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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Schools of Hellas, by Kenneth John Freeman
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Schools of Hellas
-       An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek
-       Education from 600 to 300 B. C.
-
-Author: Kenneth John Freeman
-
-Editor: Montague John Rendall
-
-Release Date: November 5, 2020 [EBook #63644]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCHOOLS OF HELLAS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Carol Brown, Turgut Dincer and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-SCHOOLS OF HELLAS
-
-AN ESSAY ON THE PRACTICE AND THEORY OF ANCIENT GREEK EDUCATION
-
-
-
-
-  [Illustration: Printer’s Logo]
-
-
-
-
-  [Illustration: IN A RIDING-SCHOOL
-
-  From a Kulix by Euphronios, now in the Louvre. Hartwig’s
-  _Meisterschalen_, Plate 53.]
-
-
-
-
-Schools of Hellas
-
-AN ESSAY ON THE PRACTICE AND THEORY OF ANCIENT GREEK EDUCATION
-
-FROM
-
-600 TO 300 B.C.
-
-
-BY
-
-KENNETH J. FREEMAN
-
-SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; BROWNE UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR;
-CRAVEN UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR; SENIOR CHANCELLOR’S MEDALLIST, ETC.
-
-
-EDITED BY
-
-M. J. RENDALL
-
-SECOND MASTER OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE
-
-
-WITH A PREFACE BY A. W. VERRALL, LITT.DOC.
-
-
-_ILLUSTRATED_
-
-
-London
-
-MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
-
-NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
-
-1907
-
-
-_All rights reserved_
-
-
-
-
-ΦΙΛΟΚΑΛΟΙΣ [PHILOKALOIS]
-
-ΚΑΙ [ΚΑΙ]
-
-ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΙΣ [PHILOSOPHOIS]
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE
-
-
-The Dissertation here published was written by the late Mr. K. J.
-Freeman, in the course of the year following his graduation at
-Cambridge as a Bachelor of Arts, with a view to his candidature for a
-Fellowship of Trinity College, for which purpose the rules of the
-College require the production of some original work. In the summer of
-1906, three months before the autumn election of that year, his
-brilliant and promising career was arrested by death.
-
-We have been encouraged to publish the work, as it was left, by
-several judgments of great weight; nor does it, in my opinion, require
-anything in the nature of an apology. It is of course, under the
-circumstances, incomplete, and it is in some respects immature. But,
-within the limits, the execution is adequate for practical purposes;
-and the actual achievement has a substantive value independent of any
-personal consideration. No English book, perhaps no extant book,
-covers the same ground, or brings together so conveniently the
-materials for studying the subject of ancient Greek education――education
-as treated in practice and theory during the most fertile and
-characteristic age of Hellas. It would be regrettable that this
-useful, though preliminary, labour should be lost and suppressed, only
-because it was decreed that the author should not build upon his own
-foundation.
-
-Novelty of view he disclaimed; but he claimed, with evident truth,
-that the work is not second-hand, but based upon wide and direct study
-of the sources, which are made accessible by copious references.
-
-The subject is in one respect specially appropriate to a youthful
-hand. Perhaps at no time is a man more likely to have fresh and living
-impressions about education than when he has himself just ceased to be
-a pupil, when he has just completed the subordinate stages of a long
-and strenuous self-culture. It will be seen, in more than one place,
-that the author is not content with the purely historical aspect of
-his theme, but suggests criticisms and even practical applications. It
-may be thought that these remarks upon a matter of pressing and
-growing importance are by no means the less deserving of consideration
-because the writer, when he speaks of the schoolboy and the
-undergraduate, is unquestionably an authentic witness.
-
-But, as I have already said, the work will commend itself sufficiently
-to those interested in the topic, if only as a conspectus of facts,
-presented with orderly arrangement and in a simple and perspicuous
-style.
-
-It is not my part here to express personal feelings. But I cannot
-dismiss this, the first and only fruit of the classical studies of
-Kenneth Freeman, without a word of profound sorrow for the premature
-loss of a most honourable heart and vigorous mind. He was one whom a
-teacher may freely praise, without suspicion of partiality; for,
-whatever he was, he was no mere product of lessons, as this, his first
-essay, will sufficiently show. It is not what he would have made it;
-but it is his own, and it is worthy of him.
-
-                             A. W. VERRALL.
-
-  TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
-       _January_ 1907.
-
-
-
-
-EDITOR’S STATEMENT
-
-
-It has fallen to my lot to edit this essay, the first, and last, work
-of Kenneth John Freeman, a brilliant young Scholar of Winchester
-College and Trinity College, Cambridge, whose short life closed in the
-summer of 1906.
-
-He was born in London on June 19, 1882, and died at Winchester on July
-15, 1906,――a brief span of twenty-four years, the greater part of
-which was spent in the strenuous pursuit of truth and beauty, both in
-literature and in the book of Nature, but above all among the
-Classics.
-
-Scholarly traditions and interests he inherited in no small measure:
-he was the son of Mr. G. Broke Freeman, a member of the Chancery Bar,
-and a Classical graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the
-grandson of Philip Freeman, Archdeacon of Exeter, himself a Scholar of
-the same great Foundation, Craven University Scholar and Senior
-Classic in 1839. He was also a great-grandson of the Rev. Henry Hervey
-Baber, for many years Principal Librarian of the British Museum, and
-Editor of the _editio princeps_ of the _Codex Alexandrinus_. From them
-he inherited a passion for Classical study, a keen sense of form, and
-a determined pursuit of knowledge, which nothing could daunt, not even
-the recurrent shadow of a long and distressing illness.
-
-Through his mother, a daughter of Dr. Horace Dobell, of Harley Street,
-London, he was also a great-nephew of the poet Sydney Dobell; and thus
-he may well have derived that poetic feeling which distinguished a
-number of verses found among his papers, since printed for private
-circulation.
-
-His School and University career was uniformly successful. At
-Winchester he won prizes in many subjects and several tongues, and
-carried off the Goddard Scholarship, the intellectual blue ribbon, at
-the age of sixteen.
-
-At Cambridge he was Browne University Scholar in 1903, and in the
-first “division” of the Classical Tripos in 1904, in which year he
-also won the Craven Scholarship. The senior Chancellor’s medal fell to
-him in the following year.
-
-There is no need to enumerate his other distinctions, but the epigram
-with which he won the Browne Medal in 1903 is so beautiful in itself
-and so true an epitome of the boy and the man, that I am tempted to
-quote it here:
-
-  ξεῖνε, καλὸν τὸ ζῆν καταγώγιόν ἐστιν ἅπασιν,
-  [xeine, kalon to zên katagôgion estin hapasin],
-      νηπυτίους γὰρ ὅμως νυκτιπλανεῖς τε φιλεῖ,
-      [nêpytious gar homôs nyktiplaneis te philei],
-  δῶρα χαριζόμενον φιλίας καὶ τερπνὸν ἔρωτα
-  [dôra charizomenon philias kai terpnon erôta]
-      καὶ πόνον εὔανδρον φροντίδα τ’ οὐρανίαν·
-      [kai ponon euandron phrontida t’ ouranian];
-  τρυχομένους δ’ ἤδη κοιμᾷ τὸν ἀκήρατον ὕπνον
-  [trychomenous d’ êdê koima ton akêraton hypnon]
-      πέμπει δ’ ὥστε λαθεῖν οἰκάδ’ ἐληλυθότας.
-      [pempei d’ hôste lathein oikad’ elêlythotas].
-
-He was always an optimist, who regarded life as a “fair Inn,” which
-provided much good cheer. Shyness and ill-health limited sadly the
-range of his friends, but not his capacity and desire for
-“friendship.” “Manly toil,” both physical and intellectual, was dear
-to his soul: thus, though no great athlete, he was an ardent Volunteer
-both at School and College, and declared that, had he not chosen the
-teacher’s profession, he would have wished to be a soldier: he writes
-of Sparta and Xenophon with evident sympathy. Also he fought and won
-many an intellectual battle against great odds; to quote one instance,
-he wrote the papers for his Craven Scholarship while convalescent in
-his old nursery. His poems, to complete the parallel, may justly be
-described as the “aspiring thoughts” of a singularly pure and reverent
-heart.
-
-It is a simple, uneventful record: six happy years as a Winchester
-Scholar; three as a Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge; one year of
-travel and study, mainly devoted to the subject of Education, which
-always had a special attraction for him; and lastly, one year, the
-happiest of his life, when he returned to teach at his old school.
-
-All appeared bright and promising; he was doing the work he desired at
-the school of his choice, health and vigour seemed fully restored, and
-a strenuous life as a Winchester Master lay before him, when an acute
-attack of the old trouble, borne with perfect patience, cut him off in
-the prime of his promise.
-
-Then, to quote his own translation of his epigram:
-
-  When I was aweary, last and best
-  They gave me dreamless rest;
-  And sent me on my way that I might come
-  Unknown, unknowing, Home.
-
-The work itself was never finished for the press; indeed, some
-chapters, dealing with Sokrates, Plato, and Aristotle, did not appear
-sufficiently complete to justify publication: these, therefore, we
-have withheld. But this book is in substance what he left it, and he
-was fully aware that the omitted chapters were in need of further
-revision.
-
-In any case, it would have been a labour of love to me to edit this
-dissertation; but the labour has been lightened at every turn by the
-ungrudging help and friendship of many Scholars. Dr. Verrall, besides
-contributing a Preface, has contributed much advice in general and in
-detail; Dr. Sandys has revised the proofs and given me the benefit of
-his comprehensive knowledge of the subject; Dr. Henry Jackson went
-through some of the later chapters and discussed points of general
-interest. The original Essay or the proofs have in addition been
-revised, from different points of view, by Mr. Edmund D. A. Morshead,
-late Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Mr. F. M. Cornford, Fellow of
-Trinity College, Cambridge. Mr. G. S. Freeman (brother of the author)
-is responsible for the Index; while Mr. W. R. H. Merriman has spent
-much pains upon verifying the numerous quotations. In a few cases Dr.
-F. G. Kenyon’s erudition came to the rescue. To all these my best
-thanks are due. Mr. A. Hamilton Smith of the British Museum was most
-helpful in identifying the vases from which the illustrations are
-derived. The author, who was a considerable draughtsman, had drawn
-scenes from Greek vases with his own hand; but of course our
-illustrations are derived from published reproductions, with two
-exceptions. The two British Museum vase-scenes (Illustrations III. and
-IV.) were specially drawn for this book: they have never been
-carefully reproduced before. I must thank the Syndics of the Pitt
-Press at Cambridge for their kind permission to reproduce their print
-of Douris’ Educational Vase from Dr. Sandys’ _History of Classical
-Scholarship_. The design which appears on the cover of this volume is
-also adapted from this vase.
-
-It remains to add a few sentences from a Statement which the author
-himself drew up:
-
-“I have,” he says, “confined my attention very largely for several
-years to original texts and eschewed the aid of commentaries.” This
-will be patent to the reader.
-
-“As to accepted interpretations, I have, purposely and on principle,
-neither read nor heard much of them, since I wished, in pursuance of
-the bidding of Plato himself, not to receive unquestioningly the
-authority of those whom to hear is to believe, but to develop views
-and interpretations of my own. For I have always believed that
-education suffers immensely from the study of books about books, in
-preference to the study of the books themselves. M. Paul Girard’s book
-in French (_L’Éducation Athénienne_) and Grasberger’s in German
-(_Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen Alterthum_), the latter of
-which I have only read in part, have set me on the track of
-authorities whom I should otherwise have missed, but I believe that my
-acknowledgments in the text and in the notes fully cover my direct
-obligations to them in other respects, although my indirect
-obligations to M. Girard’s stimulating book, which are great, remain
-unexpressed.
-
-“An apology is, perhaps, needed for the peculiar, and not wholly
-consistent, spelling of the Greek words. I had meant to employ the
-Latinised spelling. But when I came to write Lyceum, Academy, and
-pedagogue, my heart failed me. For I did not wish to suggest modern
-music-halls, modern art, and, worst of all, modern ‘pedagogy.’ In
-adopting the ancient spelling I had Browning on my side. But again,
-when I wrote Thoukudides, my heart sank, for I could hardly recognise
-an old friend in such a guise. So I decided, perhaps weakly, to steer
-a middle course, and preserve the Latinised forms in the case of the
-more familiar words. Thus I put Plato, not Platon, but Menon and
-Phaidon.” We have adhered to this principle in the main; we need
-hardly say that Lakedaimon is the transliteration of a Greek word:
-Lacedaemonian is an English adjective. So a citizen of Troizen is a
-Troezenian, and of Boiotia a Boeotian. “I have,” the author concludes,
-“preferred _Hellas_ and _Hellene_ to _Greece_ and _Greek_. For a rose
-by any other name does not always smell as sweet.”
-
-                             M. J. RENDALL.
-
-  WINCHESTER COLLEGE,
-     _March_ 1907.
-
-
-
-
-                              CONTENTS
-
-
-                                                                 PAGE
-
-BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                     xvii
-INTRODUCTION                                                        1
-
-                               PART I
-                     THE PRACTICE OF EDUCATION
-
-                             CHAPTER I
-SPARTA AND CRETE                                                   11
-
-                             CHAPTER II
-ATHENS AND THE REST OF HELLAS: GENERAL INTRODUCTION                42
-
-                            CHAPTER III
-ATHENS, ETC.: PRIMARY EDUCATION                                    79
-
-                             CHAPTER IV
-ATHENS, ETC.: PHYSICAL EDUCATION                                  118
-
-                             CHAPTER V
-ATHENS, ETC.: SECONDARY EDUCATION――I. THE SOPHISTS                157
-
-                             CHAPTER VI
-ATHENS, ETC.: SECONDARY EDUCATION――II. THE PERMANENT SCHOOLS      179
-
-                            CHAPTER VII
-ATHENS, ETC.: TERTIARY EDUCATION――THE EPHEBOI AND THE UNIVERSITY  210
-
-
-                              PART II
-                      THE THEORY OF EDUCATION
-
-                            CHAPTER VIII
-RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN HELLAS                                  227
-
-                             CHAPTER IX
-ART, MUSIC, AND POETRY                                            237
-
-                             CHAPTER X
-XENOPHON                                                          259
-
-
-                              PART III
-
-                             CHAPTER XI
-
-GENERAL ESSAY ON THE WHOLE SUBJECT                                275
-
-
-INDEX                                                             293
-
-
-
-
-                           ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-                                                           AFTER PAGE
-
-  Vase by Euphronios, Louvre (centre of X. A and
-  X. B)――Mounted Ephebos in Riding-School               _Frontispiece_
-
-     I. A. Kulix by Douris, Berlin (No. 2285)――The Flute-Lesson
-           and Writing-Lesson
-     I. B. Kulix by Douris, Berlin (No. 2285)――The Lyre-Lesson
-           and Poetry-Lesson                                       52
-
-    II. Kulix by Hieron, now at Vienna――A Flute Lesson:
-        The Boy’s Turn                                             70
-
-   III. Hudria in British Museum (E 171)――Music-School Scenes     104
-
-    IV. Hudria in British Museum (E 172)――In a Lyre-School        108
-
-     V. A. Kulix attributed to Euphronios, at Munich――Scenes
-           in a Palaistra
-     V. B. Kulix attributed to Euphronios, at Munich――Scenes
-           in a Palaistra                                         120
-
-    VI. A. Wrestlers, etc., in the Palaistra
-    VI. B. Boxers, etc., in the Palaistra                         128
-
-   VII. The Stadion at Delphi                                     132
-
-  VIII. Kulix signed by Euphronios, at Berlin――Scenes in
-        the Palaistra                                             174
-
-    IX. Vase attributed to Euphronios, at Munich――A
-        Riding-Lesson: Mounting                                   214
-
-     X. A. Kulix by Euphronios, now in the Louvre――Scene in
-           a Riding-School
-     X. B. Kulix by Euphronios, now in the Louvre――Scene in
-           a Riding-School                                        258
-
-
-
-
-                        SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
-
-  DITTENBERGER, W. De Ephebis Atticis Dissertatio. Dieterich,
-    Göttingen, 1863.
-
-  DUMONT, A. Essai sur l’Éphébie Attique. 2 vols. Didot, Paris,
-    1875-76.
-
-  GIRARD, P. L’Éducation Athénienne au vᵉ et au ivᵉ siècle avant
-    J.-C. Hachette, Paris, 1889.
-
-  GRASBERGER, L. Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen
-    Alterthum. 3 vols. Würzburg, 1864-81.
-
-  LAURIE, S. S. Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education.
-    2nd Edition. Longmans, London, 1900.
-
-  MAHAFFY, J. P. Old Greek Education. Kegan Paul, 1883.
-
-  MÜLLER, K. O. Dorians. Edition 1824. English translation;
-    Oxford, 1830.
-
-  NETTLESHIP, H. In _Hellenica._ 2nd Edition. Longmans, 1898.
-
-  SIDGWICK, A. Essay in _Teachers’ Guild Quarterly_, No. 8.
-
-  USSING, J. L. (Danish.) German translation. Erziehung bei
-    den Griechen (und Römern). Altona, 1870.
-
-  WILKINS, A. S. National Education in Greece (Hare Prize,
-    Cambridge). Isbister, London, 1873.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-The meeting-place of two streams has always a curious fascination for
-the traveller. There is a strange charm in watching the two currents
-blend and lose their individuality in a new whole. The discoloured,
-foam-flecked torrent, swirling on remorselessly its pebbles and
-minuter particles of granite from the mountains, and the calm,
-translucent stream, bearing in invisible solution the clays and sands
-of the plains through which its slow coils have wound, melt into a
-single river, mightier than either, which has received and will carry
-onward the burdens of both and lay them side by side in some far-off
-delta, where they will form “the dust of continents to be.”
-
-To the student of history or of psychology the meeting-place of two
-civilisations has a similar charm. To watch the immemorial culture of
-the East, slow-moving with the weight of years, dreamy with centuries
-of deep meditation, accept and assimilate, as in a moment of time, the
-science, the machinery, the restless energy and practical activity of
-the West is a fascinating employment; for the process is big with hope
-of some glorious product from this union of the two. Those who live
-while such a union is in progress cannot estimate its value or its
-probable result; they are but conscious of the discomforts and
-confusion arising from the ending of the old order that passes away,
-and can hardly presage the glories of the new, to which it is yielding
-place. It is in past history, not in the contemporary world, that such
-combinations must be studied.
-
-The chief historical instance of two distinct civilisations blending
-into one is the Renaissance, that mighty union of the spirit of
-ancient Hellas and her pupil Rome with the spirit of medieval Europe,
-which has hardly been perfected even now. But it is often forgotten
-that there were at least two dress-rehearsals for the great drama of
-the Renaissance, in the course of which Hellenism learnt its own charm
-and adapted itself to the task of educating the world. Alexander
-carried the arts, the literature, and the spirit of Hellas far into
-the heart of Asia; and, though his great experiment of blending West
-with East was interrupted by his early death and the consequent
-disruption of his world-empire, yet, even so, something of his object
-was effected in the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria, Syria, and Asia
-Minor. Within a century of his death began the second dress-rehearsal,
-this time in the West. Conquered Hellas led her fierce conqueror
-captive, and the strength of Rome bowed before the intellect and
-imagination of the Hellene. Once more the great man who designed to
-unite the two currents into one stream without loss to either was cut
-off before his plans could be carried out, and the murder of Julius
-Cæsar caused incalculable damage to this earlier Renaissance, for the
-education of Rome, the second scholar of Hellas, was not too wisely
-conducted. Yet the schooling produced Virgil and Horace and that
-Greco-Roman civilisation in which the Teutonic nations of the North
-received their first lessons in culture. After several premature
-attempts, medieval Europe rediscovered ancient Hellas and her pupil
-Rome at the time of the Renaissance. Since that time the influence
-exerted by Hellenism upon modern civilisation has been continuous and
-incalculable. How much of that influence remains unassimilated, how
-far it is still needed, may perhaps be realised best by passing
-straight from the Elgin marbles or a play of Sophocles to a modern
-crowd or to modern literature.
-
-Hellas has thus been the educator of the world to an extent of which
-not even Perikles ever dreamed. How then, it may naturally be asked,
-did the teacher of the nations teach her own sons and daughters? If so
-many peoples have been at school to learn the lessons of Hellenism,
-what was the nature of the schools of ancient Hellas? How did those
-wonderful city-states, which produced in the course of a few centuries
-a wealth of unsurpassed literature, philosophy and art, whose history
-is immortalised by the names of Thermopylae and Marathon, train their
-young citizens to be at once patriots and art-critics, statesmen and
-philosophers, money-makers and lovers of literature? They must have
-known not a little about education, those old Hellenes, it is natural
-to suppose. Have the schools, like the arts and literature and spirit,
-of Hellas any lesson for the modern world? These are the questions
-which the present work will attempt in some measure to answer.
-
-In some measure only; for the spirit of Hellas cannot be caught at
-second hand: it consists in just those subtler elements of refined
-taste and perfect choice of expression which cannot but be lost in a
-translation or a photograph. In like manner, the secret of Hellenic
-education cannot be reproduced by any mere accumulation of bald facts
-and wiseacres’ deductions. It is easy for the modern theorist to give
-an exact account of his ideal school; he has only to tabulate the
-subjects which are to be studied, the books which are to be read, and
-the hours at which his mechanical children are to be stuffed with the
-required mass of facts. But the Hellenic schoolmaster held that
-education dealt not with machines but with children, not with facts
-but with character. His object was to mould the taste of his pupils,
-to make them “love what is beautiful and hate what is ugly.” And
-because he wished them to love what is beautiful in art and
-literature, in nature and in human life, he sought to make his lessons
-attractive, in order that the subjects learnt at school might not be
-regarded with loathing in after life. Education had to be charming to
-the young; its field was largely music and art and the literature
-which appeals most to children, adventure and heroism and tales of
-romance expressed in verse. The music is all but gone, and of the art
-only a few fragments remain; the primary schools of Hellas have left
-to modern research only portions of their literature. Their
-attractiveness must be judged from the poems of Homer. But the charm
-of education lies mainly in the methods of the teacher; and of these
-posterity can know little. Scholars may piece together the books which
-were read and the exercises which were practised, but of the method in
-which they were taught, of their order and arrangement and respective
-quantities, nothing can be known. There is the raw material, the human
-boy, and of the tools wherewith the masters fashioned him, some relics
-are left; but of the way in which the artist used those tools, of the
-true inwardness of his handicraft and skill, not all the diligence of
-Teutonic research can recover a trace. The young art-student will
-learn little of Michel Angelo or Raphael, if he focusses his attention
-simply on the materials and the tools which they employed: to grasp
-their spirit he must go to the Sistine Chapel or to the Dresden
-Gallery, and contemplate their masterpieces. In like manner the
-student of Hellenic education ought to consider not its materials and
-tools, but rather its results and ideals. He must look with his own
-eyes and imagination upon the Aegina pediment or the “Hermes” of
-Praxiteles, if he wishes to comprehend the objects of the Doric and
-Ionic schools. This he must do for himself, since no book can do it
-for him. All that this work can hope to do is to furnish some few
-ideas about the tools wherewith the Hellenic schoolmasters tried to
-fashion the boys at their disposal into the masterpieces bodied forth
-in the “Hermes” and the Aeginetan figures: the skilled fingers and the
-imaginative brains which used the tools are for ever beyond the reach
-of the scholar and the archæologist.
-
-The “Hermes,” with his physical perfection and his plenitude of
-intellect, with the features of an artist and the brow of a thinker,
-may be taken as the ideal of the fully developed Athenian education of
-the early fourth century B.C. The Aeginetan figures stand in the same
-relation to the Spartan and Cretan schools; these heroic figures have
-the bodily harmoniousness, the narrow if deep thought, the hardness of
-the Dorian temper. Perhaps it is not fanciful to see in the so-called
-“Theseus” of the Parthenon an earlier ideal of Athenian training, when
-it aimed at rather less of dreamy contemplation, at a less sensuous
-and more strenuous mode of life. If this be so, that glorious figure
-bodies forth the very ideal of Periclean and Imperial Athens at her
-grandest moment, before the ruin caused by the long war with Sparta.
-
-The stream of Hellenism ran in two currents. Underlying the local
-diversity, which made every little town ethically and artistically
-distinct from its neighbour, was the fundamental difference between
-Dorian and Ionian. Clearly marked in every aspect of life, this
-difference was most marked in the schools. Sparta and Crete on the one
-hand, and Athens, followed closely by her Ionian and Aeolic allies and
-at a greater distance by the rest of civilised Hellas, on the other,
-develop totally different types of education. The young Spartan is
-enrolled at a fixed age in a boarding-school: everything he learns or
-does is under State-supervision. Perfect grace and harmony of body is
-his sole object: he is hardly taught his letters or numbers. The young
-Athenian goes to school when and where his parents like; learns,
-within certain wide limits, what they please; ends his schooling when
-they choose. He learns his letters and arithmetic, studies literature
-and music, and, at a later date, painting, besides his athletic
-exercises, at a day-school. When he grows older, he may add rhetoric
-or philosophy or science or any subject he pleases to this earlier
-course. The State interferes only to protect his morals, and to
-enforce upon him two years of military training between the ages of
-eighteen and twenty.
-
-The superficial differences between the Athenian and the Spartan type
-of school are so striking that at first sight they appear to have no
-one principle in common. It will therefore be necessary to keep the
-two types apart at first and discuss their details separately. But the
-Hellenic thinkers recognised certain deep-seated similarities beneath
-the superficial contradictions, and it became the object of
-educational philosophy to blend the two types into a perfect system.
-As soon as a deeper study has been made of the theory of education in
-Hellas, the distinctions of practice begin to vanish away and the
-similarities of ideal and aim become more and more apparent. When the
-survey of both practice and theory, which is the object of this work,
-has been completed, it should be possible to grasp and estimate the
-common principles, which, amid much variety of detail, governed the
-schools of Hellas.
-
-
-
-
-PART I
-
-THE PRACTICE OF EDUCATION
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-EDUCATION AT SPARTA AND IN CRETE
-
-
-According to a current legend, which Herodotos, owing to his Ionian
-patriotism, is eager to contradict, Anacharsis the Scythian, on his
-return from his travels, declared that the Spartans seemed to him to
-be the only Hellenic people with whom it was possible to converse
-sensibly, for they alone had time to be wise.[1] The full Spartan
-citizen certainly had abundant leisure. He was absolutely free from
-the cares of money-making, for he was supported by an hereditary
-allotment which was cultivated for him by State-serfs. He had no
-profession or trade to occupy him. His whole time was spent in
-educating himself and his younger countrymen in accordance with
-Spartan ideas, and in practising the Spartan mode of life. The
-Spartans divided their day between various gymnastic and military
-exercises, hunting, public affairs, and “leschai” or conversation-clubs,
-at which no talk of business was permitted; the members discussed only
-what was honourable and noble, or blamed what was cowardly and
-base.[2] They were on the whole a grave and silent people, but they
-had a terse wit of their own, and there was a statue of Laughter in
-their city. They were always in a state of perfect training, like the
-“wiry dogs” of Plato’s Republic. They were strong conservatives;
-innovation was strictly forbidden. The unfortunate who made a change
-in the rules of the Ball-game was scourged. In the Skias or
-Council-chamber still hung in Pausanias’ time the eleven-stringed lyre
-which Timotheos had brought to Sparta, only to have it broken;[3] and
-the nine-stringed lyre of Phrunis met the same fate. Having once
-accepted the seven-stringed lyre from Terpander, the Spartans never
-permitted it to be changed. They had also a talent for minute
-organisation; both their army and their children were greatly
-subdivided. Every one at Sparta was a part of a beautifully organised
-machine, designed almost exclusively for military purposes.
-
-In this strangely artificial State, it was essential that the future
-citizens should be saturated with the spirit of the place at an early
-age. There were practically no written laws. Judges and rulers acted
-on their own discretion.[4] This was only possible if a particular
-stamp of character, a particular outlook and attitude, were impressed
-upon every citizen. Consequently, education was the most important
-thing at Sparta. It was both regulated and enforced by the State. It
-was exactly the same for all. The boys were taken away from home and
-brought up in great boarding-schools, so that the individualising
-tendencies of family life and hereditary instincts might be stamped
-out, and a general type of character, the Spartan type, alone be left
-in all the boys. For boarding-schools have admittedly this result,
-that they impose a recognisable stamp, a certain similarity of manner
-and attitude, upon all the boys who pass through them.
-
-Therefore, as soon as a child was born at Sparta, it was taken before
-the elders of the tribe to which its parents belonged.[5] If they
-decided that it was likely to prove sickly, it was exposed on Mount
-Taügetos, there to die or be brought up by Helots or Perioikoi. Sparta
-was no place for invalids. If the infant was approved, it was taken
-back to its home, to be brought up by its mother. Spartan women were
-famous for their skill in bringing up children. Spartan nurses were in
-great demand in Hellas. They were eagerly sought after for boys of
-rank and wealth like Alkibiades. The songs which they sang to their
-charges and the rules which they enforced made the children “not
-afraid of the dark” or terrified if they were left alone; not addicted
-“to daintiness or naughty tempers or screaming”; in fact, “little
-gentlemen” in every way.
-
-No doubt the discipline of the children was strict, but then the
-parents lived just as strictly themselves. There were no luxuries for
-any one at Sparta: the houses and furniture were as plain as the food.
-But there is a charming picture of Agesilaos riding on a stick to
-amuse his children; and the Spartan mothers, if stern towards
-cowardice, seem to have been keenly interested in their children’s
-development; they were by no means nonentities like Athenian ladies.
-
-The children slept at home till they were seven; but at an early age
-were taken by their fathers to the “Pheiditia” or clubs where the
-grown men spent those hours during which they stayed indoors and took
-their meals. About fifty men attended each of these clubs. The
-children sat on the floor near their fathers. Each member contributed
-monthly a “medimnos” of barley-meal, eight “choes” of wine, five
-“mnai” of cheese, two and a half “mnai” of figs,[6] and some very
-cheap relish; if he sacrificed to a god, he gave part of the victim to
-his “mess,” and if he was successful in hunting (which was a frequent
-occupation), he brought his spoils to the common table. There was also
-the famous black broth, made by the hereditary guild of State cooks,
-which only a life of Spartan training and cold baths in the Eurotas
-could make appetising; yet elderly Spartans preferred it to meat.
-Perhaps a fragment of Alkman represents a high-day at one of these
-clubs: “Seven couches and as many tables, brimming full of
-poppy-flavoured loaves, and linseed and sesamum, and in bowls honey
-and linseed for the children.”[7]
-
-A Spartan who became too poor to pay his contribution to his club lost
-his rights as a citizen, and so could not have his children educated
-in the State-system. But as long as the allotments were not alienated,
-such cases were not common. The contribution was κατὰ κεφαλήν [kata
-kephalên],[8] that is, the fixed quantity of provisions had to be
-supplied for every member of the family who attended a club, _i.e._
-for every male, since the women took their meals at home. There is no
-reason whatever for supposing that the boys, either before or after
-they went to the boarding-schools, were fed at the expense of the
-State. It is expressly stated that the number of foster-children, who
-accompanied their benefactors’ sons to school, varied according to the
-extent of their patron’s means.[9] Parents must therefore have paid
-something for their boys while they were at school. The teaching
-involved no expenses; hence it must have been the food for which they
-paid. Thus, only those boys could attend the Spartan schools whose
-parents could afford to pay the customary subscription in kind for
-their own and their children’s food at the common meals. Xenophon, the
-admirer of all things Spartan, adopts the same system in his State,
-since he makes the children of the poor drop out automatically from
-the public schools. It must be remembered that at Sparta families were
-always small, and the population tended to decrease steadily; the
-number of males for whom subscriptions had to be paid by the head of
-the family can rarely have been large.
-
-Generally speaking, therefore, the Spartan schools were only for the
-sons of “Peers” (ὅμοιοι [hómoioi]),[10] that is, those who paid the
-subscriptions. But a certain number of other boys were admitted,
-provided that their food was paid for. A rich Spartan might, if he
-chose, select certain other boys to be educated with his own son or
-sons, and pay their expenses meanwhile.[11] The number of these
-school-companions depended on the number of contributions in kind
-which he was capable of supplying. The school-companions could thus
-attend the Spartan schools; but they did not become citizens when they
-grew up, unless they revealed so much merit that the Spartan State
-gave them the franchise.
-
-From what classes were these school-companions drawn? Sometimes they
-were foreigners, sons either of distinguished guest-friends of leading
-Spartans, or of refugee-settlers in Laconia. Thus Xenophon’s two sons
-were educated at Sparta. These foreign boys were called τρόφιμοι
-[tróphimoi] or Foster-children. Xenophon mentions “foreigners from
-among the τρόφιμοι [tróphimoi].”[12] If these Foster-children, when
-grown up, remained in Sparta they possessed no civic rights. A passage
-in Plato refers to the difficulty which was experienced in getting
-these Foster-children to accept this humble position.[13] It is
-interesting to note that Sparta thus precedes Athens as an educational
-centre to which boys from foreign cities came to receive their
-schooling.
-
-More often Spartan parents chose Helots to be school-companions of
-their sons. Thus Plutarch speaks of “two of the foster-brothers of
-Kleomenes, whom they call Mothakes.”[14] The name Mothax was applied
-to these educated Helots. They seem to have been notorious for the way
-in which they presumed upon their position, if we may assume a
-connection between Mothax and Mothon, a term which is used for the
-patron deity of impudence in Aristophanes, and elsewhere is the name
-of a vulgar dance.[15] They were not enfranchised when their
-school-days were over, and had to settle down to slavish duties,
-unless they showed peculiar merit. But several of the most
-distinguished Spartans, including Lusandros, were enfranchised
-Mothakes.
-
-Xenophon, in a passage which has already been quoted, mentions
-“gentlemen-volunteers of the Perioikoi and certain foreigners of the
-so-called Foster-children and bastards of the Spartiatai, very goodly
-men and not without share in the honourable things in the State.”[16]
-If most of the authorities are right in regarding “the honourable
-things”[17] as a Spartan phrase for their educational system――and
-there is good ground for this view――then this passage shows that
-illegitimate sons, and perhaps eminent Perioikoi, passed through the
-public schools at Sparta although, however, neither were called
-Foster-children, a name reserved for distinguished foreigners. The
-Helots who shared the education were known as Mothakes, and sometimes
-as σύντροφοι [syntrophoi], school-companions; but they do not seem to
-have been called τρόφιμοι [trophimoi], “Foster-children.”
-
-During the best period of Spartan history, none of these extra pupils,
-τρόφιμοι [trophimoi], Mothakes, illegitimate children, and eminent
-Perioikoi, were enfranchised unless they showed peculiar merit. At a
-later date, perhaps, any one who passed through the schools became a
-Spartan citizen. Plutarch makes this a part of Lukourgos’ system; but
-that is improbable. Such a custom would only arise in the days of
-Spartan decay and depopulation. On the other hand, any Spartan boys
-who flinched before the hardships of their national education, lost
-their status, and were disfranchised, if they did not persevere.[18]
-
-Till they were seven, the boys were taken to their fathers’ clubs: the
-girls had all their meals with their mothers at home, for the women
-did not have dining-clubs. By seeing the hardships which their fathers
-endured, and hearing their discussions on political subjects and their
-terse humour, the boys were already being trained in the Spartan mode
-of life; for the clubs served as an elementary school. There, too,
-they learnt to play with their contemporaries, and to exchange rough
-jests without flinching. To take a jest without annoyance was part of
-the Spartan character; but if the jester went too far for endurance,
-he might be asked to stop.
-
-At seven the boys were taken away from home, and organised in a most
-systematic way into “packs” and “divisions.” These were the “ilai,”
-which probably contained sixty-four boys, and the “agelai,” whose
-numbers are unknown.[19] These packs fed together, slept together on
-bundles of reeds for bedding, and played together. The boys had to go
-barefoot always, and wore only a single garment summer and winter
-alike. They were all under the control of a “Paidonomos” or
-“Superintendent of the boys,” a citizen of rank, repute, and position,
-who might at any moment call them together, and punish them severely
-if they had been idle: he had attendants who bore the ominous name of
-Floggers.[20] So, as Xenophon grimly remarks, a spirit of discipline
-and obedience prevailed at Sparta. In order that the boys might not be
-left without control, even when the Paidonomos was absent, any citizen
-who might be passing might order them to do anything which he liked,
-and punish them for any faults which they committed. The most sensible
-and plucky boy in each pack was made a Prefect over it, and called the
-Bouâgor, or “Herd-leader”; the rest obeyed his orders and endured his
-punishments.[21]
-
-The elder men stirred up quarrels among the boys in order to see who
-was plucky. Over every school was set one of the young men over twenty
-who had a good reputation both for courage and for morality.[22] He
-was called the Eiren. He kept an eye on their battles, and used them
-as servants at home for his supper; he ordered the bigger boys to
-bring him firewood, and the smaller to collect vegetables. The only
-way by which such supplies could be obtained was by stealing them from
-the gardens and the men’s dining-clubs. Apparently, then, the boys
-dined with him in his house;[23] they were supplied with a scanty meal
-by their parents to eat there, and were encouraged to make up the
-deficiency by stealing. “When the Eiren had finished supper, he
-ordered one of the boys to sing, and to another he propounded some
-question which needed a thoughtful answer, such as, ‘Who is the best
-of the grown-ups?’ For such particular questions are more stimulating
-than generalities like ‘What is virtue?’ or ‘What is a good citizen?’
-The answer had to be accompanied by a concise reason; failure was
-punished by a bite on the hand. Elder men watched, saying nothing at
-the time, but rebuking the Eiren severely afterwards if he was too
-strict or too lenient.”
-
-Thus we find at Sparta a prefect-system and fagging. But the sense of
-responsibility produced in the elder boys at English public schools
-and the practice which they acquire in exercising authority were
-prevented at Sparta by the perpetual presence of grown men, which made
-Laconian schools more like French Lycées. There is no class of
-professional schoolmasters; the Eiren, the Paidonomos, and any elder
-who chooses, give the instruction freely and gratuitously. Education,
-being so simple, cost nothing at Sparta.
-
-From Plutarch’s mention of stealing from the _men’s_ dining-clubs it
-may safely be inferred that boys of this age dined apart. Whether it
-was always in the Eiren’s house cannot be ascertained. After the age
-of sixteen they must have come into the men’s syssitia; for Xenophon
-implies that the visitor to Sparta could see lads of that age at
-dinner and ask them questions: and a visitor would certainly not have
-dined in a dining-room meant only for boys. Whether the election of
-members took place at that age, or whether they still went to their
-fathers’ clubs, is unknown.
-
-The education was almost entirely physical. Plutarch, it is true, says
-that they learnt “letters, because they were useful.”[24] This may
-have been a later introduction, or perhaps the amount learnt was so
-little as to justify Isokrates in saying that the Spartans “do not
-even learn their letters, which are the means to a knowledge of the
-past, as well as of contemporary events”;[25] he also thought it
-highly improbable that even “the most intelligent of them would hear
-of his speeches, unless they found some one to read them aloud.”[26]
-They had, indeed, little reason to learn to read. Their written laws
-were very few, and these they learnt by heart, set to a tune. They had
-nothing to do with commerce or even with accounts; very few of them
-knew how to count.[27] Hippias, the Sophist, found that all they cared
-to listen to, were “genealogies of men and heroes, foundations of
-cities, and archæology generally.” Probably, like the Dorian
-philosopher Pythagoras, and like Plato, the admirer of all things
-Dorian, they held that memory was all-important, and that the use of
-writing weakened it.[28] Besides the State-laws set to music there
-were songs which praised dead heroes and derided cowards: the diction
-was plain and simple, the subjects grave and moral; many of them were
-war-marches; all were incentive to pluck and energy.
-
-Rhetoric was, of course, utterly forbidden: a young man who learnt it
-abroad and brought it home was punished by the Ephors.[28] Spartans
-learned to be silent as a rule; when they spoke, their remarks were
-short and much to the point, for they thought it wrong to waste a
-word.[29] This was definitely taught to the boys, as has been shown
-above. “If you converse with quite an ordinary Laconian,” says
-Plato,[30] “at first he seems a mere fool; then suddenly, at the
-critical point, he flings forth a pithy saying, and his companions
-seem no better than children compared with him.” This epigrammatic
-wisdom Plato ironically ascribes to the fact that Laconians really
-attend Sophists on the sly, and are greater philosophers than any one
-knows. Many echoes of their terse and grim humour have come down to
-modern times: such as Leonidas’ remark to his troops at Thermopylae,
-“Breakfast here: supper in Hades”; and the Spartan’s description of
-Athens, “All things noble there,” by which he meant that nothing,
-however base, was counted ignoble.
-
-The Spartans must not be regarded as wholly averse to literature. They
-knew Homer, and thought him the best poet of his class, although the
-manner of life he inculcated was Ionic, not Doric.[31] Alkman spent
-his life at Sparta, and has left one splendid song for a chorus of
-Laconian girls. Aristophanes could put a fine chorus into the mouths
-of Laconians, though its subject is noticeably warlike. For it was
-war-poems that the Spartans liked. “They care naught for the other
-poets,” says the Athenian orator, Lukourgos, “but for Turtaios they
-care so exceedingly that they made a law to summon every one to the
-king’s tent, when they are on a campaign, to hear the poems of
-Turtaios, considering that this would make them most ready to die for
-their country.”[32]
-
-After all, the objects of the Spartan education were not intellectual
-acuteness and the accumulation of knowledge, but discipline,
-endurance, and victory in war. Discipline was taught by the perpetual
-presence of authority, and by very severe punishments. Spartan boys
-were practically never left to their own devices: perhaps that is the
-secret of the moral failure of nearly every Spartan who was given a
-position of authority outside Lakedaimon; for responsibility requires
-practice. Endurance was taught by their whole mode of life. They went
-barefooted, with a single garment, played and danced naked under the
-hot Laconian sun;[33] there were no ointments or luxurious baths for
-their bodies, only the Eurotas for a swim, and a bundle of reeds for a
-bed. The food which the boys received was very scanty: often they were
-turned out into the country in the early morning to provide food for
-themselves for the whole day by stealing.
-
-This organised stealing was a feature of Spartan education. At an
-early age, as we have seen, the small boys were sent out to steal
-firewood and vegetables for the Eiren who had charge of them. Later
-they were driven out into the country, to forage for themselves at the
-expense of the farms. There was a definite age at which it was
-customary to begin stealing.[34] The articles which might be stolen
-were fixed by law, and the legal limits might not be transgressed.[35]
-It must be remembered that much property in Laconia was held in
-common. Any one, for instance, who was belated while hunting might
-take what food he pleased from a country house, and even break open
-seals to get at provisions. The Spartans also used one another’s dogs
-and horses freely, without permission. It is therefore absurd to say
-that the system taught the boys to be dishonest. If the State agrees
-to declare certain articles to be common property, it is no longer
-stealing if one citizen removes them from the house of another: he is
-no more dishonest than a man who picks blackberries or buttercups in
-England. At one of the English public schools, tooth-mugs used to be a
-recognised article of plunder. The small fags were expected to keep
-their particular dormitory supplied with them, at the expense of
-others. They were punished by the wronged dormitory if caught in the
-act of removing them: but ingenuity in such thefts was regarded as
-praiseworthy. There was a certain number of these mugs belonging to
-the whole house; they were common property, and could therefore be
-purloined without dishonesty.
-
-Moreover, this system of legalised robbery had a valuable educational
-object at Sparta. It was excellent training in scouting, laying
-ambushes, and foraging, all of which it is very important that a
-future soldier should learn. Xenophon, a soldier himself, notices
-this, and in the _Anabasis_, when he needs a clever strategist, he
-selects a Spartan because he has been educated in this way. Since this
-was the object of the system, the boys, if caught, were flogged, not
-for stealing, but for stealing clumsily. Isokrates declares that skill
-in robbery was the road to the highest offices at Sparta. “If any one
-can show that this is not the branch of education which the
-Lacedaemonians regard as the most important,” he adds, “I admit that I
-have not spoken a word of truth in my life.”[36]
-
-These foraging expeditions of the boys prepared them for the similar,
-if more arduous, duties of “Secret Service”[37] which awaited them
-between eighteen and twenty. Young men of this age were sent in bands
-to the different districts of Laconia for long periods, during which
-they hid in the woods, slept on the ground, attended to their own
-wants without a servant, and wandered about the country by day and
-night.[38] When it appeared good to them or their chiefs they made
-sudden attacks on the Helots, and slaughtered those who seemed
-ambitious enough to be dangerous, the Ephors declaring war on their
-serfs yearly in order that there might be no blood-guiltiness attached
-to these assassinations.[39] There was a regular officer set over this
-secret police, who no doubt directed where the particular youths
-should go.[40] At a critical moment of the Peloponnesian War, 2000 of
-the bravest and most ambitious Helots suddenly “disappeared,” probably
-by this means.[41] But Plato recognised the educational value of such
-a system, if the murders were omitted. In his _Laws_[42] he institutes
-a force of κρυπτοί [kryptoi], 720 in number, who patrol the whole
-country, taking the twelve districts in turn, so as to gain a complete
-acquaintance with it. They have all the farm-servants and beasts at
-their disposal, for digging trenches, making fortifications, roads,
-embankments, and reservoirs, for irrigation works and the like. The
-similarity of name suggests similarity of functions, but how much of
-this the κρυπτοί [kryptoi] at Sparta did cannot be fixed. Probably
-their chief work was to keep watch over the subject populations,
-Perioikoi and Helots, who were otherwise left almost entirely to their
-own devices.
-
-In their institutions of the foraging parties and Secret Service, the
-Spartans show a clear appreciation of boy-nature, as well as a keen
-eye for methods of military training. Moderns are beginning to realise
-that the average boy has so much of the primitive and natural man in
-him that, unless he is permitted to “go wild” and live the savage life
-at intervals, he is apt to become riotous and lawless. Hence in recent
-days the institution of camps for boys in England and “Seton Indians”
-in America. The Spartans, alone of Hellenes, fully recognised this
-peculiarity of boys, and met it with the foraging expeditions and
-secret service. The Athenian boy was not thus provided for until he
-became an ephebos; hence the Athenian streets were full of young
-Hooligans, while the aristocratic lads developed more refined, if more
-vicious, methods of giving vent to their instincts. In these
-country-expeditions alone the Spartan boys had an opportunity of
-escaping from the presence of their elders and developing habits of
-self-reliance and responsibility. Had Sparta made better use of these
-opportunities, the fate of her Empire after Aigospotamoi might have
-been different.
-
-A frequent occupation of all ages at Sparta was hunting. This, too,
-they recognised to be an excellent training for soldiers, since it
-involved courage in meeting wild beasts, skill and ingenuity in
-tracking them, and hardships of all sorts in the forests and on the
-mountains. Laconia was full of game, and Laconian hounds were famous.
-The successful huntsman gave what he had killed to enrich the meals of
-his dining-club, and so won much popularity.
-
-Spartan boys must also have learnt to ride, for they had to go in
-procession on horseback at the festival of Huakinthos.[43] They were
-taught to swim, too, by their daily plunge in the Eurotas. A great
-part of their time was spent in gymnastics, under the close inspection
-of their elders. Boxing and the pankration were forbidden to the young
-Spartan, probably because they developed a few particular muscles at
-the expense of the others.[44] For wrestling no scientific trainers
-were allowed; the Spartan type depended solely on strength and
-activity, not on technical skill; so a Spartan, when beaten by a
-wrestler from another country, said his opponent was not a better man,
-but only a cleverer wrestler.[45] Gladiators, such as those mentioned
-in Plato’s _Laches_ as teaching the use of arms, were not permitted at
-Sparta; these, however, seem to have been unpractical theorists, quite
-useless in battle, as General Laches shows by a funny anecdote about
-one of them.[46] No lounging spectators were permitted in Spartan
-gymnasia; the rule was “strip or withdraw.”[47] The eldest man in each
-gymnasium had to see that every one took sufficient exercise to work
-off his food and prevent him from becoming puffy.[48] The physical
-condition of the boys was inspected every ten days by the Ephors,[49]
-while the competitions of the epheboi seem to have been controlled by
-a special board, the Bidiaioi, who figure in inscriptions.[50]
-Aristotle says of the whole Spartan discipline that it made the boys
-“beast-like,”[51] but admits that it did not produce the one-sided
-athlete, so common in Hellas, who looked solely to athletics, and was
-too much specialised to be good for anything else. Xenophon[52] says
-that it would be hard to find anywhere men with more healthy or more
-serviceable bodies than the Spartiatai. The most beautiful man in the
-Hellenic army at Plataea was a Spartan.[53] The Spartan boys’ manners
-were in some ways surprisingly maidenlike. When they went along the
-highway, they kept their hands under their coat, and walked in
-silence, keeping their eyes fixed on the ground before their feet.
