I have recently come across this sentence, casually thrown in an end of a paragraph: "Although craftsmen still suffered from traditional prejudices against any activity involving physical labour, three potters from Attica became wealthy enough to dedicate sculptures with accompanying inscriptions on the Acropolis." (Charles Freeman's "Egypt, Greece and Rome", 1996) This is referring to Athens in late 7th--early 6th century BC. Is there anyone here who could explain to me this "traditional prejudice," what exactly was it, why and how was it observed, etc? Thanx.
Caste in Indo-European societies requires a more mature audience than we have here (with a few exceptions).
whitewolf: The upper echelons of Greek society looked down upon manual labour, seeing it as fit only for slaves. The Greek ideal (I horridly oversimplify) was of a man who was self-disciplined enough to avoid such primitive, animalistic modes of working, generally by being able to appropriately control the labour of others.
