Enslaved Afterlives: The Ancient Greek Grave Stele of Hegeso (410 - 400 B.C.E) and Its Contemporary Museum Display
Loading...
Date
2024-01-09
Authors
Garcia, Alexis
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The Grave Stele of Hegeso (410 – 400 B.C.E) is an ancient Greek mistress-maid type funerary stele from Athens that depicts an elite woman attended to by an enslaved attendant. This thesis centers the analysis on the enslaved woman who has been overshadowed in the scholarship and seeks to excavate enslaved experiences. By analyzing the iconography of the grave stele, its placement in the highly traveled Kerameikos Cemetery, and representations of the enslaved in theater, I argue that the enslaved figure draws upon the theatrical trope of the Good Slave to communicate ideology to both enslaved and free viewers. And I argue that modern conceptions of the Grave Stele of Hegeso and the role of slavery in antiquity are shaped by the stele’s display in the modern Greek museum that situates it within the context of the continued absence of slavery in the academic and museological tradition.
Description
Keywords
Ancient Slavery, Classical Athens, Iconography, Museology