-They spoke as rarely as a statue and looked about them less than a
-bronze figure: they were as modest as a girl. When they came into the
-mess-room, you could rarely hear them even answer a question.[54]
-
-Fighting was encouraged at all ages; there were organised battles,
-somewhat resembling football matches, for the epheboi, in a shady
-playing-field surrounded by rows of plane trees and encircled by
-streams, access to it being given by two bridges. After a night spent
-in sacrifice, two teams of epheboi proceeded to this field. When they
-came near it, they drew lots, and the winners had the choice of
-bridges by which to enter the ground, selecting no doubt in accordance
-with the direction of sun and wind, as a modern football captain, who
-has won the toss, selects the end of the ground from which he will
-start playing. The epheboi fought with their hands, kicked, bit, and
-even tore out one another’s eyes, in the endeavour to drive the
-opposing team back into the water.[55]
-
-The grown men were also encouraged to fight by the following device.
-The Ephors selected three of them, who were called Hippagretai. Each
-of these three selected one hundred companions, giving a public
-explanation in each case why he chose one man and rejected the others.
-So those who had been rejected became foes to those who were selected,
-and kept a close watch over them for the slightest breach of the
-accepted code of honour. Each party was always trying to increase its
-strength or perform some signal service to the State, in order to
-strengthen its own claims. The rivals also fought with their fists
-whenever they met.[56]
-
-This systematised pugnaciousness at Sparta presents an interesting
-parallel to the German University duels and to the fights which used
-to be almost daily occurrences in the life of an English schoolboy.
-Most of the older English public schools can still show the special
-ground which was the recognised scene of these battles.
-
-Floggings were exceedingly common at Sparta. Any elder man might flog
-any boy. It was not etiquette for boys to complain to their parents in
-these cases; if they did so, they received a second thrashing. But the
-triumph of this system was the flogging of the “epheboi” yearly at the
-altar of Artemis Orthia, in substitute for human sacrifice. Entrance
-for the competition was quite voluntary, but competitors seem always
-to have been forthcoming even down to Plutarch’s days. They began by
-practice of some sort in the country.[57] The altar was covered with
-blood; if the floggers were too lenient to some “ephebos” owing to his
-beauty or reputation, the statue, according to the legend, performed a
-miracle in order to show its displeasure.[58] The competitors were
-often killed on the spot; but they never uttered a groan.[59] The
-winner was called the “altar-victor” (βωμονίκης [bômonikês]) and an
-inscription still records such a victory.[60]
-
-The girls at Sparta were also organised into agelai or “packs.”[61]
-They took their meals at home, but otherwise lived a thoroughly
-outdoor life. They had to train their bodies no less than the boys, in
-order that they might bear strong children, so they took part in
-contests of strength as well as of speed.[62] They shared in the
-gymnasia and in the musical training. Among their sports were
-wrestling, running, and swimming; they were exposed to sun and dust
-and toil.[63] They learned to throw the diskos and the javelin;[64]
-they wore only the short Doric “chiton” with split sides.[65] They
-went in procession at festivals like the boys; at certain festivals
-they danced and sang in the presence of the young men, praising the
-brave among them and jeering at the cowards. At the Huakinthia the
-maidens raced on horseback. Theokritos makes a band of 240 maidens,
-“all playmates together, anoint themselves like men and race beside
-the Eurotas.”[66] That passage also gives wool-work to Laconian
-maidens (which is probably untrue, being contradicted by Plato),[67]
-and lyre-playing, which is contradicted by a Laconian in Plutarch, who
-says that “such rubbish is not Laconian.” The result of all this
-outdoor training was great physical perfection: Lampito, the Spartan
-woman in Aristophanes’ _Lusistrata_, is greatly admired by the women
-from other cities for her beauty, her complexion, and her bodily
-condition: “she looks as though she could throttle a bull.” She
-ascribes it to her gymnastics and vigorous dancing.[68] The girls till
-they married wore no veil, and mixed freely with the young men; in
-fact, there was one dance where they met in modern fashion; first the
-youth danced some military steps, and then the maiden danced some of a
-suitable sort.[69] Consequently love-matches were far more possible at
-Sparta than elsewhere in Hellas. After marriage the women had to wear
-veils, and remained at home; gymnastics, dances, and races ceased.
-
-The Spartans were intensely fond of dancing, but it must be remembered
-that they often called dancing what moderns would call drill. For war
-was almost a form of dance; they marched or charged into battle to the
-notes of the flute, crowned and wearing red cloaks. The march tunes
-were in frequent use in Sparta, no doubt at military exercises. Every
-day the epheboi were drawn up in ranks, one behind the other, and went
-through military evolutions and dancing figures alternately, while a
-flutist played to them and beat time with his foot.[70] This is simply
-musical drill. The great national festival of the Gumnopaidia was very
-similar. Three great battalions, consisting respectively of old men,
-young men, and boys, drawn up in rank and file, exhibited various
-movements, chiefly of a gymnastic sort, singing the songs of Thaletas
-and Alkman and Dionusodotos the while and indulging in impromptu
-jesting at one another’s expense, after the fashion of a rustic
-revel-chorus in Attica. Sometimes the battalions appeared one by one,
-and were “led out” like an army, by the Ephors.[71] On other occasions
-all three were drawn up in crescent formation side by side, with the
-boys in the middle. The festival must have closely resembled the
-public parades of the gymnastic clubs in Switzerland. There were posts
-of honour and dishonour, as in battle, cowards usually receiving the
-latter. But Agesilaos, the king, once received an inferior station
-after his victory at Corinth, and turned the insult by a jest, “Well
-thought of, chorus-leader: that’s the way to give honour to the
-post.”[72] Then there was the war-dance, imitating all the actions of
-battle, a sort of manual and bayonet exercise, but accompanied by much
-acting and by music. Every Spartan boy began to learn this as soon as
-he was five.[73] It was done in quick time, if we may judge by the
-“Pyrrhic” or war-dance foot ( ˘ ˘ ). There was also a wrestling-dance,[74]
-and most gymnastics were done to the accompaniment of the flute. In
-fact, chorus-dancing was a regular part of the education of Spartans
-and Cretans: the only experience of singing which most of them
-possessed was acquired in this way.[75] It is true that elegiacs were
-sung as solos before the king’s tent on campaigns, and at meals, when
-the victor got a particularly good slice of meat; but probably this
-accomplishment was confined to a few. Aristotle asserts that the
-Laconians did not learn songs, but claimed nevertheless to be able to
-distinguish good from bad.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Such was the Spartan system of education. To an Englishman their
-schools have a greater interest than those of any other ancient State.
-Sparta produced the only true boarding-schools of antiquity. The
-“packs” of the Spartan boys, like the English public schools, formed
-miniature States, to whose corporate interests and honour each boy
-learned to make his own wishes subservient. Spartan boys, too, like
-our own, had the smaller traits of individuality rubbed off them by
-the publicity and perpetual intercourse with others involved in the
-boarding-school system, in order that the racial characteristics might
-the more emerge in them. They, too, learnt endurance by hardship, and
-were early trained both to rule and to obey by means of the
-institution of prefects and fagging. But here the resemblance stops
-short. The Spartans, like most other nations, were not prepared to pay
-the price at which alone an education in responsibility can be
-obtained, the price which lies in the possible ruin of all the boys
-who are not strong enough to be a law to themselves. They very rarely
-left the boys to themselves without grown men to look after them. They
-were always interfering and supervising, instead of leaving the
-prefects to exercise their authority. And so, when Spartans were sent
-abroad to govern cities or command armies, having had no practice in
-responsibility, they failed shamefully and ignominiously. But this is
-equally true of the Athenians and of other Hellenes. The Spartans
-deserve all credit for their experiments with the boarding-school
-system.
-
-But the system which they adopted had many faults, besides that which
-has already been noticed. There was no individual attention for the
-boys. The hardships were excessive and brutalising. While the boys’
-bodies were developed and trained almost to perfection, their minds
-were almost entirely neglected: hence the stupidities of Spartan
-policy and the lack of imagination which their statesmen showed. It
-was impossible to over-eat or over-drink under the Spartan system, so
-the young Spartan had no experience in self-restraint.[76] The
-gymnasia and dining-clubs caused a great deal of quarrelling (which
-the Spartan authorities welcomed), and of immorality (which was very
-strictly forbidden); the Spartan gymnasia erred less, however, in this
-latter respect than the Athenian. In war the Spartans were only
-invincible so long as they were the only trained troops in Hellas; the
-rise of professional armies ruined them, for they could not adapt
-themselves to new circumstances. They produced no art and very little
-literature, if any. But their whole State was as much a work of art as
-a Doric temple, and of very much the same order, with its symmetry and
-regularity, its sacrifice of detail to the whole, its strength and
-restraint. It was also the inspiration of at least one great piece of
-literature, Plato’s _Republic_.
-
-If courage was their sole object, as perhaps it was, they succeeded in
-obtaining it. The coward was a rare, and a most unhappy bird at
-Sparta. Mothers on several occasions killed sons who returned home
-from a campaign disgraced. “No one would mess with a coward, or
-consort with him. When rival teams were chosen for the game of ball,
-he was omitted. In dances he received the post of dishonour. He was
-avoided in the streets. No one would sit next to him. He could not
-find a husband for his daughters or a wife for himself,” and was
-punished for these offences. “He was beaten if he imitated his betters
-in any way.”[77] If the Hellenes were a nation of children, as the old
-Egyptian called them, the Spartans were at least a manly sort of
-schoolboy. They deified the schoolboy virtues, pluck and endurance. If
-we wish to see how far their education, in its best days, enabled them
-to prove true to their ideals, let us consider those 300 at
-Thermopylae waiting, with jests on their lips, for the onset of
-Oriental myriads, and remember that finest of all epitaphs, of which
-English can give no rendering, written upon their memorial in the pass
-in honour of their obedience unto death――
-
-  Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
-  That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-The Cretan system of education was very similar in many ways to the
-Spartan. In both localities the teaching was given by any elder member
-of the community who chose, not by a professional and paid class of
-masters. But in Crete education cost the parent even less than at
-Sparta; for the boys were fed largely at public cost.[78] But so was
-every other Cretan, male and female alike. Each community possessed
-large public estates, cultivated by public serfs.[79] The revenues
-thus accruing to the State were applied to the expenses of government,
-which were small, and to the food-supply of all citizens. Thus men,
-women, and children were all fed mainly at public cost. It may be
-noted, however, that there is no question of providing the children of
-improvident parents with meals at the expense of more provident
-citizens. Moreover, the heads of families, who each possessed an
-allotment, as at Sparta, had to contribute a tenth of the produce of
-their estates.
-
-The women-folk took their meals at home,[80] although the cost of
-their food was mainly defrayed by the public revenues. The men took
-their meals in dining-clubs (ἀνδρεῖα [andreia]). The whole population
-of each community was divided into clubs of this sort, apparently on
-the family basis, so that two or three families made up a club between
-them, to which their children and descendants would in turn belong.
-All the males of the family attended these meals; small children,
-boys, and young men as well as elders are all mentioned as being
-present at the same dinners.[81] The club is only an enlarged family
-party. The small children sat on the ground behind their fathers; they
-waited on themselves and on their elders, but the general
-superintendence of cooking and attendance was in the hands of a woman
-with three or four public slaves and some underlings in her
-control.[82] As they grew older, the sons sat beside their fathers.
-Boys ordinarily received half what their parents had; but orphans were
-allowed the full quantity at their dead father’s club.
-
-Thus the Cretan club was an amalgamation of several families into a
-sort of clan, whose male members all dined together. All the boys of
-the clan formed one boarding-school. They all slept in one room,
-perhaps attached to the dining-hall; there was always a dormitory
-attached to each of these buildings for visitors from other cities, so
-it would be natural to expect a dormitory for the children also. The
-boys took their meals in the club dining-hall, in the presence of
-their elders, by whose improving conversations upon politics and
-morals they were supposed to be educated. These elder members elected
-one of their number to serve as παιδονόμος [paidonomos] or
-“Superintendent of the boys” of their club.[83] Under his directions
-the boys learned letters “in moderation”: they were constantly
-practised in gymnastics, in the use of arms, especially the bow, which
-was a great Cretan weapon, and in the war-dances, the Kuretic and
-Pyrrhic, both indigenous in Crete. They learned the laws of their
-country set to a sort of tune, in order that their souls might be
-drawn by the music, and also, that they might more easily remember
-them. In this way, if they did anything which was forbidden, they had
-not the excuse of ignorance.[84] Besides this, they were taught hymns
-to the gods, and praises of good men. The favourite metre for these
-purposes was the Cretic ( ― ˘ ― ), which was regarded as “severe”
-and so suitable for teaching courage and restraint.[85] The Pæan was
-their chief national form of song. Cretan boys were also practised in
-that terse and somewhat humorous style of speaking which we have
-already seen at Sparta.[86]
-
-Cretan boys were always fighting either single combats or combined
-battles against the boys of another club-school. They were taught
-endurance by many hardships. They wore only a short coat in summer and
-winter alike. They learnt to despise heat and cold and mountain paths
-and the blows which they received in gymnasia and in fighting.
-
-They remained in the club-schools till their seventeenth year,[87]
-when they became epheboi and celebrated their escape from the garb of
-childhood by a special festival.[88] Like their contemporaries at
-Athens, the epheboi took a special oath of allegiance to the State and
-hatred towards its enemies. A fragment still survives of the oath
-taken by the epheboi of Dreros, near Knossos.[89] At seventeen the
-epheboi were collected into “packs” (ἀγέλαι [agelai]) by private
-enterprise. A rich and distinguished young ephebos would gather round
-him as large a pack of his contemporaries as he could; their numbers
-no doubt depended partly on his wealth, and still more on his personal
-popularity. The aristocratic element in this arrangement is very
-noticeable, as in all the institutions of Crete as contrasted with
-Sparta. The father of this young chief usually acted as leader of the
-pack (ἀγελάτης [agelatês]); he possessed full authority over them and
-could punish them as he pleased. He led them out on hunting
-expeditions and to the “Runs” (δρόμοι [dromoi]), that is, the gymnasia
-of the epheboi. Cretans who had not yet entered a pack of epheboi were
-excluded from these runs (ἀπόδρομοι [apodromoi]); when they entered,
-they were called “members of packs” (ἀγέλαστοι [agelastoi]).[90] The
-pack-leader could collect his followers where he pleased;[91] very
-possibly the epheboi did not attend the club dinners ordinarily, but
-fed or slept either at their patron’s house (whence the need of a rich
-pack-leader) or in some special room. They thus corresponded closely
-to the Spartan boys of a younger age under their Eiren. Their food was
-supplied, like that of all Cretans, largely out of the public
-revenues. On certain fixed days “pack” joined battle with “pack” to
-the sound of the lyre and flutes and in regular time, as was the
-custom in war; fists, clubs, and even weapons of iron might be used.
-It was a regular institution, half dance, half field-day, with fixed
-rules and imposed by law. These battles must have closely resembled
-the contests of the Spartan epheboi in the shady playing-fields. The
-life of the boys was surrounded with a military atmosphere throughout.
-They wore military dress and counted their weapons their most valuable
-possessions. Young Cretans remained in the packs till after marriage.
-Then they returned to their homes and the clubs.
-
-Of the practical results of Cretan education nothing can be said. From
-the day when Idomeneus sets sail from Troy, Crete almost disappears
-from Hellenic history. Too strong to be attacked by their neighbours,
-too much weakened by intestine feuds to assume the aggressive, the
-Cretans remained aloof from their compatriots on the mainland and in
-the archipelago till the close of the period of Hellenic independence.
-
-
-APPENDIX A
-
-SPARTAN SYSSITIA
-
-These dining-clubs were organised like “diminutive states.”[92] It was
-enacted who was to recline in the most important place, who in the
-second, and so on, and who was to sit on the footstool, which was the
-place of dishonour, usually assigned only to children. “Each man is
-given a portion to himself, which he does not share with any one. They
-have as much barley bread as they like, and there is an earthenware
-cup of wine standing by each man, for him to put his lips to when he
-feels disposed. The chief dish is always the same for all, boiled
-pork. There is plenty of Spartan broth, and some olives, cheese, and
-figs.[93]
-
-“Each contributes to his mess about 18 gallons of barley meal, 60 or
-70 pints of wine, and a small quantity of figs and cheese, and 10
-Aeginetan obols for extras.” This contribution no doubt covered
-expenses, for the quantity sent by an absentee king, probably
-representing the average consumption of an individual, falls well
-within this estimate (cf. Herod. vi. 57). After the regular meal[94]
-an ἔπαικλον [epaiklon] or extra meal might be served. It would be
-provided by a member of the mess, consisting either of the results of
-hunting or the produce of his farm, for nothing might be bought. The
-ordinary components of such a meal were pigeons, geese, fieldfares,
-blackbirds, hares, lambs, and kids, and wheaten bread, a welcome
-change from the usual barley loaves. The cooks proclaimed the name of
-the giver, so that he might get the credit. ἔπαικλα [epaikla] were
-often exacted as fines for offences from rich members; the poor had to
-pay laurel leaves or reeds. There was also a special sort of ἔπαικλον
-[epaiklon] designed for the children, barley meal soaked in olive
-oil――a sort of porridge, in fact. According to Nicocles the Laconian,
-this was swallowed in laurel leaves――which does not sound very
-inviting.
-
-There were also banquets independent of the messes. These were called
-κοπίδες [kopides].[95] Tents were set up in the sacred enclosure round
-the temple of the deity in whose honour the feast was given. Heaps of
-brushwood covered with carpets served for couches. The food consisted
-of slices of meat, round buns, cheese, slices of sausage, and for
-dessert dried figs and various beans.
-
-At the Tithenidia, or Nurses’ Feast, a κοπίς [kopis] was given at the
-temple of Artemis Koruthalia by the stream Tiassos.[96] The nurses
-brought the boy-babies to it. The sacrifice was a sucking pig, and
-baked loaves were served. The κοπίδες [kopides] were evidently a
-feature of Spartan life: Epilukos makes his “laddie” (κωράλισκος
-[kôraliskos]) remark, “I will go to the κοπίς [kopis] in Amuklai at
-Appellas’ house, where will be buns and loaves and jolly good broth”:
-which shows that the children’s parties at Sparta were regarded as
-attractive.
-
-The Karneia, the great Spartan festival, was an imitation of
-camp-life.[97] The sacrificial meal was served in tents, each
-containing nine men, and everything was done to the word of command.
-
-
-APPENDIX B
-
-CRETAN SYSSITIA
-
-The chief authorities for the attendance at these meals are the two
-historians, Dosiades and Purgion, quoted in Athenaeus (143). Dosiades
-states that an equal portion is set before each man present, but to
-the younger members is given a half portion of meat, and they do not
-touch any of the other things. Purgion says: “To the sons, who sit on
-lower seats by their fathers’ chairs, they give a half portion of what
-is supplied to the men; orphans receive a full share.” The comparison
-of the two passages shows that the “younger members” mentioned by
-Dosiades are what Purgion calls the orphans, and that they are not yet
-full-grown men. Thus they must be either the boys or the epheboi. It
-is not, however, at all likely that the epheboi, who were of military
-age and engaged in violent exercises, would be given only half
-rations, so these younger members are the boys not yet included in the
-ἀγέλαι [agelai]. Dosiades continues: “On each table is set a drinking
-vessel, of weak wine. This all who sit at the common table share
-equally. The children have a bowl to themselves,” that is, the boys
-who sat beside their fathers but not at the table. “After supper first
-they discuss the political situation, and then recall feats in battle,
-and praise those who have distinguished themselves, encouraging the
-youngers to heroism.” The quotation shows that not merely the small
-children are in question, but boys of an age to understand politics
-and war.
-
-
-     [1] Herodotos, 4. 77.
-
-     [2] Plutarch, _Lukourgos_, 25. Kratinos (Athen. 138)
-     ridicules these clubs and says that the attraction of them
-     was that sausages hung there on pegs to be nibbled.
-
-     [3] Pausanias, 3. 12. A similar event happened at Argos.
-     Plutarch, _On Music_, 37.
-
-     [4] Aristot. _Pol._ ii. 9, 10.
-
-     [5] Plutarch, _Luk._ 16.
-
-     [6] Say, 1½ bushels of meal, 5 gallons of wine, 5 lbs. of
-     cheese, and 2½ lbs. of figs.
-
-     [7] Smyth, _Melic Poets_, “Alkman,” 26, if the emendation
-     παίδεσσι [paidessi] be correct.
-
-     [8] Aristot. _Pol._ ii. 9.
-
-     [9] Phularchos (Athen. vi. 271).
-
-     [10] Xen. _Anab._ iv. 6. 14; Aristot. _Pol._ ii. 9. 31.
-
-     [11] Phularchos (Athen. vi. 271 e).
-
-     [12] Xen. _Hellen._ v. 3. 9.
-
-     [13] Plato, _Rep._ 520 D.
-
-     [14] Plut. _Kleom._ 8.
-
-     [15] Aristoph. _Knights_, 635, 695 (with Schol. on 697,
-     φορτικὸν ὀρχήσεως εῖδος [phortikon orchêseôs eidos]); Eurip.
-     _Bacch._ 1060.
-
-     [16] Xen. _Hellen._ v. 3. 9.
-
-     [17] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ iii. 3; _Hellen._ v. 4. 32.
-
-     [18] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ iii. 3.
-
-     [19] “Agelai” of young men are mentioned by inscriptions at
-     Miletos and Smurna [Böckh, 2892, 3326]; there may have been
-     boarding-schools somewhat resembling those of Sparta at
-     these towns for young men.
-
-     [20] μαστιγόφοροι [mastigophoroi]. Xen. _Constit. of Lak._
-     ii. 2. Aristotle calls Paidonomoi an aristocratic
-     institution. They existed in Crete, and inscriptions mention
-     them in Karia, Teos, and many other places.
-
-     [21] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 16. Hesychius declares that the
-     Bouâgor was a boy, so the word cannot mean the Eiren, who
-     was over twenty.
-
-     [22] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 17; Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ii. 11.
-
-     [23] In which case the Eiren corresponds closely to the
-     Cretan Agelates.
-
-     [24] _Lukourgos_, 16; _Lac. Institutions_, 247.
-
-     [25] Isok. _Panath._ 276 D.
-
-     [26] _Panath._ 285 C.
-
-     [27] Plato, _Hippias Maj._ 285 C.
-
-     [28] Sext. Empir. _Mathem._ 2, § 21.
-
-     [29] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 19-20.
-
-     [30] Plato, _Protag._ 342 E.
-
-     [31] Plato, _Laws_, 680 D. Crete repudiated Homer
-     altogether.
-
-     [32] Luk. _against Leokrates_, 107. The Polemarchos was
-     judge in these singing competitions, and the winner received
-     a bit of meat (Philochoros in Athen. 630 f.).
-
-     [33] Plato, _Laws_, 633 E.
-
-     [34] Plut. _Apoph._
-
-     [35] Xen. _Anab._ iv. 6. 14.
-
-     [36] Isok. _Panath._ 277.
-
-     [37] κρυπτεία, κρυπτή [krypteia, kryptê].
-
-     [38] Plato, _Laws_, 633 C.
-
-     [39] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 28. Isokrates merely mentions that
-     the Ephors could kill as many Helots as they liked
-     (_Panath._ 271 B).
-
-     [40] Plut. _Kleom._ 28.
-
-     [41] Thuc. iv. 80.
-
-     [42] Plato, _Laws_, 763 B. Some have supposed that κρυπτοί
-     [kryptoi] is an interpolation. If so, the resemblance must
-     have been close enough to strike a commentator who knew
-     Lakedaimon, in spite of the fact that the ages in the two
-     systems are different.
-
-     [43] Polukrates (in Athen. 139 e).
-
-     [44] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 4; Plut. _Luk._ 19.
-
-     [45] Plut. _Apoph._ 233 E. Plato adopts the Spartan views
-     about wrestling in the _Laws_.
-
-     [46] Plato, _Laches_, 183 D, E.
-
-     [47] Plato, _Theait_. 162 B and 169 B.
-
-     [48] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ v. 8.
-
-     [49] Athen. xii. 550 d. Their dress and bedding was
-     inspected at the same time.
-
-     [50] Pausan. iii. 11. 2. βίδεος [bideos], Böckh, 1241, 1242;
-     βίδυος [bidyos], 1254.
-
-     [51] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 4. 1.
-
-     [52] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ v. 9.
-
-     [53] Herod. ix. 72.
-
-     [54] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ii. 4.
-
-     [55] Paus. iii. 14. 2.
-
-     [56] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ iv.
-
-     [57] Hesychius, Φούαξιρ [Phouaxir].
-
-     [58] Paus. iii. 16. 11.
-
-     [59] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 18; Cicero, _Tusc. Disp._ v. 27.
-
-     [60] Böckh, 1364.
-
-     [61] Pindar, _Frag. Hyporch._ 8 Λάκαινα παρθένων ἀγέλα
-     [Lakaina parthenôn agela].
-
-     [62] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ i. 4.
-
-     [63] Cicero, _Tusc. Disp._ ii. 15.
-
-     [64] Plut. _Lukourgos_, 14.
-
-     [65] Whence they were called φαινομήριδες [phainomêrides].
-     This chiton may be seen in the conventional statues of
-     Artemis.
-
-     [66] Theok. _Idyll_ 18. 23.
-
-     [67] _Laws_, 806 A.
-
-     [68] _Lusistrata_, l. 80 onwards. In the play Lampito is
-     married. Aristophanes has either made a mistake or the
-     gymnastics are meant to be in the past only.
-
-     [69] The ὄρμος [ormos] dance. Compare the dance at the end
-     of the _Lusistrata_, where “man stands by woman, and woman
-     by man.”
-
-     [70] Lucian, _Dancing_, 274.
-
-     [71] Xen. _Hellen._ vi. 4. 16.
-
-     [72] Xen. _Ag._ ii. 17.
-
-     [73] Athen. 630 a.
-
-     [74] Athen. 678 b.
-
-     [75] Plato, _Laws_, 666 D.
-
-     [76] _Laws_, 634-635.
-
-     [77] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ix. 5.
-
-     [78] Aristot. _Pol._ ii. 10. 8.
-
-     [79] Additional revenues for the same objects were derived
-     from the taxes paid by Perioikoi and serfs (Athen. 143 a,
-     b).
-
-     [80] Plato, _Laws_, 781 A.
-
-     [81] Historians quoted by Athen. 143 e.
-
-     [82] _Ibid._
-
-     [83] Strabo, x. 4. 483 (on authority of Ephoros), and
-     Herakleides Pont. iii. (who provide most of the details
-     about Crete).
-
-     [84] Aelian, _True History_, ii. 39.
-
-     [85] Strabo, x. 4. 480.
-
-     [86] Sosikrates (in Athen. 261 e), speaking of Phaistos.
-
-     [87] Hesychius, ἀπάγελος [apagelos].
-
-     [88] ἐκδύσια [ekdysia], Antoninus Liberalis, 18.
-
-     [89] Mahaffy, p. 81; Grasberger, iii. 61.
-
-     [90] Eustathius on _Il._ ix. 518.
-
-     [91] Herakl. Pont. iii. 3.
-
-     [92] Persaeus _ap._ Athen. 140 f.
-
-     [93] Dicaearchus _ap._ Athen. 141 a.
-
-     [94] Sphaerus _ap._ Athen. 141 c, d.; and Molpis, _ibid._
-
-     [95] Polemon _ap._ Athen. 56 a, and 138-139.
-
-     [96] Cp. the crèche temples in Plato’s _Laws_, 794 A.
-
-     [97] Demetrius of Scepsis (_ap._ Athen. 141 e).
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-ATHENS AND THE REST OF HELLAS: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-
-
-Laconia and Crete were mainly agricultural countries that had little
-concern with trade or manufactures. Their citizens comprised a landed
-aristocracy, supported by estates which were cultivated for them by a
-subject population; there was no necessity, therefore, for them to
-prepare their boys for any profession or trade, or even to instruct
-them in the principles of agriculture. The young Spartan or Cretan no
-more needed professional or technical instruction of any sort than the
-richer absentee Irish landlords of the present day. He could give the
-whole of his school-time, without any sacrifice of his financial
-prospects, to the training of his body and of his character.
-
-But the rest of Hellas was for the most part the scene of busy
-manufactures and extensive trade. It would be natural to expect that
-great commercial peoples, like the Athenians or the Ionians of Asia
-Minor, would have set great store by the commercial elements of
-education, and to assume that business methods and utilitarian
-branches of study would have occupied a large place in their schools.
-But this was very far from being the case. To a Hellene education
-meant the training of character and taste, and the symmetrical
-development of body, mind, and imagination. He would not have included
-under so honourable a name either any course of instruction in which
-the pupils mastered their future trade or profession, or any
-accumulation of knowledge undertaken with the object of making
-money. Consequently technical training of all sorts was excluded
-from Hellenic schools and passed over in silence by Hellenic
-educationalists. Information concerning it must be pieced together
-from stray facts and casual allusions, and the whole idea of
-“utilitarian” instruction, in the modern sense of the word, must be
-carefully put aside during any consideration of Hellenic schools.
-
-For the Hellenes as a nation regarded all forms of handicraft as
-_bourgeois_ (βάναυσος [banausos]) and contemptible. Herodotos says
-that they derived this view from the surrounding peoples, who all held
-it.[98] To do anything in order to extract money from some one else
-was, in their opinion, vulgar and ungentlemanly. The lyric poets and
-the Sophists were alike blamed for taking fees. The cheapness and
-abundance of serf- or slave-labour made it possible for a large
-proportion of the free population to live in idleness, and devote
-their time to the development of the body by physical exercises, of
-the mind by perpetual discussions, and of the imagination by art and
-music. Citizenship required leisure, in the days before representative
-government came into vogue. It was owing to this principle that the
-Athenian received pay for a day’s attendance in the Law Courts or the
-Assembly, for by this means the poorest citizen obtained an artificial
-leisure for the performance of his duties. Otherwise true citizenship
-was impossible. Plato regards a tradesman as unfit to be an acting
-citizen.[99] Aristotle rejects as unworthy of a free man all trades
-which interfere with bodily development or take time which ought to be
-devoted to mental improvement.[100] Xenophon explains the reason of
-this attitude. The discredit which attaches to the _bourgeois_
-occupations is quite natural; for they ruin the physical condition of
-those who practise them, compelling them to sit down and live in the
-shade, and in some cases to spend their day by the fire. The body thus
-becomes effeminate, and the character is weakened at the same time.
-Tradesmen, too, have less leisure for serving their friends and the
-State. In some communities, especially the most warlike, the citizens
-are not allowed to practise sedentary trades.[101] The owner of a
-factory or a farm worked by slave-labour was exempt from corrupting
-influences: it was only actual work which was degrading.
-
-A large number, however, from among the poorer classes were compelled
-to work with their own hands; so these, as well as the slaves,
-required technical instruction. Some indications survive as to the
-manner in which this was imparted. Trades were mostly hereditary; “the
-sons of the craftsmen learn their fathers’ trade, so far as their
-fathers and their friends of the same trade can teach it.”[102] But
-others might also learn. Xenophon mentions such cases. “When you
-apprentice a boy to a trade,” he says, “you draw up a statement of
-what you mean him to be taught,”[103] and the fees were not paid
-unless this agreement was carried out. The _Kleitophon_[104] mentions
-as the two functions of the builder or the doctor the practising of
-their profession and the teaching of pupils. The _Republic_[105] says:
-“If owing to poverty a craftsman is unable to provide the books and
-other requisites of his calling, his work will suffer, and his sons
-and any others whom he may be teaching will not learn their trade so
-well.” The teaching of building is mentioned in the _Gorgias_.[106] In
-the _Republic_[107] Plato states that the παῖδες [paides] of the
-potters――a word which will include both sons and apprentices――act as
-servants and look on for a long time before they are allowed to try
-their hands themselves at making pots. “To learn pot-making on a
-wine-jar” was a proverb for beginning with the most difficult part of
-a subject. The pupils of a doctor named Pittalos are mentioned in the
-_Acharnians_ of Aristophanes.[108] The comic poets of the early third
-century contain several references to cookery-schools. Sosipater makes
-one cook say that his pupils must learn astrology, architecture, and
-strategy before they come to him, just as Plato had exacted a
-preliminary knowledge of mathematics from his disciples. Euphron gives
-ten months as the minimum length of a course of cookery. Aristotle
-mentions a man at Syracuse who taught slaves how to wait at table, and
-perform their household duties: perhaps the play of Pherekrates[109]
-entitled _The Slave-Teacher_ may have dealt with a similar case. From
-these fragments a picture can be drawn of a regular system of
-apprenticeship by which the knowledge of the trades was handed down.
-Solon, wishing to encourage Athenian manufactures, had enacted that if
-a father did not have his son taught some trade, he could not legally
-demand to be supported in his old age.[110] But the general opinion of
-Hellas still maintained that “technical instruction and all teaching
-which aimed only at money-making was vulgar and did not deserve the
-name of education. True education aimed solely at virtue, making the
-child yearn to be a good citizen, skilled to rule and to obey.”[111]
-For all the gold on the earth and under it, according to Plato, could
-not pay the price of virtue, or deserve to be given in exchange for a
-man’s soul. Thus the Spartans and Cretans did not stand alone, but had
-the support of all Hellas, in banishing from their schools any idea of
-technical or professional instruction.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-But in one notable point their idea of education differed from that
-which was prevalent in most of the Hellenic States. The regular course
-of education in Athens and in most Hellenic States was for boys
-alone: no girls need apply. The women lived in almost Oriental
-seclusion;[112] the duty of an Athenian mother was, according to
-Perikles,[113] to live so retired a life that her name should never be
-mentioned among the men either for praise or blame. Listen to the
-description which an Athenian country gentleman gives of his
-wife.[114] “What was she likely to know when I married her? Why, she
-was not yet fifteen when I introduced her to my house, and she had
-been brought up always under the strictest supervision; as far as
-could be managed, she had not been allowed to see anything, hear
-anything, or ask any questions. Don’t you think that it was all that
-could be expected of her, if she knew how to take raw wool and make it
-into a cloak, and had seen how wool-work is served out to
-handmaidens?” Sokrates, however, to whom this question is addressed,
-seems to think that she might have learnt “from her father and mother
-the duties which would belong to her in after life.” These, however,
-in this case her husband had to teach her. He explains to her that she
-must see that everything has a place to itself and is always put
-there; she must also give out the stores, teach the slaves their
-duties and nurse them when they are ill, and tend the young children.
-The summary of the explanation is that Heaven has appointed a fair
-division of labour between husband and wife: the wife manages
-everything indoors and the husband everything out of doors. A
-stay-at-home husband or a gad-about wife equally offend against
-respectability. As a rule, apparently, the women simply sat in the
-house, “like slaves,” as it seemed to the ordinary athletic Hellene.
-Xenophon’s model husband suggests that his wife should take exercise
-by walking about the house to see how the supplies were given out, to
-inspect the arrangements of the cupboards, and to watch the washing
-and the wringing-out of the clothes: this exercise will give her
-health and an appetite. But Xenophon was an admirer of Spartan customs
-and the athletic Spartan women: probably these ideas would not have
-occurred to the ordinary Athenian husband.
-
-Another picture may be quoted from Hellenic literature to show the
-extent of education which an ordinary woman received.[115] A certain
-Aristarchos comes to Sokrates in great distress. A number of female
-relatives, quite destitute, have been thrown upon his hands owing to
-various circumstances, and he must support them; but he has not the
-requisite means. Sokrates naturally suggests that he should make them
-work for their living. But they do not know how to, says Aristarchos.
-However, by dint of questioning, Sokrates elicits the fact that they
-can make men’s and women’s garments, and also pastry and bread. These,
-then, were apparently the accomplishments which an ordinary girl in
-Hellas, brought up without any idea of having to earn her own living,
-would acquire. Plato also mentions weaving and cooking as the
-provinces in which women excel,[116] and describes the women of Attika
-as “living indoors, managing the household and superintending the loom
-and wool-work generally.”[117]
-
-Thus the Athenian girl spent her time indoors, learning to be a
-regular “Hausfrau,” skilled in weaving, cooking, and household
-management. She had her special maid to wait on her,[118] as her
-brothers had their paidagogos. She would, as a rule, be married young,
-and would naturally be very shy after such an upbringing; the marriage
-was arranged between the bridegroom and the parents, and, owing to the
-seclusion of the women at Athens, love-matches were well-nigh
-impossible. The match was mainly a question of the dowry.
-Xenophon[119] gives a vivid picture of one of these girl-wives
-gradually “growing accustomed to her husband and becoming sufficiently
-tame to hold conversation with him.” To keep their beauty under such
-conditions they employed rouge and white, and high-heeled shoes. Such
-mothers would be quite incapable of giving any literary or musical
-education to their children; hence the boys went away to school as
-soon as possible. Their school-life usually began when they were about
-six years old, the exact age being left to the parents’ choice.[120]
-Before this, they learnt in the nursery the various current fables and
-ballads, and the national mythology.[121] “As soon as the child
-understands what is said, the nurse and the mother and the paidogogos,
-yes, and the father himself, strive with one another in improving its
-character, in every word and deed showing it what is just and what is
-unjust, what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is holy and what is
-unholy. It is always ‘Do this’ and ‘Don’t do that.’ If a child is
-disobedient, it is corrected with threats and blows.”[122] Besides
-this purely moral training there might, no doubt, be a certain amount
-of technical or of literary instruction at home,[123] and bits of
-poetry might be learnt. Up to this age boys and girls lived together.
-
-The sons of rich parents apparently went to school earliest: their
-poorer fellow-citizens went later.[124] This was natural. The poor
-could not keep their sons at school for a long time, for they wanted
-their services in the shop or on the farm, and the fees were a burden:
-so they did not send them till they were old enough to pick up
-instruction quickly. The rich, on the other hand, to whom money was no
-object, sent their boys to school at an early age, when they could do
-little more than look on, while their elders worked. Aristotle
-commends this custom, and imposes two years of such “playing at
-school” upon the boys of his ideal State.[125]
-
-The ordinary system of primary education at Athens consisted of three
-parts, presided over respectively by the “grammatistes,”
-“kitharistes,” and “paidotribes.”[126] The grammatistes taught
-reading, writing, and some arithmetic, and made his pupils read and
-learn by heart the great poets, Homer and Hesiod and others. The
-kitharistes taught the boys how to play the seven-stringed lyre and
-sing to it the works of the lyric poets, which they would incidentally
-have to learn. The paidotribes presided over their physical
-development in a scientific way; he taught them wrestling, boxing, the
-pankration, running, jumping, throwing the diskos and javelin, and
-various other exercises; his school-room was the palaistra. To this
-triple system some boys added drawing and painting;[127] but this
-subject seems to have been an extra till late in the fourth century.
-Literature, music, and athletics composed the ordinary course at
-Athens.
-
-Which of the three branches of education began first? Probably they
-were all taught simultaneously. The order in which they are usually
-mentioned does not point to a fixed sequence. Letters were naturally
-mentioned first, because all citizens alike learned this subject.
-Gymnastics were put last, because, owing to the public gymnasia, these
-exercises were carried on long after the other schooling had ceased.
-Moreover, most of the recognised exercises of the palaistra were not
-taught to small boys; from the nature of the exercises and from the
-pictures on the vases it may be deduced that the average boy did not
-learn them till his twelfth year at the earliest. But physical
-training of an easier sort of course commenced much earlier, and boys
-seem to have attended a palaistra from their sixth year onwards to
-receive it. Both Plato and Aristotle demand that it should begin
-several years before any intellectual instruction; and Plato, making
-athletics such as shooting and riding begin at six, defers letters
-till ten and lyre-playing till thirteen. Gymnastics would naturally
-occupy a part of the day for a healthy young Hellene during the whole
-time from his sixth year till manhood. It is thus that the _Charmides_
-mentions “quite tiny boys” as present in the palaistra, as well as
-older lads and young men.
-
-Lyre-playing may have been deferred, as a harder subject, till the boy
-had learned letters for several years; but the seven-stringed lyre,
-with the simple old Hellenic music, was probably not a very difficult
-instrument to master. The chief factor which determined the
-arrangement of subjects in an ordinary family was no doubt the
-paidagogos. If there was only one son, he could go to whatever school
-his parents pleased; but if there were several, elders and youngers
-had all to go to the same school at the same time, for there was only
-one paidagogos to a whole family as a rule, and he could never allow
-any of his charges to go out of his sight.
-
-That the three subjects were usually taught simultaneously may be
-inferred from a passage of Xenophon. “In every part of Hellas except
-Sparta,” he says, “those who claim to give their sons the best
-education, as soon as ever the child understands what is said to him,
-at once make one of their servants his paidagogos, and at once send
-him off to school to learn letters and music and the exercises of the
-Palaistra.”[128] The emphasis upon the word “at once” certainly
-implies that the three subjects began simultaneously.
-
-On the vases letters and music are seen being taught side by side in
-the same school; this was a convenient and natural arrangement.
-Writing-tablets and rulers are also seen suspended on the walls
-of music-schools and palaistrai, and lyres on the walls of
-letter-schools[129]; which suggests that the boys went from one
-building to another in the day, taking their property with them. Plato
-states that three years apiece was a reasonable time for learning
-letters and the lyre.[130] The eight years between six and fourteen,
-the ordinary time devoted at Athens in the fourth century to the
-primary triple course, would give space for these six years, with two
-years to spare for elaboration. Gymnastics are meant to go on during
-the whole period in Plato, and so do not require a special allowance
-of time to themselves.
-
-This system of primary education at Athens may reasonably be traced
-back to the beginning of the sixth century. Solon is credited with a
-regulation which made letters compulsory, and with certain moral
-enactments dealing with existing schools and palaistrai. The
-much-disputed popularisation of Homer at Athens by Peisistratos was
-probably connected with the growth of the Schools of Letters. Of the
-existence of music-schools at this date there is evidence from a
-sixth-century vase in the British Museum,[131] which represents a
-youth amusing himself with a dog, behind a seated man who is playing a
-lyre. This might not seem very conclusive in itself; but now compare
-it with the two “amphorai” of the fifth century,[132] which
-undoubtedly represent scenes in a music-school. The situation is
-almost identical; each alike shows the boy playing with the animal
-behind his master’s chair. Curiously enough, all three vases come from
-Kameiros in Rhodes, although they are of Athenian manufacture. Thus
-the music-school may also be traced back well into the sixth century,
-in company with the school of letters and the palaistra; and the
-antiquity of the system of Primary Education is thus established.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE I. A.
-
-  THE FLUTE LESSON, THE WRITING LESSON (ABOVE A WRITING-ROLL, A FOLDED
-  TABLET, A RULING SQUARE, ETC.)
-
-  From the Kulix of Douris, now at Berlin (No. 2285).
-  _Monumenti dell’ Instituto_, ix. Plate 54.]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE I. B.
-
-  THE LYRE LESSON, AND THE POETRY LESSON (ABOVE IS AN ORNAMENTAL
-  MANUSCRIPT BASKET)
-
-  From a Kulix by Douris, now in Berlin (No. 2285).
-  _Monumenti dell’ Instituto_, ix. Plate 54.]
-
-In earlier days this primary course had no doubt sometimes lasted till
-the boy was eighteen: but towards the end of the fifth century a
-secondary stage of education arose, occupying the years immediately
-preceding eighteen. This secondary stage is recognised in the
-pseudo-Platonic _Axiochos_ and in the fragment of Teles quoted by
-Stobaeus. More important evidence is supplied by Plato. In the
-_Republic_ he assigns an elaborate system of mathematics to the age
-just before ἐφηβεία [ephêbeia], which he sets at seventeen or
-eighteen, the natural age varying with the individual, while the legal
-age remained fixed.
-
-When did this Secondary Education begin? Aristotle, counting back from
-ἐφηβεία [ephêbeia], assigns three years to it.[133] He has just
-commended the arrangement of education, not on hard and fast lines,
-but in accordance with the natural growth of the individual: so he
-must mean his ἐφηβεία [ephêbeia] to vary from seventeen to
-eighteen.[134] Thus he puts the beginning of secondary education at
-fourteen or fifteen, the average age of ἥβη [hêbê] in Hellas, as in
-Rome. From ἥβη [hêbê] till twenty-one the young Athenian was a
-μειράκιον [meirakion]. Thus in point of age the παῖς [pais] of the
-primary schools corresponds to the Roman “impubes,” and the μειράκιον
-[meirakion] to the “adolescens”; but μειράκιον [meirakion] and παῖς
-[pais] are used very loosely, and the former word is often replaced by
-νεανίσκος [neaniskos]. We shall, as a rule, call the pupils of the
-primary schools boys, and those of the secondary lads.
-
-Fourteen did not, however, represent an exact point at which it was
-compulsory to leave the primary school. Sons of the poor left earlier;
-rich or unoccupied Athenians might remain later: Sokrates even
-attended a lyre-school among the boys when he was middle-aged. The
-primary schoolmasters started advanced classes in astronomy and
-mathematics to suit elder pupils.[135] In the palaistrai there were
-separate classes of boys and lads, who were only supposed to meet on
-feast-days;[136] in the _Charmides_, however, grown men, lads, boys,
-and quite tiny boys are all exercising together.
-
-Many lads, especially in earlier times, did not attend the schools at
-all, but gave their time to gymnastics and whatever else they
-pleased.[137] Xenophon relates this as one of the demerits of the
-Athenian system.[138]
-
-The mental attainments of a lad who is apparently but little over
-fourteen are sketched in Plato’s _Lusis_. The lad Lusis knows how to
-read and write, and how to string and play the lyre. He recognises a
-quotation from Homer, and has even come across the “prose treatises of
-the very wise, who say that like must always be friendly to like;
-these are the men who reason and write about the Universe and
-Nature.”[139]
-
-This secondary education, beginning soon after fourteen, was only for
-the rich: the poor could not afford to keep their sons away from the
-farm or trade any longer. It might be scattered over the whole of the
-next six or seven years; but there was a serious interruption, which
-usually terminated it. At eighteen the young Athenian became in the
-eye of the law an ephebos and was called out to undergo two years of
-military training. During this period of conscription it was no doubt
-possible, especially in the laxer days of the fourth century, to do
-some intellectual work; but Plato is probably only accepting the usual
-custom when he frees the epheboi of his State from all mental studies
-and makes them give their whole energies to military and gymnastic
-training. And when the ephebos returned to civil life, he was a full
-citizen and was hardly likely to return to school; he might attend an
-occasional lecture or so, but that was all.
-
-Thus secondary education usually occupied the years between fourteen
-and eighteen, although the latter limit was in no way definitely
-fixed, and the same subjects might be studied at any age. In earlier
-days no doubt lads spent their time in continuing their musical
-studies: primary education could be conducted in a more leisurely
-fashion when there was still little to be learnt, and the lyre may
-have been deferred till this age, as Plato in similar circumstances
-defers it in the _Laws_. But in the days of Perikles knowledge began
-to increase and boys had more to learn. So the lyre was crowded into
-the first period of education, and a new series of secondary subjects
-arose. It was these years which were usually devoted to the four
-years’ course which was customary in the school of Isokrates. Before
-this date the time was, as a rule, spent in attending the lectures of
-the wandering Sophists or in picking up a smattering of philosophy.
-Among the subjects which thus formed a part of secondary education
-were mathematics of various kinds, more advanced literary criticism, a
-certain amount of natural history and science, a knowledge of the laws
-and constitution of Athens, a small quantity of philosophy, ethical,
-political, and metaphysical, and above all, rhetoric. Plato in his
-_Republic_, developing this Athenian system of secondary education,
-assigns to the years immediately preceding eighteen the theory of
-numbers, geometry, plane and solid, kinetics and harmonics, and
-expressly excludes dialectic as more suitable to a later age;[140] in
-the _Laws_, prescribing for the whole population, not for a few
-selected intellects, he orders practical arithmetic, geometry,
-and enough astronomy to make the calendar intelligible. The
-pseudo-Platonic _Axiochos_[141] ascribes to Prodikos the statement
-that “when a child grows older, he endures the tyranny of
-mathematicians, teachers of tactics, and ‘critics.’” These last are
-the professors of that curious criticism of poetry which is found, for
-instance, in the _Protagoras_ as a subject of the lectures of that
-Sophist as well as of Hippias.
-
-At eighteen the young Athenian partially came of age. He then had to
-submit to a two years’ course of military training, of which the first
-year was spent in Athens and the second in the frontier forts and in
-camp. During this period he probably had little time for intellectual
-occupations. But when the military power of Athens collapsed under the
-Macedonian dominion, the military duties of the epheboi became
-voluntary, and their training was replaced by regular courses of
-philosophy and literature. The military system became a University,
-attended by a few young men of wealth and position and a good many
-foreigners. As the forerunner of the first University, the two years’
-training of the epheboi may fitly receive the name of Tertiary
-Education, in spite of the fact that till the third century it
-involved only military instruction.
