Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece

Have you ever heard that ancient Greeks killed disabled infants at birth? This story shows up in academic scholarship, textbooks, even popular media and memes. In this talk, I discuss where this idea comes from—focusing on ancient passages in Plutarch, Plato, and Aristotle—and assess what this evidence tells us about the realities of ancient life. I then present literary, archaeological, and skeletal evidence that shows that ancient Greeks enabled the survival of disabled infants. With this new perspective, we can begin to think about why this story about disabled infanticide has been so persistent in the modern imagination. 

Join Debby Sneed, Assistant Professor of Classics at California State University, Long Beach, for a conversation on infanticide in Ancient Greece in the Humanities Commons. Sponsored by the Department of Classical Studies and the Humanities Center Disability Justice Initiative.

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