Punishment, Stigma and Social Identities in Classical Athens

Abstract

Abstract Taking its cue from modern debates on the expressive function of punishment, this paper discusses the stigmatizing effect of penalties in classical Athens. It focuses on corporal punishment, which was discursively associated in the Athenian public discourse (chiefly comedy and oratory) with slaves and other fringe groups of the citizen community, despite the fact that in reality, with only certain restrictions (e.g. whipping), it was meted out to all social tiers making up the polis-community. Unlike other penalties, those affecting the body were not only public, but not infrequently spectacular. This turned them into versatile devices of stigmatization whereby the punishment itself was no longer considered a one-off event, but a permanent mark branding the person who suffered it as a social outcast.