-
-Thus we have Athenian education divided into three stages: Primary
-from six to fourteen, Secondary from fourteen to eighteen, and
-Tertiary from eighteen to twenty; while gymnastic training extended
-over the whole period.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Of these three stages the third alone was compulsory and provided by
-the State. The second was entirely voluntary, and only the richest and
-most leisured boys applied themselves to it. Gymnastics of some sort
-were rendered almost obligatory by the liability of every citizen to
-military and naval service at a moment’s notice; but they needed
-little encouragement. Of the primary subjects, letters were probably
-compulsory by law, and music was almost invariably taught. An old law,
-ascribed to Solon,[142] enacted that every boy should learn swimming
-and his letters; after which, the poorer might turn their attention to
-trade or farming, while the richer passed on to learn music, riding,
-gymnastics, hunting, and philosophy. In the _Kriton_ of Plato the
-personified Laws of Athens, recounting to Sokrates the many services
-which they had done him, mention that they had “charged his father to
-educate him in Music and Letters.”[143] But the Laws in Hellas include
-the customs, as well as the constitution, of a State. It was certainly
-customary for nearly every citizen at Athens to learn some music; but
-it was not compulsory. We meet no Athenian in literature who is
-ignorant of his letters; we meet several who know no music. In
-Aristophanes, Demosthenes and Nikias are on the lookout for the most
-vulgar and low-class man in Athens, in order that he may oust Kleon
-from popular favour, by outdoing him in vulgarity. They find a
-sausage-seller. But even this man knows his letters, though not very
-well.[144] Of music, however, he is ignorant, and he has never
-attended the lessons of a paidotribes,[145] though Kleon seems to
-expect him to have done so. Kleon, who is represented as an utter
-boor, is yet said to have attended a lyre-school.[146] In the
-_Theages_[147] literature and lyre-playing and athletics are mentioned
-as the ordinary education of a gentleman. In fiercely democratic
-Athens every parent was eager to bring up his sons as gentlemen, and
-no doubt sent them through the whole course if he could possibly
-afford it. But the State attitude towards education, as distinct from
-the voluntary customs of the citizens, may be summarised in the words
-of Sokrates to Alkibiades: “No one, so to speak, cares a straw how you
-or any other Athenian is brought up.”[148]
-
-The schoolmasters opened their schools as private enterprises, fixing
-for themselves the fees and the subjects taught. The parents chose
-what they thought a suitable school, according to their means and the
-subjects which they wished their sons to learn. Thus Sokrates says to
-his eldest son, Lamprokles,[149] “When boys seem old enough to learn
-anything, their parents teach them whatever they themselves know that
-is likely to be useful to them; subjects which they think others
-better qualified to teach they send them to school to learn, spending
-money upon this object.” This suggests that the poor may frequently
-have passed on their own knowledge of letters to their sons without
-the expense of a school. But all this was a private transaction
-between parent and teacher. The State interfered with the matter only
-so far as to impose certain moral regulations on the schools and the
-gymnasia, to fix the hours of opening and closing, and so forth, and
-to suggest that every boy should be taught his letters.
-
-The teaching of the elementary stages of Letters, that is, the three
-R’s, was, as will be shown later on, cheaply obtained, and was within
-the reach of the poorest. Music and athletics would naturally be more
-expensive, for they required much greater study and talents upon the
-part of their teachers. The State did take some steps to make these
-branches of education cheaper, and so throw them open to a larger
-number.
-
-Gymnasia and palaistrai were built at public expense,[150] that any
-one might go and exercise himself without charge. These buildings were
-also open to spectators, so that any one could acquire at any rate a
-rudimentary knowledge of boxing, wrestling, and the other branches of
-athletics, by watching his more proficient fellow-citizens practising
-them. The epheboi received instruction in athletic exercises at the
-cost of the State. But the children, so far as they received physical
-training in schools, must have received it in private palaistrai;
-their lessons are described as taking place “in the house of the
-paidotribes,” ἐν παιδοτρίβου [en paidotribou]――an idiom which always
-implies ownership or special rights; and the majority of palaistrai
-were private buildings, called by their owners’ names. Thus we hear of
-the palaistrai of Siburtios, of Taureas,[151] and so forth: Siburtios
-and Taureas were no doubt the paidotribai who taught there. In a later
-age, when the boys of different palaistrai ran torch races against one
-another, the palaistra of Timeas is victorious on two occasions, that
-of Antigenes once.[152]
-
-By the system of leitourgiai rich citizens were made chargeable for
-the expenses of the epheboi of their tribe who were training for the
-torch races. These races seem to have been the only branch of
-athletics which was thus endowed; however, they were numerous, even in
-the smaller country districts, so that many epheboi must have profited
-by this free training.[153] “Leitourgiai” also provided free
-instruction in chorus-dancing (which included singing as well as
-dancing) for such boys as were selected for competition. The rich
-“choregos” appointed for the year had to produce a chorus of boys
-belonging to his tribe for some festival, paying all the expenses of
-teaching and training them himself.[154] It is to this free school
-that the Solonic law refers when it mentions the “joint attendance of
-the boys and the dithyrambic choruses”; for it goes on to state that
-the ordinance with regard to this matter was that the “choregos”
-should be over forty.[155] In Demosthenes,[156] a certain Mantitheos,
-who had not been acknowledged by his father at the usual time,
-“attended school among the boys of the Hippothontid tribe to learn
-chorus-dancing”: had he been acknowledged, he would have gone to the
-Acamantid, his father’s tribe. No doubt, if the choregos was keen
-about gaining a victory, he would give a trial to more than the fifty
-boys required for a dithyrambic contest. In any case, provided that
-all the tribes competed, this one contest (and there were several in
-the course of a year) gave a free education to 500 boys. Xenophon
-notices that it was the “demos,” the poor majority, who mainly got the
-advantage of free training under gumnasiarchoi and choregoi:[157] the
-rich naturally preferred to send their boys to more select
-schools.[158]
-
-Thus the more elementary stages of letters alone were compulsory at
-Athens, but music and gymnastics were almost universally taught, and
-the cost of instruction in these subjects was reduced in various ways
-by State action: the greater part might be learned for nothing. But
-parents needed little compulsion or encouragement to get their
-children taught. So much did the Hellenes regard education as a
-necessity for their boys, that when the Athenians were driven from
-their homes by Xerxes, and their women and children crossed over to
-Troizen, the hospitable Troizenians provided their guests with
-schoolmasters, so that not even in such a crisis might the boys be
-forced to take a holiday.[159] And when Mitulene wished to punish her
-revolted allies in the most severe way possible, she prevented them
-from teaching their children letters and music.[160]
-
-Of State action with regard to education in Hellas elsewhere than in
-Sparta, Crete, and Athens, little is known. But the Chalcidian cities
-in Sicily and Italy are said to have provided literary education at
-public expense and under public supervision.[161] The law enacting
-this is ascribed to the great lawgiver, Charondas, and, although he is
-a somewhat shadowy figure,[162] there must have been some foundation
-for the story, at any rate at a later date. During the Macedonian
-period kings and other rich men often bequeathed large sums of money
-to their favourite cities, in order to endow the educational system.
-We hear of this happening in Teos and at Delphi: in these places the
-parents, if they paid any fees at all, cannot have paid much. But
-there is no authority for any such endowments during the period which
-we are considering.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-But if education was neither enforced nor assisted to any considerable
-degree by the State, it was certainly encouraged by the prizes which
-were offered. Every city, and probably most villages, had local
-competitions annually, and in many cases more frequently still, in
-which some of the “events” were reserved for citizens, while others
-were open to all comers. There were separate prizes for different
-ages; the ordinary division was into boys and grown men, an
-intermediate class of “the beardless” being sometimes added. But in
-some Attic inscriptions the boys are divided into three groups, and in
-Chios the epheboi were so distributed.
-
-These competitions were no doubt largely athletic. But music was
-usually provided for as well, and in many places there were literary
-competitions also. At Athens the different φρατρίαι [phratriai] seem
-to have offered prizes annually on the Koureotis day of the Apatouria
-to the boys who recited best, the piece for recitation being chosen by
-each competitor. Kritias took part in the competition when ten years
-old.[163] From Teos we have a list of prizemen, belonging, it is true,
-to a later date; but it may be quoted, to give some idea of what the
-subjects might be.[164]
-
-        _Senior Class_ (_by age_).
-
-  For rhapsody, Zoïlos, son of Zoïlos.
-  For reading, Zoïlos, son of Zoïlos.
-
-        _Middle Class._
-
-  For rhapsody, Metrodoros, son of Attalos.
-  For reading, Dionusikles, son of Metrodoros.
-  For general knowledge, Athenaios, son of Apollodoros.
-  For painting, Dionusios, son of Dionusios.
-
-        _Junior Class._
-
-  For rhapsody, Herakles.
-  For reading.
-  For caligraphy.
-  For torch race.
-  For playing lyre with fingers.
-  For playing lyre with plektron.
-  For singing to lyre.
-  For reciting tragic verse (tragedy).
-  For reciting comedy.
-  For reciting lyric verse.
-
-
-From Chios we have the following[165]:――
-
-     When Hermesileos, Dinos, and Nikias were gumnasiarchoi, the
-     following boys and epheboi were victorious in the competitions
-     and offered libations to the Muses and Herakles from the
-     sums which were given to them in accordance with the decree
-     of the people, when Lusias was taster of the offerings:――
-
-     For reading, Agathokles.
-     For rhapsody, Miltiades.
-     For playing lyre with fingers, Xenon.
-     For playing lyre, Kleoites.
-
-    _Long Distance Race_ (varied from 2¼ miles to about ¾ mile).
-     Boys              Asklepiades.
-     Junior epheboi    Dionusios.
-     Middle    ”       Timokles.
-     Senior    ”       Moschion.
-     Men       ”       Aischrion.
-
-    _Stadion_ (200 yards).
-     Boys             _Athenikon_.
-     Junior epheboi    Hestiaios.
-     Middle    ”      _Apollonios_.
-     Senior    ”       Artemon.
-     Men       ”       Metrodoros.
-
-    _Diaulos_ (400 yards).
-     Boys             _Athenikon_.
-     Junior epheboi    Hubristos.
-     Middle    ”       Melantes.
-     Senior    ”       _Apollonios_.
-     Men       ”       Menis.
-     (Apollonios seems to have been so
-     good that, though a middle ephebos,
-     he competed in and won the
-     senior ephebos’ race here, unless
-     there were two boys of the same
-     name.)
-
-    _Wrestling._
-     Boys             _Athenikon_.
-     Junior epheboi    Demetrios.
-     Middle    ”       Moschos.
-     Senior    ”       Theodotos.
-     Men       ”       Apellas.
-
-     _Boxing._
-     Boys              Herakleides.
-     (The rest is wanting.)
-
-     (Notice the three victories of the boy Athenikon.)
-
-At Thespiai in Boiotia[166] there were prizes for senior and junior
-boys in the various races, and in boxing, wrestling, pankration, and
-pentathlon, besides open prizes for poetry and music of all kinds.
-Attic inscriptions arrange the events thus[167]:――
-
-    _Stadion._
-  Junior Boys.
-  Middle Boys.
-  Senior Boys.
-  Boys Open.
-      Men.
-
-    _Diaulos._
-  Junior Boys.
-  Middle Boys.
-  Senior Boys.
-  Boys   Open.
-      Men.
-
-  _Fighting in Heavy Arms._
-  Junior     Boys.
-  Middle     Boys.
-  Senior     Boys.
-  Epheboi.
-
-The Olympian and Pythian festivals, however, had only a single series
-of contests for boys:――
-
-                           _Olympia._
-              Boys.   Stadion (Pind. _Ol._ xiv.).
-                      Boxing (Pind. _Ol._ x., xi.).
-                      Wrestling (Pind. _Ol._ viii.).
-  (only in 628 B.C.)  Pentathlon.
-  (not till 200 B.C.) Pankration.
-
-                           _Pythia._
-  Boys.  Long Distance Race.
-         Diaulos (400 yards) (Pind. _Puth_. x.).
-         Stadion (200 yards) (Pind. _Puth._ xi.).
-         Boxing.
-         Wrestling (Bacchul. xi.).
-         Pankration (not till 346 B.C.).
-
-But at Nemea both pentathlon[168] and pankration[169] for boys had
-already been established by Pindar’s time, as well as the more usual
-contests.[170]
-
-How far individual schoolmasters, as distinct from the State, gave
-prizes to their pupils, is little known; an epigram in the _Anthology_
-supplies the only evidence, by narrating that “Konnaros received
-eighty knucklebones because he wrote beautifully, better than the
-other boys.”[171] But probably as a general rule the task of rewarding
-merit was left to the public contests.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Thus the State did much to encourage, if it did little to assist or
-enforce, education. With such splendid rewards before them, boys were
-probably quite eager to attend school, or at any rate the palaistra.
-As soon as they were old enough to go to school,[172] they were
-entrusted to an elderly slave,[173] who had to follow his master’s
-boys about wherever they went and never let them go out of his
-sight.[174] This was the paidagogos――a mixture of nurse, footman,
-chaperon, and tutor――who is so prominent a figure on the vases and in
-the literature of classical Hellas. There was only one for the family,
-so that all the boys had to go about together and to attend the same
-schools and the same palaistrai at the same time.[175] He waited on
-them in the house, carried their books or lyres to school, sat and
-watched them in the schoolroom, and kept a strict eye upon their
-manners and morality in the streets and the gymnasia. Thus, for
-instance, in Plato, Lusis and Menexenos have their paidagogoi in
-attendance at the palaistra, who come and force them away from the
-absorbing conversation of Sokrates, when it is time for them to go
-home.[176] On a vase these attendants may be seen sitting on stools
-behind their charges, in the schools of letters and music, with long
-and suggestive canes in their hands.[177] A careful parent would, of
-course, see that a slave who was to occupy so responsible a position
-was worthy of it: but great carelessness seems often to have been
-shown in this matter. The paidagogoi of Lusis and Menexenos, boys of
-rank and position, had a bad accent, and on a festival day, it is
-true, were slightly intoxicated.[178] Plutarch notices that in his
-time parents often selected for this office slaves who were of no use
-for any other purpose.[179] Xenophon, feeling the demerits of the
-Athenian custom, commends the Spartans, who entrust the boys not to
-slaves, but to public officials of the highest rank.[180] But in
-well-regulated households the paidagogos was often a most worthy and
-valuable servant. Sikinnos, who attended the children of Themistokles
-in this capacity, was entrusted by his master with the famous message
-to Xerxes, which brought on the battle of Salamis; he was afterwards
-rewarded with his freedom, the citizenship of Thespiai, and a
-substantial sum of money.[181] The custom of employing these
-male-nurses dated back to early times at Athens: for Solon made
-regulations about them.[182]
-
-Boys were entrusted to paidagogoi as soon as they went to school at
-six. This tutelage might last till the boy was eighteen[183] and came
-of age; but more frequently it stopped earlier. Xenophon,[184] in his
-wish to disparage everything not Spartan, declares that in all other
-States the boys were set free from paidagogoi and schoolmasters as
-soon as they became μειράκια [meirakia], _i.e._ at about fourteen or
-fifteen. The conjunction of schoolmasters suggests the explanation of
-the variations in age. When an elder brother ceased to attend school,
-and his younger brothers were still pursuing their studies, there
-being only one paidagogos, he had to be left unattended. But in cases
-where there was only one son, or where the eldest of several stayed on
-at school until he came of age, he would have the paidagogos to attend
-him until he was his own master.
-
-The life of such an attendant must have been an anxious one in many
-cases. Plato compares his relations towards his charges with the
-relations of an invalid towards his health: “He has to follow the
-disease wherever it leads, being unable to cure it, and he spends his
-life in perpetual anxiety with no time for anything else.”[185] With
-unruly boys of different ages, and consequently of different tastes
-and desires, the slave must have been often in a difficult position.
-He had, however, the right of inflicting corporal punishment.
-
-The chief object of the paidagogos was to safeguard the morals of his
-charges. Boys were expected to be as modest and quiet in their whole
-behaviour, and as carefully chaperoned, as young girls. Parents told
-the schoolmasters to bestow much more attention upon the boy’s
-behaviour than upon his letters and music.[186] This attitude was
-characteristic of Athens from the first. The school laws of Solon, as
-quoted by Aischines, deal wholly with morality. He gives the following
-account of them[187]:――
-
-     “The old lawgivers stated expressly what sort of life the
-     free boy ought to lead and how he ought to be brought up;
-     they also dealt with the manners of lads and men of other
-     ages.” “In the case of the schoolmasters, to whom we are
-     compelled to entrust our children, although their livelihood
-     depends upon their good character, and bad behaviour is
-     ruinous to them, yet the lawgiver obviously distrusts them.
-     For he expressly states, first, the hour at which the free
-     boy ought to go to school; secondly, how many other boys are
-     to be present in the school; and then at what hour he is to
-     leave. He forbids the schoolmasters to open their schools
-     and the paidotribai their palaistrai before sunrise, and
-     orders them to close before sunset, being very suspicious of
-     the empty streets and of the darkness. Then he dealt with
-     the boys who attended schools, as to who they should be and
-     of what ages; and with the official who is to oversee these
-     matters. He dealt too with the regulation of the paidagogoi,
-     and with the festival of the Muses in the schools and of
-     Hermes in the palaistrai. Finally, he laid down regulations
-     about the joint attendance of the boys and the round of
-     dithyrambic dances; for he directed that the Choregos should
-     be over forty.”
-
-     “No one over the age of boyhood might enter while the boys
-     were in school, except the son, brother, or son-in-law of
-     the master: the penalty of infringing this regulation was
-     death. At the festival of Hermes the person in charge of the
-     gymnasium[188] was not to allow any one over age to
-     accompany the boys in any way: unless he excluded such
-     persons from the gymnasium, he was to come under the law of
-     corrupting free boys.”
-
-It will be noticed that these regulations are entirely concerned with
-morality: they safeguard an existing system. They prescribe neither
-the methods nor the subjects of education; for with such matters the
-Athenian government did not interfere. But over the question of morals
-it becomes unexpectedly tyrannous, and makes the most minute
-regulations worthy of the strictest bureaucracy. It interfered on this
-point in other ways also. The solemn council on the Areiopagos had a
-special supervision over the young, from Solon’s time onward; this was
-partially taken away from it by Ephialtes and Perikles, but the
-_Axiochos_ shows that, though in abeyance, it continued to exist; in
-the middle of the fourth century, however, Isokrates laments that it
-had fallen into disuse.
-
-The _Axiochos_ also states that the ten Sophronistai, elected to guard
-the morals of the epheboi, exercised control over lads also. These
-officials probably took their rise in the days of Solon: the
-regulation that they must be over forty harmonises with the other
-enactments of those days; and, although they died out at the end of
-the fourth century, they were revived under the Roman Empire. Now it
-is most unlikely that the archaistic legislators of imperial times
-would have revived an office which had only existed during the closing
-decades of the fourth century. Solon is known to have appointed a
-magistracy specially to deal with the children;[189] and, if these
-magistrates were not the Sophronistai, all trace of his creation has
-been lost, which is most unlikely to have happened. So the
-Sophronistai probably date from early times. Their duty was a general
-supervision of the morals of the young; their chief function would be
-to prosecute, on behalf of the State, parents and schoolmasters who
-infringed Solon’s moral regulations. But such prosecutions would
-usually be undertaken by private individuals concerned in the case,
-and so this magistracy tended to become a sinecure. It may even have
-ceased to exist after the fall of the Areiopagos. But it seems to have
-revived under the restored democracy for a while (if the _Axiochos_
-belongs to Aischines the Sokratic), to sink again in the middle of the
-century. At the close of the century it revives once more with the
-changes in the ephebic system, and finally perishes when the epheboi
-became too few to need ten officers to supervise their morals. An
-account of the Sophronistai of this later period will be given in
-connection with the epheboi.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE II.
-
-  THE FLUTE LESSON――THE BOY’S TURN
-
-  _Wiener Vorlegeblätter_, Series C, Plate 4.
-  From a Kulix by Hieron, now at Vienna.]
-
-The strategoi[190] exercised a superintendence over the epheboi during
-their two years’ training as recruits, as would naturally be expected.
-Late in the fourth century they appear also to have been connected
-with the local schools in Attica; an inscription at Eleusis, which
-Girard assigns to 320 B.C., thanks the strategos Derkulos for the
-diligence which he had shown in supervising the education of the
-children there.[191] Whether they exercised such functions in the days
-when their military duties were more important, is more than doubtful.
-But any Athenian magistrate could interest himself in the schools, no
-doubt, and intervene to check abuses.[192]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-In the period of juvenile emancipation and increasing luxury and
-indulgence for children which marked the closing decades of the fifth
-century, it became customary for conservative thinkers to look back
-with longing, and no doubt idealising, eyes to the “good old times.”
-The sixth and early fifth centuries came, probably unjustly, to be
-regarded as the ideal age of education, when children learned
-obedience and morality, and were not pampered and depraved; when they
-were beautiful and healthy, not pale-faced, stunted, and
-over-educated.
-
-Listen to Aristophanes,[193] yearning for “the good old style of
-education, in the days when Justice still prevailed over Rhetoric, and
-good morals were still in fashion. Then children were seen and not
-heard; then the boys of each hamlet and ward walked in orderly
-procession along the roads on their way to the lyre-school,――no
-overcoats, though it snowed cats and dogs. Then, while they stood up
-square――no lounging――the master taught them a fine old patriotic song
-like ‘Pallas, city-sacker dread,’[194] or ‘A cry that echoes
-afar,’[195] set to a good old-fashioned tune. If any one tried any
-vulgar trills and twiddles and odes where the metre varies, such as
-Phrunis and Co. use nowadays, he got a tremendous thrashing for
-disrespect to the Muses.” While being taught by the paidotribes, too,
-they behaved modestly, and did not spend their time ogling their
-admirers. “At meals children were not allowed to grab up the dainties
-or giggle or cross their feet.” “This was the education which produced
-the heroes of Marathon.… This taught the boys to avoid the Agora, keep
-away from the Baths, be ashamed at what is disgraceful, be courteous
-to elders, honour their parents, and be an impersonation of
-Modesty――instead of running after ballet-girls. They passed their days
-in the gymnasia, keeping their bodies in good condition, not mouthing
-quibbles in the Agora. Each spent his time with some well-mannered lad
-of his own age, running races in the Akademeia under the sacred
-olives, amid a fragrance of smilax and leisure and white poplar,
-rejoicing in the springtide when plane-tree and elm whisper together.”
-All the voices of generations of boys, bound down to indoor studies
-when wood and field and river are calling them, the complaint of ages
-of fevered hurry and bustle, looking back with regret on the days of
-“leisure” and “springtide,” seem to echo in Aristophanes’ lament for
-the ways that were no more.
-
-“This education,” he goes on, “produced a good chest, sound
-complexion, broad shoulders, small tongue; the new style produces pale
-faces, small shoulders, narrow chest, and long tongue, and makes the
-boy confuse Honour with Dishonour: it fills the Baths, empties the
-Palaistra.”
-
-The next witness to be called is Isokrates. He is somewhat prejudiced
-by his dream of restoring the Areiopagos to its old power, but he is
-an educational expert and his evidence is supported by that of many
-others. In the days when the Areiopagos had the superintendence of
-morals, he says,[196] “the young did not spend their time in the
-gambling dens, and with flute-girls and company of that sort, as they
-do now, but they remained true to the manner of life which was laid
-down for them.… They avoided the Agora so much, that, if ever they
-were compelled to pass through it, they did so with obvious modesty
-and self-control. To contradict or insult an elder was at that time
-considered a worse offence than ill-treatment of parents is considered
-now. To eat or drink in a tavern was a thing that not even a
-self-respecting servant would think of doing then; for they practised
-good manners, not vulgarity.”
-
-Call Plato next.[197] “In a democratic state the schoolmaster is
-afraid of his pupils and flatters them, and the pupils despise both
-schoolmaster and paidagogos. The young expect the same treatment as
-the old, and contradict them and quarrel with them. In fact, seniors
-have to flatter their juniors, in order not to be thought morose old
-dotards.”
-
-The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for
-authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of
-exercise. The old regime had strictly forbidden luxury. Warm baths had
-been regarded as unmanly, and were even coupled with drunkenness by
-Hermippos.[198] The boys had only worn a single garment, the
-sleeveless chiton, a custom which survived till late times in Sparta
-and Crete; but at Athens they began to wear the ἱμάτιον [himation] or
-overcoat as well. Xenophon, blaming parents “in the rest of Hellas”
-(_i.e._ elsewhere than in Sparta), says: “They make their boy’s feet
-soft by giving him shoes, and pamper his body with changes of clothes;
-they also allow him as much food as his stomach can contain.”[199]
-Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households.
-They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room;
-they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled
-up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against
-Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over
-the paidagogoi and schoolmasters. Alkibiades even smacked a
-literature-master. A similar change came over the position of children
-in England during the latter half of the nineteenth century. If Maria
-Edgeworth could have met a modern child, she would have uttered quite
-Aristophanic diatribes against the decay of good manners.
-
-With this change went a more serious matter, a change of tone. Whether
-the old days were as moral as the conservatives supposed, may be
-doubted; but the atmosphere of Periclean and Socratic Athens, as
-represented by all its literary lights, was certainly most unsuitable
-for the young. Perhaps general morality was no worse, but the
-immorality was no longer concealed from the children. The old laws
-which had excluded unsuitable company from the schools and palaistrai
-were neglected, and these educational buildings became the resort of
-all the fashionable loungers of Athens.
-
-The preference given to conversation over exercise was a feature of
-the age. In part, it was a preference for intellectual as against
-purely physical education. The free discussion with children of
-ethical subjects probably ceased with the death of Sokrates; this can
-hardly be regretted, if Plato’s evidence as to the nature of Socratic
-dialogues is to be believed. From the importance which Plato gives to
-gymnastics as a corrective to exclusive μουσική [mousikê] even in the
-education of his highly intellectual Philosopher-Kings, we may suspect
-that the revolt against excessive athletics at Athens, of which
-Euripides had been the leader, had gone too far, and that a reaction
-was needed. Certainly the Athenians do not distinguish themselves for
-pluck or energy in the fourth century: in Platonic phrase, the temper
-of their resolution had been melted away by their exclusive devotion
-to intellectual and artistic pursuits.
-
-Let me close this subject, however, with a more pleasing picture of
-that αἰδώς [aidôs] or modesty at which the older education had aimed.
-It is taken from the midst of that brilliant but corrupt Socratic
-Athens.[200] Young Autolukos had won the boys’ contest for the
-pankration at the great Panathenaic festival. As a treat, Kallias, a
-friend of his father, had taken him to the horse-races, and afterwards
-invited him out to dinner with his father Lukon: such a dignity was
-rarely accorded to an Athenian boy.
-
-The boy sits at table, while the grown men recline. Some one asked him
-what he was most proud of――“Your victory, I suppose?” He blushed and
-said, “No, I’m not.” Every one was delighted to hear his voice, for he
-had not said a word so far. “Of what then?” some one asked. “Of my
-father,” replied the boy, and cuddled up against him.
-
-These shy, blushing boys were a feature of the age. The stricter
-parents, knowing the dangers which surrounded their sons, tried to
-keep them entirely from any knowledge or experience of the world.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-As far as can be discovered from the somewhat fragmentary evidence,
-the Athenian type of education was prevalent throughout the civilised
-Hellenic world, with the exception of Crete and Lakedaimon, which had
-systems of their own. Xenophon, in praising the Spartan system and
-contrasting it with that which was prevalent in neighbouring
-countries, ascribes to what he calls “the rest of Hellas” educational
-customs and arrangements exactly similar to those which are found to
-have existed at Athens. His statement is borne out by other evidence.
-Chios certainly had a School of Letters before 494 B.C.; for a
-building of this sort collapsed in that year, destroying all but one
-of the 120 pupils.[201] Boiotia, byword for stupidity, had schools
-even in the smaller towns. A small place like Mukalessos had more than
-one; for a detachment of wild Thracian mercenaries in the pay of
-Athens fell upon the town at daybreak one morning during the
-Peloponnesian War, and entering “the largest school in the place,”
-killed all the boys.[202] Arkadia had an equally bad reputation; yet,
-according to Polubios,[203] in every Arcadian town the boys were
-compelled by law to learn to sing. Troizen must have had schools in
-480, when she provided them for her Athenian guests. Aelian vouches
-for schools in Lesbos,[204] Pausanias[205] for a school of sixty boys
-in Astupalaia in 496 B.C. The poet Sophocles dined with a master of
-letters whose school was either in Eretria or Eruthrai.[206] The
-inscriptions show that before the third century there were flourishing
-schools in most of the islands.
-
-Gymnastic education must have gone on in every Hellenic city, for the
-athletic victors at the great games come from every part. Musical
-training too was required for the dancing and singing which were
-universal throughout Hellas; but how far the lyre was taught must
-remain doubtful. In Boiotia the flute replaced the lyre in the
-schools. But it may be taken for granted that letters, some sort of
-music, and gymnastics were taught in every part of civilised Hellas,
-with the possible exception that letters may not have been taught at
-Sparta.
-
-Secondary Education, as long as it was supplied by the Sophists,
-reached every village in the Hellenic world; later, it had a tendency
-to be confined to the large towns. The Tertiary system of military
-training and special gymnastics for the epheboi would seem, from the
-scanty evidence of the inscriptions, to have been well-nigh universal.
-
-I will now proceed to give a more detailed account of the several
-branches of this widespread educational system. As the evidence comes
-almost entirely from Athens, my description will deal in the main with
-Athenian education; but, as the same type prevailed throughout the
-greater part of Hellas, the description may be taken as applying to
-the other cities also.
-
-
-     [98] Herod. ii. 167. Corinth was an exception.
-
-     [99] Plato, _Laws_, 846 D.
-
-     [100] Arist. _Pol._ viii. 2. 4.
-
-     [101] Xen. _Econ._ iv. 3. Sitting was regarded as a slavish
-     attitude, since the free citizen mostly stood or lay down.
-     Xen. _Econ._ iv. 3.
-
-     [102] Plato, _Protag._ 328 A.
-
-     [103] Xen. _Revenues_, ii. 2.
-
-     [104] Plato, _Kleitophon_, 409 B.
-
-     [105] Plato, _Rep._ 421 E.
-
-     [106] Plato, _Gorg._ 514 B.
-
-     [107] Plato, _Rep._ 467 A.
-
-     [108] Aristoph. _Acharn._ 1032.
-
-     [109] The fifth-century comic poet.
-
-     [110] Plutarch, _Solon_, 22.
-
-     [111] Plato, _Laws_, 643 E.
-
-     [112] Except possibly in Chios and Lokris, and of course in
-     Sparta.
-
-     [113] Thuc. ii. 45. 4.
-
-     [114] Xen. _Econ._ vii. 5.
-
-     [115] Xen. _Mem._ ii. 7.
-
-     [116] Plato, _Rep._ 455 C.
-
-     [117] Plato, _Laws_, 805 E.
-
-     [118] As in Lusias, _ag. Diogeiton_, 32. 28.
-
-     [119] In the _Econ._ vii. 10.
-
-     [120] Thus the _Axiochos_ (366 D) puts seven years as the
-     age at which grammatistai and paidotribai began. Plato
-     (_Laws_, 794) says six; Aristotle (_Pol._ vii. 17) about
-     five; Xenophon (_Constit. of Lak._ ii.) “as soon as the
-     children begin to understand.”
-
-     [121] Aesop was popular then, as now. This is the μουσική
-     [mousikê] anterior to γυμναστική [gymnastikê], so keenly
-     criticised in the _Republic_.
-
-     [122] Plato, _Protag._ 325 C-E.
-
-     [123] Xen. _Mem._ ii. 2. 6.
-
-     [124] Plato, _Protag._ 326 C.
-
-     [125] Aristotle, _Pol._ vii. 17. 7.
-
-     [126] The three in this order in Plato, _Protag._ 312 B,
-     325-326; _Charmid_. 159 C; _Kleitoph_. 407 C; Xen. _Constit.
-     of Lak._ ii. 1; Isok. _Antid._ 267. The first two in this
-     order in _Charmid._ 160 A; _Lusis_, 209 B; inverted in
-     _Euthud._ 276 A. Aristot. (_Pol._ viii. 3) gives γράμματα,
-     γυμναστική, μουσική [grammata, gymnastikê, mousikê]. Plato
-     in the _Laws_ 810 A makes κιθαριστική [kitharistikê] follow
-     γραμματική [grammatikê]; Aristophanes mentions the
-     paidotribes just after the κιθαριστής [kitharistês].
-
-     [127] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 3. 1.
-
-     [128] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ii.
-
-     [129] See Illustr. Plates I. A and I. B.
-
-     [130] Plato, _Laws_, 810 A.
-
-     [131] Vase B 192.
-
-     [132] Vases E 171, 172; see Plates III. and IV.
-
-     [133] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 4. 9.
-
-     [134] _Ibid._ viii. 1. 2.
-
-     [135] [Plato] _Rivals_, 132 A.
-
-     [136] Plato, _Lusis_, 206 D.
-
-     [137] Plato, _Laches_, 179 A.
-
-     [138] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ iii.
-
-     [139] Plato, _Lusis_, 214 B.
-
-     [140] Rhetoric is, of course, banished from a Platonic
-     state.
-
-     [141] [Plato] _Axiochos_, 366 E.
-
-     [142] See Petit, _Leges Atticae_, ii. 4, compiled with great
-     ingenuity out of many authors. Hence the proverbs ὁ μήτε
-     νεῖν μήτε γράμματα ἐπιστάμενος [ho mête nein mête grammata
-     epistamenos], of utter dunce, and πρῶτον κολυμβᾶν δεύτερον
-     δὲ γράμματα [prôton kolymban deuteron de grammata]. The
-     spelling-riddles of the tragedians imply a whole nation
-     interested in spelling.
-
-     [143] Plato, _Kriton_, 50 D.
-
-     [144] Aristophanes, _Knights_, 189.
-
-     [145] _Ibid._ 1235-1239.
-
-     [146] _Ibid._ 987-996.
-
-     [147] [Plato] _Theages_, 122 E.
-
-     [148] Plato, _Alkibiades_, i. 122 B. The Athenian State,
-     however, from the time of Solon onwards, supported and
-     educated at public expense the sons of those who fell in
-     battle. The endowed systems in Teos and at Delphoi belong to
-     the third century; it is impossible to say whether such
-     existed earlier.
-
-     [149] Xen. _Mem._ ii. 2. 6.
-
-     [150] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athens_, ii. 10.
-
-     [151] Plutarch, _Alkib._ 3; Plato, _Charmides_, 153 A.
-
-     [152] _C.I.A._ ii. 1. 444, 445, 446.
-
-     [153] See Excursus on γυμνιασιαρχοί [gymniasiarchoi].
-
-     [154] He could, and had to, use compulsion in collecting
-     boys. This suggests that a parent could always, if he
-     wished, get this free education for his son.
-
-     [155] This rule fell into abeyance.
-
-     [156] Dem. _against Boiot._ 1001.
-
-     [157] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athens_, i. 13.
-
-     [158] On the strength of the passages quoted from the law,
-     and from Demosthenes, and of Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 964,
-     some have maintained a theory that the Athenian tribes
-     provided free education in dancing, and perhaps in other
-     subjects, to all free boys, exclusive of competitions. But
-     the quotation in Aischines, except for the actual law, which
-     is a later interpolation, certainly refers only to the
-     choregoi, and the passage in Demosthenes is concerned only
-     with chorus-dancing for competitions. In Aristophanes the
-     boys of the same neighbourhood naturally attend the same
-     school, that is all.
-
-     [159] Plut. _Themist._ 10.
-
-     [160] Ael. _Var. Hist._ vii. 15.
-
-     [161] Diod. Sic. xii. 42.
-
-     [162] Probably lived _circa_ 500 B.C.
-
-     [163] Plato, _Tim._ 21 B.
-
-     [164] Böckh, 3088.
-
-     [165] _Ibid._ 2214. I have omitted patronymics.
-
-     [166] _C.I.G. Boeot._ 1760-1766.
-
-     [167] Böckh, 232, 245.
-
-     [168] Pind. _Nem._ vii.
-
-     [169] Bacchul. xiii., Pind. _Nem._ v.
-
-     [170] Wrestling, Pind. _Nem._ iv., vi.
-
-     [171] _Anthol._ ed. Jacobs, vi. 308.
-
-     [172] Sometimes earlier. Plato, _Protag._ 325 C.
-
-     [173] Elderly, as in the picture of Medeia and her children
-     given in Smith’s _Smaller Classical Dictionary_ under
-     “Medea,” and on Douris’ Kulix, Plates I. A and I. B (if
-     those are paidagogoi), and on other vases.
-
-     [174] So Fabius Cunctator was called Hannibal’s paidagogos,
-     because he followed him about everywhere.
-
-     [175] There is only one for Lusis and his brothers (Plato,
-     _Lus._ 223 A), for Medeia’s two children (Eur. _Med._), for
-     two boys in _Lusis_, 223 A, and for Themistocles’ children
-     (Herod. viii. 75).
-
-     [176] Plato, _Lus._ 208 C. He is referred to as ὅδε [hode],
-     showing that he is present.
-
-     [177] Illustr. Plates I. A and I. B. Perhaps only the
-     walking-stick carried by all Athenians.
-
-     [178] Plato, _Lus._ 223 A.
-
-     [179] Plut. _Education of Boys_.
-
-     [180] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ii. 2.
-
-     [181] Herod. viii. 75.
-
-     [182] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 35. 10.
-
-     [183] In the guardian’s accounts given by Lusias, _ag.
-     Diogeiton_, 32. 28, a paidagogos is paid for till the boy is
-     eighteen; but there was a younger brother, for whom he may
-     have been required, so the elder may have been free earlier.
-     In Plautus (_Bacch._ 138) we find a paidogogos in attendance
-     till his charge was twenty.
-
-     [184] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ iii. 1.
-
-     [185] Plato, _Rep._ 406 A.
-
-     [186] Plato, _Protag._ 325 D.
-
-     [187] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 9.
-
-     [188] γυμνασιαρχής [gymnasiarchês]. See Excursus on
-     γυμνασιαρχοί [gymnasiarchoi]. This law was totally neglected
-     in Socratic Athens. See Plato’s _Lusis_.
-
-     [189] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 10. The word σωφρονιστής
-     [sôphronistês], in a general sense, occurs three times in
-     Thucydides.
-
-     [190] Deinarchos, _ag. Philokles_, 15.
-
-     [191] Girard, _L’Éducation Athénienne_, pp. 51, 52.
-
-     [192] The Archon Eponumos had the control of orphans and
-     probably intervened if their education was neglected.
-
-     [193] Aristoph. _Clouds_, 960 ff.
-
-     [194] By Lamprokles (476 B.C.).
-
-     [195] By Kudides (? = Kudias. Smyth, _Melic Poets_, p. 347).
-
-     [196] Isok. _Areiop._ 149 C, D.
-
-     [197] Plato, _Rep._ 563 A.
-
-     [198] _Floruit_ 432 B.C. (in Athen. 18 C).
-
-     [199] Xen. _Constit. of Lak._ ii. 1.
-
-     [200] Xen. _Banquet_, iii. 13.
-
-     [201] Herod. vi. 27.
-
-     [202] Thuc. vii. 29.
-
-     [203] Pol. iv. 20. 7.
-
-     [204] Ael. _Var. Hist._ 7. 15.
-
-     [205] Pausan. vi. 9. 6.
-
-     [206] Athen. 604 a-b.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-ATHENS AND THE REST OF HELLAS: PRIMARY EDUCATION
-
-
-We have seen that Primary Education in Hellas consisted of letters and
-music, with a contemporary training in gymnastics; to which triple
-course was added, late in the fourth century, drawing and painting.
-How the day was divided between mental and physical training is
-unknown――probably, like everything else, this varied with the taste of
-the individual――but the following sketch from Lucian,[207] although it
-belongs to a much later date, may perhaps give some idea of a
-schoolboy’s day:――
-
-     “He gets up at dawn, washes the sleep from his eyes, and
-     puts on his cloak. Then he goes out from his father’s house,
-     with his eyes fixed upon the ground, not looking at any one
-     who meets him. Behind him follow attendants and paidagogoi,
-     bearing in their hands the implements of virtue,
-     writing-tablets or books containing the great deeds of old,
-     or, if he is going to a music-school, his well-tuned lyre.
-
-     “When he has laboured diligently at intellectual studies,
-     and his mind is sated with the benefits of the school
-     curriculum, he exercises his body in liberal pursuits,
-     riding or hurling the javelin or spear. Then the
-     wrestling-school with its sleek, oiled pupils, labours under
-     the mid-day sun, and sweats in the regular athletic
-     contests. Then a bath, not too prolonged; then a meal, not
-     too large, in view of afternoon school. For the
-     schoolmasters are waiting for him again, and the books which
-     openly or by allegory teach him who was a great hero, who
-     was a lover of justice and purity. With the contemplation of
-     such virtues he waters the garden of his young soul. When
-     evening sets a limit to his work, he pays the necessary
-     tribute to his stomach and retires to rest, to sleep sweetly
-     after his busy day.”
-
-The school hours were naturally arranged to suit the times of Hellenic
-meals, for which the boys returned home. The ordinary arrangement was
-a light breakfast at daybreak, a solid meal at mid-day, and supper at
-sunset. So the schools opened at sunrise.[208] Solon enacted that they
-should not open earlier. They closed in time to allow the boys to
-return home to lunch,[209] opened again in the afternoon, and closed
-before sunset.[210] How many of the intermediate hours were spent in
-work,[211] and what intervals there were, is unknown. There was, of
-course, no weekly rest on Sundays; but festivals, which were whole
-holidays, were numerous throughout Hellas, and, in Alexandria at any
-rate, on the 7th and 20th of every month the schools were closed,
-these days being sacred to Apollo.[212] There were also special school
-festivals, such as that of the Muses, and holidays in commemoration of
-benefactors; thus Anaxagoras left a bequest to Klazomenai, on
-condition that the day of his death should be celebrated annually by a
-holiday in the schools.[213] It must also be remembered that one of
-the three branches of Primary Education in Hellas would be called play
-in England: an afternoon spent in running races, jumping, wrestling,
-or riding would not be regarded as work by an English schoolboy.
-Music, too, is usually learned during play-hours in an English school.
-Even Letters, when the elementary stage was past, meant reciting,
-reading, or learning by heart the literature of the boy’s own
-language, and most of it not stiff literature by any means, but such
-fascinating fairy-tales as are found in Homer. There is little trace
-of Hellenic boys creeping unwillingly to school: their lessons were
-made eminently attractive.
-
-Of the fees which were paid to schoolmasters little is known. An
-amusing passage in Lucian,[214] dealing with the under-world,
-describes those who had been kings or satraps upon earth as reduced in
-the future state “to beggary, and compelled by poverty either to sell
-kippers or to teach the elements of reading and writing.” From this it
-may be inferred that elementary schoolmasters did not make much money
-by their fees. This inference is supported by the fact that even the
-poorest Athenians managed to send their sons to such schools. Plato in
-the _Laws_ reserves the profession for foreigners, thus suggesting
-that it was neither well paid nor highly esteemed. To call a man a
-schoolmaster was almost an insult; Demosthenes, abusing Aischines,
-says, “You taught letters, I went to school.”[215] The weakness of the
-masters’ position may be seen too from the extreme contempt with which
-their pupils seem to have treated them. The boys bring their
-pets――cats and dogs and leopards――into school, and play with them
-under the master’s chair. Theophrastos,[216] in describing the
-characteristics of the mean man, says that “he does not send his
-children to school all the month of Anthesterion” (that is, from the
-middle of February to the middle of March) “on account of the number
-of feasts.” The school-bills were paid by the month, and, since boys
-did not go to school on the great festivals, and Anthesterion
-contained many such days, the mean parent thought he would not get his
-money’s worth for this particular month, and so withdrew his boys
-while it lasted.
-
-Mean parents also deducted from the fees in proportion, if their sons
-were absent from school owing to ill-health for a day or two;[217] but
-this was not usually done. The bills were paid on the 30th of each
-month.[218] Schoolmasters apparently had some difficulty in getting
-their bills paid at all; according to Demosthenes’ statement, his
-bills were never paid, owing to the fraudulent behaviour of his
-guardian Aphobos.[219]
-
-No doubt the fees varied according to the merits of the school, for
-the schools at Athens seem to have differed greatly. Demosthenes, when
-boasting of his career, in his speech _On the Crown_, says that he
-went as a boy to the _respectable_ schools;[220] the quality and
-quantity of the teaching must have been varied to suit the parent’s
-pocket. For the poor there would probably be schools where only the
-elements of reading and writing were taught. In the higher class of
-school these elements would be taught by under-masters, frequently
-slaves; but free citizens might also be reduced by poverty to take
-such a post. This may be seen from the case of the father of
-Aischines, the orator.[221] Impoverished and exiled like many
-democrats by the Thirty Tyrants, he returned with the Restoration a
-ruined man. To earn his living, he became an usher at the school of
-one Elpias, close to the Theseion, and taught letters: his son
-Aischines seems to have begun his life by assisting his father in this
-occupation. His opponent, Demosthenes, takes advantage of the contempt
-with which these ushers were regarded to declare that the father was a
-slave of Elpias,[222] “wearing big fetters and a collar,” and the son
-was employed in “grinding the ink and sponging the forms and sweeping
-out the schoolroom (παιδαγωγεῖον [paidagôgeion]), the work of a
-servant, not of a free boy.”
-
-No doubt letters and music were often taught at the same school, in
-different rooms. Such an arrangement would be natural and convenient.
-The vases suggest it, but their evidence is uncertain. The school
-buildings seem often to have been surrounded by playgrounds. A passage
-in Aelian[223] shows us the boys, just let out of school, playing at
-tug-of-war. No doubt in these places they played with their hoops and
-tops, and amused themselves with pick-a-back and the stone- and
-dice-games which corresponded to our marbles. In villages these
-playgrounds probably did duty as palaistrai.
-
-The headmaster of the school sat on a chair with a high back;
-under-masters and boys had stools without backs, but cushions were
-provided. For lessons in class there were benches.[224] There
-was a high reading-desk for recitations. Round the walls hung
-writing-tablets, rulers, and baskets or cases containing manuscript
-rolls labelled with the author’s name, composing the school library;
-the rolls might also hang by themselves.[225] Masters were expected to
-possess at any rate a copy of Homer――Alkibiades thrashed one who did
-not. Sometimes they emended their edition themselves.[226] In the
-music-schools hung lyres and flutes and flute-cases. The παιδαγωγειον
-[paidagôgeion] mentioned by Demosthenes may have been an anteroom
-where the paidagogoi sat, but more probably the word is only a
-rhetorical variant for “schoolroom.” There were often busts of the
-Muses round the walls,[227] which were also decorated with vases,
-serving for domestic purposes, and, perhaps, illustrating with their
-pictures the books which the boys were reading. At a later date, at
-any rate, a series of cartoons, illustrating scenes in the _Iliad_ and
-_Odyssey_, were sometimes hung upon the walls: the “Tabula Iliaca,”
-now in the Capitoline Museum, has been recognised as a fragment of
-such a series.
-
-The first stage was to learn to read and write. Instead of a slate,
-boys in Hellas had tablets of wax, usually made in two halves, so as
-to fold on a hinge in the middle, the waxen surfaces coming inwards
-and so being protected. Sometimes there were three pieces, forming a
-triptych, or even more. For pencil, they had an instrument with a
-sharp point at one end, suitable for making marks on the wax, and a
-flat surface at the other, which was used to erase what had been
-written, and so make the tablets ready for future use. These tablets
-are shown in the school-scenes on the fifth-century vases.[228] At a
-later period, when parchment and papyrus became more common, these
-materials were used in the schools. Lines could be ruled with a lump
-of lead, and writing done either with ink and a reed pen or with lead;
-for erasures a sponge was employed.
-
-The early stages of learning to write are described in the
-_Protagoras_ of Plato.[229] “When a boy is not yet clever at writing,
-the masters first draw lines, and then give him the tablet and make
-him write as the lines direct.” The passage has been variously
-interpreted. Some regard the master as merely writing a series of
-letters which the boy is to copy underneath. The word used in Greek
-for the master’s writing is ὑπογράψαντες [hypograpsantes], and it is
-significant that the word for a “copy” in this sense is a derivative
-of this word, ὑπογραμμός [hypogrammos]. Such a copy, corresponding to
-the phrases like “England exports engines” or “Germany grows grapes,”
-which are employed in English schools for this purpose, is
-extant.[230] It is a nonsense sentence designed to contain all the
-letters of the alphabet μάρπτε σφὶγξ κλὼψ ζβυχθηδόν [marpte sphinx
-klôps zbychthêdon]. If this rendering is correct, the master wrote a
-sentence of this sort on the tablets, and the boy copied it
-underneath. Others interpret the lines which the master draws on the
-tablet as parallel straight lines, within which the boy had to write.
