Household Dynamics and Emotions in the Delphic Manumission Inscriptions

Deborah Kamen, Professor of Classics at University of Washington 

An uncharacteristically robust set of inscriptional evidence from Hellenistic Delphi grants us access to an enslaved woman named Eisias, who was manumitted after apparently giving birth to her enslaver’s son. In the first part of this talk, I aim to reconstruct some of the details of Eisias’ life; in the second, I engage in “informed speculation” (to use Sara E. Johnson’s term) to imagine the emotional experiences of Eisias (and to a lesser extent, the other members of her household) both before and after her manumission.”