Slavery in ancient Greece

This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Slavery in ancient Greece" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Funerary stele of Mnesarete, daughter of Socrates; a young servant (left) is facing her dead mistress. Attica, c. 380 BC. (Glyptothek, Munich). Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece. The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, as domestic servants, or even as a public utility, as with the demosioi of Athens. Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery (where the slave was regarded as a piece of property, as opposed to a member of human society) and land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs (an enhancement to real estate). The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel. The academic study of slavery in ancient Gree