Читать книгу Greek and Roman Slaveries - Eftychia Bathrellou - Страница 67

Salakonis, the name of the female correspondent, means arrogant, and Gemellus, the name of the male correspondent, could have been understood as an allusion to a euphemism for “testicle.”

Literature: Biraud and Zucker 2018.

Gemellus to Salakonis:

Why do you act so haughtily, Salakonis you wretch? Didn’t I take you up from the workshop, where you had to work beside that lame clothes mender? Didn’t I even do it without mother’s knowledge? Aren’t I keeping you as if you were some heiress to whom I had got married? But you’ve got on your high horse, you cheap little slave girl, and you never stop giggling and making fun of me. Won’t you cease from your arrogance, you wretch? I will show you your lover is your master, and I will have you roast barley in the countryside. Then you will learn by suffering into what misery you drove yourself.

Salakonis to Gemellus:

I can endure anything, except for sleeping with you, master. In the night I did not run away, nor was I hiding under the bushes, as you thought, but I slipped into the trough and lay there, with its curve around me as cover. And since I’ve decided to end my life by hanging myself, listen to one who speaks openly and clearly; my keenness to die strips away all my fear. I detest you, Gemellus. I loathe your shaggy body and avoid it like a fox; I loathe your foul mouth, which sends forth horrible smells from the bottom of your throat. Be damned to a horrid end, so horrible as you are. Go to some bleary-eyed peasant hag, her life hanging by a … single molar, her body perfumed by … pitch oil.

 What are the respective statuses of Gemellus and Salakonis?

 How are they represented in this text?

 How does Salakonis respond to Gemellus’ demands?

 What forms of slave labor are mentioned in the text? What role does sex play among these forms of labor?

 Can we use this text as a realistic depiction of social relations?