-Just such a device is often employed in English copy-books. The word
-used for “lines,” γραμμαί [grammai], usually means “straight lines,”
-which supports this interpretation. But ὑπογραφή [hypographê], on the
-other hand, a derivative of ὑπογράφειν [hypographein], is used for
-irregular traces, _e.g._ a footstep,[231] and ὑπογράφειν
-[hypographein] itself is a technical term in Hellenic art for
-“sketching in” what is afterwards to be finished in detail.
-Consequently a third rendering of the passage makes the master draw a
-faint, rough outline of the various letters, and the boy has to go
-over them with his pen, marking the grooves in the wax deeper and
-filling in the details. For example, in England, the master might draw
-|·| and the boy go over the two vertical lines and draw in the other
-two, M. Thus all three interpretations are sensible and rest on good
-authority. But surely the master may be regarded as adopting all three
-processes, according to the intelligence of the pupils. For the
-beginner he would outline the whole letter, and leave him only the
-task of going over it again. Then he would gradually give less and
-less help, till the boy was capable of writing the letters with the
-assistance of the parallel lines alone. Finally these would be
-withdrawn, and the boy would be left to write his imitation of the
-copy without assistance. The phrase in Plato is purposely vague, and
-will include the whole of this process.
-
-The letters were written in lines horizontal and vertical, so that
-they fell beneath one another. No stops or accents were inserted, and
-no spaces were left between words. The writing-master probably ruled
-both the horizontal and the vertical lines on the tablet for his
-pupil. On the Vase of Douris,[232] an under-master is represented as
-writing with his pen on a wax tablet, while a boy stands in front of
-him. He is probably meant either to be writing a copy or else
-correcting his pupil’s exercise. Over his head hangs a ruler, for
-marking out the guiding lines on the tablet. Behind the boy sits a
-bearded man with a staff, who is probably the paidagogos. The boys in
-the class are clearly coming up one by one to receive their copies or
-have their exercises corrected, while the rest are doing their
-writing. It will be noticed that there is no desk or table: the
-Hellenes wrote with their tablets on their knees.
-
-As soon as the boy had acquired a certain facility in writing, he
-entered the dictation class. The master read out something, and the
-boys wrote it down.[233] At first, of course, very simple words would
-be dictated, and there would not be much to write. But, later on, the
-boys would write at his dictation passages of the poets and other
-authors. For this purpose, ink and parchment may sometimes have been
-employed: Aischines seems to have “ground ink”[234] for a
-writing-school. Various “elaborations in the way of speed and beauty”
-of writing seem to have been customary in the case of more advanced
-pupils.[235] Possibly they learnt to make flourishes and ornamental
-letters. Speed would naturally be taught, for it was usual to take
-notes at the lectures of Sophists and Philosophers, and speed is
-required for this purpose. This must have involved the use of the
-cursive letters, which otherwise were not needed, for the Hellene had
-not very much writing to do, unless he became a clerk to a public
-body.
-
-Learning to read must have been a difficult business in Hellas, for
-books were written in capitals at this time. There were no spaces
-between the words, and no stops were inserted. Thus, the reader had to
-exercise much ingenuity before he could arrive at the meaning of a
-sentence. Still more difficult for the boys to grasp was the Attic
-accent, upon which the masters set a great importance. So difficult
-was it, that few foreigners ever acquired it, and a born Athenian, if
-he went abroad for a few years, often lost the power of speaking with
-the Attic intonation. The first step in learning to read is to acquire
-the alphabet. The Hellenes, wishing, as usual, to make learning as
-easy as possible, seem to have put the alphabet into verse. A metrical
-alphabet, ascribed to Kallias, a contemporary of Perikles, is still
-extant, but in a mutilated form, which has been restored in several
-not very convincing ways. Probably it has been adapted to suit
-different alphabets, for there were several current in different parts
-of Hellas. The following is a conjectural restoration:――
-
-  ἔστ’ ἄλφα, βῆτα, γάμμα, δέλτα τ’, εἶ τε, καί
-  [est’ alpha, bêta, gamma, delta t’, ei te, kai]
-  ζῆτ’, ἦτα, θῆτ’, ἴωτα, κάππα, λάβδα, μῦ,
-  [zêt’, êta, thêt’, iôta, kappa, labda, mu,]
-  νῦ, ξεῖ, τὸ οὖ, πεῖ, ῥῶ, τὸ σίγμα, ταῦ, τὸ ὖ,
-  [nu, xei, to ou, pei, rhô, to sigma, tau, to u,]
-  πάροντα φεῖ τε χεῖ τε τῷ ψεῖ εἰς τὸ ὦ.
-  [paronta phei te chei te tô psei eis to ô.]
-
-This complete alphabet of twenty-four letters, which appears in modern
-Greek Grammars, was not adopted for official purposes at Athens till
-403 B.C., “but it is clear that it was in ordinary use at Athens
-considerably earlier.”[237]
-
-This metrical alphabet formed the prologue to what may be called a
-spelling-drama, in which the whole process of learning to spell was
-expressed either in iambic lines or in choral songs. Since its author,
-Kallias, is coupled with Strattis, the comic poet,[238] it may be
-inferred that the play was a comedy, not a tragedy; the chorus would
-then be twenty-four in number. Each member of the chorus represented
-one of the twenty-four letters. In the first choric song the letters
-were put together in pairs, in the fashion of a spelling class. The
-first strophé runs as follows:――
-
-  Beta    Alpha    BA
-  Beta    Ei       BĔ
-  Beta    Eta      BĒ
-  Beta    Iota     BI
-  Beta    Ou       BŎ
-  Beta    U        BU
-  Beta    O        BŌ[239]
-
-In the corresponding antistrophé Gamma was similarly coupled with the
-seven vowels, and so on apparently through the alphabet. During the
-song, which was set to excellent music, the members of the chorus,
-dressed to represent the letters quite clearly, and no doubt posturing
-in the right attitude, would form themselves into the required pairs.
-Thus, during the first line Beta and Alpha would come together, during
-the second Beta and Ei, and so on. After this song came a lecture on
-the vowels, in iambic verse, the chorus being told to repeat them one
-by one after the speaker. There seems to have been a plot of some sort
-in this extraordinary drama, but the main interest was, no doubt, the
-spelling. Opportunities were also taken for describing the shapes of
-the letters, the audience having to guess what letter was intended.
-This kind of alphabetical puzzle seems to have caught the popular
-fancy at Athens, for Euripides, Agathon, and Theodektes all employed
-it. In each case the concealed word was “Theseus.”
-
-Euripides’ description, if it be his, may be rendered thus:――
-
-  First, such a circle as is measured out
-  By compasses, a clear mark in the midst.
-  The second letter is two upright lines,
-  Another joining them across their middles.
-  The third is like a curl of hair. The fourth,
-  One upright line and three crosswise infixed.
-  The fifth is hard to tell: from several points
-  Two lines run down to form one pedestal.
-  The last is with the third identical.
-
-In the same spirit, Sophocles, in his satyric drama _Amphiaraos_,
-introduced an actor who represented the shapes of the letters by his
-dancing.[240] Periclean Athens seems to have taken a very keen
-interest in matters of spelling: the audience must all have known
-their letters, or such devices could never have become so popular.
-
-Kallias’ play is the ancestor of such books as _Reading without
-Tears_. His dramatic presentation of the process of spelling must have
-caught the imagination and impressed the memory of many Athenian boys.
-It may even be suspected that his method was adopted in enterprising
-schools, and spelling lessons were conducted to a tune, perhaps even
-accompanied by dancing.[241] The tunes of Kallias were highly praised,
-and were, no doubt, very different from the monotonous drone which
-announces to the outside world the presence of a Board School.
-
-To return to more prosaic methods. Plato gives an interesting
-sketch[242] of a reading class. “When boys have just learnt their
-letters, they recognise any of them readily enough in the shortest and
-easiest syllables, and are able to give a correct answer about them.
-But in the longer and more difficult syllables they are not certain,
-but form a wrong opinion and answer wrongly. Then the best way is to
-take them back to the syllables in which they recognise the same
-letters and then compare them with those in which they made mistakes,
-and, putting them side by side, show that in both combinations the
-same letters have the same meaning.”
-
-Take an English example. The master writes SCRAPE on the blackboard
-and asks the boys to tell him what letters it contains. The class fail
-to recognise the letters: the word is too long and difficult. The
-master then writes beside it consecutively APE, RAPE, CAPE, in all of
-which the boys recognise the letters correctly. Then CRAPE and SCRAP.
-From these he passes on to SCRAPE, which they now recognise by analogy
-from the words which they know already. “Finally, they learn always to
-give the same name to the same letter whenever it comes.”[243]
-
-The methods by which boys learn to spell are the same in all ages.
-“When boys come together to learn their letters, they are asked what
-letters there are in some word or other.”[244] A certain amount of
-mental arithmetic seems to have been included in this stage of
-spelling: the pupils were asked _how many_ letters there were in a
-word, as well as the order in which they were arranged.[245] But this
-will be discussed later.
-
-While the boys were still unable to read, and often afterwards owing
-to the comparative scarcity of books, the master dictated to them the
-poetry which he intended them to learn by heart, and they repeated it
-after him.
-
-The Kulix of Douris gives an interesting picture of either a reading
-or a repetition lesson.[246] On a high-backed chair sits an elderly
-master, holding a roll in his hand. On it is inscribed what is clearly
-meant to be an hexameter line from some epic poet, but Douris was not
-very well educated, and so the line is misspelt and will not scan. In
-front of the master stands a boy, behind whom sits an elderly man who
-is probably, as in the writing scene, a paidagogos. The master may be
-dictating the poem while the boy learns it by heart after him, or he
-may be hearing him say it. But very possibly the scene represents a
-reading-lesson. The attitudes of boy and master are not very
-convenient, if both are reading out of the same book; but this was
-unavoidable, for, owing to the canons of vase-painting, the figures
-could only be full-faced or in profile, and the front of the
-manuscript had to be turned in such a way as to be legible.
-
-On the walls of the school hang a manuscript rolled up and tied with a
-string, and an ornamental basket. These baskets were used as
-bookcases, to hold the manuscript rolls. They may sometimes be seen on
-vases suspended over the heads of reading figures, as in the British
-Museum vase,[247] which represents a woman reading a scroll. The
-paidagogos, we may notice, is revealing his humble origin by crossing
-his feet, a serious offence against good manners in Hellas.
-
-“When the boys knew their letters and were beginning to understand
-what was written, the masters put beside them on the benches the works
-of good poets for them to read, and made them learn them by heart.
-They chose for this purpose poets that contained many moral precepts,
-and narratives and praises of the heroes of old, in order that the boy
-might admire them and imitate them and desire to become such a man
-himself.”[248] It is noteworthy that Hellenic boys began at once with
-the very best literature to be found in their language: there was no
-preliminary course of childish tales. Grammar, when invented, was
-taught at a later stage: the boys plunged straight into literature.
-
-The schoolmasters at Athens differed as to which was the best way of
-introducing boys to their national literature. The great majority held
-that a properly educated boy ought to be saturated in all poetry,
-comic and serious, hearing much of it in the reading class, and
-learning much of it――in fact, whole poets――by heart.[249] A minority
-would pick out the leading passages,[250] the “purple patches,” and
-certain whole speeches,[251] and put them together and have them
-committed to memory. Plato argued in favour of expurgated editions of
-passages carefully selected according to a very strict standard, since
-much in literature was good and much bad.[252]
-
-Homer, of course, played the largest part in these literary studies;
-from early times “he was given an honourable place in the teaching of
-the young.”[253] Vast quantities of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ were
-learnt by heart. Nikeratos, in Xenophon,[254] says: “My father,
-wishing me to grow up into a good man, made me learn all the lines of
-Homer; and now I can repeat the whole of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_
-from memory.” Such prodigious feats were, no doubt, assisted by the
-rhapsodes, who could be heard at Athens declaiming Homer “nearly every
-day.”[255] The Hellenes did not let their greatest poet lie neglected,
-to be “revived” at long intervals. Homer was supposed to teach
-everything, especially soldiering and good morals. “I suppose you
-know,” continues Nikeratos,[256] “that Homer, the wisest of men, has
-written about all human matters. So whoever of you wishes to excel as
-a householder or public speaker or general, or desires to become like
-Achilles or Aias or Nestor or Odusseus, let him come to me.” Then he
-proceeds to show how, for example, the poet gives full directions
-about the proper way to drive a chariot in a race. Aristophanes[257]
-makes the shade of Aeschylus say, “Whence did divine Homer win his
-honour and renown, save from this, that he taught drill, courage, the
-arming of troops? Many a man of valour he trained, and our own dead
-hero, Lamachos. I took my print from him, and represented many deeds
-of valour done by a Patroklos or lion-hearted Teukros, to rouse my
-countrymen to model themselves upon such men, when they heard the
-trumpet sound.”
-
-The great poet does not seem to have been taught pedantically; the
-attention of the boys was not concentrated simply on the difficulties
-of the Homeric vocabulary. In fact, probably they were little troubled
-with such points; the sense, the rhythm, and the beauty of the
-original do not depend upon an exact understanding of every word, as
-many a modern reader has discovered. In a fragment of Aristophanes,[258]
-a father asks his son the meaning of some hard words in Homer, such as
-ἀμένηνα κάρηνα [amenêna karêna] and κόρυμβα [korymba]; the son is
-quite unable to translate them, at any rate when separated from their
-context, and can only retort by asking his father to interpret some
-archaic phrases in Solon’s laws. A later comic poet[259] introduced a
-cook who insisted on using Homeric language, just as a modern _chef_
-writes his _menu_ in French; the man who has hired him is ludicrously
-unable to understand his phrases, and has to go in search of a
-commentary.
-
-Explanations and interpretations of supposed moral allegories in
-Homer, and lessons drawn from a close study of his characters, were
-very popular in Hellas, and no doubt figured in the schools.
-
-If Homer occupied the first place in literary education, other leading
-authors were not neglected. All the great poets were made useful.
-“Orpheus taught ceremonial rites and abstinence from bloodshed, and
-Mousaios medicine and oracles, and Hesiod the tillage of land, the
-seasons of fruits and ploughing.”[260] Hesiod probably served more as
-a theological handbook than as a manual of agriculture; the moral
-precepts to Perses in the _Works and Days_ probably also found favour
-with schoolmasters. The fourth-century comic poet Alexis gives an
-interesting catalogue of a school library.[261] Besides Orpheus,
-Hesiod, and Homer, who have been mentioned already, there are
-Epicharmos, Choirilos, the author of an epic poem on the Persian war,
-and what is called vaguely “tragedy,” probably meaning a selection
-from the great tragedians. We can see from Plato’s attacks that
-Aeschylus and Euripides must have been important in the schools, and
-we know that Athenian gentlemen were expected to be able to recite
-them at dinner-parties, and must therefore have learnt them by heart.
-The vague words “tragedy” and “comedy” are similarly used of the
-recitations of the boys at Teos. Various editions of moral precepts
-were also popular. Among these were _The Precepts of Cheiron_, or
-Cheironeia, supposed to have been given by the wise Centaur to his
-pupil Achilles and put into verse by Hesiod; on a vase at Berlin three
-boys are seen reading this work with apparent interest. The extant
-lines of Theognis are often supposed to represent a school edition of
-the poet’s works, containing the more improving portions. The lyric
-poets were taught at the lyre-school, and I shall discuss them later.
-
-Alexis also mentions “all sorts of prose works” in the school library.
-The only one of these to which he gives a more definite name is a
-cookery-book by Simos. But that is only introduced for the sake of a
-joke; such a work would not, of course, figure in an Athenian school.
-Aesop may have been a prose work read in schools; it was considered
-the sign of an ignoramus “not to have thumbed Aesop,” or to be able to
-quote him.[262] Such moral works as Prodikos’ _Choice of Herakles_
-were probably popular in schools. The case of Lusis in Plato suggests
-that some of the old nature-philosophers may have been read. No doubt
-the school library varied according to the taste of the master, and
-his freedom of choice may have led to some curious selections. But on
-the whole prose works very rarely figured in the elementary schools,
-partly because they were usually too technical, still more because the
-artistic and literary sense of the Hellenes regarded poetry, if only
-because of its greater beauty and its imaginative value, as better for
-educational purposes than prose.
-
-It must be remembered that when boys recited Homer or Aeschylus or
-Euripides, they acted them, delivering even the narrative with a great
-deal of gesture, and dramatising the speeches as fully as they could.
-The almost daily recitations of the rhapsodes, and the frequent
-dramatic performances in the theatres, gave them plenty of examples of
-the way to act. The Hellenes were extremely sensitive and sympathetic:
-they were a nation of actors. The rhapsode Ion tells Plato that, when
-he recited Homer, his eyes watered and his hair stood on end. This may
-give the modern reader some idea of what his repetition-lesson meant
-to a boy at Athens. More may be gathered from Plato’s vehement
-denunciations of dramatisation in poetry intended for use in schools;
-he believed that this continuous acting exerted an evil influence upon
-character. But this question will be discussed elsewhere.
-
-The schoolrooms were used as the scene of lectures, to which grown-up
-men were invited; probably the lectures would be given to the boys at
-a different time. The wandering teacher, Hippias of Elis, meeting
-Sokrates one day, invited him to such a lecture, which, from its
-subject, was clearly meant mainly for the young.[263] After the fall
-of Troy, according to the story which Hippias invented for the
-occasion, Neoptolemos asked the wise old Nestor what was good and
-honourable conduct and what manner of life would cause a young man to
-win renown. Given this convenient opening, Nestor replied by
-suggesting many excellent rules of conduct. Hippias had delivered this
-lecture at Sparta, where it had won great applause. He now proposes,
-he says, “to deliver it the day after to-morrow in the schoolroom of
-Pheidostratos, and to impart much other valuable information at the
-same time, at the request of Eudikos son of Apemantos. Mind you come
-and bring any friends who will be capable of appreciating what I say.”
-No doubt it was a very excellent little sermon on the duties of life,
-closely analogous to Prodikos’ famous _Choice of Herakles_, and most
-improving for the pupils of Pheidostratos, if they were allowed to
-attend.
-
-One charming picture of two Athenian school friends,[264] in their
-sleeveless tunics, is extant. “I saw you, Sokrates,” says a guest at a
-dinner-party, “when you and Kritoboulos at the School of Letters were
-both looking for something in the same book, putting your head against
-his, and your bare shoulder against his shoulder.”
-
-It is also recorded that the Athenians were great hands at
-nicknames:[265] it may be inferred that this peculiarity extended also
-to their schoolboys.
-
-A vivid picture of school life has recently come to light in the third
-Mime of Herondas. It belongs to the Alexandrian period in point of
-date, but many of its details will, no doubt, suit the Athenian
-schools just as well; it is, however, quite inconceivable that gags
-and fetters were used as punishments at Athens in the schools.
-
-A mother, Metrotimé, brings her truant boy, Kottalos, to his
-schoolmaster Lampriskos to receive a flogging.
-
-    METROTIMÉ.            Flog him, Lampriskos,[266]
-  Across the shoulders, till his wicked soul
-  Is all but out of him. He’s spent my all
-  In playing odd and even: knucklebones
-  Are nothing to him. Why, he hardly knows
-  The door o’ the Letter School. And yet the thirtieth
-  Comes round and I must pay――tears no excuse.
-  His writing-tablet, which I take the trouble
-  To wax anew each month, lies unregarded
-  I’ the corner. If by chance he deigns to touch it,
-  He scowls like Hades, then puts nothing right
-  But smears it out and out. He doesn’t know
-  A letter, till you scream it twenty times.
-  The other day his father made him spell
-  MARON; the rascal made it SIMON; dolt
-  I thought myself to send him to a school:
-  Ass-tending is his trade. Another time
-  We set him to recite some childish piece;
-  He sifts it out like water through a crack,
-  “Apollo,” pause, then “hunter.”
-
-The poor mother goes on to say that it is useless to scold the boy;
-for, if she does, he promptly runs away from home to sponge upon his
-grandmother, or sits up on the roof out of the way, like an ape,
-breaking the tiles, which is expensive for his parents.
-
-                      Yet he knows
-  The seventh and the twentieth of the month,
-  Whole holidays, as if he read the stars.
-  He lies awake o’ nights adreaming of them.
-  But, so may yonder Muses prosper you,
-  Give him in stripes no less than――――
-    LAMPRISKOS.                        Right you are.
-  Here, Euthias, Kokkalos, and Phillos, hoist him
-  Upon your backs.[267] I like your goings on,
-  My boy. I’ll teach you manners. Where’s my strap,
-  The stinging cow’s-tail!
-    KOTTALOS.              By the Muses, Sir,
-  Not with the stinger.
-    LAMP.               Then you shouldn’t be
-  So naughty.
-    KOTT.     O, how many will you give me?
-    LAMP. Your mother fixes that.
-    KOTT.                         How many, mother?
-    METR. As many as your wicked hide can bear.
-    KOTT. Stop, that’s enough, stop.
-    LAMP.                            You should stop your ways.
-    KOTT. I’ll never do it more, I promise you.
-    LAMP. Don’t talk so much, or else I’ll bring a gag.
-    KOTT. I won’t talk, only do not kill me, please.
-    LAMP. Let him down, boys.
-    METR.                     No, leather him till sunset.
-    LAMP. Why, he’s as mottled as a water-snake.
-    METR. Well, when he’s done his reading, good or bad,
-  Give him a trifle more, say twenty strokes.
-    KOTT. Yah!
-    METR.      I’ll go home and get a pair of fetters.
-  Our Lady Muses, whom he scorned, shall see
-  Their scorner hobble here with shackled feet.
-
-The exact age at which arithmetic was taught to boys at Athens
-involves a somewhat complicated inquiry. The arrangements which Plato
-makes in the _Republic_ and _Laws_ defer this subject till the age of
-sixteen. In the _Laws_[268] he says: “It remains to discuss, first the
-question of Letters, and secondly that of the Lyre and practical
-arithmetic――by which I mean so much as is necessary for purposes of
-war and household management and the work of government.” His citizens
-will also require, he thinks, enough astronomy to make the calendar
-intelligible to them. In this passage he distinctly couples practical
-arithmetic with music; and when he proceeds to detail, he makes the
-study of the lyre last from thirteen to sixteen, and then deals with
-arithmetic, the weights and measures, and the astronomical calendar,
-studies which terminate with the seventeenth year. This course is
-designed for all the free boys in his State: it is to be noticed that
-it is eminently practical, elementary, and concrete. In the _Republic_
-he is educating a few picked boys: before they are eighteen they are
-to have gone through a course of abstract and theoretical mathematics,
-the Theory of Numbers, Plane and Solid Geometry, Kinetics and
-Harmonics. Thus he mentions two sorts of mathematics, the one
-practical and concrete, called by the Hellenes λογιστική
-[logistikê],[269] whose object is mainly mercantile, and the other
-theoretical and abstract, which they called ἀριθμητική [arithmêtikê].
-Both sorts are to be learned in the period next before the eighteenth
-year.
-
-But it must not be assumed that this was the case at Athens. The
-philosopher is dealing with an ideal State, where education can be
-arranged in the theoretically best way, not with the real Athens,
-where the boy might be called away to the counting-house or the farm
-at any moment, and many did not stay at school after they had once
-learned to read and write. Moreover Plato, as a good Pythagorean, saw
-a peculiar appropriateness in making numbers follow music, and his
-Dorian sympathies made him divide up education into clearly marked
-periods, in each of which only one subject was taught. This
-arrangement, I have already shown, did not find favour at Athens.
-
-His system must, then, be received with caution. It is inherently far
-more probable that the simpler, practical arithmetic would be taught
-at the elementary schools of letters, which all citizens, including
-future tradesmen and artisans, attended, not at some later date in a
-separate school. But can any evidence be found for such an
-arrangement? Yes, Plato himself in the _Laws_[270] declares that the
-future builder ought to play with toy bricks and learn weights and
-measurements when he is a child. His builder, at any rate, cannot wait
-to learn arithmetic till he is sixteen. Then, in the same work, he
-quotes the instance of Egypt, where “a very large number of children
-learn practical arithmetic _simultaneously with their letters_,” and
-he goes on to commend the methods by which it was taught. Now Egypt in
-the _Laws_ is represented as the home of ideal education, a sort of
-Utopia. Again, in Plato[271] Protagoras blames his brother Sophists
-for “leading their pupils _back_, much against their wish, and casting
-them _again_ into the sciences from which they have escaped, practical
-arithmetic and astronomy and geometry and music.” How could the
-Sophists[272] be described as “leading them back and casting them
-again” into studies from which they had escaped? Where had they learnt
-these subjects before they were fourteen? It could only have been at
-school. But what the Sophists taught must have been new to the boys,
-or they would not have paid to learn it. It was new, because the
-Sophists taught the advanced and theoretical stages, which appear in
-the _Republic_, and the elementary schoolmasters taught the simpler
-and concrete elements of arithmetic, weights and measures, and the
-calendar, described in the _Laws_, which were necessary to every
-Athenian citizen. From all this it may be assumed that the Athenian
-boys, like Plato’s Egyptian boys, learnt simple arithmetic, weights
-and measures, and perhaps the calendar, “simultaneously with their
-letters.”
-
-Now there are two passages in Xenophon which seem to suit this view.
-They are not conclusive in themselves, but they give a valuable hint.
-In the first[273] it is stated that any one who knows his letters
-could say _how many_ letters there are in “Sokrates,” and in what
-order they occur. In the second,[274] in the course of an argument,
-two illustrations are used, in close connection with one another. The
-passage runs:――“Take the case of Letters. Suppose some one asks you
-how many letters there are in ‘Sokrates,’ and which are they?… Or take
-the case of Numbers. Suppose some one asks what is twice five?” These
-two quotations certainly make simple counting a part of learning
-letters, with which study the second passage also closely connects the
-multiplication table. It would seem that it was part of a spelling
-lesson to answer such questions as “How many letters in ‘Sokrates’?”
-Answer, “Eight.” “Where does R come?” Answer, “Fourth.” It may be
-noticed also that the symbols of the numerals in ancient Hellas were,
-with one or two exceptions, identical with the current alphabet. The
-games with cubic dice and knucklebones, to which the boys were much
-addicted, must also have needed some arithmetical skill. The natural
-conclusion is that simple arithmetic, with, probably, the weights and
-measures, and the outlines of the calendar, were taught by the
-letter-master: the practice of music by the music-master: while the
-theory of numbers, of astronomy, and of music were taught by the
-Sophists to μειράκια [meirakia].
-
-        Fives
-  -------------------------------
-  |              |              |
-  |              |              | Thousands
-  |            O |              |
-  -------------------------------
-  |              |              |
-  |              |              | Hundreds
-  |              |      O O O   |
-  -------------------------------
-  |              |              |
-  |              |              | Tens
-  |            O |           O O|
-  -------------------------------
-  |              |              |
-  |              |              | Units
-  |            O |         O O O|
-  -------------------------------
-
-Simple counting was done on the fingers. “Reckon on your fingers,”
-says a character in Aristophanes,[275] “not with pebbles.” A common
-word for counting was πεμπάζειν [pempazein], “to reckon on the five
-fingers”; the division of the month into three periods of ten days can
-be traced to the same custom. But by various devices it was possible
-to count up to very large numbers on the fingers. Pebbles were also
-employed to assist in arithmetic. In the case of complicated accounts
-a reckoning board (ἄβακος [abakos] or ἄβαξ [abax]) was used, on which
-the pebbles varied in value according to their position. Such boards
-go back to early days at Athens, for Solon compared the life of a
-courtier to a pebble upon them, since he was now worth much and now
-little.[276] A character in a fourth-century comedy[277] sends for an
-abacus and pebbles, in order that he may do his accounts. The pebbles
-were arranged in grooves, being worth one or ten or a hundred and so
-forth, according to the groove in which they were placed. If they were
-put on the left-hand side of the board, their value was multiplied by
-five.[278] The various games of πεσσοί [pessoi], which somewhat
-resembled chess, were played on a somewhat similar board to this, and
-these chess-boards were known as ἄβακες [abakes]. Now the art of
-playing with πεσσοί [pessoi] is more than once coupled by Plato with
-arithmetic or mathematics generally in such a way as to show that the
-game must have involved mathematical skill.[279] As was usual in
-Athens, instruction went hand in hand with amusement, and, in playing
-games, the boys learned arithmetic willingly. A similar value seems to
-have attached to the game of knucklebones, which the boys in the
-_Lusis_ are found playing during their whole holiday. Each boy carried
-a large basket of knucklebones, and the loser in each game paid so
-many of them over to the winner. The art of playing this game is also
-coupled with mathematics by Plato;[280] so it must at any rate have
-encouraged the study of arithmetic, in his opinion. In the school
-scene of the British Museum amphora, a little bag, usually supposed to
-contain knucklebones, is figured: so they may even have been used in
-schools for teaching arithmetic. In another school scene this bag is
-present with a lyre and ruler; so it was evidently part of the school
-furniture.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE III.
-
-  MUSIC-SCHOOL SCENES
-
-  From a Hudria in the British Museum (E 171).]
-
-After such revelations of Hellenic educational methods, it is natural
-to suppose that the ingenious devices by which the “Egyptians,”[281]
-according to Plato, “make simple arithmetic into a game” for their
-children, were really used in Attica. One of these devices[282] was as
-follows. The master took, say, sixty apples. First he divided them
-among two boys, who were made to count their share, thirty each; then
-among three boys, twenty each; then among four, fifteen each; then
-among five, twelve each; and then among six, ten each. This would
-teach the system of factors. Then, again, a real or imaginary
-competition in boxing or wrestling[283] was arranged, say in a class
-of nine. The boys would work out, by actual experiment, how many
-fights would be necessary, if each boy had to fight all the others one
-by one, and how many if a system of rounds and byes was introduced.
-This might even teach Permutations and Combinations.
-
-In another case a number of bowls, some containing mixed coins, gold,
-silver, and bronze, some all of one sort, would be handed round the
-class. The boys would have to count them, add and subtract them, and
-so on. Thus they would learn addition and subtraction of money, and
-would also gain a clear knowledge of the national coinage.
-
-Plato was immensely impressed with the educational value of
-Arithmetic. “Those who are born with a talent for it,” he says, “are
-quick at all learning; while even those who are slow at it, have their
-general intelligence much increased by studying it.”[284] “No branch
-of education is so valuable a preparation for household management and
-politics, and all arts and crafts, sciences and professions, as
-arithmetic; best of all, by some divine art, it arouses the dull and
-sleepy brain, and makes it studious, mindful, and sharp.”[285]
-
-The question of the more advanced stages of Mathematics, which were
-taught to older boys, may be left for the chapter on Secondary
-Education.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-The chief and often the sole instrument taught in the music school was
-the seven-stringed lyre,[286] with a large sounding-board originally
-made of a tortoise’s shell.[287] It might be played either with the
-hand or else with the “plektron” or striker; the boy Lusis had learnt
-to do either.[288] The boys were also taught how to tighten and relax
-the strings by turning the pegs till the proper degree of tension was
-obtained. They brought their own lyre with them from home, the
-paidagogos carrying it behind his charge. This was a wise regulation
-from the master’s point of view; for the boys seem to have usually
-ruined these instruments by their early efforts.[289] Like the piano,
-the lyre required great delicacy of touch and very agile fingers, and
-these qualities could only be obtained by continual practice.[290]
-
-As would naturally be expected, individual tuition was usual in the
-lyre-school; instrumental music cannot be learnt in class. The vases
-make this point quite clear. The master has a single boy seated in
-front of him; both hold lyres in their hands, to which they are
-singing, the words of the song being sometimes represented by a string
-of little dots. In Plate IV., on the left of this group, a boy is
-coming up to take his turn, lyre in hand, while behind him stands his
-paidagogos, leaning on a reading-desk and following his charge with
-his eyes. On the right is a boy just taking up his flute-case and
-preparing to depart, while another sits in the corner, wrapped in his
-cloak, waiting for his turn to take a lesson. In Plate III.,[291] the
-master is playing a barbitos and apparently singing, while the pupil
-plays the flute. On the left is a flute-master playing, and a pupil
-just leaving him, flute in hand. Another pupil, with a lyre, is
-waiting to take a lesson from the master in the centre, and is amusing
-himself meanwhile by playing with an animal that is probably a
-leopard,[291] like that which figures in Plate IV. Another pet, a dog,
-is howling in disgust at the music. On the right, a pupil with a flute
-is advancing to take a lesson from the flute-master in front of him.
-Behind him follows a young man, who may be an elder brother replacing
-the customary paidagogos for the nonce, or an admirer. In the
-background sits a small child, sucking his thumb, probably the younger
-brother of one of the pupils, who has come, in accordance with
-Aristotle’s advice, to look on, although still too young to learn.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE IV.
-
-  IN A LYRE-SCHOOL
-
-  From a Hudria in the British Museum (E 172).]
-
-As soon as his pupils knew how to play, the master taught them the
-works of the great lyric poets,[292] which were not taught in the
-school of letters. These were set to music, and the boys sang them and
-played the accompaniment. Every gentleman at Athens was expected to be
-able to sing and play in this manner when he went out to a
-dinner-party. The custom, however, began to become unfashionable
-during the Peloponnesian War. When old Strepsiades, in the
-_Clouds_,[293] asked Pheidippides to take the lyre and sing a song of
-Simonides, his new-fashioned son replies that playing the lyre was
-quite out of date, and singing over the wine was only fit for a
-slave-woman at the grindstone. Whether this state of feeling continued
-and whether it had a prejudicial effect on the music-schools cannot be
-decided. Sometimes the guests brought their boys to sing to the
-company: in the _Peace_ the son of the hero Lamachos is going to sing
-Homer, while the coward Kleonumos’ boy has a song of Archilochos
-ready. Alkaios and Anakreon were also favourites;[294] the lyric
-portions of Kratinos’ comedies, too, are mentioned as sung at
-banquets:[295] no doubt, the same was true of the other great
-comedians. As the iambic parts of Aeschylus and Euripides were recited
-at the dinner-table, it is natural to suppose that their songs were
-also sung. The aged Dikasts in the _Wasps_ sing the choruses from
-Phrunichos’ _Sidonians_. Old songs like Lamprokles’ “Pallas, dread
-sacker of cities” and Kudides’ “A cry that echoes afar” were popular
-in earlier times. No doubt there was plenty of variety in accordance
-with the master’s taste. At the music school, too, may have been
-taught the metrical version, set to music, of the Athenian laws, which
-was ascribed to Solon,[296] and that of the legislation of Charondas,
-which Athenian gentlemen sang over their wine.[297] Athenian boys were
-expected to know the laws by the time that they were epheboi, and may
-well have been taught them in this convenient and attractive way at
-the lyre-master’s. To know how to play the lyre became the mark of a
-liberal education, since every one learned letters, but the poorest
-did not enter the music-school. “He doesn’t know the way to play the
-lyre,” became a proverb for an uneducated person, who had not had so
-many opportunities in life as his wealthier fellow-citizens. So, as a
-plea for a defendant we find――
-
-  He may have stolen. But acquit him, for
-  He doesn’t know the way to play the lyre.[298]
-
-To this the Dikast retorts that he has not learnt the lyre either, so
-he must be forgiven if he is so stupid as to condemn the accused.[299]
-
-At the beginning of the fifth century the Hellenes were stimulated,
-according to Aristotle,[300] by their growing wealth and importance to
-make many educational experiments, especially in music. All manner of
-musical instruments were tried in the music-schools, but were rejected
-on trial, when the moral effects could be better appreciated. Among
-the instruments thus found wanting was the flute. At one time the
-flute became so popular at Athens that the majority of the free
-citizens could play it. But its moral effect proved to be
-unsatisfactory; it was the instrument which belonged to wild religious
-orgies, and it aroused that hysterical and almost lunatic
-excitement[301] which the Hellenes regarded as a useful medicine, when
-taken at long intervals of time, for giving an outlet to such feelings
-and working them off the system, in order that a long period of calm
-might follow. But such a medicine was most unsuitable to be the daily
-food of boys. The flute had two other disadvantages. It distorted the
-face sufficiently to horrify a sensitive Hellene.[302] It also
-prevented the use of the voice: the boys could not sing to it, as they
-sang to the lyre. So Athena, in the old legend, had been quite right
-in throwing the instrument away in disgust: it was only suitable for a
-Phrygian Satyr, for it made no appeal to the intellect, but only to
-the passions.[303]
-
-This is Aristotle’s account. It may be objected that the vases which
-represent scenes in the music-schools show the flute and the lyre
-being taught side by side, and apparently equally popular. But these
-vases can mostly be traced more or less certainly to the first half of
-the fifth century, and so they bear out Aristotle’s statement.
-Moreover, the flute did not, of course, die out in Hellas by any
-means; it only became an extra, instead of the regular instrument in
-schools. The most notable Athenians, Kallias and Kritias and
-Alkibiades, are said to have played it.[304] It always remained
-popular at Thebes. But at Athens, in the banquets, while the guests
-usually played the lyre themselves, the flute was as a rule only
-played by professional flute-girls,[305] although on the vases the
-guests are sometimes found performing on this instrument also.[306]
-Probably the Athenian attitude may be summed up in the “ancient
-proverb”:[307]
-
-  A flutist’s brains can never stay:
-  He puffs his flute, they’re puffed away.
-
-It was usual to play on two flutes at the same time. Such a pair has
-been found,[308] together with a lyre, in a tomb at Athens. The flutes
-are somewhat over a foot in length, and have five holes on the upper
-and one on the lower side. Each has a separate mouthpiece. Besides
-this, flute-players sometimes wore a sort of leathern muzzle[309] over
-their mouths; but this does not appear in the schools. The pair of
-flutes were carried in a double case, made of some spotted skin; it
-had a pocket on one side, to hold the mouthpieces,[310] and a cord
-attached by which it could be hung up when not in use. The two flutes
-seem to have corresponded to treble and bass, “male” and “female” as
-Herodotos calls them. The treble was on the right, the bass on the
-left.[311] Flutes could be set to different harmonies, apparently by
-some rearrangement of stops. In the case of the flute, as in the case
-of the lyre, individual tuition was the rule. First the master played
-an air, and then the boy had to repeat it, while the master
-criticised.[312] Or the master played the air on a barbitos and sang
-to it, while the pupil accompanied him on the flute. This method had
-two advantages. The master was able to play at the same time as the
-boy, and give him instruction while playing, which the flute prevented
-him from doing. The song, too, which he was enabled to sing obviated
-one of the chief disadvantages of the flute: for the Hellenes objected
-to instrumental music as meaningless, unless it was accompanied by
-words.
-
-There seem to have been music-schools scattered throughout Attica,
-besides those established in the capital: the description of the
-village boys marching off to the lyre-master’s in a snow-storm without
-overcoats has already been quoted. The names of a few masters are
-extant. Lampros taught Sophocles the poet.[313] Sokrates[314]
-recommends Nikias to send his son to the famous Damon, who “is not
-merely a first-class musician, but also just the man to be with boys
-like this.” But whether these musicians kept regular schools cannot be
-ascertained. Sokrates himself in his later years attended the
-music-school of Konnos, and learned among the boys. “I am disgracing
-Konnos the music-master,” he says, “who is still teaching me to play
-the lyre. The boys who are my schoolfellows laugh at me and call
-Konnos the ‘Greybeard teacher.’”[315] The same Konnos adopted the
-common but iniquitous custom of bestowing his chief attention on his
-more promising pupils, while neglecting the backward.[316]
-Aristophanes caricatures Kleon’s school-days as follows: “The boys who
-went to school with Kleon say he would often set his lyre to the
-Dorian (= Gift-ian) harmony alone. Finally, the lyre-master lost his
-temper and told the paidagogos to take him away, saying, “This boy
-can’t learn anything but the Briberian (Dorodokisti) mode.”[317]
-
-The attitude of the philosophers towards music will be discussed
-elsewhere. Plato’s view may be summed up in the words which he puts in
-the mouth of Protagoras the Sophist.[318] “The music-master makes
-rhythm and harmony familiar to the souls of the boys, and they become
-gentler and more refined, and having more rhythm and harmony in them,
-they become more efficient in speech and in action. The whole life of
-Man stands in need of good harmony and good rhythm.” Aristotle’s
-attitude is briefly this. “Music is neither a necessary nor a useful
-accomplishment in the sense in which Letters are useful, but it
-provides a noble and worthy means of occupying leisure-time.”[319]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Aristotle mentions that in his day some added drawing and painting to
-the three parts of the course.[320] It was not universal, like these,
-and it does not seem to have started till the fourth century. In the
-_Republic_ and _Laws_ Plato does not attack and criticise it among the
-other educational subjects; but it plays so prominent a part in the
-_Republic_ that it is obvious that the philosopher regarded it as a
-dangerous enemy to the views which he wished to spread. It is
-noticeable that the discussion of Art comes in as an after-thought, in
-Book X. May it not be inferred that when Plato wrote the earlier
-books, drawing and painting were not yet in vogue in the schools, but
-they became popular before he had finished his great work?
-
-In Periclean Athens the possibilities of artistic training had
-certainly existed. In the _Protagoras_,[321] as an instance in some
-argument, it is suggested that the lad Hippokrates might “go to this
-young fellow who has been in Athens of late, Zeuxippos of Heraklea.
-Every day that he was with him he would improve as an artist.” Earlier
-in the same dialogue Sokrates remarks that his friend might go to
-Polukleitos or Pheidias, and pay to be taught sculpture.[322] The
-large numbers of boys who became apprentices to the potters at Athens
-must have learned line-drawing and designing and painting from the
-earliest times. But art probably did not become a usual part of a
-liberal, as distinct from a technical, education till the middle of
-the fourth century.
-
-This date is fixed by a passage in Pliny.[323] According to him, its
-introduction was due to Pamphilos the Macedonian. At his instance,
-first at Sikuon, where he lived, and afterwards in the rest of Hellas,
-free boys were taught before everything painting on boxwood, and this
-art was included in the first rank of the liberal arts. Now Pamphilos’
-picture of the Herakleidai is mentioned in the _Ploutos_ of
-Aristophanes, which appeared in 388 B.C. Apelles, his pupil, began to
-come into prominence about 350: Pamphilos himself seems to have lived
-on till the close of the century. The introduction of painting into
-the schools at Sikuon may therefore be dated, roughly, about 360 B.C.,
-and from there the custom spread over Hellas. By 300 B.C. no doubt art
-had become a regular part of the educational curriculum; for the
-philosopher Teles,[324] who probably lived about that time, mentions
-the gymnastic trainer, the letter-master, the musician, and the
-painter as the four chief burdens of boys. A trace of the new
-art-schools, with their technical vocabulary, is found in the _Laws_,
-the work of Plato’s old age:[325] “paint in or shade off,” he says,
-“or whatever the artists’ boys call it.”
-
-Of the methods used in drawing and painting in Hellas little trace is
-left. Polugnotos and his contemporaries had produced idealised
-pictures, taking points from many beautiful men and women and uniting
-them to make one perfect man or woman. When Idealism gave way to
-Realism in Hellas, the change affected painting also. The artists
-tried to create a real illusion in their works, taking subjects like
-chairs or tables and making the spectator believe them to be
-real. They were helped by the developments of perspective and
-foreshortening, which were discovered at this time. It is against this
-exaggerated realism and the choice of homely subjects that Plato’s
-attack is directed: he hates such illusions as shams.[326] In the
-diatribes of the _Republic_ the possibility of idealised painting
-seems to be forgotten. Whether the boys in the art-schools also
-suffered by this change and were condemned to draw chairs and tables
-only cannot be decided.
-
-The pupils, of course, did not have paper to draw and paint upon, nor
-was canvas employed. Ordinarily they used white wood, boxwood for
-preference, owing to its smoothness. Lead or charcoal would serve for
-drawing; for erasures, instead of india-rubber a sponge was used.[327]
-They may, perhaps, have practised on their wax tablets. One process
-was σκιαγραφία [skiagraphia] “shadow-drawing,” which produced rough
-sketches in light and shade: these seem to have been only intelligible
-when considered from a distance. Plato regarded them with distrust, as
-a sort of conjuring.[328]
-
-In ordinary painting, which might be either watercolour or
-encaustic,[329] the first thing was to sketch in the outline
-(ὑπογράφειν, περιγραφή [hypographein, perigraphê]); the artist then
-filled in (ἀπεργάζεσθαι [apergazesthai]) the picture with his colours,
-with perpetual glances, now to the original, now to the copy, mixing
-his paints the while. Beginners would, no doubt, rub out (ἐξαλείφειν
-[exaleiphein]) frequently, and paint in again.
-
-Aristotle,[330] in discussing artistic education, notices that it gave
-boys a good eye for appreciating art, and enabled them to exercise
-good taste in buying furniture, pottery, and other household
-requisites, which, to judge from the scanty relics, must have been
-masterpieces of beauty in the house of a cultivated Athenian. But
-still more important, it gave them “an eye for bodily beauty”:[331]
-which suggests that the human form, especially its proportions, formed
-the chief study of the art-schools. Proportion was the essence of
-Hellenic art; the great sculptors, as is well known, spent much time
-in drawing up a canon of perfect proportions for the human body. The
-boys may well have used their companions in the palaistrai for models,
-and the canons of physical proportion which they were taught by the
-art-master would serve to stimulate them with a desire to attain to
-such a perfection of body by their own athletic exercises.
-
-
-     [207] Lucian, _Loves_, 44-45.
-
-     [208] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 12; Thuc. vii. 29; Plato,
-     _Laws_.
-
-     [209] Lucian, _Parasite_, 61.
-
-     [210] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 12.
-
-     [211] _Anthol. Palat._ x. 43 has been quoted as evidence
-     that six hours’ work a day was a maximum. The epigram runs:
-     “Six hours suffice for work; rest of the day, expressed in
-     numerals, says ζῆθι [zêthi], ‘enjoy life.’” But the point is
-     the joke that the numerals for 7, 8, 9, 10, the later hours
-     of the day, are ζʹ [z´], ηʹ [ê´], θʹ [th´], ιʹ [i´], which
-     spells ζῆθι [zêthi]. The epigram does not mean to state a
-     fact; the joke is its only _raison d’être_. In any case
-     schools are not mentioned.
-
-     [212] Herondas, _Schoolmaster_ (iii.) 53.
-
-     [213] Mahaffy, _Greek Education_, p. 54.
-
-     [214] Lucian, _Nekuom._ 17.
-
-     [215] Dem. _de Cor._ 315.
-
-     [216] Theoph. _Char._ 30.
-
-     [217] _Ibid._ 30.
-
-     [218] Herondas, iii. 3.
-
-     [219] Demos. _ag. Aphobos_, i. 828.
-
-     [220] Demos. _Crown_, 312.
-
-     [221] Demos. _Crown_, 270. This is the most probable
-     restoration of the facts from the statements of the opposing
-     orators.
-
-     [222] _Ibid._ 313.
-
-     [223] Aelian, _Var. Hist._ xii. 9 (at Klazomenai).
-
-     [224] Benches do not appear on vases, because a row of boys
-     involves elaborate perspective; the artist preferred to take
-     single boys on stools, as a sort of section of a class, just
-     as he gave the stools only two legs. Xen. _Banquet_, 4. 27,
-     shows two boys sitting side by side. It is not necessary to
-     reject benches, with Girard.
-
-     [225] Alexis, _Linos_ (in Athen. 164 B.C.). See Illustr.
-     Plates I. A and I. B.
-
-     [226] Plut. _Alkib._ 7.
-
-     [227] Herondas, iii. 83. 96.
-
-     [228] See Illustr. Plate No. I. A.
-
-     [229] Plato, _Protag._ 326 D.
-
-     [230] In Clement of Alexandria, who gives two others.
-     _Strom._ v. 8 (p. 675, Potter). A writing copy set by a
-     master, though not of the alphabetical kind described by
-     Clement, is actually extant on a wax tablet in the British
-     Museum (Add. MS. 34,186). It consists of two lines of verse
-     written out by the master and copied twice by a pupil.
-
-     [231] Aeschylus, _Choeph._ 209.
-
-     [232] Illustr. Plate I. A.
-
-     [233] Xen. _Econ._ xv. 5.
-
-     [234] Demosth. _de Cor._ 313.
-
-     [235] Plato, _Laws_, 810 A (cp. the prizes for calligraphy
-     in Teos).
-
-     [236] Athen. 453 d.
-
-     [237] Giles’ _Manual of Comparative Philology_, § 604.
-
-     [238] Athen. 453 c, d.
