The Identity of the "Wool-Workers" in the Attic Manumissions

by Kelly L. Wrenhaven

Hesperia, Volume 78, Issue 3
Page(s): 367-386
Stable URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2972/hesp.78.3.367
Publication Date: 2009

Period: Hellenistic
Site: Athens: Acropolis

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ABSTRACT:In the second half of the 4th century B.C., the names of manumitted men and women and their occupations were inscribed on stones and displayed, presumably on the Athenian Acropolis. More than four-fifths of those identified as female are designated as “wool-workers” (ταλασιουργοί), and scholars have debated whether these women were domestic slaves, or professional slaves who were able to purchase their own freedom. Drawing upon iconographic, literary, and archaeological evidence, the author revisits the “spinning ?ταίρα” debate, arguing that the ταλασιουργοί were primarily prostitutes and that the designation ταλασιουργ?ς was used essentially to avoid the stigma associated with their trade.