Enslaved to an artifice: a study into the self-designation, 'slave/servant', as used in the Ancient Near East before the time of Alexander the Great

Abstract

In ancient Palestine, a plaintiff calls himself 'servant/slave' to the official whom he wants to hear his case. High ranking officials in Babylonia inscribe on their signet rings or seal-cylinders 'servant/slave' of such and such a king. A woman has inscribed on her signet ring, 'maid servant' of so and so. Among the Jews in Elephantine in Egypt, equals sometime call themselves 'servant/slave' to each other. What is meant by these self-designations? Are they to be taken as literal 'truth'; that is the subject is all that the term, 'slave' connotes, or as a metaphorical artifice that may connote quite different meanings to those typical for the term, 'slave'. The self-designation as used in a selection of Ancient Near East texts from a variety of genres is analysed to reconstruct possible reasons why people in the ANE used the self-designation, and how scholars have understood the self-designations. It is concluded that the self-designation, 'slave/servant' is a metaphoric artifice used by people in the ANE to claim status or the right to be considered favourably by means of the connotation that they are obedient to a higher power.