-
-     [239] A fragment of terra-cotta has been found at Athens,
-     containing on it:
-          αρ βαρ γαρ δαρ [ar bar gar dar]
-          ερ βερ γερ δερ [er ber ger der]
-     which must have belonged to some spelling-book――perhaps the
-     brick formed part of the wall of a schoolroom.――Quoted by
-     Girard, p. 131.
-
-     [240] Athen. 454 f.
-
-     [241] This is by no means inconceivable, when it is
-     remembered that the Hellenes often set even the laws to
-     music, in order to make them easier to learn and remember.
-
-     [242] Plato, _Polit._ 278 A, B.
-
-     [243] _Ibid._
-
-     [244] _Ibid._ 285 C.
-
-     [245] Xen. _Econ._ viii. 14.
-
-     [246] See Illustr. Plate I. A.
-
-     [247] Case E 190.
-
-     [248] Plato, _Protag._ 325 E.
-
-     [249] Plato, _Laws_, 811.
-
-     [250] τὰ κεφάλαια [ta kephalaia]――a phrase used in later
-     times for “commonplaces,” “topics,” which suggests that
-     these selections were of that sort.
-
-     [251] As the great speeches are picked out from Shakespeare
-     for “repetition” nowadays.
-
-     [252] Plato, _Laws_, 802, 811.
-
-     [253] Isokrates (_Paneg._ 74 A). He says the object was to
-     make the boys hate the barbarians; as, _e.g._, English boys
-     might learn _Henry V._ in order to dislike the French!
-
-     [254] Xen. _Banquet_, iii. 5.
-
-     [255] _Ibid_.
-
-     [256] _Ibid_. iv. 6.
-
-     [257] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 1035.
-
-     [258] From the _Banqueters_.
-
-     [259] Straton (in Athen. 382, 383).
-
-     [260] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 1032.
-
-     [261] Athen. 164.
-
-     [262] Aristoph. _Birds_, 471; _Wasps_, 1446. 1401.
-
-     [263] Plato, _Hipp. Maj._ 286 B.
-
-     [264] Xen. _Banquet_, iv. 27. School friendships are also
-     mentioned in Aristot. _Eth._ viii. 12; Aristoph. _Clouds_,
-     1006.
-
-     [265] Athen. 242 d.
-
-     [266] The translation is free, and I omit a good deal that
-     is less relevant.
-
-     [267] For a picture of such a flogging see p. 599 of Bury’s
-     _Roman Empire_.
-
-     [268] Plato, _Laws_, 809 C.
-
-     [269] The distinction between λογιστική [logistikê],
-     reckoning up and comparing numbers, chiefly in bills and the
-     like, practical arithmetic, and ἀριθμητική [arithmêtikê],
-     theory of numbers, is noted in Plato, _Gorg._ 451 B.
-
-     [270] Plato, _Laws_, 643 B.C.
-
-     [271] Plato, _Protag._ 318 D.
-
-     [272] So Theodoros in the _Theaitetos_.
-
-     [273] Xen. _Econ._ viii. 14.
-
-     [274] Xen. _Mem._ iv. 4. 7.
-
-     [275] Aristoph. _Wasps_, 656.
-
-     [276] In Diogenes Laertius, i. 2. 10.
-
-     [277] Alexis (in Athen. 117 e).
-
-     [278] An abacus of a very similar sort is still in use in
-     China and Japan, even in banks. The “pebbles” are pushed to
-     and fro, not in grooves, but on wires passing through the
-     middle of them. Calculations can be made by this means with
-     marvellous rapidity.]
-
-     [279] e.g. _Polit._ 299 D. πεττείαν ἢ ξύμπασαν ἀριθμητικήν
-     [petteian ê xympasan arithmêtikên].
-
-     [280] Plato, _Phaid._ 274.
-
-     [281] Plato, _Laws_, 819 B.
-
-     [282] The restoration of this process rests on Athen. 671;
-     the other two are purely conjectural.
-
-     [283] Suggests at once Hellenic, not Egyptian customs.
-
-     [284] Plato, _Rep._ 526 B.
-
-     [285] Plato, _Laws_, 747.
-
-     [286] Technically speaking, this was λύρα [lyra], the κιθάρα
-     [kithara] being a professional instrument which was not
-     taught at school.
-
-     [287] Illustr. Plate I. B.
-
-     [288] Plato, _Lusis_, 209 B. On Inscriptions there are
-     separate prizes for the two methods.
-
-     [289] Xen. _Econ._ ii. 13.
-
-     [290] _Ibid._ xvii. 7.
-
-     [291] Cp. British Museum Vase E 57, on which a man is
-     leading a leopard by a string.
-
-     [292] Plato, _Protag._ 326 B.
-
-     [293] Aristoph. _Clouds_, 1356.
-
-     [294] Aristoph. fragment of _Banqueters_.
-
-     [295] Aristoph. _Knights_, 526.
-
-     [296] Plut. _Solon_, iii.
-
-     [297] Hermippos (in Athen. 619 b).
-
-     [298] Aristoph. _Wasps_, 959.
-
-     [299] _Ibid._ 989.
-
-     [300] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 6. 11.
-
-     [301] For this reason it was opposed to _Dorian_ influences
-     by Pratinas. It was excluded from the Pythian games (Pausan.
-     10. vii. 5). Pratinas bids it be content to “lead drunk
-     young men in their carousals and brawls.”
-
-     [302] Telestes, in his defence of the flute, could only
-     retort that Athena, being condemned to eternal spinsterhood,
-     ought not to be particular about her looks (Athen. 617).
-
-     [303] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 6. 11.
-
-     [304] Athen. 184 d. Plutarch, however, says that when
-     Alkibiades’ masters tried to make him learn the flute, he
-     refused, declaring that it was unfit for gentlemen (_Alk._
-     ii. 5).
-
-     [305] Not a respected profession at Athens.
-
-     [306] Brit. Mus. E 495, 64, 71.
-
-     [307] Athen. 337 f.
-
-     [308] Smith’s _Dictionary of Antiquities_.
-
-     [309] φορβεία [phorbeia]. It belonged to professionals.
-
-     [310] γλωσσοκομεῖον [glôssokomeion].
-
-     [311] See the “Inscription” of the _Andria_ and other plays
-     of Terence.
-
-     [312] See Illustr. Plate II.
-
-     [313] Athen. 20 f.
-
-     [314] Plato, _Laches_, 180 D.
-
-     [315] Plato, _Euthud._ 272 C.
-
-     [316] _Ibid._ 295 D.
-
-     [317] Aristoph. _Knights_, 987-996.
-
-     [318] Plato, _Protag._ 326 B.
-
-     [319] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 3. 7.
-
-     [320] _Ibid._ viii. 3. 1.
-
-     [321] Plato, _Protag._ 318 B.
-
-     [322] _Ibid._ 311 C.
-
-     [323] Plin. _Hist. Nat._ 35.
-
-     [324] Stob. _Floril._ 98, p. 535.
-
-     [325] Plato, _Laws_, 769 B.
-
-     [326] See _Rep._ X. 596 E, 605 A, etc. In the _Sophist_, 235
-     D, 266 D, etc., Plato reserves his denunciation for
-     φανταστική [phantastikê] which creates illusions; he almost
-     approves of εἰκαστική [eikastikê]. Idealised painting is
-     hinted at in _Rep._ 472 D, 484 C.
-
-     [327] Aeschylus, _Agamemnon_, 1329.
-
-     [328] Plato, _Theait._ 208 E.
-
-     [329] The modern oil process was not employed till late on
-     in the Renaissance. Fresco was common.
-
-     [330] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 3. 12.
-
-     [331] θεωρητικὸν τοῦ περὶ τὰ σώματα κάλλους [theôrêtikon tou
-     peri ta sômata kallous].
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-ATHENS AND THE REST OF HELLAS: PHYSICAL EDUCATION
-
-
-It is well known that the Hellenes attached an enormous importance to
-physical exercise. This was partly, no doubt, due to their intense
-appreciation of bodily beauty, which it was the endeavour of their
-gymnastic training to produce. But it must be remembered that to be in
-“good condition” was essential to them. Any morning an Hellenic
-citizen might find himself called upon to take the field against an
-invader, or might be despatched to ravage an enemy’s territory. Only
-the most cogent excuses were accepted. Plato[332] has left a vivid
-picture of a rich man, who has lived in idleness and luxury, suddenly
-called out to serve his country. Unhappy Dives marches along panting
-and perspiring, he is ill on board ship, and in battle when he has to
-charge or fight vigorously, he has no wind and is in a state of
-hopeless misery; while his poorer or wiser companions, who are “lean
-and wiry, and have lived in the open air,” mock at him and despise
-him. Sokrates points out to young Epigenes,[333] who has neglected his
-physical condition, what risks he runs. In battle, when a retreat is
-sounded, he will be left behind by his companions, and be either
-killed or taken prisoner by the foe; and the lot of the captive was
-frequently slavery for life, unless his friends ransomed him. But
-there were also intellectual and moral risks. “Bodily debility,” says
-Sokrates, “frequently causes a loss of memory, and low spirits, and a
-peevish temper, and even madness, to invade a man, so as to make even
-intellectual pursuits impossible.” To be a good citizen and to be a
-good thinker a man must always be in good physical condition. It
-became a duty to oneself and to the State “to live in the open air and
-accustom oneself to manly toils and sweat, avoiding the shade and
-unmanly ways of life.”[334] By divine ordinance, “Sweat was the
-doorstep of manly virtue,” as old Hesiod had sung.[335]
-
-This addiction to gymnastic exercises of all kinds was characteristic
-of the Hellenic peoples from the days of Homer. The original object
-had been symmetrical development of the body, health, speed, strength,
-and agility. But, as the Egyptian sage remarked, the Hellenes were a
-nation of children――it is just that which gives to them their charm
-and interest――and children usually and naturally care most for the
-body. Consequently athletics were carried too far: they became an end
-in themselves, instead of being merely a means of attaining physical
-activity and health. The professional athlete became a sort of spoilt
-child, fed at public expense,[336] courted by crowds of admirers, and
-all the time he was quite useless for everything except his own
-particular sort of contest, boxing or wrestling or the like. The
-tendency was ruinous: the Hellenes preferred to be good gymnasts
-rather than good soldiers.[337] The competitor, boy or man, who
-entered for one of the great prizes had to live in complete idleness
-from other pursuits.[338] Such professionals “slept all the day long,
-and if they departed from their prescribed system of training in the
-very slightest degree, they were seized with serious diseases.”[339]
-Consequently they were useless as soldiers, since in war it is
-necessary to be wide awake, not torpid, and to be able to stand
-vicissitudes of heat and cold, and not to be made ill by changes of
-diet. Specialisation even led to deformity. The long-distance runner
-developed thick legs and narrow shoulders, the boxer broad shoulders
-and thin legs.[340] It is to this specialisation that Galen[341]
-attributes the decline in utility of Hellenic athletics. Philostratos
-even notes that only in the good old days was the health of athletes
-not actually impaired by their exercises. In those times, he says,
-they grew old late, and took part in eight or nine Olympic
-contests――retained, that is, their efficiency for thirty years or
-more; moreover, they were as good soldiers as they were athletes.
-Later, these habits changed, and athletes became averse to war,
-torpid, effeminate, luxurious in their diet. The medical profession
-took upon itself to advise them――a good thing in its way, but
-unsuitable for athletes; for it told them to sit still after meals
-before taking exercise, and introduced them to elaborate cookery.
-Bribery also came into vogue among the professionals; usurers began to
-enter the training schools on purpose to lend them money for bribing
-their opponents.[342] The first recorded instance of this was early in
-the fourth century.[343]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE V. A.
-
-  SCENES IN A PALAISTRA
-
-  _Archaeologische Zeitung_, 1878, Plate 11. From a Kulix at Munich,
-  attributed to Euphronios.]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE V. B.
-
-  SCENE IN A PALAISTRA――A BOY WITH HALTERES, A BOY WITH JAVELIN, AND
-  TWO PAIDOTRIBAI
-
-  _Archaeologische Zeitung_, 1878, Plate II. From a Kulix at Munich,
-  attributed to Euphronios.]
-
-Critics of this exaggerated athleticism were not wanting, even in the
-earliest times. The attack begins with Xenophanes of Kolophon. In an
-elegiac poem he writes: “If a man wins a victory at Olympia … either
-by speed of foot or in the pentathlon, or by wrestling, or competing
-in painful boxing, or in the dread contest called the pankration, his
-countrymen will look upon him with admiration, and he will receive a
-front seat in the games, and eat his dinners at the public cost, and
-be presented with some gift that he will treasure. All this he will
-get, even if he only win a horse race. Yet he is not as worthy as I;
-for my wisdom is better than the strength of men and steeds. Nay, this
-custom is foolish, and it is not right to honour strength more than
-the excellence of wisdom. Not by good boxing, not by the pentathlon,
-nor by wrestling, nor yet by speed of foot, which is the most honoured
-in the contests of all the feats of human strength――not so would a
-city be well governed. Small joy would it get from a victory at
-Olympia: such things do not fatten the dark corners of a city.”
-
-Pass straight from this to the works of Pindar, in order to see
-whether Xenophanes’ attack was justified. To Pindar the world holds
-nothing better than an Olympian victory. Be the descendant of athletes
-and be an athlete yourself――that is the summit of human attainment and
-bliss. His gods are either athletes themselves or founders of athletic
-contests. A man’s true desires may usually be best traced in the
-conception which he forms of the future state: Pindar’s portrait of
-Elysium is characteristic. First the scenery, a magnificent
-description in his best manner:
-
-  In that Underworld the sun shines in his might
-                  Through our night.
-  Round that city through the dewy meadow-ways
-                  Roses blaze.
-  Through the fragrant shadows, bright with golden gleams,
-                  Fruitage teems.…
-  Every flower of joyance blooms nor withers there.[344]
-
-And in this Paradise how are the shades of the departed occupying
-themselves? “Some take their joy in horses, some in gymnasia, some in
-draughts.”[345] That is the highest bliss conceivable, in Pindar’s
-opinion.
-
-But Euripides did not agree with him. He denounces the athletic life
-with much vigour.[346] “Of countless ills in Hellas, the race of
-athletes is quite the worst.… They are slaves of their jaw and
-worshippers of their belly.… In youth they go about in splendour, the
-admiration of their city, but when bitter old age comes upon them,
-they are cast aside like worn-out coats. I blame the custom of the
-Hellenes, who gather together to watch these men, honouring a useless
-pleasure.[347] Who ever helped his fatherland by winning a crown for
-wrestling, or speed of foot, or flinging the quoit, or giving a good
-blow on the jaw? Will they fight the foe with quoits, or smite their
-fists through shields? Garlands should be kept for the wise and good,
-and for him who best rules the city by his temperance and justice, or
-by his words drives away evil deeds, preventing strife and sedition.”
-
-In return for this, the athlete-loving populace, finding their voice
-in the popular poet Aristophanes, denounced Euripides and his Sophist
-friends for emptying the gymnasia and making the boys desire only a
-good tongue, instead of a sound body, turning them into pale-faced,
-indoor pedants, fit for nothing but jabbering nonsense. The attitude
-of the poet in the _Clouds_ and _Frogs_ is just that of an average
-schoolboy discussing a student.
-
-Plato has already been quoted as an authority against the athlete of
-his day. In the _Laws_ he rejects every kind of gymnastics which is
-not strictly conducive to military efficiency, and, like the Spartans,
-condemns the pankration and boxing. Races in the ideal State are to be
-run in full armour, and the javelin and spear are to replace the
-quoit. It is exactly the position of some moderns, who would
-substitute shooting and field-days for cricket and football. The case
-against the athletes may be closed with Aristotle’s testimony: he also
-condemns the specialisation of the trained professional.[348]
-
-But these denunciations of athletes do not apply so much to Athens as
-to the other States of Hellas. The Athenian Agora was full of the
-statues of generals and patriots, not, as was the usual custom, of
-athletes.[349] The author of the treatise on the Athenian
-constitution,[350] writing in the early days of the Peloponnesian War,
-notices that the democracy had driven gymnastics out of fashion.[351]
-He writes as one of the aristocrats who, like Pindar and his princely
-friends, cared mainly for the body and the outward beauties of life:
-the democracy was vulgar, for it could not spend all its time in
-bodily exercises and musical banquets. No doubt at that period in
-Athens, as can be seen in Aristophanes, there was a reaction in favour
-of intellectual pursuits against the exclusive athleticism of the
-preceding age: the time of the citizens in a great democracy was also
-largely monopolised by State duties, whether in the Assembly or in the
-Law Courts or in fighting by sea or land. But athletics still remained
-quite sufficiently popular even at Athens, and athletic “shop”
-remained one of the chief topics of conversation at a dinner-party.[352]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Gymnastic exercises centred round two sorts of buildings which are
-often confused, the “gymnasium” and the “palaistra.” The former may be
-said to correspond to the whole series of fields and buildings
-intended for games, which surround a modern public school, including
-football and cricket grounds, running track and jumping pit, fives
-courts, and so forth. The “palaistra” often resembled little more than
-the playground of a village school: it only demanded a sandy floor,
-and sufficient privacy to protect the exercises from intrusion: such
-buildings could be run up at private expense in the smallest villages,
-and were often attached to private houses. A “gymnasium,” on the other
-hand, must have cost a vast sum to erect: even a great capital like
-Athens only possessed three in the fourth century; small towns must
-have been unable to afford them at all. But the gymnasia were public
-buildings, open to all; they were always full of citizens of all ages,
-practising or watching others practise; they were a fashionable place
-of resort, where Sophists lectured in the big halls, and philosophers
-taught in the shady gardens. For the trainer who wished to instruct
-his class of boys they were wholly unsuitable; besides, any casual
-stranger could stand by and get a lesson for nothing. Consequently,
-even at Athens, the boys were taught in palaistrai which could be
-closed to the public:[353] in the towns and villages there was no
-other place.
-
-It is quite true that boys went to the gymnasia. Aristophanes[354]
-talks of “a nice little boy on his way home from the gymnasium.” In
-Antiphon,[355] some older boys are practising the javelin in a
-gymnasium; a younger boy, who had been standing among the spectators,
-being called by his paidotribes, runs across the course and is killed.
-If the reading “paidotribes,” for which K. F. Hermann would substitute
-“paidagogos,” is correct, we find a paidotribes and his class of
-younger boys present in a gymnasium, probably to practise
-javelin-throwing, which must have demanded a larger space than the
-palaistra often afforded. The elder boys are probably not under his
-tuition, for they are using real javelins, not the unpointed shafts
-which were employed at school. Paidotribai with small palaistrai may
-often have taken their classes to the free public gymnasia to practise
-the diskos, the javelin, and running, which required a large space.
-But none the less the palaistra was the usual scene of the teaching of
-boys.[356] It must not, however, be supposed that a palaistra was
-always reserved for boys. The “many palaistrai,” which the democracy
-built for itself,[357] were doubtless as much public buildings, open
-to all ages, as the Akademeia or Lukeion. The palaistrai owned or
-hired by private teachers must have been open to adults when the boys
-were not present; that which is the scene of the _Lusis_ was
-apparently attended by two classes, one of boys and the other of
-youths, who only met there on festival days. In the palaistra of
-Taureas, however, mentioned in the _Charmides_, the different classes
-seem all to meet in the undressing-room; but on that occasion the
-building may have been open for general practice, not for teaching.
-Some such arrangement into classes must have taken place in the
-village palaistrai.[358] The master who taught the boys in the
-palaistra was called the paidotribes, “boy-rubber”: he must have owed
-his name to the great part which rubbing, whether with oil or with
-various sorts of dust, played in athletics.[359] He was expected to be
-scientific. He had to know what exercises would suit what
-constitutions:[360] he is often coupled with the doctor.[361] His
-object was to prevent, the doctor’s to cure, diseases. He even
-prescribed diet. Besides health, he was expected to aim at beauty and
-strength.[362] His training, in Plato’s opinion, also served to
-produce firmness of character and strength of will: he must therefore
-know how much training to administer to each boy, for too much would
-cause excess of these qualities and lead to savage brutality, and too
-little would result in effeminacy.[363]
-
-Since so much science was demanded of the paidotribes, parents
-exercised much forethought in choosing a gymnastic school for their
-boys:[364] they would “call upon their friends and relations to give
-advice, and deliberate for many days,” in order to find a trainer
-whose instructions would “make their son’s body a useful servant to
-his mind, not likely by its bad condition to compel him to shirk his
-duty in war or elsewhere.”[365] This at Athens, no doubt: in the
-smaller towns and villages there could have been little choice:
-parents must have taken what they could get.
-
-On arriving at the chosen palaistra with his paidagogos the boy would
-find a class assembling. He would first go into the undressing-room[366]
-and strip. For all the exercises were performed naked. This no doubt
-gave the trainer a good opportunity of watching which muscles most
-required development, and what constitutional weaknesses, if any, must
-be treated circumspectly. Passing into the palaistra proper, the boy
-would find an enclosure surrounded, in the case of the more expensive
-schools, with pillars. There would be no roof. Hellenic custom
-maintained that it was healthy to expose the naked body to the open
-air and the mid-day sun: a white skin was regarded as a sign of
-effeminacy.[367] If the sun became dangerously hot, little caps were
-worn, which at other times hung on the walls of the palaistra. The
-floor was sand. Before wrestling or practising the pankration or
-jumping, the boys had to break up the soil with pickaxes[368] in order
-to make it soft: these pickaxes were also suspended on the walls.
-Beside them would be also _kôrukoi_ or punch-balls, _haltêres_ (a sort
-of dumb-bell, used for jumping and other exercises), the scrapers with
-which the dirt and sweat were removed, bags to hold the cords which
-were used as boxing-gloves, and spare javelins. Grown-up men were not
-allowed to enter during the lessons, but could apparently, if they
-wished, watch “from outside,” that is, probably, from the
-dressing-room, where we often find Sokrates conversing with the
-pupils, boys and lads: he could not, probably, penetrate further.
-
-The symbol of office which marked the paidotribes was a long forked
-stick depicted in the vases.[369] This was probably derived from the
-branch which the umpires at the games held in their hands. The two
-symbols are so much alike when represented on the vases[370] that it
-is often hard to distinguish them. There were generally several
-under-masters in the palaistra. The more proficient boys also were
-employed in teaching backward schoolfellows; these “pupil-teachers”
-appear on vases,[371] holding the stick of office like the grown-up
-masters. No doubt, poor boys managed to get instruction in this manner
-from their richer friends in the public gymnasia and palaistrai,
-without attending a school at all.
-
-The staff of a palaistra also included professional flute-players, for
-most of the exercises[372] were performed to the sound of a flute, in
-order that good time might be preserved in the various movements. The
-player in these cases wore the φορβεία [phorbeia] or mouth-band.[373]
-
-As I have pointed out in Chapter II., although the literary
-authorities make gymnastic training of a sort begin with the seventh
-year, it is not at all probable that the more recognised exercises,
-such as boxing and wrestling, began till a good many years later. The
-vases suggest that these subjects were taught some years after letters
-and music had begun, for they represent only older boys as learning
-them. Aristotle seems to vouch for a graduated course of gymnastic
-exercises during boyhood.[374]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE VI. A.
-
-  IN THE PALAISTRA: WRESTLERS, PAIDOTRIBES, BOY PREPARING GROUND
-
-  Gerhard’s _Auserlesene Vasenbilder_, cclxxi. Fig. 2.]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE VI. B.
-
-  IN THE PALAISTRA: BOY PUTTING ON BOXING-THONG, A PANKRATION LESSON,
-  AND A PAIDOTRIBES
-
-  Gerhard’s _Auserlesene Vasenbilder_, cclxxi. Fig. 1.]
-
-What did the boys learn at the palaistra in the meantime? Deportment
-and easy exercises. A passage in Aristophanes informs us that they
-were taught the most graceful way to sit down and get up.[375] Vases
-represent boys learning how to stand straight. There were also all
-sorts of exercises in which the unpointed javelin played the part of a
-training-rod and the halteres the part of dumb-bells. The paidotribes
-might also try to strengthen particular muscles in particular boys. In
-an epigram,[376] a trainer is exercising a boy’s middle by bending him
-over his knee, and then, while holding his feet fast, swinging him
-over backwards.
-
-No doubt what was known as “gesticulation” (to cheironomein)
-[τὸ χειρονομεῖν] played a large part in this earlier training.
-“Gesticulation” meant a scientific series of gestures and movements of
-all the limbs, somewhat like the modern systems of physical education
-taught by Sandow and others. It was chiefly an exercise for the arms,
-as the name implies, but on a celebrated occasion Hippokleides the
-Athenian stood on his head on a table and “gesticulated” with his
-feet.[377] The particular movements were very carefully designed, and
-were all intended to be beautiful and gentlemanly.[378] Gesticulation
-served as a preparation for various dancing-systems, but was distinct
-from dancing, for Charmides was able to gesticulate but unable to
-dance.[379] It was also preparatory to gymnastics, for it resembled
-the movements of a boxer sparring at the air for lack of an
-opponent.[380] The halteres were possibly often employed, for they
-played a part in many gymnastic exercises.[381] This “gesticulation,”
-then, being a preliminary to gymnastics and dancing, would be the
-natural thing for the small boys to learn in the palaistra. Other
-early exercises were rope-climbing[382] and a sort of leap-frog.[383]
-The various kinds of ball-game,[384] mostly designed to exercise the
-body scientifically, may also have been employed. Of the regular
-exercises of the palaistra, which I am about to discuss, running and
-jumping would suit quite small boys; the diskos and javelin could also
-be begun at an early age, for smaller sizes were made for children.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-The age at which the recognised exercises were first taught no doubt
-varied with individual taste and physical capacity: no strict line can
-be drawn. These exercises were wrestling, boxing, the pankration,
-jumping, running, throwing the diskos and the javelin.
-
-_Wrestling_ (πάλη [palê]) was probably regarded as the most important
-of these subjects, for it gave its name to the Palaistra. For this
-exercise the soil was broken up with the pickaxe and watered: the
-bodies of the combatants were oiled beforehand. By these means the
-Hellenes prevented their boys from disfiguring their bodies with bumps
-and bruises, and the slipperiness of the ground and of the
-antagonist’s body made the exercise more difficult and therefore more
-valuable. Three throws were necessary for victory. There were two
-sorts of wrestling. In one the victor had to throw his antagonist
-without coming to the ground himself; this was a matter of ingenious
-twists and turns somewhat like the Japanese jiu-jitsu. In the other
-both combatants rolled over and over on the ground: this was less
-scientific. The leading paidotribai had their own favourite systems of
-wrestling, with various openings, as in chess, and various ways of
-meeting them. “What style of wrestling did you learn at the
-Palaistra?” Kleon asks the sausage-seller.[385] When two boys were set
-to wrestle in school, they were not allowed to contend as they pleased
-with a view to victory, but had to carry out the directions of the
-paidotribes.[386] A fragment of a system of wrestling has been
-unearthed at Oxurhunchos.[387]
-
-Suppose there are two boys, Charmides and Glaukon. The paidotribes
-sets them to wrestle, while the rest of the class watch. He holds a
-long forked stick in his hand. Pointing with it to Charmides, he says,
-“You put your right hand between his legs and grip him.” Then to
-Glaukon, “Close your legs on it, and thrust your left side against his
-side.” To Charmides, “Throw him off with your left hand.” To Glaukon,
-“Shift your ground, and engage.” Each group of directions, or figure
-σχῆμα [schêma], as it was called, closes with the word “Engage” πλέξον
-[plexon]. At this point, probably, the two boys were allowed to
-wrestle at will, the result, however, being foreseen and inevitable
-owing to the previous moves.
-
-An epigram in the _Anthology_ represents instruction of this sort
-being given: the boy retorts in the middle, “I can’t possibly do it,
-Diophantos; that’s not the way boys wrestle.”[388]
-
-But, to use a parallel given by Isokrates, a pupil is not yet a
-complete orator, when he knows how to create pathos, irony, and so
-forth, and has been taught the parts of a speech: he has still to
-learn when and where and in what order to employ these several
-artifices. So with wrestling. A boy who knows his “figures” is not yet
-a wrestler: he has got to learn when is the right moment to employ
-each of them in an actual contest with a real antagonist. “When the
-paidotribes has taught his pupils the ‘figures’ invented for bodily
-training and practised them and made them perfect in these, he makes
-the boys go through their exercises again and accustoms them to
-physical toil, and compels them to string together one by one the
-figures which they have learnt, that they may have a firmer grasp of
-them and get a clearer comprehension of the right occasions for using
-them: for it is impossible to comprehend these in an exact
-science.”[389] The boys have to judge for themselves, in the heat of
-the contest, which figure it will be expedient to use: the trainer
-cannot fix that beforehand. But they will best be able to judge, if by
-long practice they have discovered which figures suit them best and
-which prove fatal to a particular type of opponent.
-
-_Boxing_ was similarly taught by a series of “figures.” The boys used
-the light gloves, consisting of strings wound round the hands, not the
-heavy, metal-weighted gloves which professional athletes wore. The
-_pankration_[390] was a mixture of boxing and wrestling: the boys
-usually wore similar gloves for this but left the fingers unfastened,
-only the wrists and knuckles being protected: sometimes they fought
-with bare hands. For both these exercises it was usual to wear dogskin
-caps, in order to protect the ears from injury. The pankration seems
-to have been regarded as an unsatisfactory game for boys: so it was
-excluded from both Olympian and Pythian games till a comparatively
-late date. For one thing, it was dangerous, and the exercise was very
-severe. But in the palaistra, carefully regulated by the paidotribes
-and stopped when the fighting became dangerous, no doubt it was
-harmless enough. Alkibiades, however, once succeeded in biting an
-opponent who was pressing him hard, being ready to do anything rather
-than be beaten. “You bite like a girl, Alkibiades!” exclaimed the
-indignant boy. “No, like a lion,” answered Alkibiades.[400]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE VII.
-
-  _Photo by Mr. R. Coupland._
-
-  STADION AT DELPHI FROM THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PHILOMELOS.
-  Length about 220 yards.
-
-
-  _Photo by Mr. R. Coupland._
-
-  STADION AT DELPHI FROM THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PHILOMELOS.
-  A nearer view.]
-
-_Running_ needs no comment: the methods are much the same in all ages.
-The chief distances for races in Hellas were the Stadion or 200
-yards,[401] the Diaulos or quarter-mile, and the Long-distance race,
-which varied from three-quarter mile to about three miles. The race in
-armour was not taught to boys. Races were often run over soft sand,
-where the runners sank in, just as long-distance races in England
-often include a ploughed field or two. The sand made running both a
-more severe exercise (so that a shorter distance sufficed) and also a
-better training for war.
-
-For the _long jump_ the Hellenes used the “halteres” or light
-dumb-bells, to assist their momentum.[402] Even in competitions, a
-flute-player stood by, to give the competitors the assistance of his
-music: no doubt it helped them to manage their steps so as to “take
-off” on the right spot. They alighted into a large sandy pit, dug up
-by the ever-present pickaxe: the jump was only measured if they came
-down on to this evenly, leaving a clear trace of their foot.
-
-The _diskos_ was a flat circle of polished bronze or other metal.[403]
-The specimen in the British Museum is between 8 and 9 inches in
-diameter, and is inscribed with athletic pictures on either side. It
-was flung with either hand. A great many attitudes were necessary
-before the diskos was launched, and every muscle of the body must have
-been well exercised in the process. The time was given, in the
-palaistra, by a flute-player. In competitions both the distance and
-the direction of the throw were taken into consideration.
-
-Boys learnt to throw the _javelin and spear_ by practising with long
-unpointed rods, which were also used for a variety of physical
-exercises. The mark seems to have been a sort of croquet-hoop or pair
-of compasses, fixed into the ground: other targets were also
-employed.[404] The vases which represent this pursuit often show the
-paidotribes carrying this hoop or fixing it into the ground. It was
-planted at a fixed distance which was stepped out.
-
-It may be mentioned, before we leave the “paidotribes,” that his fee
-for his whole course seems to have been a μνᾶ [mna], about £4:[405]
-this enabled the pupil to attend his lectures “for ever,” that is,
-perhaps till the course was finished. Or perhaps this sum made a pupil
-a life-member of a particular private palaistra.
-
-Let us now look into one of the gymnasia at Athens, the Akademeia or
-Lukeion. We will suppose that it is late in the afternoon, for this
-was a favourite time for taking exercise: the Athenians liked to get a
-good appetite for their evening meal. Outside, a troop of young men
-who intend to be enrolled in the State-cavalry are practising their
-evolutions, mounting, in the absence of stirrups, by a leaping-pole,
-and charging in squadrons. On another side a body of heavy infantry
-with spear and shield are assembling for a night march into the
-Megarid;[406] they are packing their supplies, onions and dried fish,
-perhaps, into their knapsacks as they fall in, and are grumbling at
-having to leave Athens just when a festival is coming; a burly
-countryman is complaining to his general that it is not his turn to
-serve, as he took part in the raid into Boiotia last week, and his
-general is threatening him with a prosecution for insubordination if
-he becomes abusive. After paying our respects to the patron deities,
-Herakles and Hermes and Eros,[407] and having muttered a curse on all
-tyrants suggested by the statue of Eros which Charmos the
-father-in-law of Hippias the Peisistratid set up,[408] we enter the
-gymnasium.
-
-The first room which we come to is the undressing-room.[409] On the
-benches round the walls a row of men are sitting discussing the exact
-nature of Self-control: an extremely ugly person, to whom they all pay
-great respect, is stating that it is an exact science, and, if only
-they can discover this science, the whole world will become virtuous.
-Lads and men are stripping all about the room, and passing off to take
-their exercises elsewhere; others keep coming in and dressing and
-listening to the discussion for a minute or two. A handsome young
-fellow comes in: the ugly man makes room for him with great energy,
-and his friends who are sitting at the end of the bench are pushed off
-suddenly on to the floor. A shout of laughter, mingled with some
-strong Attic abuse, arises. Not wishing to be involved as witnesses in
-an interminable lawsuit, we hurry out through the further door into a
-great cloister.[410] In the centre of this is a large open space, with
-no roof. Here we meet a well-known mathematician from Kurene,[411] who
-is walking round the cloister with a crowd of pupils: he is explaining
-to them that famous theorem about right-angled triangles, whose proof
-is so neat that Pythagoras the vegetarian sacrificed a hundred oxen
-when he discovered it. At intervals the mathematician stops and draws
-a diagram in the dust with his stick. As we follow him, we can look
-into the rooms which surround the cloister. In one, a crowd of men are
-anointing themselves with oil.[412] The rubbing, which is so good for
-all bodily ills, and the oil, even if not followed by any further
-exercise, are regarded as an excellent thing. An Athenian gentleman is
-expected to carry about a certain fragrance of this oil,[413] and his
-skin must always be sleek with it; but as a rule the anointing is a
-prelude to exercise, and is meant to make the joints supple and the
-body slippery enough to elude a wrestler’s grip.[414] A slave or an
-attendant stands by many of the men, holding one of those dainty
-oil-flasks which make so great a feature in modern Museums of
-Archæology. Through the next door we see the “dusting-room.” Various
-sorts of dust were used for rubbing the body. They served to clean it
-of sweat after exercise, to open the pores, to warm it when cold, and
-to soften the skin. A yellow dust was particularly popular; for it
-made the body glisten so as to be pleasant to look at, as a good body
-in good condition ought to be.[415] Next perhaps will be the
-bathing-room――a popular place in the evening, for it was usual to take
-a bath before dinner.[416] The bathers either splash themselves out of
-great bowls which stand upon pedestals, or receive a shower bath by
-getting a companion or an attendant to pour a pitcher of water over
-them. Tanks capable of receiving the whole body at once were not
-usual, though known to Homer.[417] Then we see the room of the
-_korukos_, or punch-ball, which will present a very curious
-appearance.[418] The _korukos_ is a large sack hanging from the
-ceiling by a rope. The lighter _korukoi_ are filled with fig seeds or
-meal, the heavier with sand. They hang at about the height of a man’s
-waist. You push one of them gently at first, and more and more
-violently as you gain experience; having pushed it, you plant yourself
-in the way of the rebound, and try to stop the sack with your hands or
-your chest or your back or your head. If you are not strong enough,
-you will be knocked over, and the room will laugh. This will practise
-you in standing steady, and make all parts of your body firm and
-muscular. The _korukos_ can also be used as a punch-ball, to
-strengthen the boxer’s arms and shoulders. This exercise is especially
-recommended for boxers and pankratiasts: the latter ought to use the
-heavier variety. Perhaps there will also be some lay-figures hanging
-up round the walls, for these also were used for practising. Here,
-too, some unlucky individuals who, from unpopularity or other causes,
-are unable to find an antagonist, will be exercising their fists on
-thin air. But both these expedients were regarded as ridiculous.[419]
-
-There were a large number of other rooms round the cloister, some
-intended for exercises in wet weather, for, if possible, exercise was
-always taken out of doors; for it was regarded as a great object to
-make the skin brown and hard by exposure to the sun. So King Agesilaos
-put his Asiatic captives up for sale in his camp naked, in order that
-his Hellenic soldiers, seeing their pale, soft flesh, unused to
-exposure, might despise their enemy. But as most of these rooms were
-furnished with seats, they were largely used as lecture-halls by
-wandering Sophists,[420] who gave free lectures in them to any
-passer-by who might care to listen, in order to attract regular,
-paying pupils. So we can take our pick and hear lectures on poetry or
-metaphysics, music or rhetoric, geography or history, at our pleasure.
-
-After this, we can turn our attention to the great central
-courtyard,[421] which is surrounded by the cloister, or to the
-racecourse and open spaces which lie beyond it. In one part will be
-the wrestling arena.[422] Pairs of oiled, naked combatants will be
-struggling together, amid a crowd of cheering spectators, and perhaps
-the trainer will be standing by, giving them directions. One group
-attracts especial attention: for the pair are going to represent
-Athens at Olympia next year. Elsewhere the pankratiasts are
-contending, some sparring at arm’s length, others joined in a deadly
-grapple, rolling over and over on the ground and pummelling one
-another’s heads with their gloved knuckles. They are covered with
-clotted dust and oil and will need much scraping. Then there are the
-boxers, bearing either the light gloves, or, if they intend to take
-part in a big competition, the heavy iron balls padded over with
-leather which were used in the great Games.[423] There are races too
-in progress, lap by lap round the great Stadion. Some of the runners
-are naked, others are wearing helmet and shield, since they are
-practising for the Race in Armour. Friends run beside them for a
-little way, pacing them and encouraging them. Others are jumping, with
-the halteres in their hands, into the pit, while their friends mark
-the point where their heels have left a mark in the sand. A
-professional flute-player, with his mouth-band on, sets the time. Each
-is, no doubt, hoping to beat Phaüllos’ great jump of 55 feet――the
-world’s record. Everywhere are crowds of spectators,[424] and
-everywhere eager trainers giving advice, hoping, if their pupil gains
-a prize at some great Games, to make a name for themselves, and
-attract a crowd of lads to their paid lessons: perhaps they will even
-be immortalised by some contemporary Pindar in a song in honour of
-their pupil’s victory.
-
-In another corner, it may be, there will be teams practising together.
-A regiment of epheboi may be undergoing their gymnastic training
-before service on the frontier:[425] or a team of them may be
-training, watched by the rich “gumnasiarchos,” for the torch-race at
-the festival of Hephaistos, or for the race from the Temple of
-Dionusos to that of Athena of the Sunshades, where the winner will
-receive a large bowl containing wine and honey and cheese and meat and
-olive oil――not all mixed together, let us hope.[426] There may also be
-teams practising wrestling and other bodily exercises together. Their
-trainer, “thinking it impossible to lay down separate regulations for
-each individual, orders roughly what suits the majority. So every one
-of the team takes an equal amount of exercise, and they all start and
-all stop running, or wrestling, or whatever it may be, at the same
-moment.”[427]
-
-In the larger open spaces we shall find Athenians throwing the diskos,
-like Muron’s celebrated figure, or practising archery, or flinging the
-spear or javelin. In watching these care must be exercised: unwary
-spectators may be killed or injured. Mythology is full of unfortunates
-killed in this way. Was not the fair Huakinthos slain by Apollo’s
-quoit? Antiphon, too, in his new book on speech-writing, takes as one
-of his themes a boy killed by a comrade’s javelin accidentally. We can
-also take a lesson in the use of spear and shield from the teacher of
-arms: a pair of Sophists, who specialise in this subject, have just
-come to Athens, and will doubtless be exhibiting their skill here. We
-remember, though, that the warlike Spartans ridicule these professors,
-and General Laches regards them as quite useless for military
-purposes, as we heard him telling Sokrates the other day.[428] So we
-will pass on.
-
-The vast majority of people in the gymnasium confine themselves to
-walking about. The colonnades and the gardens are convenient and
-attractive, and there is plenty to watch everywhere. The “xustos,” or
-covered cloister,[429] where athletes exercise in bad weather, is
-particularly popular among the walkers. And while they walk, they
-talk. There is a group of philosophical students arguing about the
-Supreme Good or constructing an ideal State. There is a party of
-inquirers who are discussing the nature of plants, or the varieties of
-crustaceans. Yonder, a half-naked, unkempt enthusiast is declaiming
-against luxury. “Man,” he cries, “is independent of circumstances.”
-Everywhere, walkers and spectators and talkers, but walkers above all.
-
-For the average Athenian spent all his time upon his legs: to sit down
-was the mark of a slave.[430] He walked nearly all day: the distance
-which he covered in five or six days would easily stretch from Athens
-to Olympia. He took a walk before breakfast, another before lunch,
-another before dinner, and another between dinner and bed.[431]
-
-Games of ball are going on in the ball-court yonder.[432] We may
-remember that the poet Sophocles was a famous player.[433] But the
-shadow on the great sun-dial has nearly reached the ten-foot mark
-which announces dinner-time to the Athenian world. The crowds who have
-been exercising themselves are scraping off the sweat and dirt with
-the στλεγγίς [stlengis] or scraper,[434] or else hurrying to the
-bath-rooms. After the bath comes another anointing, with oil and water
-this time.[435] Then away through the nearest gate into the city,
-while the great buildings on the Akropolis grow misty in the twilight
-and Athena’s guardian Spear catches the last rays of the setting sun.
-
-All this was open to the poorest Athenian: there was no fee for
-entrance. The only expenses were those incurred in buying an oil-flask
-and scraper, which the State did not as a rule provide, and any fees
-that might be paid to a trainer for special “coaching.” The poor could
-learn as much as they required from watching those who were
-proficient. It was usual to tip the man in the public baths who poured
-cold water over the bathers and assisted them generally: but this
-probably did not apply to the bath-rooms in the gymnasia. The State
-certainly made it easy for every citizen to take as much exercise as
-he pleased.
-
-Women were wholly excluded from athletics at Athens. In Sparta girls
-exercised themselves as much as the boys. In other Dorian States
-feminine athletics were encouraged to a less degree. At Argos there
-were foot-races for girls. In Chios they could be seen wrestling in
-the gymnasia.[436]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-But the gymnasia and palaistrai, though they provided so many
-different kinds of exercises, did not supply the Hellenes with their
-sole opportunities for keeping the body in good condition. Hunting was
-a popular employment at Sparta and no doubt elsewhere: Xenophon, who
-was devoted to it, would have liked to make it more popular in
-Attica,[437] where it languished, perhaps from lack of game. Swimming
-and rowing were usual accomplishments. Riding was compulsory for rich
-citizens at Athens, for they had to serve in the cavalry; it was also
-popular in Thessaly, the land of horses. Military service provided
-both an incentive to physical exercise and a frequent means of
-obtaining it. Dancing was universal throughout the Hellenic world and
-played a larger part in Hellenic education than is usually recognised.
-At Sparta it was of paramount importance. At Athens it was taught free
-to large numbers of boys under the system of leitourgiai. Plato
-divides physical education into dancing and wrestling.[438]
-Aristophanes[439] brackets dancing between the palaistra and music,
-when he wishes to give the three elements of a gentleman’s education.
-Choral dancing to a Hellene was at once the ritual of religion, the
-ordinary accompaniment of a festival or public holiday, the highest
-form of music, and the most perfect system of physical exercise then
-discovered.
-
-The modern reader finds it very hard to realise why Hellenic
-philosophers attach so much educational importance to the various
-kinds of dance. This is because modern dancing differs from its
-ancient prototype in two very important particulars: it is not
-connected with religion and it is not dramatic. In the East dancing
-was, and is, the language of religion. David, to show his fervour,
-danced before the Ark with all his might. In Hellas, dancing
-accompanied every rite and every mystery.[440] The choral dance
-afforded the outlet to religious enthusiasm which elsewhere is
-provided by services: any change in its characteristics was a change
-in ritual and in the inexpressible sentiments and moral attitudes
-which become so closely bound up with habitual religious observances.
-And, since it was the usual ritual of worship, dancing became
-all-important in education, as providing the forms through which the
-highest aspirations of the children were accustomed to find
-expression.
-
-The boy who danced in honour of Dionusos was trying to assimilate
-himself to the god, whose history and personality would be brought
-home to him vividly by the vineyards around him: they would serve him
-for a parable. The vine that came so mysteriously out of the earth,
-lived its short life in the rain and sunshine, and was crushed and
-killed at the harvest, to rise again in the strange juice which
-thrilled him with such wondrous power――there was plenty of parable for
-him there. And while he felt the god’s history so vividly, he was
-acting it, for acting was the very essence of Hellenic dancing. He
-would act the sorrows of Dionusos, his persecution from city to city,
-and his final conquest; he would match each incident in the story with
-suitable inward feelings and outward gestures of sorrow and triumph.
-Thus his dancing came to be a keenly religious observance, accompanied
-by more vivid acting than is possible on a modern stage; such dancing,
-it must be remembered, was the parent of Attic Drama. The dramatic
-power of such acting became enormous; one dancer, it is said, could
-make the whole philosophic system of Pythagoras intelligible without
-speaking a word, simply by his gestures and attitudes.[441]
-
-In such dramatic dancing the subject or plot was important. Here the
-weakness of the old Hellenic mythology became fatal. For it was the
-old myths that supplied the motives of religious dances as well as of
-the drama, and many of them were morally unsatisfactory. When a chorus
-of boys danced the _Birth-pangs of Semelé_, the most famous dithyramb
-of Timotheos, not unnaturally objections were raised. The new school
-of musicians and poets, which arose towards the end of the fifth
-century, tried to represent everything and anything in the most
-realistic way possible: their dancers had to imitate with voice and
-gesture “blacksmiths at the forge, craftsmen at work, sailors rowing
-and boatswains giving them orders, horses neighing, bulls
-bellowing,”[442] and so forth. They chose the commonest and coarsest
-scenes, just like Dutch painters. In their hands, dancing became
-something vulgar, as well as morally risky, though still under a
-semi-religious sanction. It is this charge which justified Plato’s
-denunciations of the dramatic element in poetry and music. It must be
-remembered that the choregos at Athens, who collected the boys from
-his tribe to dance these dithyrambs, could use compulsion if fathers
-refused to allow their sons to join his chorus.[443] Yet the
-advantages of learning to dance were great, quite apart from the
-religious aspects. Dancing was a scientifically designed system of
-physical training, which exercised every part of the body
-symmetrically.[444] The different masters invented systems of their
-own, just as the paidotribai invented systems of wrestling; in both
-cases the teaching began with a series of figures, which were
-afterwards fitted together. Different localities also had their own
-particular figures.[445]
-
-The solo dance was used for private exercise. It also made its way
-into the drama. Sometimes, too, in the choral performances one or two
-of the best dancers were singled out to perform more elaborate
-evolutions expressing the dramatic course of the subject. But the
-choral dance was universal throughout Hellas. Its motives ranged from
-the solemn religious questionings of Aeschylus to the drunken
-buffoonery of the vine-festivals. The dance might be the act of
-worship of a whole people, as in the great festivals at Delos. It
-might, like the Gumnopaidia at Sparta, be designed to exhibit the
-physical perfection and practise the military evolutions of a nation
-in arms. It might celebrate the triumphant return of an Olympian
-victor to his native city, as did many of the dances which accompanied
-the extant odes of Pindar. The chorus-songs of Tragedy and Comedy were
-set to dances of a sort; but from these last boys seem to have been
-excluded.
