Table Of ContentANCIENT GREEK AGRICULTURE
ANC IENT GREEK
AGRICULTURE
An introduction
Signe Isager
and
Jens Erik Skydsgaard
London and New York
First published 1992
Paperback edition first published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
© 1992, 1995 Signe Isager and Jens Erik Skydsgaard
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Isager, Signe
Ancient Greek agriculture.
I. Title II. Skydsgaard, Jens Erik
630.932
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Isager, Signe.
Ancient Greek agriculture: an introduction / Signe Isager and Jens Erik Skydsgaard.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Agriculture–Greece–History. I. Skydsgaard, Jens Erik. II. Title.
S429.I73 1992
338.1’0938–dc20
ISBN 0-415-00164-1 (Print Edition)
0-415-11671-6 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-03774-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17861-0 (Glassbook Format)
CONTENTS
List of Plates and Figures vii
Preface ix
Part I The art of agriculture 1
INTRODUCTION 3
1 THE GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND 9
2 TILLING AND CROPS 19
3 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS 44
4 AGRICULTURAL BUILDING 67
5 ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 83
6 AGRARIAN SYSTEMS 108
Part II State and agriculture 115
INTRODUCTION 117
7 PRIVATE LAND 120
8 TAXES IN AGRICULTURE 135
9 OTHER LAWS 145
10 LABOUR AND STATE 149
Part III Gods and agriculture 157
INTRODUCTION 159
11 THE CALENDAR 160
12 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS FOR THE GODS 169
13 LAND BELONGING TO THE GODS 181
14 THE ANIMALS OF THE GODS 191
EPILOGUE 199
Appendix: The sacred olives 203
Bibliography 206
Index of passages cited 224
General index 228
v
LIST OF PLATES AND FIGURES
Illustrations indicated with (S) are provided by Skydsgaard, the others are supplied by
the respective museums. We should like to thank the authorities for permitting
reproduction.
Plates
1.1 The Marathonian Plain (S) 16
1.2 Landscape with terraces, Methana (S) 16
2.1 Triptolemus with ear of corn, Attic red-figure
hydria, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen 23
2.2 Ear of corn, stater from Metapontum, National Museum,
Copenhagen 23
2.3 Cuttings of vine, Ithaka (S) 30
2.4 Vineyard just before pruning in January, Methana (S) 30
2.5 Vine, Chios (S) 31
2.6 Wild olive, Athens, Areopagus (S) 34
2.7 Domesticated olive, Methana (S) 34
2.8 Grafting on a wild olive, Methana (S) 37
2.9 The same grafting as in Plate 2.8, six months later (S) 37
2.10 Old olive tree, cut down, with new shoots growing from
the trunk, Crete (S) 39
2.11 Picking the olives, Attic black-figure amphora, British Museum 40
3.1 Plough, Boeotian terracotta, Louvre 48
3.2 Modern plough (ard), Mykonos (S) 48
3.3 Agricultural labours, Attic black-figure kylix, Louvre 50–1
3.4 Pruning-hooks and reaping sickle, Olynthos 54
3.5 Threshing-floor, Methana (S) 54
3.6 Picking and treading the grapes, Attic black-figure kylix,
Cabinet des Medailles, Paris 58
3.7 Treading the grapes, Attic red-figure krater, Museo Civico,
Ferrara 58
3.8 Treading the grapes on a stone pressing-bed, Attic
red-figure amphora, Museo Civico, Bologna 59
vii
LIST OF PLATES AND FIGURES
3.9 Stone pressing-bed, Olynthos (S) 59
3.10 Oil-mill (trapetum), Olynthos (S) 62
3.11 Oil-mill (trapetum), Pompeii (S) 62
3.12 Olive-press, Attic black-figure skyphos, Boston (M.H. Hansen) 64
3.13 Olive-press, Attic black-figure skyphos, Boston (M.H. Hansen) 64
3.14 Bags with crushed olives under the press, relief, British
Museum (S) 65
5.1 Athenian horsemen, Elgin Marbles, British Museum (S) 86
5.2 Mating donkeys, Attic red-figure oinochoe, Munich 88
5.3 Donkey with packsaddle, cameo, Thorvaldsen Museum,
Copenhagen 88
5.4 Herakles leading a bull, Attic red-figure amphora, Boston
(after Pfuhl 1923) 90
5.5 Cows in sacrificial procession, Elgin Marbles, British Museum 90
