Slavery in Atlantis - A Meta

[deinonychus_1]

One of the lesser-used types of fill in hc_bingo is meta, so I decided to do a little analysis of slavery as depicted in the TV show Atlantis, as compared with real world slavery in ancient Greece, and also slavery as it appears in Greek mythology.

I may have got slightly carried away...

Unsurprisingly, it fills the 'Slaves' prompt on my hurt/comfort

Comments

[kat_lair]

This was really, really interesting to read even for someone who was never that into fandom. Though I confess to being a fan of a well executed slave fic trope :D It would be interesting to see this done realistically though in Atlantis fandom. Also, much kudos on research - I do like it when people do their research :D

[deinonychus_1]

Thanks! I actually really enjoyed writing this. I studied Class Civ at A-level and also a bit at university (I was technically studying archaeology, but did all my subsidiary modules in the classics department), so it was really good to finally be able to make use of all that knowledge, even if it was only for fandom purposes, lol! Plus, the research was a great excuse to read lots of interesting books again! :-)

It was quite interesting to realise just how much the show had completely ignored that entire aspect of ancient Greece, though. The only conclusion I could come to was the 'family show' argument. If it had been more aimed at the Game of Thrones type audience I suspect it may have been a different matter.

[kat_lair]

I wouldn't want to do it all the time but sometimes it's satisfying to marry professional knowledge and fandom. And yes, the historical family adventure series like Atlantis, Merlin, Robb Hood etc aren't exactly known for gritty realism or historical accuracy. It's interesting to see what's considered acceptable family viewing though. Beheading apparently fine but not slavery...

[deinonychus_1]

And yes, the historical family adventure series like Atlantis, Merlin, Robb Hood etc aren't exactly known for gritty realism or historical accuracy.

Well, considering that the Atlantis writers' approach seemed to be: take lots of character names from mythology (and history), take lots of myths and customs from the ancient world, take lots of monsters, throw everything into a bag together, shake vigorously, pull out and mix-and-match at random, I'm fairly certain that historical accuracy wasn't even vaguely on their priority list!

It's interesting to see what's considered acceptable family viewing though. Beheading apparently fine but not slavery... The more I thought about it, them more I'm convinced it was as much about the character viewpoints and potential conflict as it was about what was considered 'acceptable'. There's no way that any of the main three could be seen to condone slavery, but at the same time there's no way any of the three of them could successfully challenge such a widespread and ingrained aspect of society

[fififolle]

That was absolutely fascinating! Of course, poking at plot and background is always going to make no sense sometimes, but you actually seemed to make some sense of it! Great stuff.

[deinonychus_1]

Hee, thanks! Yes, it's definitely one of those things that probably doesn't stand up to overly vigorous poking, to be fair. I did quite enjoy this, though.

Once I really started thinking about it, it was quite interesting how far they went to ignore that entire issue, and particularly the realisation that on the few times it does come up, the implication that it was generally a form of 'punishment'. Obviously the writers felt it might be more palatable if being enslaved was something that only happened to people who had done something to deserve it, rather than the reality that it could happen to anyone who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.