| My contribution to the ongoing investigation of disability in the ancient world is an examination of the daily life of people with physical disabilities in ancient Greece. Physical disability is a cultural construction, shaped by social forces. The Greeks did not have a fixed definition of physical disability. The degree of ability to accomplish the tasks of citizenship--in its broadest sense--comprised the criteria for determining physical ability and disability. The categories into which the thesis is organized--impairments of the body, of hearing, of speech, and of sight--were not perceived identically in the modern world and in ancient Greece. The first chapter, a catalogue of bodily impairments, points out that in contrast to the Neoclassical ideal of the Classical Greek body, many people had a wide variety of visible physical impairments. The second chapter examines the social consequences of physical impairment, and concludes that there were no codified notions of "able-bodied" or "disabled," and that the consequences of physical handicaps varied according to individual context. Deafness and hearing impairment, the topic of Chapter Three, went hand in hand with a perceived impairment of communication and, by extension, an impairment of intellect and reason. The scant surviving literary information about deafness comes from the people who cared most about these properties; the bulk of the population would not have placed as high a value on intellect. Speech disorders, which are discussed in Chapter Four, existed, and people with speech disorders functioned in society. Blindness and sight impairment, the topic of the fifth chapter, were common conditions to which every member of the ancient world was vulnerable. The criteria for blindness were strict, and only a modern view could link blindness and sight-impairment as parts of the same category. The conclusion summarizes three main points of the thesis and suggests an investigation of conditions that the Greeks considered to be physical disabilities. Most important of these conditions is female sterility. Finally, the perception of physically-disabled people as a distinct group is not a Greek concept. |