5.6 Goats and herdsman, Attic black-figure kyathos, Louvre
(after Pfuhl 1923) 92
5.7 Odysseus escaping under the ram, Attic black-figure lekythos,
National Museum, Copenhagen 92
5.8 Going to market with pigs, Attic red-figure pelike,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 94
5.9 Cocks, Attic Tyrrhenian amphora, National Museum,
Copenhagen 95
Figures
1.1 Orographic map of Greece 12
1.2 Hydrographic map of Greece 13
3.1 Diagram of a plough (after Drachmann 1938) 47
3.2 Diagram of olive-mill (trapetum) (after Drachmann 1932) 60
4.1 Country house near the Cave of Pan at Vari
(Jones/Graham/Sackett 1973) 73
4.2 Small country house near Vari (after Lauter 1980) 75
4.3 Country house no. 26 at the Crimean Chersonesos
(Dufková/Pecírka 1970) 77
11.1 The agricultural year and the Attic calendar of festivals 162
12.1 The offering of animals in individual months, Erchia 176
viii
PREFACE
The concept of this book originated some years ago in a Scandinavian symposium on
Ancient History. It was obvious that agriculture played an important role in the history
of ancient Greece and that there was need of a textbook that could serve as an
introduction. Discussions with colleagues have supported the authors in their pursuit
of the task and now, with some delay caused by the very disparate work of university
teachers, the book is finished.
During our studies we have seen the interest of ancient agriculture grow,
resulting in a nearly overwhelming flow of articles and books. Neither of us can
say – with Cassius Dio (1.1) – that ‘I have read almost everything that has been
written by anybody’ but we can confirm that ‘we have not included all in the
treatise’. Selection is difficult and we have decided to concentrate on Greek
agriculture of the city-states, that is, from Homer to Aristotle and Theophrastus.
The task has been divided. Skydsgaard undertook to write the first, more
technical, part whereas Isager has written the latter parts, on the relationship
between agriculture on one side and state and gods respectively on the other.
We have, nevertheless, collaborated step by step, discussing most of the topics
several times. Each of us is therefore responsible for the entire book.
We should like to thank our universities for granting terms free from teaching
from time to time. The Carlsberg Foundation and Churchill College, Cambridge,
granted Skydsgaard a sabbatical term in Cambridge which was very fruitful, not
least because of the hospitality and interest of the colleagues there, including
that of the late Moses I. Finley, who kindly encouraged the studies. We also
spent a week in Methana as the guests of Lin Foxhall and Hamish Forbes,
discussing various aspects of agriculture there, and should like to thank them
very much for their hospitality.
ix
PREFACE
The Danish Research Council has kindly given a grant for the translation of the
Danish manuscript, and we owe much to Professor Jørgen Læssøe for his translation
of the often difficult and technical text. Last, but not least, we should like to extend our
thanks to colleagues here and abroad, including our students, who have all willingly
discussed several details of ancient agriculture with us over the last decade.
Note to the 1995 edition: Since this book was first put into print, some important books
have been published. We would like to mention the following titles:
Alison Burford, Land and Labor in the Greek World, Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1993.
Thomas W. Gallant, Risk and Survival in Ancient Greece, Polity Press, 1991.
R. Sallares, The Ecology of Ancient Greece, Duckworth, 1991.
No references to the views of these books will be found in the notes. The text
has not been altered except for a few minor amendments.
Signe Isager
University of Odense
Jens Erik Skydsgaard
University of Copenhagen
x