-
-For educational purposes, besides the dithuramboi already mentioned,
-the two most important classes were the War-dance and the Naked-dance
-(γυμνοπαιδία [gymnopaidia]).[446] In the War-dance the performers,
-clad in arms, imitated all the ways in which blows and spears might be
-avoided, now bending to one side, now drawing back, now leaping in the
-air, now crouching down: then, again, they acted as though they were
-hurling javelins and spears and dealing all manner of blows at close
-quarters.[447] The Kuretic dance in Crete was very similar; the
-dancers “in full armour beat their swords against their shields and
-leaped in an inspired and warlike manner.”[448] The field-days, when
-teams of boys and “packs” of epheboi fought one another to the sound
-of music, were only a more warlike sort of dance. In fact, war and the
-war-dance were as closely connected in Hellas as war and drill in
-Modern Europe. The Thessalians called their heroes “dancers”; Lucian
-quotes an inscription that “the people set up this statue to Eilation,
-who danced the battle well”: “chief dancer” (προορχηστήρ
-[proorchêstêr])[449] was a dignified title. The same author observes
-that in warlike Sparta the young men learn to dance as much as to
-fight, and that their military and gymnastic exercises alike were
-inextricably mixed up with dancing.[449]
-
-The “Naked-dance” was to gymnastics what the war-dance was to
-war.[450] It represented the movements of the palaistra set to music,
-accompanied by some singing.[451] The style was solemn, like that of
-the ἐμμέλεια [emmeleia], or dance of Tragedy. It was performed in the
-main by boys, as the name γυμνοπαιδία [gymnopaidia] implies; but grown
-men also took part, as at Sparta, where practically the whole male
-population danced it at once. Plato seems to mean a similar type by
-his “peace-dance” (in the _Laws_), which is to be a thanksgiving for
-past mercies or a prayer for continued prosperity.
-
-In the regular system of education at Athens, it is true, the boys
-learned only to sing and play, not to dance. But owing to the
-perpetual demand for boys from each of the ten tribes to compete at
-the great festivals in war-dances and dithyrambs, dancing must have
-been a common accomplishment. These competitors also attracted and
-encouraged a large number of dancing-masters. Any boy who showed
-promise as a dancer, or perhaps even as a singer only, would be
-singled out by the agents who collected choroi for the choregoi.
-
-Some rich man, let us call him Tisias,[452] has just been appointed
-choregos of the Erechtheid tribe for the war-dance of boys at the
-Panathenaic festival, or a boy-chorus in dithyrambs at the Thargelia.
-After drawing lots with the choregoi of other tribes, he gets
-Pantakles assigned to him as his poet and music-master, to teach the
-boys: he might, if he wished, hire at his own expense extra dancing-
-and music-masters.[453] Tisias then sends for Amunias, whom the
-Erechtheid tribe have chosen to collect their choroi and keep an eye
-on them while they are being trained. If Tisias bears a bad name or is
-unpopular with his tribe, he and his agent will have trouble in
-collecting the boys; for the fathers will refuse to give them up, and
-there will be fines imposed and securities taken, before the chorus
-assembles. But as a rule the parents will accept gladly; it is a
-chance of a free education for a month or so, for Tisias will pay all
-expenses, even of meals, and the State supplies the teacher; it is a
-chance, too, for the boy to distinguish himself.
-
-Meanwhile, Tisias will have provided a suitable schoolroom, in his own
-house, if possible; rich men, to whom the post of choregos was a
-frequent burden, would keep an apartment for the purpose. If he
-himself is busy, he will depute friends, who can be trusted to swear
-in his favour before the Courts, to watch the teaching; the agent will
-also be present.[454] For sometimes accidents occurred. Once a boy was
-given a dose to drink, to improve his voice, and it killed him.[455]
-
-When the day of the competition came, the chorus would be suitably
-dressed at Tisias’ expense; he might perhaps allow them gold
-crowns.[456] There might be nine other choroi entering for the prize,
-but in the time of Demosthenes this was not common. The whole Athenian
-people and many foreigners would be present at the contest, and it
-would be an anxious day for choregos, boys, and parents. The State
-gave the prizes,[457] usually a tripod, which went to the winning
-choregos, who would set it up in some public place with an appropriate
-inscription, such as――
-
-     The Oeneid tribe was victorious; a choros of boys.
-     Eureimenes, son of Meleteon, was choregos. Nikostratos
-     taught.[458]
-
-Or――
-
-     Lusikrates, son of Lusitheides of Kikunna, was choregos. The
-     boys of the Acamantid tribe won. Theon played the flute.
-     Lusiades taught. Euainetos led.[459]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-We pass to the position which riding held in Athenian education. The
-two richest classes in the State were liable to service in the
-cavalry. They had to supply their own horses, which were examined and,
-if unfit, rejected; but the State paid them a sum of £8 annually for
-maintenance and arms in time of peace. As, however, the number of the
-citizen cavalry never rose above 1000, the whole of these two classes
-can never have been so employed at once: the remainder served in the
-heavy infantry. The two Hipparchoi elected for the year, and their
-subordinates, the ten Phularchoi, who each commanded a tribal
-contingent, on coming into their office, would note how many of the
-thousand who had served in the former year were no longer liable to
-service owing to age, and would fill up the vacancies; they would also
-make good those gaps which occurred from time to time during their
-term of office owing to wounds or death or sudden poverty. To secure a
-recruit, they had only to go to some rich and active young man who was
-not already serving; if he refused to be enrolled, they could
-prosecute him. The training often began before eighteen, for Xenophon
-speaks of persuading the recruit’s guardians,[460] from whom he would
-be free at that age. So Teles mentions the horse-breaker as among the
-teachers of the lad in the secondary stage of education. No doubt it
-took some training to make an efficient cavalryman, and the Hipparchoi
-liked to take the recruits young; but to keep a stud was the favourite
-amusement of a rich young Athenian, and many would learn to ride
-without any view to military efficiency. As the Hellenes rode without
-stirrups, mounting was one of the great difficulties of the young
-rider, and figures chiefly on the vases. Often they used the long
-cavalry-spear as a vaulting-pole.[461] Otherwise a groom or the master
-gave the pupil a leg up: on a vase[462] in the British Museum the
-master is seen simply pushing the boy into his seat. A comic
-poet,[463] who has left us a picture of the young recruits learning to
-ride under the eye of their Phularchoi, speaks only of mounting and
-dismounting.[464] “Go to the Agora,” says the speaker to his slave,
-“to the Hermai, where the phularchoi keep coming, and to the pretty
-disciples whom Pheidon is teaching to mount their steeds and to get
-down again.” Xenophon, among much sound advice to the young rider
-about buying, training, and keeping his horse, gives the Hipparchos
-the following suggestions:――
-
-     “Persuade the younger men to vault on to their horses. It
-     will be best if you supply the teacher for this. The older
-     men may be put up by some one else in the Persian way. To
-     practise the men in keeping their seats over difficult
-     country, frequent riding expeditions are a good thing, but
-     will be unpopular. So tell your men to practise by
-     themselves whenever they are in the open country. But take
-     them out yourself occasionally and test them over all sorts
-     of ground. Give them sham fights in different kinds of
-     country. In order to make them keen about throwing the
-     javelin from horseback,[465] stir up rivalry between the
-     different squadrons and give prizes for this and for good
-     riding and the like. Above all make yourself and your
-     attendant gallopers as smart as possible.”[466]
-
-There were frequent reviews under the eyes of the Boule. In the
-race-course at the Lukeion there was a sham fight, each hipparchos
-commanding five squadrons which pursued one another, and then charged
-front to front, passing through the gaps in one another’s lines.
-They had, also, to wheel in line. The review was followed by
-javelin-throwing.[467] Another review was held at the Akademeia, on a
-course with a hard soil (ὁ ἐπίκροτος [ho epikrotos])――good practice
-for cavalry intending to fight in rocky Attica. Here they had, among
-other manœuvres, to charge at full gallop and suddenly come to a
-halt.[468]
-
-One of the attractions of the cavalry service was the great
-Panathenaic procession, where the horsemen played a leading part: an
-idealised picture of them may be seen on the frieze of the Parthenon.
-Xenophon gives a series of directions how to make the horses prance
-and hold their heads up on this great occasion, and suggests devices
-in gait which will attract popular notice. This and kindred
-processions must have made recruiting for the cavalry easy.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-_Swimming_ seems to have been, as would naturally be expected, an
-exceedingly common accomplishment in the maritime states of Hellas;
-even at inland Sparta the boys must have learnt it for their daily
-plunge in the Eurotas. According to tradition,[469] there was a law at
-Athens that every boy should be taught reading, writing, and swimming:
-the proverb for an utter dunce was “he knows neither his letters nor
-how to swim.”[470] Herodotos distinctly implies that all Hellenes knew
-how to swim. “The Hellenic loss at Salamis,” he says, “was small. For,
-as they knew how to swim (as opposed to the barbarians who did not),
-when their ships were destroyed, they swam over to the island.”[471]
-He takes it as a matter of course that every sailor could swim. The
-whole crew of a captured trireme during the Peloponnesian War as often
-as not jumped overboard and escaped by swimming.[472] In a story in
-Athenaeus the boys of Lasos, on coming out of the wrestling-school, go
-off together for a bathe and begin to dive. A friend of Aristippos
-used to boast to him of his diving.[473] During the blockade of
-Sphakteria by the Athenian fleet, numbers of Helots swam over from the
-mainland to the island under water.[474] Scanty and scrappy as they
-are, these details show that swimming must have been taught to most
-boys, at any rate if they were ever likely to serve in a fleet. Plato
-twice[475] uses a metaphor drawn from a man swimming on his back,
-showing that this method was known. When a young disputant is being
-severely handled in a discussion, Sokrates intervenes, “wishing to
-give the boy a rest, since he saw that he was getting a severe ducking
-and he feared that he might lose heart.”[476] The phrase suggests that
-the sight of boys learning to swim was familiar. They could learn
-either in the innumerable creeks and bays of the sea, or in the lakes
-and rivers, or in diving-pools.[477] There were also various
-“gymnastic games” which young people played in the water
-together;[478] but of their nature nothing is known.
-
-It cannot reasonably be doubted that in the maritime states a large
-proportion of the boys, at any rate of the lower classes, were taught
-to _row_, since each trireme required a crew of 200, nearly all of
-whom had to use the oar. In the good old days, according to
-the _Wasps_, the main object was to be a good oar,[479] and
-rowing-blisters were a sign of patriotism.[480] In an emergency, the
-Athenians could make the whole citizen force under a certain age
-embark on the fleet and could win a victory with these rowers; this
-would have been impossible if the average citizen had been ignorant of
-rowing.[481] On such occasions many even of the Hippeis embarked:
-Aristophanes jestingly asserts that in an expedition to Korinth the
-horses tried also, shouting, “Gee-ho, put your backs into it. Do more
-work, Dobbin.”[482] Before the close of the war,[483] Charon, the
-ferryman of Styx, assuming that every Hellene knows the way to row,
-makes the souls of the departed row themselves across. Boat-races were
-certainly known at this period. A client of Lusias asserts that he has
-won a race with a trireme off Cape Sounion.[484] Probably the
-trierarchoi, the rich men appointed to fit out the State navy, either
-voluntarily or by regular custom, made the ships race one another.
-Thus the races would be as much inter-tribal contests as the
-dithyrambs or torch-races. Two crews of the epheboi of a later date
-used to race in the two sacred triremes. The vessels sailing out for
-the Sicilian expedition raced as far as Aigina.[485] A fragment of
-Plato the comic poet[486] refers to similar contests:
-
-  Thy high-heaped tomb on this fair promontory
-  Shall take the greetings of our far-flung fleets,
-  And watch the merchants sailing out and in,
-  And be spectator when the galleons race.
-
-
-EXCURSUS I
-
-The “gumnasiarchoi” have created some confusion among those who have
-discussed Attic ways. Some authorities would make them rich men
-performing a “leitourgia” and holding a similar position to the
-trierarchoi and choregoi: others make them officials appointed to
-superintend the gymnasia.
-
-The gumnasiarchia is certainly reckoned among leitourgiai as a general
-rule. A speaker in Lusias,[487] giving a list of these duties which he
-had performed, says: “I supplied a chorus of men at the Thargelia, a
-chorus of war-dancers at the Panathenaia, a cyclic chorus at the
-little Panathenaia, I was Gumnasiarchos for the Prometheia and was
-victorious, then choregos with a chorus of boys, then with beardless
-war-dancers at the little Panathenaia.” In Andokides[488] a
-gumnasiarchos at the Hephaisteia is mentioned. The author of the
-treatise on the Athenian constitution says:[489] “In the case of the
-choregiai, gumnasiarchiai, and trierarchiai, the Athenians realise
-that the rich fill the offices and the populace serve under them and
-get the benefit. So the populace claims to be paid for singing and
-running and dancing and sailing in the ships.” Now “singing and
-dancing” belong to the choregiai, and “sailing in the ships” to the
-trierarchiai. So “running” is left for the gumnasiarchiai. The main
-feature of the yearly festivals of Hephaistos and Prometheus, which
-the two earlier passages gave as the scene of the duties of the
-gumnasiarchos, was a torch-race. It may thus be inferred that the duty
-of the gumnasiarchos was to collect, and train, a team of his own
-tribe for the torch-race at these festivals.[490] In connection with
-this duty, they could prosecute members of their team, or any one who
-interfered with them, for impiety before the Archon Basileus,[491]
-since the race was a religious function. They were thus in the
-sacrosanct position which Demosthenes as choregos claims for himself
-in his speech against Meidias.
-
-So far the gumnasiarchos is an ordinary performer of a leitourgia, and
-his duties are confined to providing a tribal team for the torch-races
-at the Prometheia and Hephaisteia. His team, usually at any rate,
-consisted of epheboi, as we learn from an inscription describing the
-victory of Eutuchides with his epheboi.[492]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-There is also the law quoted as Solon’s in Aischines’ speech against
-Timarchos.[493] “The gumnasiarch_ai_ (note that it is a different
-word) “are not to allow any one over age to keep company with the boys
-at the festival of Hermes in any way whatsoever: if he does not keep
-all such persons out of the gymnasia, the gumnasiarch_es_ shall be
-liable to the law that prescribes penalties for those who corrupt free
-boys.” But the orator himself only mentions paidotribai, and special
-enactments dealing with the Hermaia; there is no mention of a
-gumnasiarches. The law itself is an addition made in a later period
-when there was a special officer to control the gymnasia. But there is
-no evidence for such an official in the days of the independence of
-Hellas.
-
-One interesting passage remains. “I was gumnasiarchos in my deme,” or
-country district, says a speaker in Isaios.[494] There must therefore
-have been local torch-races, for which rich men were called upon to
-pay and train teams, just as there were certainly local theatrical
-performances. The passage opens up a prospect of vigorous athletic
-life throughout the country districts and villages of Attica.
-
-
-     [332] Plato, _Rep._ 556 B-D.
-
-     [333] Xen. _Mem._ iii. 12. 1.
-
-     [334] Plato, _Phaidr._ 239 c.
-
-     [335] Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 289.
-
-     [336] Solon reduced this endowment to 500 drachmai for an
-     Olympian victor, 100 for an Isthmian (Plut. _Solon_, 23).
-
-     [337] Plut. _Quaest. Rom._ 40.
-
-     [338] Plato, _Laws_, 807 c.
-
-     [339] For this their vast appetites were partly responsible.
-     Milo and Theagenes each ate a whole ox in a single day
-     (Athen. 412 f). Astuanax the pankratiast ate what was meant
-     for nine guests (_ibid._ 413 b).
-
-     [340] Xen. _Banquet_, ii. 17.
-
-     [341] Galen, _On Medic. and Gym._ § 33 (ed. Kühn. v. 870).
-
-     [342] Philos. _On Gymnastics_, 54.
-
-     [343] Pausan. v. 21. 10.
-
-     [344] Pind. _Olymp._
-
-     [345] Pindar, frag.
-
-     [346] Fragment of _Autolukos_.
-
-     [347] A very bold attack on the Olympian games, which must
-     have caused a sensation in the theatre.
-
-     [348] Aristot. _Pol._ vii. 16. 13.
-
-     [349] Lukourg. _ag. Leok._ 51.
-
-     [350] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athens_, i. 13.
-
-     [351] κατέλυσε [katelyse] must mean this, as in [Andok.]
-     _ag. Alkibiades_, where that gentleman is said to be
-     καταλύων τὰ γυμνάσια [katalyôn ta gymnasia] by his bad
-     example.
-
-     [352] See end of Aristoph. _Wasps_.
-
-     [353] As shown by the beginning of Plato, _Lusis_, 203 B.
-
-     [354] Aristoph. _Birds_, 141.
-
-     [355] Antiphon, _Second Tetralogy_.
-
-     [356] The law quoted in Aischines _ag._ _Timarchos_ is
-     spurious, being a later interpolation; it cannot therefore
-     be used as evidence.
-
-     [357] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athens_, ii. 10.
-
-     [358] The division of the boys into classes by age in the
-     contests points to such a usage. Cp. the ἡλικίαι [hêlikiai]
-     at Teos.
-
-     [359] Later, this was done by a special official, the
-     ἀλειπτής [aleiptês].
-
-     [360] Aristot. _Pol._ iv. 1. 1.
-
-     [361] _e.g._ Plato, _Gorg._ 504 A; _Protag._ 313 D; Aristot.
-     _Pol._ iii. 16. 8.
-
-     [362] Plato, _Gorg._ 452 B.
-
-     [363] The paidotribes is distinguished from the gumnastes as
-     the schoolmaster from the crammer. The gumnastes coached
-     pupils chiefly for the great games, while the paidotribes
-     presided over physical training generally, especially of
-     boys, but sometimes of epheboi. See the elaborate discussion
-     in Grasberger, i. 263-268.
-
-     [364] Plato, _Protag._ 313 A.
-
-     [365] _Ibid._ 326 C.
-
-     [366] ἀποδυτήριον [apodytêrion].
-
-     [367] See Thompson, Plato, _Phaedr._ 239 C., and Eur.
-     _Bacch._ 456.
-
-     [368] Illustr. Plate VI. A.
-
-     [369] Illustr. Plates VI. A and VI. B.
-
-     [370] See especially the Panathenaic vases in the British
-     Museum.
-
-     [371] _e.g._ Brit. Mus. E 288.
-
-     [372] Brit Mus. B 361, E 427, E 288.
-
-     [373] Illustr. Plate VIII.
-
-     [374] Aristot. _Pol._ viii. 4.
-
-     [375] Aristoph. _Clouds_, 973.
-
-     [376] _Anthol. Palat._ xiii. 222.
-
-     [377] Herod, vi. 127-129.
-
-     [378] Athen. 629 B.
-
-     [379] Xen. _Banquet_, ii. 19.
-
-     [380] Plato, _Laws_, 830 C.
-
-     [381] Philostratus, _On Gymnastics_, 55.
-
-     [382] Galen, _De sanit. tuend._ ii. 8.
-
-     [383] Grasberger, i. 154.
-
-     [384] Described at length, Grasberger, i. 84-98.
-
-     [385] Aristoph. _Knights_, 1238.
-
-     [386] See Illustr. Plate VI. A for a wrestling lesson.
-     Lucian, _Ass._ 8-11.
-
-     [387] Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Grenfell and Hunt, Part III. No.
-     466 (1903). The papyrus is of the second century.
-
-     [388] _Anthol. Palat._ xii. 206.
-
-     [389] Isok. _Antid._ 184.
-
-     [390] See Illustr. Plate VI. B for a pankration lesson.
-
-     [400] Plut. _Alkib._ ii. 3.
-
-     [401] See Illustr. Plate VII.
-
-     [402] See Illustr. Plate V. B.
-
-     [403] Illustr. Plate V. A.
-
-     [404] Illustr. Plate V. B.
-
-     [405] Athen. 584 C, referring to about 320 B.C.
-
-     [406] Aristoph. _Peace_, 357.
-
-     [407] Zeno in Athen. 561 C.
-
-     [408] Athen. 609 D.
-
-     [409] ἀποδυτήριον [apodytêrion]. See Plato, _Charmides_, 153
-     ff.
-
-     [410] κατάστεγος δρόμος [katastegos dromos]. Plato,
-     _Euthud._ 273 A.
-
-     [411] Theodoros (Plato, _Theait._).
-
-     [412] This was often done outside (Plato, _Theait._ 144 C).
-     The oil-room (ἐλαιοθέσιον [elaiothesion]) of Vitruvius may
-     be a later invention. This preliminary anointing was called
-     ξηραλοιφεῖν [xêraloiphein]. After the baths they rubbed
-     themselves with a mixture of oil and water; this was
-     χυτλοῦσθαι [chytlousthai].
-
-     [413] See Xen. _Banquet_, 1. 7.
-
-     [414] Aristoph. _Knights_, 492.
-
-     [415] Philostratus, _On Gymnastics_, 56. It was usual to be
-     dusted before wrestling.
-
-     [416] Xen. _Banquet_.
-
-     [417] For a good bathing scene, see Brit. Mus. Vase E 83.
-     Also E 32.
-
-     [418] Philostratus, _On Gymnastics_, 57.
-
-     [419] Plato, _Laws_, 830 C.
-
-     [420] Particular Sophists attached themselves to particular
-     gymnasia and palaistrai which they came to regard as their
-     schools. Mikkos has already occupied the newly-built
-     palaistra in the _Lusis_, 204 A. Cp. Plato’s position at the
-     Akademeia and Aristotle’s at the Lukeion.
-
-     [421] αὐλή [aulê] (Plato, _Lusis_, 206 E).
-
-     [422] κονίστρα [konistra].
-
-     [423] Plato, _Laws_, 830 B.
-
-     [424] For the excitement of the spectators and their shouts
-     of encouragement see Isok. _Euag._ 32.
-
-     [425] Some gymnasia provided a large “Room of the Epheboi.”
-     So in Vitruvius’ model.
-
-     [426] Athen. 495-6.
-
-     [427] Plato, _Polit._ 294 D, E.
-
-     [428] But by the end of the fourth century the teacher of
-     arms becomes an important individual in the training of the
-     epheboi.
-
-     [429] Plato, _Euthud._ 273 A.
-
-     [430] Xen. _Econ._ iii. 13.
-
-     [431] Xen. _Econ._ xi. 18; _Banquet_, i. 7, ix. 1.
-
-     [432] σφαιριστήριον [sphairistêrion].
-
-     [433] Athen. 20 f.
-
-     [434] Brit. Mus. E 83, for a picture of this in use.
-
-     [435] χυτλοῦσθαι [chytlousthai].
-
-     [436] Athen. 566 e.
-
-     [437] _Hunting with Hounds_, passim. So Plato in the _Laws_,
-     with reservations.
-
-     [438] Plato, _Laws_, 795 E.
-
-     [439] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 729.
-
-     [440] Lucian, _On Dancing_, 15.
-
-     [441] Athen. 20 d.
-
-     [442] Plato, _Rep._ 396 A, B.
-
-     [443] Antiphon, _The Choreutes_, 11.
-
-     [444] Xen. _Banquet_, ii. 17.
-
-     [445] Lakonian and Attic (Herod. vi. 129); Persian (Xen.
-     _Anab._ vi. 1. 10); Troizenìan Epizephurian Lokrian, Cretan,
-     Ionian, Mantinean in Lucian, _On Dancing_, 22.
-
-     [446] Not necessarily nude, for γυμνός [gymnos] only
-     represents the absence of the armour used in the War-dance.
-
-     [447] Plato, _Laws_, 815 A.
-
-     [448] Lucian, _On Dancing_, 8.
-
-     [449] Lucian, _On Dancing_, 8.
-
-     [450] The dance known as γυμνοπαιδική [gymnopaidikê] is
-     described in Athen. 631 b, as including representations of
-     wrestling. In 678 b, c, the festival of the Γυμνοπαιδίαι
-     [Gymnopaidiai], and the dances in it are referred to, but no
-     mention is there made of wrestling.
-
-     [451] Athen. 630 d.
-
-     [452] This sketch is drawn chiefly from Antiphon, _The
-     Choreutes_.
-
-     [453] Demos. _ag. Midias_, 533.
-
-     [454] Rivals sometimes tried to interrupt the lessons or
-     bribe the teacher (Demos. _Mid._ 535).
-
-     [455] The situation of Antiphon’s speech.
-
-     [456] Demos. _Mid._ 520.
-
-     [457] Xen. _Hiero_, ix. 4.
-
-     [458] Böckh, 212.
-
-     [459] _Ibid._ 221.
-
-     [460] Xen. _Hipparch._ i. 11.
-
-     [461] Illustr. Plate IX.
-
-     [462] Brit. Mus. E 485.
-
-     [463] Mnesimachos, _Hippotrophos_ (Athen. 402 f).
-
-     [464] See Illustr. Plates X. A, X. B and the Frontispiece
-     for scenes in a riding-school.
-
-     [465] The mark was a suspended shield, Brit. Mus.
-     Prize-Amphora 7, Room IV.
-
-     [466] A rough summary of Xen. _Hipparch._ i. 15-26.
-
-     [467] Xen. _Hipparch._ iii. 6.
-
-     [468] Xen. _Hipparch._ iii. 14.
-
-     [469] Petit, _Leg. Att._ ii. 4.
-
-     [470] Plato, _Laws_, 689 D.
-
-     [471] Herod. viii. 89.
-
-     [472] _e.g._ Thuc. iv. 25.
-
-     [473] Diogenes Laert. ii. 8. 73.
-
-     [474] Thuc. iv. 26.
-
-     [475] Plato, _Rep._ 529 C; _Phaidr._ 264 A.
-
-     [476] Plato, _Euthud._ 277 D.
-
-     [477] Plato, _Rep._ 453 D.
-
-     [478] Galen, _de loc. aff._ iv. 8. See Grasberger, i. 151.
-
-     [479] Aristoph. _Wasps_, 1095.
-
-     [480] _Ibid._ 1119.
-
-     [481] Xen. _Hellen._ i. 6. 24.
-
-     [482] Aristoph. _Knights_, 600.
-
-     [483] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 200-271, describes a rowing lesson.
-
-     [484] _Lus._ 21. 5.
-
-     [485] Thuc. vi. 32.
-
-     [486] Plut. _Themist._ 32.
-
-     [487] Lusias, speech 21. 1-2.
-
-     [488] Andok. 17. 20.
-
-     [489] [Xen.] _Constit. of Athen._ i. 13.
-
-     [490] So
-       lampadi γυμνασιαρχεῖν λαμπάδι [gymnasiarchein].――Isaios,
-          _Philoktemon_, 62. 60.
-       γυμνασιαρχεῖσθαι εὐ ταῖς λαμπάσιν [gymnasiarcheisthai eu
-          tais lampasin].――Xen. _Revenues_, 4. 52.
-       λάμπάδι νικήσας γυμνασιαρχῶν [lampadi nikêsas
-          gymnasiarchôn].――Böckh, 257.
-
-     [491] Dem. _ag. Lakritos_, 940; Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath.
-     Pol.] 57.
-
-     [492] Böckh, 243.
-
-     [493] Aesch. _Tim._ 12.
-
-     [494] Isaios, _Menekles_, § 42. See Wyse’s edition on the
-     passage.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-SECONDARY EDUCATION: I. THE SOPHISTS
-
-
-At fourteen or soon after, it was usual for the ordinary course of
-letters and lyre-playing to terminate: the gymnastic lessons might be
-carried on till old age interrupted them. During the first
-three-quarters of the fifth century, the lad, on leaving school, was
-left to live more or less as he pleased, if he was rich enough not to
-have to work for his living: the sons of poorer citizens at this age,
-if not before, settled down to learn a trade or engaged in
-merchandise. Rich boys, no doubt, spent most of their time in athletic
-pursuits; riding and chariot-driving were favourite amusements. But
-with the Periclean age arose a violent desire for a further course of
-intellectual study, and a system of secondary education arose, to
-occupy the four years which elapsed between the time when the lad
-finished his primary education and the time when the State summoned
-him to undergo his two years of military training.
-
-Many of the primary schools of the better sort started courses of
-study for lads, providing, no doubt, separate class-rooms, or else the
-younger boys attended at different hours from those at which the elder
-pupils assembled. Probably some such provision had been made much
-earlier for those who wished to obtain a more advanced knowledge of
-literature and music than was offered by the primary schools. But in
-the time of Sokrates many masters seemed to have held classes for lads
-as well as for boys. On entering the schools of Dionusios,[495] the
-master of letters, Sokrates finds a class of lads assembled here.[496]
-They all belong to noble families: the poor were no doubt unable to
-afford education of this sort. Two of the lads were busy discussing a
-point of astronomy, and were quoting the authority of Oinopides[497]
-and Anaxagoras, for Sokrates catches these two names as he enters the
-room. They were drawing circles on the ground and imitating the
-inclination of some orbit or other with their hands. This scene shows
-a much more advanced sort of study than was usual at the primary
-school of letters. The Sophists seem to have often lectured in
-class-rooms.
-
-More often secondary education was imparted, not in the regular
-schools by regular, established masters, but by the wandering savants,
-who taught every conceivable subject, and were all grouped together
-under the general name of Sophists.[498] From this category the
-mathematicians and astronomers, who in all respects occupied the same
-position, are often excluded. This is due to the authority of Plato,
-who, while detesting the other subjects taught as secondary education,
-had a great affection for mathematics and astronomy, the only subjects
-which he prescribes for lads in the _Republic_ and _Laws_. But
-Aristophanes, taking a more logical position, includes geometry and
-astronomy among the subjects taught by the burlesque Sophists of the
-_Clouds_. In point of fact, secondary education included any subject
-that the lad or his parents desired; and the wandering professors who
-imparted it, and even established teachers like Isokrates, who kept
-permanent secondary schools at Athens, were all alike, in the popular
-view, Sophists.
-
-But the more important subjects do naturally fall into two great
-groups, Mathematics and Rhetoric. Mathematics, as may be seen from the
-_Republic_, meant, as a part of secondary education, the Science of
-Numbers, Geometry, and Astronomy, with a certain amount of the theory
-of Music, which, owing partly to Pythagorean traditions, was classed
-with mathematics. We have already seen a class learning Astronomy.
-Plato, in the _Theaitetos_,[499] supplies a sketch of a lesson in more
-advanced arithmetic, which, by Hellenic custom, was usually expressed
-in geometrical terms in order to obtain the assistance of a diagram.
-The lad Theaitetos says to Sokrates that Theodorus of Kurene, the
-great contemporary mathematician, had been teaching him. “He was
-giving us a lesson in Roots, with diagrams, showing us that the root
-of 3 and the root of 5 did not admit of linear measurement by the foot
-(that is, were not rational). He took each root separately up to 17.
-There, as it happened, he stopped. So the other pupil and I
-determined, since the roots were apparently infinite in number, to try
-to find a single name which would embrace all these roots.
-
-“We divided all number into two parts. The number which has a square
-root we likened to the geometrical square, and called ‘square and
-equilateral’ (_e.g._ 4, 9, 16). The intermediate numbers, such as 3
-and 5 and the rest which have no square root, but are made up of
-unequal factors, we likened to the rectangle with unequal sides, and
-called rectangular numbers.” And so on. As the pupils apply the same
-principle to cubes and cube roots, Theodorus must have initiated them
-into the mysteries of solid geometry also.
-
-Here we find a professor lecturing to a select class, in this case of
-only two lads, and his pupils, as in the class-room of Dionusios,
-discussing and elaborating among themselves afterwards the
-subject-matter of the lecture. Theodoros is mentioned as teaching
-Geometry, Astronomy, and the theory of Music, as well as the Science
-of Numbers. Geometry by this time included a good number of the easier
-propositions which were afterwards incorporated in the works of
-Euclid; the school of Pythagoras, and, later, that of Plato, did much
-to develop it. The problem of squaring the circle was already
-occupying attention.[500] Compasses and the rule were the ordinary
-geometrical implements: diagrams were drawn on the ground, on dust or
-sand. In Arithmetic surds[501] were a popular subject: but
-arithmetical problems, being usually expressed in terms of geometry
-plane or solid, become as a rule a part of the latter science.
-
-To Plato these mathematical studies are alone suitable for secondary
-education: the philosopher Teles,[502] carrying on the same tradition,
-makes arithmetic and geometry the special plagues of the lad.[503] But
-then the philosophers despised Rhetoric.
-
-Rhetoric, from the time of Gorgias onwards, formed a very large part
-of secondary education Isokrates was its greatest professor. He
-provided in his school a course of three or four years for lads, to
-occupy their time till they were epheboi. But the methods, the aims,
-and the personality of this interesting professor will be discussed
-later.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Besides mathematics and rhetoric, there were literary studies. The
-_Axiochos_ gives κριτικοί [kritikoi] among the teachers of a lad.
-These are the lecturers on literary subjects, who concerned themselves
-with interpretations, often far-fetched, of the poets; a summary of
-the literary discussion in the _Protagoras_ may give some idea of such
-a lesson.
-
-“PROTAGORAS. I consider that it is a most important part of a man’s
-education to be skilled in poetry; to understand, that is, what is
-rightly said, and what is not, by the poets. Simonides says to Skopas,
-son of Kreon the Thessalian, ‘To become indeed a good man is hard, a
-man foursquare, wrought without blame in hands and feet and mind.’ You
-know the poem? Do you know then that farther on in the same poem he
-says, ‘But the saying of Pittakos, wise though he was, seems to me not
-said aright: he said, “’Tis hard to be noble.”’ Don’t you see that the
-poet has contradicted himself?”
-
-Sokrates replies by distinguishing “being” from “becoming,” and
-suggests that χαλεπός [chalepos] (hard) may mean not “difficult” but
-“bad.” He then gives a lecture in his turn. He picks out a μέν [men]
-in the first line and puts it into a most unwarrantable position in
-his translation, and makes “indeed” go with “hard.” To become good is
-difficult but possible, to be and remain good quite impossible. Hence
-Simonides goes on to say that he is quite satisfied with those who do
-no positive harm. Sokrates also notes a philological point, that
-ἐπαίνημι [epainêmi] in the poem is a Lesbian Aeolic form, justified
-because the poem is addressed to a citizen of Mitulene. It may be
-remarked that Hippias also possessed a lecture on the subject. A
-lecture on Homer by a Sophist is mentioned by Isokrates: such lectures
-were frequently given by the rhapsodes.
-
-Grammar was also taught, and the right use of words. Less usual
-subjects were geography,[504] art, and metre. Logic was in its
-infancy, but the growing lad could practise himself in argument by
-listening to the disputes of the dialecticians. Current conversation
-was full of ethical and political discussions: in the fourth century
-there were the philosophical schools of Plato and, later, of
-Aristotle, and the lectures of Antisthenes the cynic in Kunosarges;
-and Isokrates taught political science. Lads seem to have been
-expected to learn something, at any rate, of the laws of their
-country: no doubt they were taken up to the Akropolis to read Solon’s
-code: occasionally they may have been present as spectators in the
-law-courts, in order that they might gain an idea of legal procedure.
-Those who intended to become speech-writers for the courts would
-doubtless learn more: they would also attend some well-known writer
-like Lusias or Isaios, and learn the art of forensic rhetoric.
-
-It must be clearly understood that the whole of this secondary
-education was purely voluntary. The parent need not send his lad to
-hear any teaching of the sort: the poorer classes certainly would not.
-The richer parents could choose what subjects they or their sons
-preferred: rhetoric or literature, geography or mathematics――it was
-all one to the State. Teachers came and went: few stayed in Athens
-long. Their pupils had either to follow them abroad, as Isokrates went
-to Gorgias in Thessaly, or wait for their next visit. It was only the
-schools of Isokrates, of the great philosophers, and of a few
-speech-writers like Lusias and Isaios, that had any permanence in
-Athens. Isokrates himself had taught in Chios for a time: Plato was
-more than once in Sicily, and his school had to do without him in his
-absence. There is a peculiar fluidity about secondary education in
-Hellas: the teachers are always on the move. Endowed buildings for
-them there were none: they taught in their own houses and gardens, or
-in those of rich hosts, or in school-rooms borrowed for the occasion,
-or in public resorts like the gymnasia, or even in the streets.
-Consistent or continuous instruction was the exception: the Sophists
-proper gave it only to a few. The average lad at this time naturally
-acquired a wide and superficial knowledge of a great number of
-subjects, just the amount of knowledge which is such a dangerous
-thing. The lads became Jacks-of-all-trades: Plato, struck with the
-educational error of wide superficiality, wrote the _Republic_ as a
-counterblast, preaching “One man, one trade.” This protest is largely
-directed against the specious superficiality of the Sophists’
-teaching.
-
-Consequently, secondary education fell into two halves, the fluid
-teaching of the wandering Sophists and the continuous teaching of the
-more stationary schools of Plato and Isokrates. It will be convenient
-to accept this division, and take the fluid half first. In subjects,
-the two must overlap one another: the Sophists taught logic as much as
-Plato, rhetoric as much as Isokrates, and universal information of
-very much the same range as Aristotle. But the method was different,
-just because as a rule the Sophist was here to-day and gone to-morrow,
-while the stationary teachers taught the same pupils for several years
-together and could study their particular idiosyncrasies, and the
-value of education depends very largely on the teacher’s understanding
-of, and sympathy with, the individual boys whom he teaches.
-
-It is of interest to trace the development of the term Sophia and of
-the Sophists who professed it.
-
-The earliest thoughts of the Hellenic peoples were enshrined in
-hexameter verse. Homer and Hesiod represent the science and
-philosophy, as well as the religion, of their age. The poetical
-tradition survived in philosophy as late as Parmenides and Empedokles:
-the last trace of it may perhaps be found in the myths of Plato. The
-religious and ritual thinkers and the composers of oracles also
-employed verse. Consequently “wisdom,” in the earliest Hellenic
-literature, is mainly associated with poetry and music, and the words
-σοφοί [sophoi] and σοφισταί [sophistai] are applied indiscriminately
-to poets.[505] This sense of σοφιστής [sophistês] survived in later
-times, and Protagoras could call Homer, Hesiod, Mousaios, Orpheus, and
-Simonides all alike by this title. Orpheus is so styled in the
-_Rhesos_. Phrunichos called Lampros the musician a “hyper-sophist,”
-and Athenaeus declares that Sophist was a general title for all
-students of music.
-
-A second use of the word “wise man” had also existed from the earliest
-times, by which it had been applied to those who were skilful in some
-particular craft, such as carpentering,[506] medicine,[507] or
-chariot-driving.[508]
-
-The “Seven Sages” also received the name of Sophist,[509] and in their
-age the cognate words σοφός [sophos] and σοφία [sophia] became
-connected with practical and political wisdom.[510]
-
-Then the rise of education in Hellas, in which these old poets and
-thinkers were largely employed, and the analogy of the other
-educational titles with similar endings, γραμματιστής [grammatistês]
-and κιθαριστής [kitharistês], gave the word σοφιστής [sophistês] an
-association with the teaching profession. Scientific knowledge was
-beginning to accumulate. Sufficient history was known to serve as a
-foundation for political theory and precept. Rhetoric was becoming an
-essential preliminary to political life, since, with the rise of
-democracy, persuasion became the dominating influence in law-courts
-and assemblies. The desire for knowledge was never so keen as during
-the latter half of the fifth century in Hellas. With the demand came
-the men. All over the Hellenic world arose professional teachers, who
-carried the knowledge, which they had learnt from one another or
-discovered for themselves, from city to city. Everywhere their
-lectures attracted large and enthusiastic crowds. Among the subjects
-which they studied and taught may be mentioned mathematics (including
-arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy), grammar, etymology, geography,
-natural history, the laws of metre and rhythm, history (under which
-head fell also mythology and genealogies), politics, ethics, the
-criticism of religion, mnemonics, logic, tactics and strategy, music,
-drawing and painting, scientific athletics, and, above all, rhetoric.
-To such a heterogeneous collection what name could be given but
-“wisdom,” σοφία [sophia]? The name Sophist was applied indiscriminately
-to all these secondary teachers.
-
-There are several interesting accounts of these Sophists in extant
-literature, but the writers are always prejudiced opponents.
-
-In the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes, the Sophists and their pupils are
-represented as living in an underground Thinking-Shop. They are pale
-and squalid, engaged in all sorts of researches. Natural history is
-represented by the important question, “How many times the length of
-its own foot does a flea jump?” a problem which is solved by actual
-experiment. Later in the play they inquire why the sea does not
-overflow, since the rivers are always running into it. Scientific
-instead of mythological explanations of thunder and lightning are
-given. There is religious criticism too, such as Xenophanes had
-uttered long before: “If Zeus imprisoned his own father, why has he
-not been punished?” There is astronomy, “the paths and orbit of the
-sun,” and a hanging basket is introduced as an observatory. Geometry
-and compasses are mentioned. The visitor is shown a map of the world,
-containing Euboia, Lakedaimon, and Attica on a large enough scale, it
-would seem, to mark the deme Kikunna; perhaps, as Strepsiades expects
-to find dikastai on it at Athens, it had pictures of elephants and
-monsters in unknown districts. The students are interested in metres
-and rhythms. The poet laughs at grammar, forming “cockess” as the
-logical feminine of cock, and making the chief Sophist object to
-feminine nouns with masculine terminations. It is suggested that the
-pupils at the Thinking-Shop are dirty, half-starved vegetarians, too
-economical to go to the hair-cutter or the baths, abstaining from wine
-and the gymnasia. But the main point attacked by Aristophanes is the
-teaching of Argument. The whole object of learning under the Sophists
-is, according to him, to be able to cajole the dikastai and so win
-impunity to cheat, and to have an argument to justify anything. The
-successful scholars beat their fathers and mothers, giving logical
-reasons for their behaviour; they refuse to go to school, and are too
-clever to believe or accept anything. But their intellectual
-exhilaration is spasmodic; they have been taught, if they reach a
-difficult problem, to jump on to something else.
-
-A vivid sketch of Sophist-life is given in Plato’s _Protagoras_. Young
-Hippokrates, on returning to Athens in the evening after pursuing a
-runaway slave to the frontier, hears that Protagoras the great Sophist
-has arrived in the city. Only the lateness of the hour deters him from
-rushing off to find Sokrates, who will give him an introduction to the
-teacher. Next morning he comes round to Sokrates’ house long before it
-is light, bangs and shouts at the door in his excitement, and
-announces that he is ready to spend all the money which he and all his
-friends possess, in fees.
-
-They go off to the house of Kallias, where Protagoras and other
-Sophists are staying. The porter is so worn out by the number of
-visitors that he is distinctly rude. They find Protagoras walking up
-and down in the cloisters of the house, with three or four listeners
-on either side, one of whom is learning to be a Sophist himself.
-Behind follows a crowd, mostly composed of the foreigners whom he
-draws from city to city, like Orpheus, with his magic voice. Another
-Sophist, Hippias, is sitting on a sort of throne in the opposite part
-of the cloisters; around him on benches are a number of inquirers, who
-were asking him questions about natural science and astronomy. A third
-Sophist, Prodikos, is in a side-building, still in bed, covered up in
-blankets.[511] His audience sat on neighbouring beds. The whole
-assemblage finally collect couches and benches together in a great
-circle to hear a discussion between Sokrates and Protagoras. Kallias,
-the host on this occasion, often entertained Sophists: at another time
-he had Gorgias and Polos in the house. His cloisters must have
-provided a favourite lecture-room. The Sophists also haunted the
-gymnasia. The discussion in the _Euthudemos_ takes place in the
-undressing-room of the Lukeion: the two Sophists have been walking in
-the cloister. Hippias on one occasion lectures in a school-room, on
-another in a public place at Olympia.
-
-Protagoras was the first of these teachers to take pay. His system was
-very fair. On the close of their course of instruction his pupils, if
-they chose, paid the fee for which he asked; otherwise, they went into
-a temple, and, after taking an oath, paid as much as they said his
-instruction was worth.[512] Hippias made about £600 in a very short
-time in Sicily, receiving some £80 from the tiny town of Inukos,
-although Protagoras was also lecturing in the island at the time.
-Prodikos charged £2 for a particular lecture on correct speech,[513]
-but there was also a less complete form of it which cost only 10d.; he
-seems to have been noted for the gradations in his charges, for there
-were also lectures at 5d., 1s. 8d., and 3s. 4d.[514] The sum which
-Euenos of Paros asked for teaching the whole duties of a man and a
-citizen was £20.[515] Probably, however, the charges of these
-Sophists, and the money which they made, were much exaggerated by
-their contemporaries. Isokrates, the pupil of Gorgias, gives a much
-lower estimate. “None of the so-called Sophists,” he says, “will be
-found to have collected much money. On the contrary, some passed their
-lives in poverty and the rest in quite ordinary circumstances. The
-richest Sophist within my memory was Gorgias. He spent most of his
-time in Thessaly, the most prosperous part of Hellas. He lived to a
-great age and followed his profession for a great many years. He did
-not take upon himself any public burdens by settling in any one city.
-He did not marry or have children to bring up. Yet with all these
-opportunities of growing wealthy, he only left about £800 at his
-death.”[516] It must be remembered that the Sophists received money
-only from those who definitely enrolled themselves as pupils or came
-to a few advertised lectures. Hippias lectured at Sparta frequently,
-and never received a penny. Any one might go and ask a Sophist a
-question, and would almost always receive a voluminous answer. The
-eloquence and practical skill of these men were also always at the
-disposal of their own city. Like the greater Renaissance scholars,
-Hippias, Gorgias, and Prodikos were much occupied in going on
-embassies. For the larger part of their life-work they received no
-payment whatever; what they actually received was possibly less than
-what their philosophic opponents obtained in donations from friendly
-tyrants.
-
-At any rate, their fees were not heavy enough to damp the ardour of
-their pupils. Young men left their relations and friends to follow
-Sophists from city to city. These enthusiastic disciples were almost
-ready to carry their teachers about on their shoulders, so great was
-their affection for them. Why this enthusiasm? Partly because the
-Sophists were men of great personal charm. Partly because in that age
-the thirst for knowledge was unbounded. Partly from a desire to learn
-the way of virtue, which the Sophists claimed to teach. But the most
-potent reason was ambition. The young wished to shine in conversation,
-the great occupation of the age, and to be able to discuss every
-conceivable topic with intelligence. But education was also the road
-to political success. The Sophists taught systematic rhetoric, and
-logic of a sort. They also supplied the subject-matter for orations,
-in their practical handling of political science, of history, of
-ethical commonplaces; for a public oration was expected to be a
-storehouse of erudition. Rhetoric was needful not only for power, but
-also for security; for in the courts it had more influence than mere
-argument and facts.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-About the individual Sophists little is known. They appear for us only
-in the pages of those who traduced them. Plato is mainly occupied with
-various conclusions which he draws from their philosophic theories,
-which were not a part of their teaching. _Protagoras_, the eldest of
-them, a most dignified personage, set himself to train good citizens:
-he claimed that he enabled his pupils to manage their households and
-govern their states. He imparted to them all the worldly wisdom which
-he had gained by long years of personal experience. He made a special
-study of political science, no doubt for this purpose, and left a
-treatise upon the subject, which was sufficiently excellent for a
-certain Aristoxenos to be able to say that Plato had plagiarised most
-of the _Republic_ from it.[517] Being businesslike, he favoured
-clearness of thought, and studied grammar: he was the first to
-separate nouns into the three genders.[518]
-
-_Prodikos_ belonged to the same practical school. He began by teaching
-his pupils the right use of words.[519] Thus he told Sokrates not to
-use δεινός [deinos] when he meant “clever”; for its proper meaning was
-“terrible,” applicable to war, disease, or the like.[520] There is an
-amusing skit on his pet subject in Plato.[521] “The audience in a
-philosophical debate should give an impartial but not an equal
-attention to both speakers; for it is not the same thing. For it is
-right to give an impartial hearing, but you ought to incline, not
-equally towards both, but rather towards the wiser speaker. I also ask
-you to agree, and to discuss, not to dispute. For friends discuss with
-friends for friendship’s sake, but enemies dispute. In this way our
-meeting will be best conducted. For you, the speakers, would thus win
-from the audience most repute, not praise (for repute is without
-deception in the minds of the hearers, but praise is an outward
-expression of what is often not felt); and we, the audience, would
-thus receive most happiness, not pleasure; for happiness is produced
-by the mental reception of knowledge and wisdom, pleasure by eating or
-by some other pleasant physical state.” It was easy to laugh, but, as
-Plato himself shows, these distinctions of meaning were extremely
-useful in meeting logical quibbles, and were much needed in
-contemporary logic. Besides this, Prodikos was a moral teacher, and
-composed the famous _Choice of Herakles_, in which he inculcated the
-duty of hard work as opposed to a life of laziness and pleasure. He
-was an invalid, but worked on in spite of ill-health; the result was,
-perhaps, a certain amount of pessimism.
-
-_Hippias_ was a marvellously all-round genius. He once came to the
-Olympian festival with everything that he wore or carried made by
-himself, ring, oil bottle, shoes, clothes, a wonderful Persian girdle;
-he also brought epic poems, tragedies, dithyrambs, and all sorts of
-prose-works.[522] He knew astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, grammar. At
-Sparta he taught history and archæology. He had a wonderful system of
-mnemonics, by which, if he once heard a string of fifty names, he
-could remember them all.[523] He lectured on Homer and other poets. He
-also composed a moral discourse, which won great applause at Sparta,
-where quibbles or bad morality would have been sternly repressed; it
-was afterwards delivered in an Athenian school-room. Hippias was
-always ready to answer any question which was put to him, and was
-rarely at a loss.
