The Discourse of Disability in Ancient Greece

Recent scholarship has been divided over the question of whether a categorization of the disabled existed in antiquity. Close readings of Lysias, Plutarch, and other ancient Greek authors strongly suggest that some Greeks did construct a social category of disability. The ἀδύνατοι were banned from military, political, and religious roles in Athens and elsewhere. The Spartans, on the other hand, chastised those who did not fight, even those with disabling impairments, while lauding those who “overcame” their disabilities. Disability thus provides a new framework within which to gauge inter-Greek ethnic identity.