The Journey to Ancient Greece - Chapter 11

. . . continued from Chapter 10

(or start at the beginning)

Greek Port by  *suburbanbeatnik

The small town of Patras consisted of a fishing port surrounded by a market area and several civic center buildings. These buildings in turn were surrounded by small houses with farmland. One of these farms was owned by a wealthy family headed by a man named Kaiaphas.  In addition to owning several hectares of farmland, Kaiaphas’ family also raised herds of sheep which they sheared seasonally for wool. 

Once the wool was sheared it had to then be cleaned, carded, spun, woven and dyed in preparation for making garments or felt for the entire household with extra to be sold at the market. To complete the labor of shearing and spinning the wool, many slaves had to be bought and forced to work. One of these slaves was Argo’s sister Kisandra. Like many young girls in Greece, Kisandra already knew how to spin and weave wool. She received her first spindle from her parents when she was just eight years old.

Shearing sheep

          She was sitting before piles of lamb’s wool just as she had done every day for the past few weeks since she had been led to Kaiaphas’ farm. The wool had been sheared and then teased or picked clean by other slaves before it was brought to her. Her job was to take this cleaned wool and to spin it into sheets used for bedding or clothing.

The warp-weighted loom she used stood upright on a rickety wooden frame in a large workshop building. The stuffy, cramped workshop was filled with several dozen other girls who were all weaving fabric as well. The frame of Kisandra’s loom was leaning against the back wall of the workshop. Bundles of threads were tied to a series of dangling loom weights which kept the thread pulled tight. The lengthwise yarns were called the warp, and the yarn that she inserted over-and-under the warp threads were called the weft. Kisandra enjoyed doing this type of work at home because the labor was exercised for the sake of her family. Being forced to do this by a stranger made the labor nearly unbearable.

Image of a standing loom by saamiblog.

 Kisandra refused to work for this family the first couple of days. She demanded that she be taken home. She missed her family and wanted desperately to leave, but Kaiaphas paid no attention to her complaints.

          “You belong to me fair and square,” he would tell her.

"Greek Slave" by Hiram Powers

          She eventually began working when they threatened to beat her and threatened to cut her already meager food supply in half. For some reason she felt she would be saved.  She wasn’t sure why. Some of the other slave girls had been working on this farm for years with no chance for escape, but Kisandra new that her family would not allow her to be taken and kept so easily. She held out hope that they would find her here and rescue her, but until that time came she would do her work and stay out of trouble. She had begun to make friends with some of the other girls. There was Soussana from Sparta who also did weaving, and Timo, the older lady from Persia who would sing songs in the kitchen when she cooked.

          Kisandra had also been trying to figure out how she could escape herself, but there was a large guard by the name of Isaak who always kept close watch on all the girls in Kisandra’s group of weavers. Isaak was a muscular man with red hair and big arms.  He would laugh and make jokes whenever Kaiaphas was around, but when it came to keeping an eye on the slaves he was all business.

          On her second day at the farm, Kisandra witnessed firsthand how tough Isaak could be. One of the field hands who normally helped with the planting of seeds turned up missing. The overseer of the garden workers told Isaak, and Isaak began questioning the other slaves about the missing man’s location. They refused to speak until Isaak threatened them with lashes from the whip. That was all the intimidation it took for the other slaves to begin singing like birds. They told Isaak that the runaway had snuck underneath a vegetable cart that had left the farm and was travelling to a nearby port city. Once there, the man hoped to find passage aboard a merchant ship out of the area.

Isaak quickly chose three of his fellow guards and they rode their horses towards the port city in hopes of catching the vegetable cart before it arrived. Soon Isaak and his henchmen returned to the farm with the runaway in tow. Isaak tied him up to a post and gave him fifty lashes with a whip. That was a typical punishment for attempted escape. Because of that, Kisandra was hesitant to try any sort of escape herself, especially when Isaak seemed to be nearby at all times.

Kisandra was busy laboring with the distaff and spindle when her weaving routine was interrupted by the arrival of Kaiaphas’ eldest daughter, Rhachel.

          “Kisandra, I have wonderful news for you!” said Rhachel. She was eighteen years old and had golden blonde hair that fell gently all the way down her back.

          “What news?” asked Kisandra. Her heart leapt in her throat. Was her father here to pick her up? Would Rhachel’s father allow her to leave?

          “You have been chosen! Oh, this is so exciting!” Rhachel continued to gush and prance around Kisandra.

          “Chosen for what?” Why wouldn’t she just say it, thought Kisandra. The anticipation was driving her crazy.

          Rhachel took a deep breath and stepped close to Kisandra. “You have been chosen… to be Markos’ bride!”

          Kisandra’s head spun for a moment. Markos’ bride? Markos was the youngest son of Kaiaphas. He had met Kisandra on the day she arrived and had instantly been smitten by her. This obviously was not the news Kisandra had been hoping for.

          “Now the wedding won’t be anytime soon because you are still too young,” Rhachel continued, “but after a couple years my father thinks you’ll be ready to become a wonderful wife for Markos. And bare him many sons.”

          “A couple of years?” Kisandra asked. “Many sons?”

They were already planning on keeping her here for years?

          “It will be so nice to have you as a sister, Kisandra. Aren’t you excited?”

          Kisandra felt the warmth of tears beginning to swell in her eyes.

          “I can’t marry Markos,” said Kisandra. “I barely know him.”

          “Oh, you’ll get to know him,” said Rhachel. “You two will get along fine. And then you and I will be like best friends. And we will be able to raise our children together. You are so lucky to have been chosen, Kisandra. Once you are married you will no longer have to be a slave. Isn’t that wonderful?”

          “I…excuse me.” Kisandra ran past Rhachel out of the workshop and out to the nearby well where she splashed cold water on her face. This was not good news. This wasn’t how things were supposed to work out for her. Where was her family? Where was her father?

Where was Argo?

To be continued in Chapter 12 . . . 

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

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