Th e world depicted in Homer’s Odyssey gives us insights
into the development of occupations. Th ere the oikos, or
household, is the basic economic unit and strives insofar as
possible for self-suffi ciency. Agricultural labor and domes-
tic chores are performed by family members and by slaves,
with clothing production and food preparation in the hands
of the female members of the oikos. Necessary craft s, such
as carpentry, are performed by the head of the oikos. (Od-
ysseus builds his own house and is capable of shipbuilding
when necessary.) In ancient Greece the chief exceptions were
metals (for which specialized workshops, oft en linked to ma-
jor shrines, such as Delphi, existed from an early date) and
luxury goods, which were obtained from itinerant traders.
Settlement in cities led to specialization, but for nonurban
dwellers of suffi cient means most work was done in-house
throughout the historical era. Related food-production occu-
pations (sheepherding, goat herding, and fi shing) were com-
mon in some areas, though notoriously diffi cult to make a
living at.
In cities there was a variety of manufacturing industries,
but of limited size. Th e largest we know of is a 120-person op-
eration to manufacture shields; workshops of 10 or so people
were much more common. Given its size and wealth, Athens
gives us the most complete picture of the variety of manufac-
turing trades: stonemasons, carpenters, shipbuilders, shoe-
makers, potters, and blacksmiths. Surviving goods show that
some of the work was of the highest quality. Athens was a
magnet for talent, and many workers were foreigners, oft en
slaves. Citizens were involved in the craft s as well—Socrates’
father was a stonemason—but the presence of slave labor pre-
sumably drove down the profi tability of most craft s, and even
skilled artisans did not enjoy great prestige. Among practi-
tioners of the other arts, poets and musicians sometimes en-
joyed high status.
Given the frequency of war in the Greek world, most city-
states were in a more or less permanent wartime economy,
which provided many career opportunities. Armies were
made up of citizen soldiers—unpaid part-timers expected to
supply their own equipment, so that military service, far from
being a career, was a detriment to having one. Th ere were ex-
ceptions, however. In Athens during the fi ft h century b.c.e.
the development of a naval empire led to increased demand
for sailors and ships, and paid service in the navy became
an economic cornerstone of the Athenian democracy. (Th e
number of jobs for shipbuilders must also have been signifi -
cant.) Greeks could serve as mercenaries, oft en in the armies
of non-Greek rulers, such as the king of Persia. Th e historian
Xenophon (ca. 431–ca. 352 b.c.e.) was one such mercenary,
and Greeks were highly sought aft er for their discipline and
their specialized fi ghting skills.
Trade grew in importance, along with Greek prosperity,
and provided a variety of employment opportunities. Bank-
ing and insurance were of particular importance for long-
distance trade. Some cities, such as Aegina, became wealthy
on account of long-distance trade (especially with Egypt and
Italy), and successful merchants became the new elite. Piracy
fl ourished alongside trade, as did robbery on land. Groups
of individuals, or even whole communities, could earn their
livelihoods in this way, especially given the possibility of sell-
ing captured travelers as slaves.
Retail sales of food were a common way of earning a liv-
ing among the poorer classes. Vegetable and fi sh merchants
plied their trade in the market, and purveyors of hot foods
were to be found at festivals and other public gatherings. Cit-
ies also would have had hot food for sale in small shops (large,
sit-down restaurants being a modern invention), and there
were many bakeries as well. Most houses had cooking facili-
ties, but ovens were rare.
Healing professions provided employment for some.
Doctors were probably in short supply and oft en were itiner-
ant. Th e surviving works of the Hippocratic corpus show a
remarkable degree of sophistication but depict the status of
only a small segment of the medical professions. Most doc-
tors were probably ill trained. Surgery was performed by spe-
cialists (who oft en were not doctors). Midwives usually were
responsible for childbirth and probably for other gynecologi-
cal issues as well. Healing also came from drug specialists
(somet i mes ca l led rhizotomoi, or “root cutters,” in reference
to the source of their medicines) and from magicians. Al-
though magic is rarely mentioned in literary sources, non-
literary evidence shows that it was always popular and must
have been a vocation or an avocation for many.
Education was limited to the upper classes, and the
number of teachers must have been small. Th ey included
many household slaves, but at the far end of the scale were
the Sophists, the great teachers of rhetoric who came to Ath-
ens in the fi ft h century b.c.e. Athens’s status as a center ofFrieze of hydriaphoroi (water carriers) from the Parthenon (Alison
Frantz Photographic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at
Athens)occupations: Greece 815