-
-A less prominent Sophist was _Antiphon_, who must be carefully
-distinguished from his namesake the Attic orator. He published works
-on physics, on concord (ὁμόνοια [homonoia]), and on political science.
-The fragments are interesting, and show some popular handling of
-ethical teaching. The following extracts[524] will give some idea of
-the man:――
-
-     “First among things human I reckon education. For if you
-     begin anything whatever in the right way, the end will
-     probably be right also. The nature of the harvest depends
-     upon the seed you sow. If you plant good education in a
-     young body, it bears leaves and fruit the whole life long,
-     and no rain or drought can destroy it.”
-
-     “Life is like a day’s sentry-duty, and the length of life is
-     comparable to a single day. While our day lasts, we look up
-     to the sunlight, then we pass on our duty to our
-     successors.”
-
-     “A miser stored up money in a hiding-place, and did not lend
-     or use it. Then it was stolen. A man to whom he had refused
-     to lend it told him to put a stone in the hiding-place
-     instead, and imagine that it was money; it would be just as
-     useful.”
-
-Among the Sophists were some apparently who were merely jesters, and
-used their brains solely in arousing laughter. It may well be doubted
-whether the account which Plato gives of _Euthudemos_ and
-_Dionusodoros_ is true to life; but they probably represent a type. As
-teachers, no sane man could take them seriously. They had been
-gladiators, and had taught forensic rhetoric; afterwards they
-discovered a genius for quibbles. They were ready to make out any
-statement to be true or false. The respondent may only answer “Yes” or
-“No,” and no previous statement could be quoted against them, since
-they did not claim to teach anything consistent. A sample[525] of
-their arguments will make their methods clearer. “_A._ Your father is
-a dog. _B._ So is yours. _A._ If you answer my questions, you will
-admit it. Have you a dog? _B._ Yes, a very bad one. _A._ Has it
-puppies? _B._ Mongrels like itself. _A._ Then the dog is a father?
-_B._ Yes. _A._ Isn’t the dog yours? _B._ Certainly. _A._ Then being
-yours and a father, it is your father, and you are the brother of
-puppies.” Absurd as it is, such discussions are a good means of
-teaching logic, since they make the search for rules intellectually
-compulsory.
-
-No doubt there were black sheep among the lesser Sophists, to whom
-Plato’s bitter definitions in the _Sophist_ were quite applicable, who
-were “hunters after young men of wealth and position, with sham
-education as their bait, and a fee for their object, making money by a
-scientific use of quibbles in private conversation, while quite aware
-that what they were teaching was wrong.” But they do not appear in
-extant literature, which has only recorded a very few, and those the
-very pick, of the hundreds of Sophists that there must have been in
-the Socratic age.[526]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-The Sophists who have been mentioned so far have been but little
-concerned with Rhetoric: they form rather a school of Logic, opposed
-to the rhetorical school of _Gorgias_ and his followers.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE VIII.
-
-  IN THE PALAISTRA: FLUTE-PLAYERS (WITH φορβεία [phorbeia]),
-  JAVELIN-THROWER, DISK-THROWER, AND BOXER
-
-  Gerhard’s _Auserlesene Vasenbilder_, cclxxii. Fig. 1.
-  From a Kulix, now at Berlin, signed by Epiktetos (No. 2262).]
-
-Of the rise of Rhetoric in Hellas I need say little: the whole subject
-has been admirably treated elsewhere.[527] For educational purposes,
-Hellenic rhetoric started with several fatal drawbacks and some
-counterbalancing advantages. The southern nature of the Hellenes
-preferred sensuous charm of sound to logical accuracy of fact; their
-rhetoric, arising as it did out of poetry, and modelling itself upon
-its literary parent, pandered only too readily to their taste. With
-truth it had no more to do than Homer had; its object was to please
-the ear by curious rhythms, balanced clauses, parisosis, and all other
-possible devices. As long as the form was excellent, no matter how
-trivial the subject:[528] mice or salt were good enough for a theme.
-The oration must, of course, be full of passion, but that could be
-simulated: rhetoric had inherited the legacy of acting from its
-parent, Lyric Poetry. So rhetoric became simply a question of style,
-not of argument; and since arguments were not required, the strength
-or weakness of a case did not matter: rhetoric could make any cause
-attractive to a sensuous Hellenic ear by its tricks of style, and thus
-make “the weaker cause the stronger.” The method by which its
-professors taught their pupils brought out this attitude clearly. They
-were accustomed to take an imaginary case, and then to teach their
-pupils how to write a speech on either side of it: the extant
-“Tetralogies” of Antiphon are examples of the method, which was
-excellent educationally; for it is good to see the arguments on both
-sides of a case. It was the carelessness about fact and indifference
-to truth, and the element of acting, that were so dangerous to the
-pupils. These elements certainly wrecked the justice of the Athenian
-courts; their effect on Hellenic character was probably equally
-unsatisfactory.
-
-Rhetoric also inherited the “gnome” or commonplace, a general
-statement about ethics or politics or what not, which could be
-developed into a sententious little essay. Budding orators learned to
-compose a little store of these and keep them ready for use, to be
-inserted in a speech whenever an opportunity occurred. For writing
-these essays, a certain amount of independent thought about politics
-and ethics was necessary; and both the thought and the essay-writing
-were no doubt good for the lads.
-
-The flowery and poetic style, which was the main characteristic of
-early Hellenic rhetoric, was the creation of Gorgias. A fragment of a
-funeral oration, in which no doubt he put forth all his powers, may be
-given as a sample of the sort of thing which his pupils learned to
-write:――
-
-“As witness to their deeds these dead set up trophies over the foe,
-offerings to Zeus, offered by themselves. They were not unskilled in
-natural Ares nor lawful loves nor armèd strife nor beauty-loving
-Peace; revering the Gods by Justice, honouring their parents by
-Service, just to their countrymen by Equality, faithful to their
-friends by Loyalty. Therefore, when they died, love for them died not
-with them, but deathless in bodies no longer bodies it lives when they
-live no longer.” In the _Encomium on Helen_ we have “fright exceeding
-fearful, and pity exceeding tearful, and yearning exceeding painful,”
-and “productive of pleasure, destructive of pain.” In the _Palamedes_
-Gorgias even uses puns.
-
-His poetical compounds and those of his pupil _Alkidamas_ were famous.
-In short, at this time there was no boundary whatever between poetry
-and prose: prose, if anything, was the more poetical of the two.
-
-This strange hothouse Euphuistic style of Gorgias took Hellas by
-storm, and his influence was enormous: it even half-mastered the
-austere mind of Thucydides. As reformed by the greater critical
-faculties of his pupil Isokrates, it became the parent of Ciceronian
-Latin and so of the prose literature of centuries.
-
-The other rhetorical Sophists of the time are less interesting.
-_Likumnios_ and _Polos_, teacher and pupil, seem to have devoted
-themselves to questions of rhythm: they employed quaint conceits and
-affectations, like Gorgias. _Theodoros_ and _Euenos_ divided and
-subdivided the parts of an oration into “confirmation” and “additional
-confirmation,” and “by-blames” and “by-panegyrics”: in which work
-Polos joined them. _Thrasumachos_ of Chalcedon, who seems to have been
-a bigger man altogether, began to attack the psychological side of
-rhetoric by studying the questions of pathos and indignation; these
-studies he embodied in pamphlets, and no doubt his results were
-imparted to his pupils.
-
-One of the beauties of old Hellenic education had been that it did not
-make the rich a class apart from the poor by giving a widely different
-form of culture. The rise of the Sophists changed all this: their fees
-excluded the poor. The odium of resultant class-separation fell upon
-the teachers. Their pupils, rich, aristocratic, and cultured, inclined
-towards oligarchy. Hellenic sentiment held the teacher responsible for
-the whole career of his pupils. So for this reason again the
-democracies regarded the Sophists with suspicion, as the trainers of
-oligarchs and tyrants. It was chiefly because he had been the teacher
-of Kritias and Alkibiades that Sokrates was put to death by the
-restored democracy. The persuasive powers which the rhetoricians gave
-to their pupils might be, and often were, misused; the pupils might
-mislead the Ekklesia into bad policy or the law-courts into injustice
-by their eloquence. However much the Sophists might protest that they
-taught only rhetoric, not ethics, they were held responsible for the
-dishonesty as well as for the eloquence of such pupils. Besides,
-rhetoric gave the rich man, who alone could buy it, a most
-undemocratic influence in the State. The odium against the Sophists
-was increased by their religious and political views. They were free
-thinkers in all things. Protagoras was a frank agnostic; Gorgias
-believed that nothing whatever existed. Their political theories were
-equally revolutionary, full of the idea of Social Contracts and the
-right of the one strong man. All this was extremely distasteful to the
-majority, who were democratic and orthodox. But it must be remembered
-that no such views appeared in lectures: they were confined to an
-occasional book or to private conversation. Outwardly the Sophists
-were law-abiding and respectable servants of the constitution, and
-their lectures were, if anything, rather commonplace.
-
-Thus the prejudice against them was excited partly by their
-freethinking and partly by their fees. The first of these two reasons
-applied still more to Sokrates and the philosophic schools. But
-Sokrates neither asked nor received fees: Plato and Aristotle only
-accepted presents. Consequently when the philosophic party tried to
-dissociate themselves in the popular mind from the Sophists with whom
-they were confounded, they attempted to revive the old Hellenic
-prejudice against taking fees for “wisdom,” which had given trouble to
-the lyric poets, and to emphasise the money-making aspects of the
-Sophists’ profession. This rather absurd appeal to the gallery has
-influenced posterity; but it did not win universal acceptation in
-Hellas. Aischines still calls Sokrates a Sophist. Under the Roman
-Empire “Sophist” became a title of distinction applied to artistic
-stylists and teachers like Libanius.
-
-
-     [495] Plato’s own schoolmaster, Diog. Laert. iii. 5.
-
-     [496] [Plato] _Lovers_, 132.
-
-     [497] Reputed inventor of Euclid i. 12 and 23, and a great
-     astronomer.
-
-     [498] Thus the lad Theages, who has learnt letters,
-     lyre-playing, and wrestling, is vaguely in search of a
-     Sophist, to make him “wise” ([Plato] _Theages_, 121 D, 122
-     E).
-
-     [499] Plato, _Theait._ 147 D.
-
-     [500] Aristoph. _Birds_, 1005.
-
-     [501] Plato, _Hipp. Maj._ 303 B.
-
-     [502] Stob. 98, p. 535.
-
-     [503] And learning to ride. He is thinking of the
-     aristocratic lad, who would afterwards enter the later
-     exclusive ephebic college.
-
-     [504] Among the common amusements of Athenian dinner-parties
-     was a geographical game, in which A gave, say, the name of a
-     city in Asia beginning with K, and B had to reply with one
-     in Europe beginning with the same letter (Athen. 457).
-
-     [505] Pind. _Isthm._ 5 (4) 36. σοφισταί [sophistai]; σοφός
-     [sophos], Pind. _Ol._ i. 15; _Pyth._ i. 42. σοφία [sophia],
-     _Hymn to Hermes_, and Pind. _Ol._ i. 187.
-
-     [506] Hom. _Il._ 15. 412.
-
-     [507] Pind. _Pyth._ 3. 96.
-
-     [508] _Ibid._ 5. 154.
-
-     [509] In Isokrates, _Antid._ 235.
-
-     [510] As in Theog. 1074.
-
-     [511] He was an invalid.
-
-     [512] Plato, _Protag._ 328 C.
-
-     [513] Plato, _Krat._ 384 E.
-
-     [514] [Plato] _Axioch._ 366 C.
-
-     [515] Plato, _Apol._ iv. 20 B.
-
-     [516] Isok. _Antid._ 156.
-
-     [517] Diog. Laert. iii. 25.
-
-     [518] Aristot. _Rhet._ iii. 3. 5.
-
-     [519] Plato, _Euthud._ 277 E.
-
-     [520] Plato, _Protag._ 341 A.
-
-     [521] _Ibid._ 337 A-C.
-
-     [522] Plato, _Hipp. Min._ 368.
-
-     [523] Plato, _Hipp. Maj._ and _Protag._ 318.
-
-     [524] Quoted in the Teubner Antiphon from Stobaeus. _Flor._
-     98. 533. _Flor._ Appendix, 16. 36. This Antiphon comes in
-     Xen. _Mem._ i. 6. 1.
-
-     [525] Plato, _Euthud._ 298 D.
-
-     [526] It is not fair to condemn Polos and Thrasumachos on
-     the score of the opinions which Plato puts into their
-     mouths.
-
-     [527] Jebb, _Attic Orators_.
-
-     [528] Compare Renaissance poetry in Italy.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-SECONDARY EDUCATION: II. THE PERMANENT SCHOOLS
-
-
-Athens was the place in which the fluid educational system of the
-Sophists would naturally begin to crystallise. Not only were the
-Athenians the keenest and most intellectual of the Hellenes: owing to
-the vast trade of their city, merchants, astronomers, inventors,
-poets, thinkers of all sorts, poured into it, and men of all trades
-and all tongues collected there. Many stayed there for a few days
-only, in passing; for Athens was a sort of Clapham Junction in those
-days. All these brought a perpetual supply of new ideas into the city,
-which the inhabitants were quick to assimilate.
-
-But, possessing all the advantages of a commercial centre, Athens was
-free from the disadvantages. The clamour and vulgarity of trade were
-confined to the Peiraieus: in the gymnasia or the streets or the
-colonnades of Athens the philosopher and the thinker could teach and
-meditate in peace, in an atmosphere ennobled by her treasures of
-architecture and art and sculpture, which subdued the most blatant
-visitor, amid the literary circles which her dramatic contests
-attracted and encouraged. Here was an ideal spot for the meeting-place
-of the best minds in Hellas and the growth of a great educational
-system. The city was an education in itself. Perikles had called
-Athens the school of Hellas; the name was now to be justified in its
-most literal sense.
-
-Early in the fourth century there arose established secondary schools
-in Athens. Plato began to teach Logic and Philosophy, Isokrates
-Rhetoric, not for a few weeks at a time, but permanently: their
-courses lasted three or four years. Characteristically, there was no
-State organisation or interference; Isokrates taught in his own house,
-near the Lukeion, Plato in his garden near Kolonos and in the
-Akademeia. Their pupils came from all parts of the civilised world,
-staying in Athens during their course of study. Plato imposed a
-preliminary examination in mathematics upon his pupils; Isokrates only
-commended a knowledge of such subjects. The students of these two
-schools became recognised features of Athenian life.
-
-Plato led his pupils towards intellectual research and a life of
-retirement; the tendency of the school was markedly aristocratic, and
-several of the lads became tyrants in after life. Isokrates inculcated
-the practical life: his teaching was meant as a preparation for
-success in society and politics. But as his school naturally was only
-for the comparatively wealthy and leisured classes, it also tended to
-be aristocratic; however, it produced some of the leading democratic
-statesmen of the day.
-
-Besides these two great schools others grew up. It is hard to
-distinguish exactly between the boys who went to Isokrates in order to
-learn political speaking and those who went to a “logographos” like
-Lusias or Demosthenes to learn forensic oratory. The “logographoi” do
-not seem to have claimed to impart culture, but only technical
-instruction: they are thus on the boundary line of education. But
-Demosthenes went to the “logographos” Isaios to get precisely the
-instruction which Isokrates had refused him: so it is hard to make a
-clear distinction. I shall therefore give a short sketch of the
-“logographoi” also.[529]
-
-By the time that these schools began to establish themselves the
-Sophists were beginning to die out. Times were harder in the fourth
-century, and fewer people had money to spend on these expensive
-teachers. The intellectual movement of the Periclean age had spent
-itself, and the desire for universal knowledge was no longer so keen.
-Moreover, it is quite probable that settled schools, like that of
-Isokrates at Athens, were forming in many of the great centres: it is
-known that Isokrates himself taught for a while in Chios. The great
-demerit of the Sophists’ teaching, namely, that it was too much in a
-hurry and gave no time for personal endeavour on the part of the
-pupil, had been recognised: and the result was that the Sophists
-settled down in a single place and gave continuous courses of
-instruction.
-
-But a good many Sophists of the old type remained, to vex Isokrates by
-their criticisms and rivalries. They still came to Athens at the great
-festivals, and gave hurried lectures.[530] But they had not the
-originality of their predecessors, and people preferred to read the
-works of Protagoras or Gorgias for themselves to hearing them repeated
-as original by a lecturer. Books were already a serious rival to
-lecturing, and were a cause of much searching of heart to Plato:
-Isokrates, however, preferred to write himself and so advertise his
-school.
-
-Besides the wandering Sophists there were probably a good many
-teachers, both of Philosophy and of Rhetoric, established permanently
-at Athens. Isokrates mentions casually that all the schools[531]
-produce only two or three first-class speakers. In his educational
-prospectus, _Against the Sophists_, he criticises these rivals freely.
-“They merely try to attract pupils by low fees and big promises. The
-speeches which they write themselves are worse than the improvisations
-of the wholly untrained, yet they promise to make a complete orator
-out of any one who comes to them; for they make no allowance for
-natural talent or for experience, but regard eloquence as an exact
-science, just like the A B C and equally communicable; whereas it is
-really a progressive art, where the same thing must never be said
-twice, and its rules must be relative to the occasion and the
-circumstances.”[532] It is clear that these rivals committed the
-serious crime of underselling Isokrates and also of issuing more
-attractive prospectuses; perhaps, too, they are the captious critics
-to whom he is always referring.
-
-Isokrates is still more severe on various philosophical teachers; he
-cannot mean Plato alone, for he mentions their fees, and Plato made no
-charge. There must have been a large number of philosophical
-professors, of whom Plato was only the most brilliant. But in many
-points Isokrates no doubt meant his denunciations to apply to Plato
-also. The summary of his attack is as follows:――“They make impossible
-offers, promising to impart to their pupils an exact science of
-conduct, by means of which they will always know what to do. Yet for
-this science they charge only 3 or 4 μναῖ [mnai] (£12 or £16), a
-ridiculously small sum. They try to attract pupils by the specious
-titles of the subjects which they claim to teach, such as Justice and
-Prudence. But the Justice and the Prudence which they teach are of a
-very peculiar sort, and they give a meaning to the words quite
-different from that which ordinary people give; in fact, they cannot
-be sure about the meaning themselves, but can only dispute about it.
-Although they profess to teach Justice, they refuse to trust their
-pupils, but make them deposit the fees with a third party before the
-course begins.”[533] Here we have a picture of a distinct group of
-ethical teachers all trying to work at that Socratic paradox that
-virtue is knowledge, and imparting their results to pupils for low
-fees.
-
-All these Professors of Ethics seem to have made Mathematics and
-Astronomy a part of their course, just as Plato did. “To the old
-Athenian education, of Letters and Music and Gymnastics, they have
-added a more advanced course, consisting of Geometry and Astronomy and
-such subjects, together with eristic dialogues,” that is,
-Dialectic.[534] This course seems to have been much criticised as
-being a mere waste of time, since it was of no practical use and the
-knowledge so obtained was soon forgotten in after life. But Isokrates,
-although these subjects played no part in his own school, was
-sufficiently good an educationalist to see their merits: the study of
-subtle and difficult matters like Astronomy and Geometry “trains a boy
-to keep his attention closely fixed upon the point at issue and not to
-allow his mind to wander; so, being practised in this way and having
-his wits sharpened, he will be made capable of learning more important
-matters with greater ease and speed.”[535] But all these unpractical,
-if improving, studies should be abandoned before the nineteenth year:
-for they dry up the human nature and make men unbusinesslike. “Some of
-those who have become so adept in these subjects that they teach them
-to others, show themselves in the practical conduct of life less wise
-than their pupils, not to say than their servants.”[536] Consequently,
-those who care to study mathematics and eristic should confine them to
-the years between fourteen and eighteen: and then pass on to learn
-rhetoric with Isokrates; the rest can come to his school as lads, as
-many did.
-
-But, although he differentiated himself so carefully from what moderns
-would call the philosophical schools, Isokrates styled himself a
-teacher of philosophy quite as much as they did. To him, as to the
-Romans, philosophy was the art of living a practical life. “That which
-is of no immediate use either for speech or for action does not
-deserve the name of Philosophy.”[537] The true philosopher is not the
-dreamer who neglects what is practical and essential, but the man of
-the world who learns and studies subjects which will make him able to
-manage his household and govern his state well; for this is the object
-of all labour and all philosophy.[537] With this practical end in view
-he ridicules the metaphysical researches of “the old Sophists, of whom
-Demokritos said that the number of realities was infinite, and
-Empedokles declared for four, and Ion for not more than three, and
-Alkmaion for only two, and Parmenides and Melissos for one, while
-Gorgias asserted that nothing existed at all.”[538]
-
-In the promises which he makes of imparting to his pupils this
-practical wisdom which he calls philosophy, Isokrates is
-characteristically cautious. An exact science, which will embrace all
-possible questions and circumstances which may arise in domestic and
-political matters, is an impossibility; men must be content with a
-general capacity of forming a right judgment in view of each
-particular case when it arises. Consequently he defines as “wise men,”
-σοφοί [sophoi], “those whose judgment usually hits upon the right
-course of action,” and as “seekers after wisdom” or philosophers,
-φιλόσοφοι [philosophoi], “those who occupy themselves with those
-studies and pursuits from which they will most quickly obtain this
-practical wisdom,”[539] or capacity of forming correct judgments. But
-a judgment can only be formed properly after a proper deliberation: so
-the work of Philosophy is to practise her pupils in this
-deliberation.[540]
-
-This practice is, of course, provided in the school of Isokrates; for
-his school was, in fact, a debating or deliberating society, in which
-the pupils wrote and recited carefully composed speeches on given
-themes, or listened to the harangues of their master. Sometimes they
-discussed events of the day and matters of general interest[541] at
-the moment; at another time their topic was some constitutional or
-historical question, or the comparative merits of different nations
-and governments.[542] At another time, as may be seen from the example
-of Isokrates’ own orations, they dealt with those mythical characters
-who were historical realities as well as sacred personages to the
-average Hellene, Theseus and Helen and Bousiris: this in their eyes
-was almost equivalent to religious instruction and they were virtually
-writing theological essays. No doubt also the pupils wrote and recited
-those “commonplaces” or short essays on general topics, composed in a
-most elaborate style, which ancient orators kept in stock, ready to be
-inserted in a speech when a suitable opening presented itself.
-Isokrates’ own works are particularly full of these highly finished
-little essays:[543] so it is at least extremely probable that he
-insisted upon their composition in his school. Before his pupils, too,
-Isokrates would recite those fine sermons of his, like the
-_Demonikos_; and effective pieces of moral exhortation they must have
-been.
-
-Thus the Isocratean school claimed to be, and was, a school of morals:
-it was also a school of good style and composition. The boys’ essays
-had to be written in a particular style, grandiloquent and ornate, to
-suit their themes. “For it is absurd to suppose that the matter and
-manner of ordinary conversation or of forensic oratory are suitable to
-Pan-Hellenic themes; on the contrary, in this kind of speech the
-thoughts must be more original and more lofty, the style more
-striking, and the diction more poetical and elaborate.”[544] Style,
-diction, and matter must, in fact, be that which Isokrates worked out
-in his own speeches. That style[545] I do not mean to discuss here.
-The fact that he wrote in a study and never spoke in public, has made
-him exaggerate the merits of the artistic prose-style of which he was
-the first really great exponent; but of its popularity with an
-Hellenic audience there can be no question. The pupils of Isokrates
-became the most eminent politicians and the most eminent prose-writers
-of the time; his house, as Cicero puts it, was the school of Hellas
-and the manufactory of eloquence.
-
-To acquire this kind of oratory, there was need both of natural
-ability and of diligent study. Isokrates professes to supply, first an
-exact science of all the rhetorical devices and the various forms
-which speech can take, and then practice in the right employment and
-arrangement of these several parts. To learn the technique of rhetoric
-is comparatively easy, if the aspirant applies to the right man; but
-the right use of the technique can never be brought under any set of
-rules, or taught by one man to another: it can only be learnt by
-experience. The future orator must try the effect of each arrangement
-and combination of technique on the audience, and so draw up his own
-system.[546] The requisite audience for these experiments will be
-provided by the other pupils of the school, with the master as chief
-critic. A good master is essential. By his personal influence he will
-be able to communicate those finer elements of style which cannot be
-communicated in formal teaching. If he is worth his salt, all his
-pupils will bear the stamp of his own manner, and will easily be
-distinguished from every one else by the similarity of their style to
-his and to one another’s.[547] Education in rhetoric at Isokrates’
-school seems to have begun with the study of his own works. In the
-_Panathenaikos_ he describes himself as reading the speech over with
-two or three of his regular pupils; they revise and criticise it as
-they go along. This would give Isokrates the opportunity of expounding
-his own views of technique, with his own works before him as
-illustrations. It may be inferred from the beginning of the _Bousiris_
-that the written speeches of other Sophists were also studied, and
-their faults, or aberrations from Isocratean canons, pointed out, in
-order that they might be avoided in future. At any rate, Isokrates
-complains that other professors of the same sort of Rhetoric at Athens
-made use of his writings for teaching their own pupils, though, of
-course, according to him, they did so in order to show the boys what
-to admire, not what to avoid. When this technique had been fully
-mastered Isokrates set his pupils to write speeches on their own
-account, choosing for them some great and improving theme: in these
-speeches they had to apply the rules which they had learnt, and the
-subtler influences which they had imbibed, from their teacher. But
-they had also to think out the subject-matter, and in this lies much
-of the merit of the whole system. For, as Isokrates observes, the
-essayist who writes upon such themes will have to think noble
-thoughts, and select noble deeds as his instances and illustrations.
-This contemplation of what is noble will be a greater incentive to
-virtue than any so-called science of ethics:[548] for there is no
-science which can create goodness in wicked natures, but exhortation
-and persuasion can work wonders. Moreover, since the orator’s best
-argument is, after all, a good reputation, the young orator will see
-that his conduct and character are as excellent as possible.[548] And
-the practice of weighing just what thoughts and actions are suitable
-to the speech involves that faculty of sound deliberation which is
-necessary for the formation of right judgments. In fact, Isocratean
-“Philosophy” does more to form character than it does to produce
-eloquence.[549]
-
-The pupils practised themselves, as we have seen, by delivering their
-harangues before Isokrates and their fellow-pupils. The school formed
-a select clique of trained critics of Rhetoric; the encouragement of
-criticism by this means must have been valuable. To this council
-Isokrates submitted his own orations before publication; former pupils
-were also invited to attend on these occasions. There is an
-interesting account of such an assembly at the end of the
-_Panathenaikos_. “I was revising the speech as it stands down to this
-point,” Isokrates says, “with three or four of the lads who are
-accustomed to study with me. On reading it through, we were satisfied
-with it and thought it only needed a peroration. I determined,
-however, to send for one of those among my pupils who had been brought
-up in an oligarchy and had set themselves to praise Lakedaimon, so
-that he might notice any false charge which we had unwittingly brought
-against the Spartans.” The pupil comes, and, while praising the speech
-enthusiastically, makes an unguarded criticism of its matter which led
-to a long discussion, in the course of which he and Isokrates deliver
-lengthy harangues. Finally, the pupil is crushed. The boys who had
-been present throughout the discussion were completely convinced by
-Isokrates and applauded him warmly. But the master himself was not
-satisfied. So three or four days later he called together all his old
-pupils who were in Athens, and the speech was submitted to their
-judgment, and received with enthusiastic applause. The former critic
-then delivered a brilliant harangue, trying to elucidate a hidden
-meaning in the speech. “The crowd of pupils, which is usually ready to
-applaud, shouted, flocked round him, and congratulated him, thoroughly
-agreeing with his eulogy of me,” says Isokrates. “I praised him too,
-but did not reveal whether he had hit off my secret meaning or not.”
-
-The whole tone of the passage suggests that such an appeal to the
-pupils for criticism and advice was common, the only extraordinary
-feature being the presence of the “old boys.” This view is supported
-by other passages. In the _Areiopagitikos_[550] Isokrates tells his
-imaginary audience that “Some who heard me on a former occasion
-describe this constitution which Athens once enjoyed, while praising
-it enthusiastically and calling our ancestors happy,… told me that I
-was not likely to persuade you to adopt it.” On another occasion his
-speech made such an impression upon this preliminary audience that “No
-one praised the beauty of the style, as they usually do, but all
-admired the truth of the argument.” When he first told his pupils that
-he meant to send an advisory speech to Philip, “they all thought he
-was mad, and had the impudence to rebuke him, a thing which they had
-never done before.… But when they had heard the speech, they changed
-their minds completely and thought that Philip, Athens, and all Hellas
-would alike be grateful to him.”[551]
-
-Isokrates’ great political pamphlets, with their wonderfully polished
-style and their striking themes, naturally served him as an excellent
-advertisement, as he naïvely admits in the _Antidosis_. Those who
-required further information about his educational methods and aims
-would turn to the prospectus _Against the Sophists_, which he
-published at the beginning of his career. Owing to these attractions,
-pupils came to him from all parts of the Hellenic world, from Pontos,
-Sicily, and Cyprus;[552] he had “more than all the other teachers of
-philosophy put together.”[553] They were not merely private citizens,
-but statesmen, generals, kings, and tyrants.[554] Probably the age at
-which they came varied greatly, but most of his actual pupils would
-probably be between fifteen and twenty-one. He often speaks of
-μειράκια [meirakia] as among them. Moreover, he speaks of parents
-bringing their sons to him,[555] which they certainly would not do if
-the boys were over eighteen. Public life in the average Hellenic state
-began at twenty; so boys would wish to be ready for it by that age.
-The course at Isokrates’ school lasted for three or four years.[556]
-The Athenian lad was more or less busy with his military duties from
-eighteen to twenty, so he would probably take the course between
-fourteen and eighteen; natives of other states would fit it in
-according to their local customs. The fee for the whole course was 10
-mnai, or £40.[557] The story[558] goes that Demosthenes, having only
-£8, offered to pay that sum for one-fifth of the course. But Isokrates
-replied that he could not sell his philosophy in slices; the customer
-must take the whole fish or none at all. Probably, however, the tale
-is a fiction: Isokrates himself claims not to have made any money out
-of his countrymen, and only to have charged his foreign pupils.
-
-Since, soon after the opening of his school, he had a hundred pupils,
-the accounts of his great wealth, which he repudiated so indignantly,
-cannot have been far wrong, especially as he received 20 talents
-(nearly £5000) for his panegyric on Euagoras. His own comparison of
-his wealth with that of Gorgias, who left only £800 at his death, is
-curious, if the above statements are true.
-
-But his pupils, drawn from a class that had sufficient substance to
-live at leisure,[559] seem to have been well satisfied with what they
-got for their money. “At the end of their time, when they were on the
-point of sailing home to their friends, they so loved their life in
-Athens that they parted from it with tears and sighs.” Isokrates kept
-on friendly terms with them afterwards. Thus he writes to Timotheos,
-tyrant of Herakleia and an old pupil, to congratulate him on his
-accession and commend to him another old pupil, Autokrator. Then there
-is the charming letter in which he introduces Diodotos, another of his
-pupils, to the Macedonian Antipater, at some personal risk, for there
-was war between Athens and Macedon at the time. “I have had many
-pupils,” the letter runs, “some of whom have become great orators,
-some men of action, some great thinkers, some, with no particular
-talents, have at any rate become upright and cultured gentlemen:
-Diodotos combines all these qualities.”
-
-The chief boast of the school of Isokrates was that it produced
-gentlemen. Isokrates defines education not as a knowledge of
-metaphysics and a contemplation of the Good, nor yet as technical
-ability in some particular profession, art, or trade, but as a sort of
-culture and polish. “This is my definition of the educated man,” he
-says. “First, he is capable of dealing with the ordinary events of
-life, by possessing a happy sense of fitness and a faculty of usually
-hitting upon the right course of action.
-
-“Secondly, his behaviour in any society is always correct and proper.
-If he is thrown with offensive or disagreeable company, he can meet it
-with easy good-temper; and he treats every one with the utmost
-fairness and gentleness.
-
-“Thirdly, he always has the mastery over his pleasures, and does not
-give way unduly under misfortune and pain, but behaves in such cases
-with manliness and worthily of the nature which has been given to us.
-
-“Fourthly (the most important point) he is not spoilt or puffed up nor
-is his head turned by success, but he continues throughout to behave
-like a wise man, taking less pleasure in the good things which chance
-has given him at birth than in the products of his own talents and
-intelligence.
-
-“Those whose soul is well tuned to play its part in all these ways,
-those I call wise and perfect men, and declare to possess all the
-virtues; those I regard as truly educated.”[560]
-
-Thus the object of Isokrates was rather to impart culture and polish
-to his pupils than to teach them rhetoric; it is in this point that he
-differs from the other professors who taught the same sort of rhetoric
-as he did at Athens and have now been forgotten, and from the
-logographoi, who taught the kind of speaking which suited the Athenian
-law-courts, without professing to supply anything but a technical
-knowledge of their particular subject.
-
-In an Athenian trial the prosecutor and defendant had each to deliver
-a speech for themselves; afterwards, regular advocates might address
-the jury in some cases, but this was rare. So the duty of an Athenian
-lawyer was simply to write speeches for his clients to deliver, not to
-speak himself. Thus the metic Lusias, who had no right to speak in a
-court himself, was a famous lawyer, or logographos, speech-writer, as
-the Hellenes called him.
-
-Mantitheos, say, finds himself involved in a lawsuit. He comes to
-Lusias and explains the circumstances. Lusias masters the details,
-looks up the laws on the question, and studies his client’s age,
-character, and so forth. He then writes a speech sufficiently
-dramatised to come naturally from Mantitheos’ mouth. In composing it
-he will simulate the indignation which he supposes his client to feel,
-he will adopt the nonchalant air of injured innocence which Mantitheos
-showed in telling the story, and so on, till the speech is a real bit
-of dramatisation like the speeches in a tragedy. When composed, the
-speech would be carried off by Mantitheos, learnt by heart, and duly
-recited. It is all a bit of acting on Lusias’ part. The habit of
-simulating feelings when writing speeches was dangerous, when the
-logographos came forward to speak in his own person on some question.
-Demosthenes never quite escapes the suspicion of acting and posing,
-even in his most impressive moments.
-
-Besides these clients, the Athenian lawyers had permanent pupils, who
-either intended to be lawyers themselves or thought the study would
-help them in a political life. Their methods of teaching, as may be
-seen from Plato’s _Phaidros_, resembled those of Isokrates. In the
-dialogue called by his name, Phaidros is going out to walk off the
-effects of sitting indoors too long.[561] He had been listening to
-Lusias, “the cleverest speech-writer of the age,” reciting one of his
-speeches, on which he had spent much labour. Phaidros had made him
-repeat it several times, and has now borrowed the book in order to
-learn it by heart during his walk. Sokrates persuades him to read it
-aloud, in doing which he is quite carried away by its eloquence.[562]
-Sokrates then proceeds to criticise the style and matter of the
-speech,[563] and to compose one of his own on the same subject to show
-how it ought to be treated.
-
-This reveals the method of teaching. The teacher, as here and in
-Isokrates’ case, recites a speech of his own, explaining how it was
-done and asking for criticism from the pupils. Then the pupil would
-learn it by heart and declaim it in some solitary place. On other
-occasions, as Sokrates does here, the master would take the speech of
-some rival professor and criticise it severely, composing a better
-speech himself. The _Bousiris_ and _Helen_ of Isokrates show this
-method. Or else the pupil replied to the teacher, or the teacher wrote
-two speeches on opposite sides of the question. The extant work of
-Antiphon and the lost work of Gorgias[564] are of this type.
-
-Most of the Attic orators seem to have taken pupils. Isaios taught
-Demosthenes. Demosthenes in his turn seems to have had great
-popularity as a teacher. He “promises to teach young men the art of
-speaking”;[565] “he filled Aristarchos with empty hopes of becoming
-the prince of orators all in a moment”;[566] “he invited some of his
-pupils to come and listen to the speech _On the False Embassy_,
-promising to show them how to cheat and mislead the audience”;[567]
-“later on he will brag before his boys of his tricks.” These passages
-give an interesting picture of Demosthenes and his pupils, as seen
-through his opponent’s green spectacles.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-In opposition to the schools of Rhetoric stood the schools of
-Philosophy, leading their pupils towards the life of retirement and
-contemplation and away from the strenuous life of political and social
-activity.[568] We have seen that there were many professors of
-Philosophy at Athens in Isokrates’ time, charging fees of three or
-four mnai for their course. But only one of them is known to
-posterity, and he gave lessons gratis. Otherwise, Plato must be taken
-as a member of a class, albeit the most brilliant member. The teaching
-of Plato centred, as is well known, round the Akademeia. Plato
-possessed a house and garden, which he bequeathed to his school,
-between that gymnasium and Kolonos. When he and his pupils wished to
-be private they could withdraw into his gardens; otherwise they
-frequented the Akademeia, from which their school took its name. It
-was not every one who could obtain admission to the school, for, as
-Plato taught gratuitously, he could pick and choose his pupils. He
-expected would-be students to be well grounded in Geometry: there must
-have been some sort of entrance-examination. His successor,
-Xenokrates, finding that an applicant was ignorant of Music, Geometry,
-and Astronomy, told him to go away: “for you give philosophy no chance
-of getting a grip upon you.”[569] The inner circle of the school had
-their meals in common: the banquets were extremely plain. Timotheos,
-the Athenian general, who was accustomed to rich living, after having
-been a guest at one of these meals, remarked, on meeting Plato next
-day, “Your suppers are more pleasant on the following day than they
-are at the time.”[570] After the meal, a larger number of friends
-probably came in; this, at any rate, was a custom at the similar
-meetings held by the philosopher Menedemos a generation later.[571]
-The discourse often went on all night. There was a fixed code of rules
-to regulate these meals,[572] which is suggestive of Plato’s
-pleasantries in the _Laws_ about the educational value of strictly
-regulated bouts of intoxication. But drunkenness was, of course, not
-allowed: Plato had a particular objection to it, and used to tell
-drunkards to look in the looking-glass and they would never err in
-that way again.[573] It offended his strict canons of physical beauty
-and propriety. It is interesting to note that the author of the
-_Republic_ admitted women on terms of equality to this inner circle of
-the Akademeia, in defiance of Athenian prejudice. Lastheneia of
-Mantineia and Axiothea of Phlious, who dressed in male attire, are the
-first champions of women’s rights to a University education who appear
-in history.[574] The discussions of this clique were probably
-conducted after the model of the Platonic dialogue, and doubtless were
-in Plato’s mind when in the _Laws_ he constructed his curious ethical
-and political debating-society for the older and wiser members of his
-state.
-
-But admission to these mysteries must have been reserved for
-comparatively few, personal friends and mature thinkers: the members
-formed rather a private club than an educational system. The young
-Athenian who wished, when his primary education was finished, to study
-philosophy under Plato, had two means open to him: there were lectures
-in various public places; there was also a school for lads in the
-Akademeia.
-
-The only lecture,[575] of which any very definite trace is left, was
-not a great success from the educational point of view. Plato
-announced beforehand that his subject would be “The Good.” A great
-crowd collected, expecting to hear a neat Isocratean discussion of
-such things as Health, Wealth, Friendship, which were popularly
-considered to be rival claimants for the title of the Good. But Plato
-began to talk about arithmetic and geometry and astronomy, and
-discussed the One as the Good. The whole lecture was couched in
-enigmatical language. The majority of the audience went away in
-despair.[576] Only practised Platonists like Aristotle and Herakleides
-and Hestiaios did their best to understand the lecture, and took
-notes. The whole idea of a “popular lecture” must have been repugnant
-to Plato. In his view, knowledge was only for the few, who, starting
-with great natural abilities, could devote themselves for years at a
-time to continual study and research. The pupil must be talented to
-start with: he must undergo a long course of preparatory studies in
-Logic and Mathematics: only when middle-aged might he approach the
-inner mysteries of Philosophy. Holding such educational ideas as
-these, Plato naturally made his lectures unintelligible to all but a
-few: his main subject for public exposition seems to have been that
-curious mathematical metaphysic which Aristotle combats as Platonic,
-although it is nowhere found in the extant dialogues. By reading the
-_Metaphysics_ of Aristotle the modern inquirer can perhaps realise how
-difficult Plato’s lectures must have been.[577]
-
-At the school in the Akademeia, Plato seems to have instructed his
-lads chiefly in Logic and Mathematics. Logic consisted chiefly of
-definitions, such as those for which Sokrates was always hunting, and
-that curious process of “division” which is exemplified at such length
-in the _Sophist_ and _Politikos_. Diogenes Laertius[578] gives a long
-catalogue of such divisions, of which only a few can be found in
-extant works: the rest must have figured in the school, and survived
-as traditions in the commentaries. A comic poet has left a picture of
-the logic school at work[579]:――
-
-     “_A._ What of Plato and Speusippos and Menedemos? Upon what
-     are they now engaged? What is their thought? What argument
-     is investigated among them? Tell me, I pray, if you know.
-
-     “_B._ I can tell you clearly. For at the Panathenaia I saw a
-     herd (ἀγέλη [agelê]: note the Spartan word) of lads in the
-     gymnasium of the Akademeia, and listened to strange,
-     portentous arguments. They were drawing up definitions about
-     natural history. They separated the life of animals and the
-     nature of trees and the tribes of vegetables: then, among
-     these last, they inquired to what tribe the cucumber
-     belonged.… First of all they stood speechless, and, putting
-     their heads down, thought for a long time. Then suddenly,
-     while the lads still had their heads down, and were
-     thinking, one of them said it was a circular vegetable,
-     another declared that it was a herb, another suggested a
-     tree. A Sicilian Doctor who was present ridiculed them most
-     rudely. But the lads took no notice; and Plato, very gently
-     and without losing his temper at all, told them to try again
-     to define the species to which it belonged. So they began
-     their divisions again.”
-
-In the _Sophist_ the mysterious stranger divides Art into (1) creative
-or productive, (2) acquisitive. Then acquisitive art into (1)
-acquisition by exchange, (2) acquisition by capture. Then the art
-which acquires its object by capture is divided into public or
-competitive and secret or hunting. Then, when hunting has been duly
-divided and subdivided, a definition of angling is obtained. In the
-parody by Epikrates, the same process is employed in order to define
-“cucumber,” although the stages are, of course, confused. A cucumber
-is a form of life. Life is divided into animals and vegetation:
-vegetation into trees and vegetables. Then the doubt arises, to which
-half does the cucumber belong. Some of the pupils say it is a
-vegetable, some a tree. So the lesson begins again.
-
-Plato’s pupils seem to have been expected to take great care of their
-personal appearance: their neatness is a common butt of contemporary
-comedians[580]:――
-
-  Then rose a smart young man from the Akademeia
-  Of Plato.…
-  His hair was neatly smoothed, his foot was neatly
-  Laced in the sandal, bound with even lengths
-  Of shoe-lace curved about his ankle-bones:
-  And neat the corselet of his weighty cloak.
-
-And again:
-
-  _A._ Who’s that old fellow yonder, do you know?
-  _B._ He looks a Hellene, wears a mantle white,
-       A fair grey tunic, little soft felt hat,
-       A well-tuned[581] staff, in fact, to put it short,
-       ’Tis like a glimpse of the “Academy.”[582]
-
-Of Plato himself, as he walked up and down among his pupils, wrestling
-with intellectual difficulties, several pictures survive in
-literature. A character in Alexis[583] remarks to a friend who has
-come to visit him:
-
-  You’ve come in the nick of time. I’m in a fix.
-  Though walking up and down, like Plato, I’ve
-  Found nothing clever: but my legs are tired.[584]
-
-Amphis, in his _Dexidemides_, said:
-
-     Plato, all you can do is to frown, drawing up your eyebrows
-     severely, like a shellfish.[585]
-
-The psychological yearning of the _Phaidon_, perpetually interrupted
-by cold currents of scepticism, must have found an echo in Plato’s
-school-teaching, as the following dialogues from Comedy show[585]:――
-
-  _A._               My mortal frame grew dry:
-       My deathless part rushed forth into the air.
-  _B._ Why, bless us, are we in the school of Plato?
-
-And
-
-  _A._ You’re a man, clearly, and have got a soul.
-  _B._ Like Plato, I don’t know but I suspect it.[585]
-
-Of discipline in the Akademeia under Plato nothing is known: the
-following story[586] belongs to the school a little after his death. A
-certain Polemon agreed with some young friends of his, who attended
-the school, that he would rush into the room during the lesson, drunk
-and garlanded. This he carried out. But the teacher, Xenokrates, went
-calmly on with his lecture, which happened to deal with Sobriety. This
-conduct quite overcame Polemon, and he became a most diligent pupil,
-and finally succeeded Xenokrates as teacher.
-
-Of Plato’s affection for his pupils, his own poems afford sufficient
-proof. One of them was named Aster, or Star. One day, as the lad was
-studying the heavens, his master wrote the following epigram about
-him:――
-
-  Star of my soul, thou gazest
-    Upon the starry skies;
-  I envy Heaven, that watches
-    Thy face with countless eyes.
-
-And when he died, Plato wrote his epitaph:
-
-  Thou wert the morning Star among the living,
-    Ere thy fair light had fled:
-  Now, being dead, thou art as Hesperus, giving
-    New splendour to the dead.[587]
-
-Additional evidence is given by his efforts on behalf of Dionusios and
-Dion, which led him into so many perils in Sicily.
-
-Plato was teaching in Athens almost continually from 388 till 347. His
-pupils included, no doubt, many of the chief men of the day: Chabrias,
-Iphikrates, Hupereides, Phokion, Lukourgos, and Demosthenes are
-mentioned, besides the philosophers Speusippos, Xenokrates,
-Herakleides of Pontos, and Aristotle. But posterity ascribed pupils
-recklessly to all the great teachers of antiquity, so the catalogue
-carries little weight. It is interesting to observe that the school as
-a whole was attacked for producing tyrants: the bitter description of
-the miseries of tyranny in the _Republic_ are at once a sad reflection
-upon former pupils and a warning to those whom he was instructing at
-the time. But the Philosopher-king, who embodied Plato’s ideal form of
-Government, may well have had a corrupting influence upon the pupils.
-Dion, the philosopher and patriot who became a tyrant, is an
-interesting commentary upon the _Republic_.
-
-Teaching in the Akademeia was given gratuitously; but those who were
-so disposed might give presents to their teacher. Dionusios presented
-Plato with over 80 talents.[588]
-
-The school of Aristotle in the Lukeion differed little in its methods
-from the school of Plato in the Akademeia. He had been a pupil of
-Plato for twenty years before he began to teach on his own account. He
-used to give instruction walking up and down in the walks of the
-Lukeion. In his earlier period, at any rate, he seems to have taught
-rhetoric, and taught it in Isocratean fashion: we hear of him setting
-a theme, on which he and the pupils delivered harangues “in rhetorical
-fashion.” Later the school became a home of universal knowledge and
-research; in this respect Aristotle is the heir of the much-abused
-Sophists. He adopted Xenokrates’ custom of appointing one of the
-pupils to be Archon of the school for ten days, and then another: this
-system must have relieved him of much petty business.[589] He
-delivered two courses of lectures daily: one in the morning on
-abstruse subjects to picked pupils; and the other in the afternoon,
-open to all comers and more intelligible in matter and manner.[590]
-His fame as a teacher was sufficient to win him the honour of being
-chosen to be Alexander’s tutor, and he seems to have retained his
-pupil’s respect, if not perhaps his affection. Aristotle, dreaming of
-a tiny city-state, and Alexander, dreaming of a world-empire and
-carrying out his dream, are an ill-assorted pair. What would Plato
-have given for the chance of educating such a Philosopher-king?
-
-That there were bitter feuds between the various educational leaders
-in Athens, goes without saying. A Hellene could no more brook a rival
-than could an Italian of the Renaissance. Isokrates attacks
-Plato,[591] Plato Isokrates, and then their pupils take the quarrel on
-into the next generation. Both attack with equal animus the wandering
-Sophists and the Eristics, who retaliated with vigour. A would-be
-pupil must have found it hard to choose a professor under whom to
-study, when so much evil had been spoken of them all.[592]
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-The schools of Rhetoric and of Philosophy were only for the rich and
-the leisured classes: the poor had neither the time nor the money
-requisite for attending them. But they were not wholly debarred from
-the higher knowledge. There were still Sophists lecturing for
-advertisement in public places. Still more, there were books, which
-were beginning to be both numerous and cheap: every Athenian could
-read. How important a part books were beginning to take in national
-education may be seen from the works of Isokrates and Plato, who are
-both excessively indignant at the intrusion of such a rival.
