The most popular professions in ancient Greece and the job no one wanted to do
First let’s start with an admission. Many of the Athenian citizens of classical antiquity (which spanned roughly 480 BC to 323 BC) were not forced to work. The free citizens of the mighty and prosperous city at that time, they thought we should get rid of work so they couldn’t get involved in politics and the procedures of direct democracy.
Philosophers such as Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle as well as the vast majority of the aristocracy, considered any form of manual labor or, in general, wage labor, derogatory. work which were mostly undertaken by slaves and sharecroppers.
In Athenian economic life it worked as it does today, the law of supply and demand and there were dozens of professions. Indeed, several of them survive to this day, while even then we should bear in mind that there was unemployment. Every morning when they had no work and needed an income to be able to live decently, they would gather in the Market and the employers would pick those they wanted for a set period of time. But when unemployment was particularly high, the rulers resorted to the solution of the implementation of large public projects that, in order to carry out, employed those who needed work.
The great historian Plutarch claims that one of the reasons Pericles decided to rebuild the destroyed by the Persian invasion. Acropolis of Athens creating the insurmountable well-known monument, it was exactly him.
Occupations outside the city
Most of the inhabitants of ancient Greece, however, worked in the countryside cultivating small estates that they either owned or rented from wealthier landowners in exchange for a share of the harvest. The main fruits were wheat and barley, while they also tended olive groves and vegetable gardens with cabbages, lettuces and onions.
Agriculture was one of the main sources of employment, however the work it was laborious and the means of cultivation are understood to be far inferior to today’s. At the same time, they also engaged in beekeeping, as honey was considered a fine product which was already exported.
![Ancient Greece Ancient Greece](https://www.newsbeast.gr/image/s320x/file/files/1/2022/08/arxaia-ellada1.jpg)
Breeders versus farmers
Outside the city walls we also meet cattle breeders. Both in Athens and in other areas where the terrain is favorable, such as Thessaly and Boeotia, oxen, horses, pigs and goats and sheep were raised. However, there were not a few times when farmers clashed with cattle breeders because the sheep destroyed the arable lands. Exactly what happened tens of centuries earlier and was repeated tens of centuries later. After all, such skirmishes continue to this day in many villages.
Hunting and fishing
Hunting and fishing were profitable in ancient times. Hunters used slings, traps, bows, javelins, axes, spears and trained dogs to catch large animals such as wild boars or small ones such as hares, while birds such as partridges, grouse and quail were also targeted.
Fishing rods and artificial baits were used. The bow, the torch, the net and the harpoon were about the same as today.
Quarries and loggers
The arduous jobs outside the city were also that of the quarryman who was called to extract the marbles from Penteli, Paros and other areas, as well as the logger who cut down the trees so that the timber could be used in a series of processes.
The job no one wanted to do
The place no one wanted to voluntarily end up was the mine. The conditions there were so inhumane that everywhere you saw only slaves being employed who opened low galleries with pickaxes, chisels, and hammers in their endeavor to extract the precious ores which others carried out of the galleys. The heat was unbearable in the summer months in there, as was the cold in the winter.
On top of that the sheltering and ventilation measures were rudimentary resulting in many losing their lives. Something like this often happened, for example, in the mines of Lavrio and in the gold mines of Mount Pangaio, which extends in the present prefectures of Kavala and Serres.
Among the victims were small children – slaves who were forced to crawl inside the smaller tunnels that adults could not fit, often as deep as 100 meters underground.
Occupations within the city
Within the walls, one of the most widespread professions, especially in Ancient Athens, was that of the potter. Their workshops were concentrated in the area of Kerameikos. There they made jars, vases in various shapes and sizes, lamps and much more. Their main tool was the wheel, a disk on a vertical axis. On this disc the craftsman placed the clay which he turned with his hand to get the required shape.
![Ancient Greek vases Ancient Greek vases](https://www.newsbeast.gr/image/s320x/file/files/1/2022/08/arxaia-ellada-6.jpg)
When the vessel was completed, it was left exposed to the sun to dry or baked in an oven. Then the vase painters got to work, usually following the red-figure or black-figure style, they embellished the vase with shapes and designs.
In ancient Greece, pienes also knew the profession of a butcher who sold meat to citizens and a tanner who processed the skin of animals to then deliver it to the scytotomo, the shoemaker who made shoes.
Others, mainly professionals, took what came from the rock and loom of the women of each house and undertook to dye it in the desired color and the gnafs to be treated. Then the tailors created a series of clothes.
The… oldest profession that cost up to 10,000 drachmas
Of course, the so-called… oldest profession in the world, that of prostitution, could not be missing from the list. The British author and social research manager at the doctoral level at the South Bank University of London Eric Chaline, mentions in his book “travel guide to ancient Greece – Athens and the surroundings” (Savvala publications) As prostitution was common in Attica. It is said that the great legislator Solon founded the first public brothels, in order to ensure the love life of the citizens. All major urban municipalities had brothels for both men and women in Athens. They were located near the city gates (especially at Dipylos and the Holy Gates of Kerameikos) and in Piraeus, near the city gates and the port of Kantharos.
There were many categories of extradited women. “At the lowest level were prostitutes, foreign slaves who worked in prostitution for a few pittances. Next come the independent prostitutes. Single women selling their services on part time terms. They were often hired as aulitris at the banquets, where they were paid two drachmas, the same as a manual laborer’s daily wage. At the highest level were the courtesans, beautiful courtiers with great education who charge up to 10,000 drachmas for one night,” says Chaline.
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Money lenders and usurers
End of the 5th century BC we meet in ancient Greece the profession of banker/lender which comes from the needs of the time. Merchants who undertook the import and export of products from the city-states sought resources to do their business and turned to the financiers of their time.
Of course, there were loans in the past, but always without interest. Now the professionals of the genre lent money with the ultimate goal of profiting from the interest rate that the borrower gave them back, over the specified period of time. The interest ranged around 10% to 12%, while there are loan sharks who asked for an even higher percentage, resulting in the state intervening for the benefit of the citizens.
Doctors for every disease
It goes without saying that in ancient times there were also doctors. The first to use logic in the treatment of various diseases. Leaving aside the “divine intervention” they began to look for more practical and natural remedies. Embracing the idea of ”a healthy mind in a healthy body” (despite the fact that the phrase comes from the much later Roman poet Juvenal), physicians have always aimed at the simultaneous treatment of body and mind. The basic elements of science were learned by aspiring doctors from the medical teachers who were one of the many branches of the teachers.
Information about a series of professions is also given to us by Aristophanes in the comedy “Chickens” presented in 414 BC. at the Athenian festival of “en astei Dionysias”. He writes characteristically in verses 493-497:[…] in the morning, as soon as the rooster crows, everyone immediately wakes up to go to their work, the coppersmith, the flourer, the tanner (s.s. the tanner) and those who make shields or lyres; together with the jug maker, the shoemaker and the bather (s.s. . one who works in the public baths or owns them)’.
The… capers
Finally, the ones worth mentioning are the kapili (small traders) and the emoroi (large traders). Although most farmers, fishermen, breeders and artisans sold their products in the Market themselves, sometimes this was done through middlemen.
The kapils bought the products from their derivatives and then took them to the Agora and sold them more expensively, earning from this monetary difference between purchase and resale. Many times, however, they were accused of cheating, as they closed the scale or falsified the products. That’s why the metronome and the marketeer (yes, two more professions) had them under surveillance. After all, the verb “to ride” also comes from them.