And the business of the cook is to cut up and skin, you have admitted that?
Yes, I have, but you must not be too hard upon me.
Then if some one were to kill, mince, boil, roast the cook, he would do his business, and if he were to hammer the smith, and make a pot of the potter, he would do their business (Jowett).
Οἶσθα οὖν, ἔφη, ὅτι προσήκει ἑκάστοις τῶν δημιουργῶν; πρῶτον τίνα χαλκεύειν προσήκει, οἶσθα;—Ἔγωγε· ὅτι χαλκέα.—τί δέ, κεραμεῦειν; κεραμέα.—τί δέ, σφάττειν τε καὶ ἐκδέρειν καὶ τὰ μικρὰ κρέα κατακόψαντα ἕψειν καὶ ὀπτᾶν;—Μάγειρον, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ.—Οὐκοῦν ἐάν τις, ἔφη, τὰ προσήκοντα πράττῃ, ὀρθῶς πράξει; Μάλιστα.—Προσήκει δέ γε, ὡς φῄς, τὸν μάγειρον κατακόπτειν καὶ ἐκδέρειν; ὡμολόγησας ταῦτα ἢ οὔ;—Ὡμολόγησα, ἔφην, ἀλλὰ συγγνώμην μοι ἔχε—Δῆλον τοίνυν, ἦ δ’ ὅς, ὅτι ἄν τις σφάξας τὸν μάγειρον καὶ κατακόψας ἑψήσῃ καὶ ὀπτήσῃ, τὰ προσήκοντα ποιήσει. καὶ ἐὰν τὸν χαλκέα τις αὐτὸν χαλκεύῃ καὶ τὸν κεραμέα κεραμεύῃ, καὶ οὗτος τὰ προσήκοντα πράξει.
Justinus, Historiae Philippicae, XXII, 1, 1 and 2.
Agathocles, the tyrant of Sicily, who succeeded to the great power of the elder Dionysius, came into the splendor of a kingdom from a humble and base family. And too, being born in Sicily of a potter, he had a boyhood not more honorable than his origin.
Agathocles, Siciliae tyrannus, qui magnitudini prioris Dionysii successit, ad regni maiestatem ex humili et sordido genere pervenit. Quippe in Sicilia patre figulo natus non honestiorem pueritiam quam principia originis habuit.
Much has been written about the lowly status of Greek potters,[65] and the above references bear out this general idea. The craft of pottery was evidently placed on a par with other trades, and all such manual work was not considered a worthy occupation of free-born citizens, and left mostly to the metics, or non-citizens. We know this not only from texts and inscriptions on stone, but also from the non-Attic forms of the names of the potters, as well as the inscriptions on the vases which frequently show non-Attic spellings. It would be absurd, however, to infer that all pottery was as contemptuously regarded as the rough little tomb lekythoi[66] and the pinakes referred to by Aristophanes and Isokrates. And this is borne out by the following references.
Plato, Hippias Maior, p. 288 d.