When Stealing Stopped Being Shameful
loss. He has no land to leave them, no cattle, no home. Martín Fierro, the character created by José Hernández, has been a forced soldier, a deserter, an outlaw, and a fugitive. He has lost everything, including his respectability. And yet, in The Return of Martín Fierro (1879), when he gathers his sons and the son of […]
Less Free Than Athens
Lisandros was born in Phoenicia but has lived in the port of Athens for twenty years. He rents a workshop where he manufactures amphorae to export olive oil. He hires both free workers and slaves. He asked no one’s permission to open his business. No one demands monthly reports from him. If a trading partner breaks […]