古典期アテナイの職人に関する一考察

Abstract

古代ギリシアにおいてポリスの中核を担っていたのは, 農民であった。これに対し, 職人の多くは外国人や奴隷であり, 手工業は市民にはふさわしくない俗業として蔑視の対象となっていた。古典期アテナイの文献史料を根拠にこのような傾向が指摘される一方で, 職人の中にはアテナイ市民も含まれていたことが確認されている。本稿は, 「移動」と「定住」という観点から, 市民権の有無にかかわらず共通する職人の性質を導き出し, 彼らが位置していた世界を意味する概念として, 「職人の世界」を設定する。さらに, 職人を指す言葉のうち, 職人蔑視を考察する上で最大の手がかりとなる「バナウソス」に注目し, この言葉が哲学者作品以外ではほとんど用いられていない理由について検討する。「職人の世界」が接近するという特殊な状況にあった古典期アテナイにおいて, 同時に「バナウソス」が用いられなくなっていったことは, 職人に対する不信感が薄れたことを意味すると考えられる。古典期アテナイの人々は, 閉鎖的な市民団を形成する一方で, 「職人の世界」を受け入れる開放性を有していたのである。

Since the majority of citizens in Ancient Greece were farmers, most craftsmen were either foreigners or slaves. Consequently, craftsmen were despised by their contemporaries, notably by philosophers such as Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. There were, however, a small number of citizen craftsmen. In this paper, the author first analyzes craftsmen in terms of their mobility. Craftsmen were able to move freely from one polis to another, and they were equally able to stay in any one polis as long as was needed. In other words they occupied the world of craftsmen. The author then discusses the notable word, banausos, which specifically expresses contempt for craftsmen, but which was used mostly by the philosophers among writers in classical Athens. According to this analysis, it appears that general citizens despised craftsmen due to their distrust of the world of craftsmen. Many craftsmen were able to communicate with the general citizens in classical Athens, and as they developed a closer relationship, traditional distrust gradually began to fade. It is often said that the Athenian polis was based on exclusivity, but at the same time it appears to have been possible for citizens to feel a close affinity with "outsiders" such as the residents of the world of craftsmen.