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Artifices

Among the Homeric Greeks are found gods and heroes engaged on the works of artisans. Thus Hephaestus himself works at the forge, and Athena at the loom. Odysseus makes his own bed, Arete spins, and Nausikaa washes her own clothes. In Homeric times there were also professional artisans who worked for the people, which probably comprised those who exercised all crafts and trades liberal and mechanical; including physicians, soothsayers, and musicians. They were free Greeks, not barbarians. They did not form anything like a caste. They appear to have been remunerated generally by a feast. They almost always belonged to the lower classes.

In the military and aristocratical society which prevailed after the Dorian conquest, the manual arts were exercised by perioeki and slaves. An artisan could not be a citizen; nor could a citizen learn a manual art. This was especially the case at Sparta. The tyrants, such as the Peisistratidae at Athens, Polykrates at Samos, and Periander at Corinth, are said to have encouraged their subjects to occupy themselves with mechanical arts: and in most of the Peloponnesian states the citizens were so occupied.

The political disabilities of artisans occur in different degrees: e.g. at Thebes, Thespiae and Corinth, artisans could become citizens. In some states, such as Phokis and Lokris, there were for a long time no slaves, and all trades were carried on by citizens. The Athenian legislators enacted that every father should have his son taught a trade, and citizenship was offered to strangers who were skilled as artisans and were willing to settle at Athens.

Artisans were recognised and protected by the law, and had a share in the deliberations of the assembly; but they were looked down upon by the upper classes, and so suffered in general repute. According to genuine Greek minds, such as Plato's, no native should engage in the employments of artisans. Aristotle held similar views. As most of the artisans at Athens were either actually slaves or foreigners, all came to be regarded together as forming one class.

The ancients made no radical distinction between the artist and the artisan, as long as each took pay for his services. The greatest statuary or painter, if he was paid, was regarded even till the latest times as an artisan. If, however, the artist took no money, this raised him in public estimation: e.g. Polygnotus, who painted the Stoa Poekile gratis.

Though there were no castes of artisans among the Greeks as there were among the Egyptians, some crafts, such as those of physicians, heralds, and flute-players, were hereditary in certain families. Certain priesthoods were confined to particular families both at Athens and in other cities. Trade corporations did not appear till Roman times. Artisans had partners, and apprentices. But, besides these small artisans, there were large workshops, the owners of which managed them by foremen taken from among their slaves or freedmen. No discredit attached to business conducted in this manner. Some of the tanners, shoe-makers, lamp-makers, flute-makers, &c, satirised by Aristophanes, were owners of such factories. The workers in these factories were mostly slaves, though sometimes no doubt day-laborers were hired. Masters, too, often allowed their slaves to be hired.

The state interfered very little with the artisans. No system like that of the mediaeval guilds existed to limit individual freedom within the law. A tax on trades generally is alluded to by Aristotle. There were patents for discoveries, and the selling of good-will. It is difficult to ascertain the rate of wages at any given time or place in Greece. In the time of Perikles one drachma per diem is mentioned as the wages of a skilled mason; hodmen and laborers got four or three obols.