Athenian merchants and moneylenders formalised bottomry loans, in which a lender financed a sea voyage and forfeited repayment if the ship was lost — one of antiquity's clearest precedents for insurance against maritime loss.

Bottomry loans in ancient Athens, referenced in Demosthenes' speeches, created a vocabulary of risk and fortune that permeated Greek tragedy and lyric poetry. This financial backdrop echoed the dramatic possibilities of loss and ruin, influencing the thematic depth of works by poets like Sappho and Anacreon.