This is a skeleton excavated from an Athenian graveyard under the Acropolis. You’ll notice what looks like a bone plate lying atop the skeleton’s spine.
This is what a fused spine looks like. This gent led a hard working life, either as a slave or manual laborer. He must have spent his last years in a hell of a lot of pain.
Life in classical Athens wasn’t all pretty statues and philosophy.
Well, I guess life was pretty good for *citizens*. Mostly. Was it Plato who had to drink the Hemlock? I can think of a few politicians now, where that might be appropriate . . .
It was Socrates who drank the hemlock and Plato who wrote it all down afterward. And yeah, before the steam engine and the industrial revolution it’s hard to find any civilization that wasn’t built on some form of slave labor.
On a lighter note, I just discovered Un asunto privado (A Private Affair) streaming on Amazon. Aura Garrido finally got a show of her own and is clearly enjoying every minute.
Comments on this entry are closed.