Social Stratification in Pylos

The system of land tenure gives additional insight into the stratification of society in the Kingdom of Pylos. At the apex of the social pyramid stood the small number of landholders who owned the ktoinai ktimenai and whose estates tended to be very large. Perhaps these worthies of the realm participated in some of the leisure activities depicted in Mycenaean art, such as these hunting scenes on ceremonial swords (see Figure 2.10) from the Shaft Graves at Mycene,

Figure 2.10 Hunting scenes on a ceremonial sword from the Shaft Graves. Source: from Tomb IV, Grave Circle A, Mycenae Athens, National Archaeological Museum. Photo DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI. akg-images/De Agostini Picture Library

Even if their actual hunts involved animals more prosaic than lions which were not native to Greece.

The next social group was the large number of those who did not own land, but instead leased it, either from the damos or from the holder of a ktoina ktimena. These lease-holders enjoyed a fair degree of prosperity as a sort of “middle class.” Beneath them was the remainder of the free population in Pylos, who did not hold land either by deed or by lease.

At the bottom of the social pyramid were the so-called slaves. The Mycenae-ans knew the classical Greek distinction between eleutheros and do(h)elos, “free” and “slave” (or more neutrally, “unfree”). However, in Mycenaean society the terms “free” and “unfree” in the first instance denoted legal status. For the Unfree in Pylos, somewhat surprisingly, were often prosperous landholders. According to Ep 212, line 9: “Idomeneia, a do(h)ela (the feminine to do(h)elos) of a deity, holds an onaton-lease on a ktoina kekhesmena from the damos.” Numerous do(h)eloi of gods held such leases in Pylos. Occasionally, a do(h)elos belonging to a person (admittedly in all attested cases to a priest[ess]) also held a lease. Significantly, however, no do(h)elos ever owned land; in Pylos only the Free could actually own. The Unfree, however, could acquire leases and, economically at least, enter the “middle class.”