Marginal but not Marginalised Figures. Short Portrait of Lysias and Neaera in Classical Athens

The subject of this chapter is a specific category of non-citizens in the city: the resident aliens in Classical Athens. The metoikoi, although living in the city, were usually excluded from the polis, i.e. the “community of citizens”, because the right of citizenship was reserved only for Athenian “pure-bloods” and “natives”. Therefore, the city welcomed the resident aliens but in a strictly inferior condition, relegating them to the margins, in a liminal zone between the politai and the xenoi. It is, in this “border area”, however, that the metoikoi often found their sphere of action, based on dynamics that this paper aims to explore in detail. The analysis is guided by two biographies that can illuminate the multiple faces of marginality, understood in both its male and female profiles: the case of Lysias and the story of Neaera. In a broad sense, this chapter demonstrates the heuristic value of the hermeneutic category of “marginality”. The margin is not only a “place of deprivation” but also an extraordinary “space of possibility”. Both Lysias and Neaera diverge from the negative image of resident aliens propagated by the hegemonic Athenian narrative because they turn out to be marginal, but not marginalized, figures. Although excluded from the polis, they are included in the Athenian social context because of their ability to react to the inequalities they face; Lysias’ case is an excellent example of the civic duty of metics, while Neaera’s story showcases the resourcefulness of foreign women.