus. Today I’m talking about a slave in the comedy Aspis (Shield), by the Greek writer Menander.
This Daos is interesting example of a servus callidus, since like Palaestro he uses his cunning to trick his new masters and stay loyal to his old master. However, while Palaestro had been kidnapped and again sold into slavery, Daos simply (and mistakenly) thinks that his master, Kleostratus, is dead. This means that he now belongs Kleostratus’ brothers. Interestingly, it’s never made clear in the play who Daos’ new owner is. Indeed, Daos gets into a fight with Kleostratus’ brother Smirkrines and pretty much gets away with being openly defiant of Smikrines’ plans. Unfortunately, we can’t know for sure since the Apsis survives primarily as fragments from papyri found in Egypt and large parts of the play are missing.
Despite the large gaps in the texts, we do know the following about Daos:
- he was Kleostratus’ paedagogus, that is tutor; apparently Kleostratus kept him around despite no longer needing a tutor (14)
- he hopes for rest and peace in his old age (11-2)
- Kleostratus so trusted Daos that he looked after men that Kleostratus captured in battle (54-5)
- Daos is a Phrygian, not a Greek
This last bit of information is particularly interesting since Daos is a paedagogus. While he would not have received the top tier education of an Athenian citizen of the time, that is, the education of either Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum or one of the schools run by a rhetorician like Isocrates, nonetheless we learn in the play that Daos is a cultured individual: while pretending to morning for the death of Smikrines’ other brother, Daos recites a variety of lines from Greek tragedy (410-5). Daos’ knowledge of Athenian drama is an indication of how even though he was born in Phrygia, he nonetheless knows what it takes to be an Athenian.
Daos’ assimilation into Athenian culture seems to be at odds with another ethnicity that gets mentioned in the play. Daos explains to a waiter-for-hire that he is Phrygian, causing the waiter to brag:
ἡμεῖς μόνοι
οἱ Θρᾷκες ἐσμεν ἄνδρες, οἱ μὲν δὴ Γέται,
Ἄπολλον, ἀνδρεῖον τὸ χρῆμα, τοιγαροῦν
γέμουσιν οἱ μυλῶνες ἡμῶν. (243-6)
Only we Thracians are men, and, by Apollo, the Getai especially, on account of our manly work, and so the mills are full of us.
This brag is a very interesting combination of how ethnicity and masculinity combine under Athenian slavery. Mill-work, across the Greco-Roman world, is frequently mentioned as fit only for slaves. But this waiter turns this expectation on its head, seeing such work as an indication of his peoples’ strength and therefore manliness. However it is important to point out that this man takes such pride in his people at a distance: he himself is a waiter, not a mill-worker.
This Daos is interesting example of a servus callidus, since like Palaestro he uses his cunning to trick his new masters and stay loyal to his old master. However, while Palaestro had been kidnapped and again sold into slavery, Daos simply (and mistakenly) thinks that his master, Kleostratus, is dead. This means that he now belongs Kleostratus’ brothers. Interestingly, it’s never made clear in the play who Daos’ new owner is. Indeed, Daos gets into a fight with Kleostratus’ brother Smirkrines and pretty much gets away with being openly defiant of Smikrines’ plans. Unfortunately, we can’t know for sure since the Apsis survives primarily as fragments from papyri found in Egypt and large parts of the play are missing.
Despite the large gaps in the texts, we do know the following about Daos:
- he was Kleostratus’ paedagogus, that is tutor; apparently Kleostratus kept him around despite no longer needing a tutor (14)
- he hopes for rest and peace in his old age (11-2)
- Kleostratus so trusted Daos that he looked after men that Kleostratus captured in battle (54-5)
- Daos is a Phrygian, not a Greek
This last bit of information is particularly interesting since Daos is a paedagogus. While he would not have received the top tier education of an Athenian citizen of the time, that is, the education of either Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum or one of the schools run by a rhetorician like Isocrates, nonetheless we learn in the play that Daos is a cultured individual: while pretending to morning for the death of Smikrines’ other brother, Daos recites a variety of lines from Greek tragedy (410-5). Daos’ knowledge of Athenian drama is an indication of how even though he was born in Phrygia, he nonetheless knows what it takes to be an Athenian.
Daos’ assimilation into Athenian culture seems to be at odds with another ethnicity that gets mentioned in the play. Daos explains to a waiter-for-hire that he is Phrygian, causing the waiter to brag:
ἡμεῖς μόνοι
οἱ Θρᾷκες ἐσμεν ἄνδρες, οἱ μὲν δὴ Γέται,
Ἄπολλον, ἀνδρεῖον τὸ χρῆμα, τοιγαροῦν
γέμουσιν οἱ μυλῶνες ἡμῶν. (243-6)
Only we Thracians are men, and, by Apollo, the Getai especially, on account of our manly work, and so the mills are full of us.
This brag is a very interesting combination of how ethnicity and masculinity combine under Athenian slavery. Mill-work, across the Greco-Roman world, is frequently mentioned as fit only for slaves. But this waiter turns this expectation on its head, seeing such work as an indication of his peoples’ strength and therefore manliness. However it is important to point out that this man takes such pride in his people at a distance: he himself is a waiter, not a mill-worker.