El ciudadano frente a la vejez: vulnerabilidad y formas de ‘asistencia pública’ en la Atenas democrática

Fernández Prieto, Aida ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5894-0869 (2023) El ciudadano frente a la vejez: vulnerabilidad y formas de ‘asistencia pública’ en la Atenas democrática. In: Cuerpos que envejecen: Vulnerabilidad, familias, dependencia y cuidados en la antigüedad. Dykinson, Madrid. ISBN 9788411229333

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Abstract

Some of the research that has focused on the study of "assistance" to the needy and other vulnerable sectors of the population in classical antiquity has highlighted the antagonism between a pagan "Greco-Roman" world - in which there was no moral obligation to help the needy - and the subsequent development, with the arrival and establishment of Christianity, of a social ethic articulated around the notion of "charity". However, although the Athenian polis did not develop an idea of "charity" similar to the Christian one, it seems that the city-state of Athens assumed in terms of "social duty" - at least in part and during the democratic stage - the "support" of its poorest and weakest citizens, including individuals whose advanced age would render them incapable of performing certain jobs, with the consequent risk of falling into poverty. In this sense, and as will be discussed in this chapter, certain forms of misthos, especially the dikastikon, and possibly also some allowances, such as those intended for the adynatoi or the disabled (from war and perhaps other causes), could have contributed to alleviating, to a certain extent, the socio-economic vulnerability of elderly citizens, especially those of humble or very humble origin.