-
-“I know that what is read has less power of persuasion than what is
-heard. It is universally believed that a speech, if actually
-delivered, deals with serious and important subjects; but if only
-written and never spoken, it is supposed to aim merely at effect and
-the fulfilment of a contract. This opinion is quite reasonable. For
-the written speech is deprived of the prestige of the author’s
-presence and of his voice and of the proper rhetorical delivery: it is
-read when the occasion which called it forth is past, and the points
-which it discusses are consequently less interesting. The slave who
-reads it aloud puts no character into it, but drones it out as though
-he were reckoning up the items of a bill.” Such is Isokrates’ view,
-somewhat freely translated, of “the written word,” which his shyness
-compelled him to use instead of the spoken, and he beseeches Philip of
-Macedon, whom he is addressing, to put aside the usual prejudice
-against writings.
-
-Plato regarded the written word with even greater contempt. To him it
-is the cause of forgetfulness; those who employ writing learn to rely
-on their notes, not on their memory, and are accustomed to register
-their impressions on tables of wax, not of the mind.[593] Again, it is
-impossible for an author to control the circulation of his works; they
-may reach those for whom they are not intended.[594] For Plato expects
-speaker and writer alike to express only what is suitable to their
-audience; the teacher must, by a study of psychology, know what
-arguments will do good and what will do harm to each particular pupil.
-But a book cannot impart knowledge, in the Platonic sense of the word,
-at all; for it is unable to answer questions or to explain its
-author’s meaning when the reader fails to follow.[595] Comprehension
-of a fact or of a statement made on a writer’s authority, without
-comprehension of the meaning and the explanation, is not
-knowledge.[596] Consequently, not even a lecture[597] or a sermon, far
-less a book whose author is absent or dead, can impart knowledge; to
-gain this, long study and a severe course of dialectic are essential.
-The possessor of true knowledge must be able to defend his view
-against any opposing arguments and to support it by discussion
-himself:[598] neither book nor lecture can give this intimate
-acquaintance with every point of view. Moreover, teaching is like
-agriculture. There are different soils and different minds. The seed
-of knowledge will bear different fruit in different soils, and there
-are types of minds in which some particular seeds must not be sown at
-all. Thus the same teacher will produce quite different philosophical
-results in different minds: just as Sokrates did with his various
-pupils. It is the development of the individual intellect and
-aptitudes of each pupil, not the inculcation of his own theories, that
-is the teacher’s true object.[599] Consequently, even a consistent
-scheme of dogmas is wrong for educational purposes; for it may suit
-the intellect of the teacher himself, but it cannot suit all his
-pupils.
-
-Hence, in order to be consistent with his own educational ideals,
-Plato makes his works inconsistent: they are not a body of rigid
-dogmas. Also, he provides in them just that discussion which he notes
-as lacking in most books; it is possible to ask his books a certain
-number of questions, for he anticipates and answers them himself in
-the dialogue. In this way he makes his words pass through the
-alembic[600] of each pupil’s brain, and come out according to the type
-of mind through which they have passed. There is no enforcement of
-authority in true Platonism.
-
-Plato refused to publish any philosophy in his own name. By speaking
-through the mouth of others, he could vary his attitudes just as he
-wished. The written word, he declares, must necessarily contain much
-trifling. Its composition is a good amusement for leisure hours.[601]
-Its one use is that it serves to remind the writer of what he knows
-already, when the forgetfulness of old age comes upon him. But the
-writer is quite worthless if he possesses nothing better in his mind
-than what he has written on paper,[602] “twisting words up and down,
-glueing them together and pulling them apart.”[603]
-
-Books, however, were already serious rivals to personal intercourse,
-as a means of education. The libraries founded by Peisistratos at
-Athens and by Polukrates at Samos were, it is true, almost certainly
-fabulous; for Euripides was satirised for possessing a collection of
-books, so it must have been a novelty in his time. Books were probably
-very rare before the Periclean age, but then they multiplied with
-great rapidity. The children used them in the schools. Schoolmasters
-were expected to possess them: Alkibiades beat one for not having a
-copy of Homer. The comic poet Alexis makes Herakles’ master, Linos,
-possess copies of Orpheus, Hesiod, the tragedians, Choirilos, Homer,
-Epicharmos, and all sorts of prose works, including a cookery-book. A
-cargo of books was wrecked at Salmudessos,[604] a fact which points to
-a large book-trade in Hellenic waters. Euthudemos, the companion of
-Sokrates, possessed a fine collection of the best-known poets and
-Sophists, including the works of Homer.[605] Sokrates suggests that he
-may be collecting his books in order to learn Medicine, on which
-subject there were many treatises, or Architecture or Geometry or
-Astronomy. This shows how handbooks dealing with all manner of
-subjects were multiplying.
-
-Xenophon’s treatise on _The Horse_ had been preceded by a similar work
-by Simon;[606] he himself also wrote on _Hunting_, on _The Duties of a
-Cavalry Officer_, on _The Management of a Farm_, and _The Constitution
-of Sparta_, besides his more definitely historical and philosophical
-works. His _Education of Kuros_ conceals a treatise on the duties of a
-general. The subjects are significant of the new movement; for earlier
-Hellenes had supposed that Homer and Hesiod taught the whole art of
-agriculture and generalship. Other agricultural treatises, containing
-much theory but very little practical knowledge, were also in
-circulation.[607] Later in the fourth century Aineias the Tactician
-contributed a manual for generals. Medical treatises emanated in great
-numbers from the school of Hippokrates, and probably from elsewhere.
-Chares and Apollodoros published works on Husbandry,[608] Mithaikos a
-_Sicilian Cookery-Book_,[609] Metrodoros a book of Homeric allegories.
-Books of travels and geography are also mentioned by Aristotle.[610]
-Handbooks on “Rhetoric” were first compiled by Korax and Tisias: they
-dealt with the subject of “arguments from probability.” Show pieces
-were written by Antiphon and Gorgias. A treatise by Polos upon the
-systematic arrangement of a speech was read by Sokrates. Thrasumachos
-published a work upon _Appeals to Compassion_.
-
-The prices were probably not high, for the labour of copying could be
-cheaply performed by means of slaves. Sokrates, in the Platonic
-Apology,[611] mentions that a copy of Anaxagoras could sometimes be
-picked up for a drachma; and there is no reason to suppose that
-Anaxagoras was particularly cheap. If this was an average price, books
-must have been within the reach of most Athenians.
-
-
-     [529] Isokrates clearly felt them to be his educational
-     rivals. See _Antid._ 310 A, and the end of the _Paneg._
-
-     [530] There is a sketch of them in Isok. _Panath._ 236 C; to
-     a lecture on Homer three or four of them had appended an
-     attack upon Isokrates.
-
-     [531] Isok. _Antid._ 99.
-
-     [532] Isok. _Soph._ 10. 293 A.
-
-     [533] Isok. _Soph._ 4. 291 D. Cp. the modern
-     “caution-money.”
-
-     [534] Isok. _Pan._ 26. 238 A.
-
-     [535] Isok. _Antid._ 118. 265.
-
-     [536] Isok. _Panath._ 238 D.
-
-     [537] Isok. _Antid._ 118. 266.
-
-     [538] _Ibid._ 118. 268.
-
-     [539] Isok. _Antid._ 118. 268.
-
-     [540] _Ibid._ 91.
-
-     [541] Isok. letter to Alexander.
-
-     [542] Isok. _Panath._ 275. It is noticeable how many of his
-     pupils became historians――Ephoros, Theopompos, Androtion,
-     Asklepiades.
-
-     [543] See, for example, “On Slander “(_Antid._ 313 E), “On
-     Speech” (115. 255).
-
-     [544] Isok. _Antid._ 48.
-
-     [545] For a complete analysis of it, see Jebb’s _Attic
-     Orators_.
-
-     [546] Isok. _ag. Soph._ 294 C; _Antid._ 91-93, etc.
-
-     [547] _Ibid._ 294 E.
-
-     [548] Isok. _Antid._ 121.
-
-     [549] Isok. _ag. Soph._ 295 D.
-
-     [550] Isok. _Areiop._ 151 B.
-
-     [551] Isok. _Philip_, 85, 86.
-
-     [552] Isok. _Antid._ 106.
-
-     [553] _Ibid._ 318 C.
-
-     [554] _Ibid._ 316 C.
-
-     [555] Isok. _Antid._ 110.
-
-     [556] _Ibid._ 62.
-
-     [557] [Demos.] _Lakritos_, 15 and 42.
-
-     [558] [Plutarch] _Ten Orators_, 837.
-
-     [559] Isok. _Antid._ 129.
-
-     [560] Isok. _Panath._ 239.
-
-     [561] Plato, _Phaidr._ 227-228.
-
-     [562] _Ibid._ 234 D.
-
-     [563] The criticisms do not suit Lusias; they fit Isokrates
-     much better.
-
-     [564] Cicero, _Brutus_, xii. 46-47.
-
-     [565] Aischines, _Timarch._ 171, 173.
-
-     [566] _Ibid._ 171.
-
-     [567] _Ibid._ 175.
-
-     [568] Plato, _Gorg._ 484-486; end of _Euthud._; _Theait._
-     172-177; _Rep._ 496.
-
-     [569] Diog. Laert. iv. 2. 6.
-
-     [570] Athen. 419 d.
-
-     [571] _Ibid._ 419 e and 55 d.
-
-     [572] Athen. 186 b.
-
-     [573] Diog. Laert. iii. 26.
-
-     [574] _Ibid._ iii. 31.
-
-     [575] See for this lecture Simplikios (on Aristot.
-     _Physics_, p. 202 B, 36), and Aristoxenos, _Harmon_, beg. of
-     Bk. ii. On one occasion, at least, it was delivered in the
-     Peiraieus (Themist. _Orat._ 21. 245).
-
-     [576] The popular attitude may be seen in Amphis’
-     _Amphrikates_ (Diog. Laert. iii. 25): “I no more know what
-     good you’ll get than I know what Plato’s Good is.”
-
-     [577] Plato seems also to have recited his dialogues in
-     public. Favonius asserted that Aristotle alone of the
-     audience stayed to the end when Plato thus delivered the
-     _Phaidon_ (Diog. Laert. iii. 25).
-
-     [578] Diog. Laert. iii. 45, etc.
-
-     [579] Epikrates (in Athen. 59 d, e).
-
-     [580] Ephippos, _Shipwrecked Man_ (Athen. 509).
-
-     [581] εὔρυθμος [eurythmos], probably a hit at Plato’s demand
-     for “rhythm.”
-
-     [582] Antiphanes, _Antaros_ (Athen. 545 a).
-
-     [583] Alexis, _Meropis_ (Diog. Laert. iii. 22).
-
-     [584] This walking up and down was characteristic of
-     Hellenic teaching. Compare the _Peripatetics_, and Archutas
-     in the temple-gardens at Tarentum (Athen. 545 b).
-
-     [585] Diog. Laert. iii. 22.
-
-     [586] _Ibid._ iv. 3. 1.
-
-     [587] The first translation is my own, the second Shelley’s.
-
-     [588] Saturos and Onetor in Diog. Laert. iii. 11.
-
-     [589] The above details are mainly from Diog. Laert. v.
-
-     [590] Aul. Gell. xx. 5. 4.
-
-     [591] Plato had also his feuds with Antisthenes, who wrote a
-     dialogue against him, calling him Satho, with Aristippos,
-     and with Aischines the Sokratic (Diog. Laert. iii. 24).
-
-     [592] Kriton feels this difficulty in _Euthud._ 306 D, E.
-
-     [593] Plato, _Phaidr._ 275 A.
-
-     [594] _Ibid._ 275 E.
-
-     [595] Plato, _Phaidr._ 275 D; _Theait._ 164; _Protag._ 329
-     A, and 347 E.
-
-     [596] So book-knowledge is a hothouse plant which has sprung
-     up unnaturally all in a moment, and very delicate when
-     exposed to the open air of criticism (_Phaidr._ 276-7).
-
-     [597] Plato, _Sophist_, 230 A.
-
-     [598] Plato, _Menon_, 97; _Rep._ 534 B, C.
-
-     [599] Plato, _Rep._ 518.
-
-     [600] Plato, _Phaidr._ 277 A.
-
-     [601] Plato, _Phaidr._ 276 D, E.
-
-     [602] Plato apparently regarded his dialogues as mere
-     trifles compared with what he taught to his inner circle.
-
-     [603] Plato, _Phaidr._ 278 D.
-
-     [604] Xen. _Anab._ vii. 5. 14.
-
-     [605] Xen. _Mem._ iv. 2.
-
-     [606] Xen. _Horsemanship_, i.
-
-     [607] Xen. _Econ._ xvi.
-
-     [608] Aristot. _Pol._ i. 11. 7.
-
-     [609] Plato, _Gorg._ 518 B.
-
-     [610] Aristot. _Pol._ ii. 3. 9.
-
-     [611] Plato, _Apol._ 26 D.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-TERTIARY EDUCATION
-
-
-When he reached eighteen years, the young Athenian partly came of age.
-His property passed into his possession, if he had been a ward, and he
-could now prosecute his guardians if they had defrauded him. But he
-could not appear in any other sort of lawsuit, or take part in the
-National Assembly, nor could he be taxed, till he was twenty.
-
-First of all, his deme or parish had to examine him to see if he was
-of proper parentage and of the requisite age.[612] If they rejected
-him, the case came before the regular Court of Athens. In the event of
-being again rejected, if it was on the score of age, he returned to
-the ranks of the boys to wait a further trial, but if on the score of
-parentage, he might be sold as a slave and his price put into the
-Treasury. If his deme accepted him he was again examined by the Boule
-of 500 at Athens, who might rescind their decision.[613]
-
-When he had passed all these preliminary examinations, the boy was
-inscribed upon the roll of his deme, the ληξιαρχικὸν γραμματεῖον
-[lêxiarchikon grammateion], and became in the eyes of the law an
-ephebos. It was then incumbent upon him to take a solemn oath in the
-temple of Aglauros, in the following terms[614]:――
-
-     “I will not disgrace my sacred weapons nor desert the
-     comrade who is placed by my side. I will fight for things
-     holy and things profane, whether I am alone or with others.
-     I will hand on my fatherland greater and better than I found
-     it. I will hearken to the magistrates, and obey the existing
-     laws and those hereafter established[615] by the people. I
-     will not consent unto any that destroys or disobeys the
-     constitution, but will prevent him, whether I am alone or
-     with others. I will honour the temples and the religion
-     which my forefathers established. So help me Aglauros,
-     Enualios, Ares, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, Hegemone.”
-
-This oath and ceremony must be ancient. The orator Lukourgos[616]
-includes them among “the ancient laws and customs of the original
-founders,” and claims that the oath of the Hellenic army at Plataea in
-479 was imitated from the oath of the Athenian epheboi. By this solemn
-act the ephebos accepted the duties and responsibilities of an
-Athenian citizen. So in Plato’s dialogue, the _Kriton_,[617] where the
-Laws of Athens are introduced as pleading their cause, they say, “When
-any one has passed his examination, and has seen the constitution of
-the city and us, the Laws of Athens, we bid him, if he is dissatisfied
-with us, to take what is his and go whither he pleases. But if he
-stays, we consider that he has promised to obey us.” For there is good
-evidence, besides that which is afforded by the above passage, to show
-that Athenian boys were taught what the laws of their city were,
-before they promised to obey them. Thus Aischines says: “When any one
-is inscribed upon the muster roll of his deme and knows the laws of
-the city.”[618] Plato puts it even more definitely: “When the children
-leave school,[619] the city compels them to learn the laws.”[620] So
-the ephebos knew what he was doing when he swore to obey the law of
-the land.
-
-Meanwhile the tribes had met and each chosen three men of over forty
-years of age, from whom the assembled people elected one, to look
-after the epheboi of each tribe.[621] These supervisors were called
-Sophronistai or Moderators. That these Moderators probably dated back
-to Solonic times, and possessed a general, but rarely exercised,
-supervision over all education, I have endeavoured to show in Chapter
-II. Their province was the morality and discipline of the epheboi,
-whose military training was naturally controlled by the military
-officers, the Generals and Taxiarchoi; later, however, when the
-epheboi ceased to be a military body, these latter functionaries
-ceased to have any connection with them. Towards the close of the
-fourth century the people elected a single Kosmetes or Chancellor for
-the epheboi; he is first mentioned, if a probably spurious passage in
-the _Axiochos_ is rejected, in an inscription, in which he is
-associated with the epheboi and Moderators of the year in awarding a
-crown to Theophanes in the Archonship of Nikostratos (333-332
-B.C.).[622] But in 280 B.C., in the list of the officers and masters
-of the epheboi, the Kosmetes is mentioned, but no Sophronistai:[623]
-at that time the epheboi were too few to need an officer to each
-tribe.
-
-These newly appointed magistrates took the epheboi of their year in
-charge at once. The young recruits were first taken round the temples,
-and then put into garrison in Mounuchia and Peiraieus. They had
-masters and under-masters appointed for them by the Sophronistai to
-teach them the use of heavy arms, and also of the bow, javelin, and
-catapult. There were also two Paidotribai, for gymnastics. These
-masters, together with later introductions such as literary teachers,
-chaplains, doctors, and so forth, appear regularly in the inscriptions
-after 300 B.C.[624] The Sophronistai were paid a drachma a day for
-their services. They also received four obols for every ephebos in
-their tribe, out of which they had to provide the rations, etc.; the
-ephebos did not handle the money himself. Each tribe messed
-together.[625]
-
-Besides the Sophronistai and Kosmetes, the Council of the Areiopagos
-also kept a watch over the epheboi. Discipline seems to have been
-fairly strict: the _Axiochos_[626] talks of “rods and immensities of
-evils.” But there were plenty of amusements, and, apparently, plenty
-of vacations. There were a very large number of special festivals, in
-which the epheboi took part. There were also the torch-races at the
-feasts of Hephaistos and Prometheus, for teams of epheboi from each
-tribe, trained at the expense of a gumnasiarchos. The epheboi had also
-a special part of the theatre reserved for them.[627]
-
-No doubt a large part of the time of these epheboi was spent in severe
-physical exercise in the gymnasia. The analogy of the epheboi in
-Plato’s _Republic_ and _Laws_ would suggest this. The _Axiochos_
-mentions, as consequent upon enrolment in the epheboi, “the Lukeion
-and Akademeia,” _i.e._ practices in these gymnasia. Xenophon,[628]
-just before mentioning the “peripoloi” or epheboi in their second
-year, talks of “those who are ordered to practise gymnastic
-exercises,” clearly referring to this period. He suggests that their
-duties would be better and more cheerfully performed if they received
-a larger supply of rations than those who were training for
-torch-races; to these latter no doubt a liberal gumnasiarchos might
-serve out meals costing much more than four obols a day. Probably
-those who were physically inferior alone were told off for these
-compulsory gymnastics: Xenophon’s phrase seems to distinguish them
-from the epheboi selected for the torch-race, who would naturally be
-the physically fittest in the tribal contingent.
-
-At the end of their first year of training, the epheboi appeared in
-the theatre at the great Dionusia to show off their military
-evolutions and the drill which they had learned. After the review they
-received a spear and shield from the State.[629] The sons of those who
-had fallen in battle, being the wards of the State,[630] received a
-complete outfit of armour. These arms, which the epheboi received from
-the State, were considered to be sacred: consequently to throw away
-the shield in flight was regarded as a serious offence, almost an act
-of sacrilege.[631]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE IX.
-
-  A RIDING LESSON――MOUNTING
-
-  _Archaeologische Zeitung_, 1885, Plate 11. From a Kulix at Munich,
-  attributed to Euphronios.]
-
-After receiving their arms from the State, the epheboi were marched
-out of Athens, and spent most of the next year patrolling the country
-and frontiers, and garrisoning the forts.[632] Attica was studded with
-these περιπόλια [peripolia], or patrol-stations, from Oinoé and Phulé
-on the north-western frontier to Anaphlustos and Thorikos in the
-south. The epheboi, like the κρυπτοί [kryptoi] in Plato’s _Laws_ and
-at Sparta, were shifted about from district to district, in order that
-they might acquire a thorough knowledge of their country’s
-geographical peculiarities. The tribal companies, into which they were
-divided, relieved one another in various stations. Thus in the course
-of 334-333 we know that both the Hippothontid and the Kekropid tribes
-were successively stationed at Eleusis, for the people of that
-district pass two separate votes of thanks to them for the excellent
-discipline which they had preserved.[633] There may also have been
-open-air camps: the Eleusinian inscriptions talk of ὑπαίθριοι
-[hypaithrioi].
-
-The epheboi seem to have been assisted in their patrol-duties by a
-mercenary force of foreigners. Thucydides[634] declares that
-Phrunichos was assassinated by a peripolos: the Athenian people,
-according to Lusias, rewarded Thrasuboulos of Kaludon as the slayer
-and recorded his name on a pillar.[635] If the historian had meant to
-dispute this award, he must have referred to it, for it was clearly
-the accepted version. He also states that the plot was arranged at the
-house of the captain of the peripoloi, and mentions an Argive as one
-of the accomplices: Lusias mentions a Megarian. Both these foreigners
-were probably peripoloi. But foreign youths cannot at this period have
-been permitted to serve with the tribal companies of epheboi. A
-legend, it is true, asserts that this privilege was granted to the
-young men of Kos, in honour of the great doctor Hippokrates; but even
-this only shows that all other states were excluded. Indeed,
-foreigners were not enrolled among the Athenian epheboi until a much
-later epoch, when the system was no longer military.
-
-What, then, was this “Foreign Legion”? M. Girard identifies it with
-the Mounted Archers, on the strength of a passage in Aristophanes’
-_Birds_. An unknown deity has invaded the territory of Cloud-Cuckoo
-town. Peisthetairos exclaims, “Why didn’t you despatch peripoloi after
-him at once?” To which the messenger replies, “We did send 30,000
-Mounted Archers.” The inscriptions at Eleusis also make a force of
-non-citizen troops serve under the captain of the peripoloi. These
-mercenary troops, having no civil duties, would naturally be used as a
-patrol. Moreover, to an Athenian, “archer” meant “policeman.” Athens
-was policed by foreign “Archers”: it would be natural for Attica to be
-policed in like manner, only by a mounted force, as a greater distance
-had to be covered.[636] But it is also possible that the non-Athenian
-peripoloi were the sons of μέτοικοι ἰσοτελεῖς [metoikoi isoteleis],
-who, being forced to serve as hoplites when grown up, would require
-some preliminary training; these alien hoplites are coupled by
-Thucydides[637] with the recruits and veterans, who garrisoned the
-Athenian walls and forts: they seem to have served as a perpetual
-patrol.
-
-The first three classes of Athenian citizens in wealth must all have
-passed through this training; for, although the two first were liable
-to cavalry service, they might also be called upon to serve as
-hoplites.[638] Rich young epheboi, who had plenty of time on their
-hands, would naturally learn both cavalry and infantry drill. The
-poorer Zeugitai would only have to learn their duties as heavy
-infantry, and were probably allowed to spend a good proportion of
-their time on their farms in Athens. But what about the fourth class,
-the Thetes? They were not liable to be called out as hoplites, but had
-to serve on land as light-armed troops or at sea as rowers. Did they
-also have a recruit course? Now the garrisons of the Athenian forts
-and walls were hoplites:[639] there is no trace of the Thetes here.
-But the patrol duties in the mountains can hardly have been performed
-by heavy troops: it is noticeable that in Xenophon light troops are
-suggested for this purpose, when Sokrates is developing an elaborate
-scheme for holding the frontiers of Attica against all invaders.[640]
-In the next century, at any rate, light troops were used for this
-purpose. In a later work Xenophon talks of “those who are ordered to
-occupy the forts and those who have to serve as peltasts and patrol
-the country,”[641] in a passage where he is clearly referring to the
-epheboi. Thus there are two classes, the garrisons, who would
-naturally be hoplites, and the patrols, who are peltasts, suitably
-equipped for mountaineering. But the peltasts only began to appear
-towards the close of the Peloponnesian War: the first mention of them
-is in Thucydides’ account of the army of Brasidas. Before this time,
-the light troops were archers and some slingers; thus, in the monument
-to those of the Erechtheid tribe who fell in the year 459, after the
-hoplites four archers are mentioned.[642] But they were a small force:
-there were only 1600 of them in 431 B.C. The majority of the Thetes
-served in the ships. In the _Birds_ of Aristophanes, which appeared in
-414, when it was a question of repelling a sudden raid, just after the
-peripoloi have been mentioned, Peisthetairos bids his immediate
-attendants arm themselves with slings and bows: these are clearly the
-weapons for a flying column despatched in pursuit of raiders.[643]
-
-The passage of Xenophon makes it clear that there were peltasts in the
-ephebic force in the fourth century; that of Aristophanes suggests the
-probability of archers and slingers among them in the fifth. But
-whether these light-armed troops consisted of enterprising Zeugitai
-who added this training to their hoplite drill, or were a small
-detachment of Thetes, cannot be fixed. Thetes must, at any rate, not
-have been numerous in the ephebic force, for they could not have
-spared the time necessary for such lengthy training.[644]
-
-As a rule, the epheboi were not expected to do more than guard the
-frontier and repel an occasional foray: even this, however, must have
-given them plenty of employment in war-time. But they shared in
-Muronides’ great victory in the Megarid in 458, when Athens had to use
-her reserves.[645] Either they or the “foreign legion” joined in a
-later invasion of Megara.[646] But as a rule they served for home
-defence only. Their recruit-course ended with their twentieth year:
-henceforth they were ordinary Athenian citizens and soldiers.
-
-In about 332 B.C., when Lukourgos delivered his speech against
-Leokrates, the old ephebic system seems still to have been in force.
-The suggestion that Leokrates might have evaded the ephebic oath is
-only rhetorical, for the orator immediately goes on to assume that he
-took it.[647] In 328, the probable date of Aristotle’s _Athenian
-Constitution_, it seems still to have been in existence, for the
-philosopher records it as part of the contemporary regime. The
-inscriptions support these authorities. A list of epheboi of the
-Kekropid tribe enrolled in 334 is given under the vote of thanks: the
-upper part of the list is gone, but the numbers were apparently
-large.[648] Some forty-four names can be inferred from the fragments,
-belonging to six or seven demes out of the twelve which composed the
-tribe; but apparently the smallest contingents are at the bottom, so
-there may well have been a hundred names in the tribe, and 1000
-epheboi altogether. Considering the impoverishment of Attica and the
-consequent decrease in the hoplite classes, this is probably a fair
-proportion of epheboi.[649] A tribal contingent is still large enough
-to serve as a garrison for Eleusis, and to act by itself.
-
-But in the next century the numbers drop down to twenty-nine and
-twenty-three. The service must have been voluntary. Moreover, brothers
-are found serving together, from which it may be inferred that the
-exact age qualification was no longer regarded.[650] Philosophy and
-literature become subjects of study; and a library, swollen by gifts
-from old epheboi, is collected. Foreigners begin to be enrolled in the
-second century, and in course of time outnumber the native Athenians.
-Although the old military service is preserved, no doubt in a
-mummified condition, the system of the epheboi develops into the
-Athenian university, where young Romans like Cicero’s son came to
-learn philosophy, though they had little to learn from Athens in
-military matters. The Sophronistai and Kosmetes become the Proctors
-and Chancellor, the special festivals the compulsory services, of the
-new University. The torch-races, the military duties, and the naval
-races[651] become its athletics. It is the old conscription system of
-Athens, not the schools of Plato or Isokrates, that gives birth to the
-first University.
-
-The system of epheboi was represented at Sparta by the κρυπτοί
-[kryptoi]. We hear of an archephebos at Argos, and a
-gumnasiarchos who manages the epheboi at Troizen.[652] In the
-Megarid and in Boiotia the epheboi were trained as cavalry,
-hoplites, or peltasts.[653] An ephebarchos can be traced in Teos.
-There were patrol-houses, and so possibly epheboi patrols in the
-territory of Syracuse.[654] This period of special training for
-military duties seems to have been general all over Hellas. Plato
-adopts it without demur in the _Republic_ and _Laws_.
-
-
-     [612] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42 for these
-     examinations.
-
-     [613] Luk. _ag. Leok._ 18. 76.
-
-     [614] Pollux, viii. 105-106, etc.
-
-     [615] κραίνοντες [krainontes]. Note the archaic word.
-
-     [616] Luk. _ag. Leok_. 18. 75.
-
-     [617] Plato, _Krit._ 51 D, E.
-
-     [618] Aischin. _ag. Timarch._ 18.
-
-     [619] I have already suggested that metrical versions may
-     have been taught at the music-schools.
-
-     [620] Plato, _Protag._ 326 D. Boys used to listen to cases
-     in the law-courts. This would give them some idea of legal
-     procedure. (Compare the custom at some English public
-     schools of letting the boys go to hear the local assizes.)
-     Demosthenes thus went with his paidagogos to hear the trial
-     of Kallistratos.
-
-     [621] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42. 2.
-
-     [622] _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 1571 B.
-
-     [623] _C.I.A._ II. 316.
-
-     [624] e.g. _C.I.A._ ii. 316. 338.
-
-     [625] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42. 3.
-
-     [626] [Plato] _Axiochos_, 367 A.
-
-     [627] Schol. on Aristoph. _Birds_, 794.
-
-     [628] Xen. _Revenues_, iv. 52.
-
-     [629] Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. [Ath. Pol.] 42. 4.
-
-     [630] Thuc. ii. 46.
-
-     [631] Lucias, x. 1, and Aristophanes anent Kleonumos,
-     _passim_.
-
-     [632] Properly speaking, it was only during his second year
-     that the ephebos was a peripolos or patrol. Aischines,
-     however, claims to have served two years as a peripolos. The
-     term may have been used loosely, or else in times of crisis
-     the epheboi may have been hurried off to the frontier as
-     soon as they were enrolled.
-
-     [633] _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 574 D, and 563 B.
-
-     [634] Thuc. viii. 92.
-
-     [635] Lusias, xiii. 71.
-
-     [636] The force may also have included citizens, for the
-     younger Alkibiades once served in it (Lus. xv. 6). But that
-     was a special occasion, when the ordinary cavalry had
-     refused to receive him.
-
-     [637] Thuc. ii. 13. 6-7.
-
-     [638] Lus. xvi. 13, xiv. 10.
-
-     [639] Thuc. ii. 13. 6-7.
-
-     [640] Xen. _Mem._ iii. 5. 27.
-
-     [641] Xen. _Revenues_, iv. 52.
-
-     [642] _C.I.A._ I. 143. Cp. _C.I.A._ I. 79 for
-     citizen-archers.
-
-     [643] It is noticeable that in Aristotle’s time the epheboi
-     were taught by a “Teacher of Archery.” He may be a survival.
-
-     [644] In Boiotia and the Megarid the epheboi served as
-     cavalry, hoplites, or peltasts (_C.I.G._ Boiot. and Meg.
-     2715, 2717-21, 1747-48, etc.).
-
-     [645] Thuc. i. 105.
-
-     [646] _Ibid._ iv. 67.
-
-     [647] Luk. _ag. Leok._ 76.
-
-     [648] _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 563 b.
-
-     [649] In 431 B.C. Athens had 13,000 hoplites of between
-     twenty and forty years of age. On this average there would
-     be perhaps about 1000 epheboi per year, or 2000
-     altogether――the same number as here. The 16,000 of the
-     reserve in 431 includes veterans and metics as well as
-     epheboi.
-
-     [650] The changes seem to have happened shortly before 305,
-     for in an inscription of that year the numbers have dropped
-     greatly and brothers serve together.
-
-     [651] _C.I.A._ ii. 466, 470.
-
-     [652] _C.I.G._ Pelop. 589, 749, 753.
-
-     [653] See note 2 on p. 218.
-
-     [654] Thuc. vi. 45, vii. 48.
-
-
-
-
-THE EPHEBIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY
-
-(Dealing with Attica only)
-
-
-I. _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 574 d.
-
-“The epheboi of the Hippothontid tribe, who were enrolled when
-Ktesikles was Archon (334-333 B.C.), having been crowned by the Boule
-and Demos, offered this offering.”
-
-Then follows a mutilated vote of thanks from the people of Eleusis to
-the epheboi for the discipline which they had preserved while
-garrisoning the town, and to their Sophronistes, who is to receive a
-crown, and to have a front seat at local festivals.
-
-
-II. _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 563 b.
-
-Decrees in honour of the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe.
-
-(_a_) By the Kekropid tribe.
-
-“Kallikrates of Aixoné proposed. Whereas the epheboi of the Kekropid
-tribe, who were enrolled when Ktesikles was Archon (334-333 B.C.), are
-orderly and do everything that the laws enjoin upon them, and are
-obedient to the Sophronistes appointed by the people, we pass a vote
-of thanks to them and crown them with a golden crown of 500 drachmas
-for their excellent discipline and behaviour. We also pass a vote of
-thanks to the Sophronistes, Adeistos, son of Antimachos, and award him
-a golden crown of the aforesaid weight, for that he hath well and
-diligently directed the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe. This vote to be
-recorded on a stone pillar and set up in the shrine of Kekrops.”
-
-(_b_) Vote of the Athenian people.
-
-“Hegemachos, son of Chairemon, proposed. Whereas the epheboi of the
-Kekropid tribe stationed at Eleusis do well and diligently pay heed to
-the orders of the Boule and Demos, and do behave themselves orderly,
-we pass a vote of thanks to them for their good discipline and
-behaviour, and enact that each of them be crowned with an olive crown.
-We also pass a vote of thanks to their Sophronistes, Adeistos, son of
-Antimachos, and decree to him a crown of olive, when he has passed his
-scrutiny. This vote to be recorded on the offering which the epheboi
-of the Kekropid tribe offer.”
-
-(_c_) Vote of Eleusinians.
-
-“Protias proposed. Whereas the epheboi of the Kekropid tribe and their
-Sophronistes, Adeistos, son of Antimachos, do well and diligently
-garrison Eleusis, the people of the deme pass a vote of thanks to them
-and crown each of them with a crown of olive.”
-
-The vote to be recorded as before.
-
-(_d_) Similar vote of the Athmonian deme in honour of their
-fellow-demesman, Adeistos.
-
-With this is a list of the epheboi in question, much mutilated.
-
-
-III. _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 1571 b.
-
-“Theophanes, son of Hierophon, offered this to Hermes, having been
-crowned by the epheboi and Sophronistai and Kosmetai.”
-
-This is signed by the epheboi for the years 333-332, 332-331, and
-331-330.
-
-
-IV. _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 251 b.
-
-A vote of thanks from the Boule and Demos to the epheboi as a whole
-for their exemplary behaviour, and to their Kosmetes and Sophronistai
-and teachers. A mutilated list of epheboi follows. This belongs to the
-year 305-304 B.C.
-
-
-V. _C.I.A._ IV. ii. 565 b.
-
-A vote of thanks of the Pandionid tribe to Philonides, who had been
-elected by the people Sophronistes of their epheboi, and had performed
-his duty well.
-
-
-VI. Böckh, 214 (belonging to 320 B.C.).
-
-(Dug up at Aixoné.)
-
-An extract:――“We pass a vote of thanks to the Sophronistai and crown
-each of them with a crown of olive, namely, Kimon, son of Megakles,
-and Puthodoros, son of Putheas … for the zeal they showed in regard to
-the all-night revel.”
-
-The epheboi took part in a sacrifice and revel in honour of Hebe.
-Apparently, as a rule, they were noisy and gave trouble to the
-inhabitants of the neighbourhood. But this year they were kept in
-order by the Sophronistai. Hence the vote.
-
-
-
-
-PART II
-
-THE THEORY OF EDUCATION
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN HELLAS
-
-
-The greater part of the religious instruction in Hellas was given
-outside the schools, in the home and in public life. The child learnt
-the current ritual observances proper to each particular deity or
-occasion by participating in them himself. His religious devotion was
-practised and stimulated by the festivals and sacred songs and dances
-which made up so large a part of Hellenic life. In a religion like the
-Hellenic, which was so largely a matter of forms and ceremonies, there
-was little dogma to be learnt by children; no catechism, no sectarian
-teaching was necessary. Such dogma as there was consisted in the myths
-which were current about the various deities and heroes; and of these
-myths there were so many varieties that heterodoxy about them became
-almost impossible.
-
-Such as it was, this dogma, consisting of manifold and often
-contradictory myths, was enshrined in the poetry of the race, so that
-most of the poems became sacred books, regarded by the orthodox as
-inspired. This sacred literature, as we have seen, was the chief
-object of study in the primary schools at Athens, where it was read,
-written, and learnt by heart. At Sparta almost the whole of literary
-and intellectual education consisted of sacred songs in honour of gods
-and heroes. The myths were the very essence of primary education in
-Hellas.
-
-In order to understand the attitude of the educational theorists
-towards these myths which run through most of the Hellenic poetry, it
-is necessary to realise the extraordinary authority which was given to
-the poets, and especially to Homer and Hesiod. Every word of them was
-regarded as inspired and strictly true: their authority was
-indisputable. At the beginning of the sixth century an interpolated
-line in the _Iliad_ was made the main support of the Athenian claim to
-the Island of Salamis. Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, according to the
-current legend, was refused the command of the Hellenic forces against
-Persia because, as the Spartan envoy put it, Agamemnon would groan if
-he heard of such a thing, and because Homer had said that an Athenian
-was the best man at drawing up and marshalling a host, for which cause
-the Athenians now claimed the command.[655] That such arguments could
-be employed shows in what veneration Homer was held. He was considered
-to be especially inspired.[656] His admirers asserted that he had
-educated Hellas, and that his works provided fit instruction for the
-whole conduct of life.[657] More specifically, it was said that “The
-divine Homer won his glory and renown from this, that he taught good
-things, drill, valour and the arming of troops.”[658] He was misquoted
-to support peculiar views, as in Plato.[659] People had their
-favourite texts: Sokrates’ was “In due proportion to thy means pay
-honour to the gods.” It was a not unheard-of accomplishment to know
-the whole _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ by heart. Moral lessons were drawn
-from them. Thus the story of Kirké was a warning against
-self-indulgence. Kirké made the companions of Odusseus swine through
-their over-indulgence in the pleasures of the table; Odusseus himself,
-by Hermes’ advice and his own self-restraint in such matters, escaped
-this fate.[660]
-
-In time, however, the higher morality of the leading Hellenic thinkers
-revolted against the low morality, to say nothing more, of much of the
-mythology embodied in the poets. Xenophanes began the attack. “Homer
-and Hesiod,” he cries, “ascribed to the gods all that is considered
-disgraceful among men.” Herakleitos declared that Homer deserved a
-thrashing. Even the pious Pindar tried to alter some of the myths to
-suit his own morality, and Aeschylus fights hard for an underlying
-monotheism. In the next generation the storm broke: awakening
-intelligence, fostered by the Sophists and the philosophers, shrank
-away from the horrors of the _Theogony_. Tragedy, by bringing
-mythology before the eyes, had made its impossibility more apparent.
-The researches of the earlier historians in comparative mythology had
-undermined the bases of belief. Herodotos had found that a god named
-Herakles had been recognised in Egypt 17,000 years before his time;
-consequently the Hellenic Herakles, only six centuries before the
-historian’s age, must be only a man of the same name.[661] Rationalism
-began to master the mythology: Thucydides tried to apply scientific
-methods to the Trojan War, making, for example, its duration due to
-the difficulty of obtaining supplies for so large a force. The
-rationalism of Euripides is well known. Metrodoros, a pupil of
-Anaxagoras, made the gods natural forces and varieties of matter――a
-device already employed by Empedokles for poetical convenience. In
-this way Sokrates rationalises the Boreas-myth in the _Phaidros_,[662]
-where Plato states that the wise disbelieve such tales; but Sokrates
-was too busy studying his own personality to raise all these numerous
-questions, so he accepts the customary belief. The defenders of Homer,
-led by Metrodoros and Stesimbrotos,[663] tried to allegorise him,
-declaring that the worst myths had a moral meaning in the background.
-The allegories were often ludicrous: Plato rejects them wholly for
-educational purposes, as children always take the literal
-interpretation.
-
-But public opinion was still fiercely attached to the old deities, as
-the incident of the Hermai and the condemnation of Anaxagoras,
-Protagoras, and Sokrates showed. The deities could not be sacrificed:
-consequently it was the myths that had to go. The myths said that Zeus
-dethroned his own father and committed adultery: if the myth is true,
-since Zeus is Supreme God, these crimes are justifiable.[664]
-Therefore the myth must be untrue. Homer and Hesiod lied: their works
-are mainly a blasphemous fiction.[665] Isokrates[666] sums up this new
-attitude. “The poets,” he declares, “blasphemously represented the
-sons of the Immortals as having done and suffered worse deeds than the
-most impious of men: they spoke such things about the gods as no one
-would venture to allege of his worst enemy; not only do they make them
-steal, commit adultery, and fall into slavery to mortals, but even
-represent them as eating their children, mutilating their fathers, and
-binding their mothers in chains.… For this the poets did not go
-unpunished, but some of them were wanderers and begged their bread,
-some became blind, another was an exile all his life long, and
-Orpheus, who devoted himself especially to such stories, was torn in
-pieces.”[667]
-
-The greatest objection to these immoral legends was that they were
-taught in the nursery and the elementary school, at the most
-impressionable age.[668] Hence Plato wishes to lay down strict canons
-for the myths, legends, and fables which are to be taught to children.
-“For the beginning of everything is half the battle, especially in the
-case of what is young and tender. Young children are like soft wax,
-ready to take a clear and deep impression of any seal which is laid
-upon them. Hence the immense importance of the earliest stages of
-education, the myths and stories taught in the nursery and at school.…
-The compositions of Homer and Hesiod are fiction, and unlovely fiction
-at that; even if true, they had better not be told to the young and
-undiscerning.… The myths must be improving on the surface, not by
-allegory.”[669]
-
-Plato is not prepared to rewrite the Hellenic Bible: he will only draw
-up the canons which the poets must follow. It is to be noticed that
-these canons are peculiar, and would exclude not merely most of Homer
-and Hesiod, but a large part of the Old and some of the New Testament.
-The first canon is that God, being good, cannot be the cause or
-originator of any harm or evil to mankind; for these things some other
-cause must be discovered. The greater part of the human lot is evil:
-so God is not the cause of the majority of human events.
-
-This excludes Homer’s lines:
-
-  Two butts of human fortunes by the gates of Heaven stood,
-  One full of all things evil, and one of all things good.
-  To whom God gives a mixture, his life is weal and woe,
-  But to whom He gives of the evil alone, he lives as a beggar below.
-
-And
-
-  Zeus is the world’s housekeeper, who serves out weal and woe.
-
-And Aeschylus’
-
-  God plants the seed of sin among mankind,
-  Whene’er He wills to bring a race to naught.
-
-If God is represented as the cause of misfortunes, the poet must say
-that the misfortunes were good for the sufferers, making them better
-and happier.[670]
-
-The second canon is that God is not a wizard, appearing now in one
-form, now in another. Why should He change? External forces are not
-likely to change Him: He would not change Himself, since it would
-necessarily be a transition to the less good and less beautiful, since
-He is perfect. So the lines――
-
-  Disguised as human strangers, in many a changing guise,
-  Gods roam about the cities, to spy iniquities,
-
-and the tales of Proteus and other metamorphoses, are false.
-Consequently mothers should not tell their children that a god may
-always be present in disguise, for it is a lie and is also likely to
-make the children cowardly. Lying is only useful in dealing with
-enemies, for managing lunatics, and for making a satisfactory
-explanation where certainty is impossible. God has no such reason for
-lying or deception.
-
-The character of the Deity having been thus purged of mythological
-accretions, Plato passes on to the treatment of the future state. This
-must not be described as in any way terrible, or the children will
-learn to prefer dishonourable life to honourable death. So reject――
-
-  O better be a poor man’s serf, and share his scanty bread,
-  Than be the crownèd king of all the nations of the dead.
-
-And
-
-  From him his soul bewailing her hapless fortunes fled,
-  Her youth and beauty leaving, to the kingdoms of the dead!
-
-All such passages must be expurgated from school editions; nor is it
-right to admit the fearful scenery of Hell, the rivers of Hate (Styx)
-and Wailing (Kokutos), ghosts, banshees, and other terrible words, for
-fear of making the children nervous.
-
-Then comes the discussion of the ideal man, in which Achilles falls
-from the pedestal which he had previously occupied as the ideal of
-Hellenic manhood. Great men must not indulge in immoderate
-lamentations for their dead friends. The lament of Achilles for
-Patroklos and of Priam for Hektor, when he rolled in the dust and the
-dungheap, must be rejected. “For if the young should take such stories
-seriously and not laugh them to scorn as contemptibly improbable, they
-would be most unlikely to consider such lamentations degrading, or to
-check themselves when they felt any impulse to act in such a way, but,
-without shame or restraint, they would whine out many dirges over tiny
-misfortunes.”[671]
-
-Nor must the heroes be made too fond of laughing. For immoderate
-laughter leads by reaction to immoderate grief. So reject――
-
-  Then rose among the blessed gods a laugh unquenchable.
-
-The myths must instil self-control, obedience to rulers and elders and
-to the better instincts. This leads Plato to expurgate――
-
-  Thou drunkard, shameless as a dog, and fearful as a deer:
-
-but commend――
-
-  Good father, sit in silence, and hearken to what I say.
-
-Then Homer teaches gluttony, by making Odusseus, the wisest of men,
-say――
-
-  Best thing in life I count it, a heavy-laden board, While in the
-  goblets ceaselessly the good strong wine is poured.
-
-Still worse are the tales of the lusts of Zeus or of Ares and
-Aphrodite, and of the covetousness of the gods.
-
-  Gifts win the heart of gods: gifts win the heart of kings.
-
-Nor must the heroes be allowed to blaspheme. “My respect for Homer
-makes me shrink from saying it, but it is impious to state or to
-believe that Achilles was ready to fight against the river, a god, or
-that he dragged Hektor’s body round Patroklos’ tomb or slaughtered
-captives upon it, or that he gave to the dead Patroklos the hair which
-he had dedicated to the river god Spercheios.”[672] Nor must poets say
-that wicked men are enviable, if they are not found out, or that
-justice does good to others but is a loss to oneself. On the contrary,
-they must invent myths to establish the opposite, whether it be true
-or not, because it is profitable.
-
-Plato cares very little for literal truth in mythology; he is only
-desirous that the fiction should be improving and in accordance with
-sound ethics. It is impossible to know the truth, he thinks, about
-things primeval and the gods, so it is necessary to invent stories as
-near the truth as possible and such that they will be improving. The
-majority of men, as Isokrates also noticed, prefer myths to anything
-else; for their intelligence can only grasp ethical and metaphysical
-truths when they are embodied in stories and parables and fables.[673]
-These fictions, however, are like powerful drugs: their concoction
-must only be entrusted to competent hands, or the result will be
-deadly. The rulers of the State, the philosophers, must construct the
-national mythology, not unskilled and irresponsible persons like
-poets.[674] Plato himself gives a good many instances of such
-profitable myths; he enshrines in them, as in a popular form, many of
-his deepest beliefs, his psychology,[675] his views of the immortality
-of the soul,[676] his political theory that all men are not
-equal.[677] In his opinion mythology was the proper food for the
-unenlightened many who were incapable of philosophic certainty; the
-philosopher, by the light of his exact knowledge of ethics and
-metaphysics, was to concoct this food.
-
-In pursuance of this theory an ideal character, in history or fiction,
-was required to personify and make real to the multitude the
-disembodied ideals of Ethics.[678] Achilles had been tumbled from his
-pedestal by philosophy. Who was to replace him? Plato tries to put an
-idealised Sokrates in this position, but he could not square the
-historical personality with the ideal man postulated in the
-_Republic_. Xenophon, also thinking that a pattern man is “an
-excellent invention for the study of morality,” proposes
-Agesilaos.[679] Prodikos tried to make Herakles the model of the
-young. Aristotle formulated the μεγαλόψυχος [megalopsychos], but never
-personified him. Stoicism sought for its Wise Man or Perfect Saint,
-but never found him; Epicureanism was satisfied with its founder. But
-the search for the personification of the ethical ideal becomes the
-central feature of Hellenic philosophy and religion from the time of
-Plato onwards.
-
-
-     [655] Herod. vii. 159-161.
-
-     [656] Plato, _Ion_, 24 C.
-
-     [657] _Rep._ 606 E. So in Isokrates, _To Nikokles_, 530 B.
-
-     [658] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 1034-1036.
-
-     [659] Plato, _Rep._ 391 B.
-
-     [660] Sokrates in Xenophon, _Mem._ i. 3, 7. The moralisation
-     is quite un-Homeric.
-
-     [661] Herod, ii. 43-46. This tendency culminated in
-     Euhemeros, at the end of the fourth century, who claimed to
-     have found inscriptions in Crete giving the careers of
-     mortal kings named Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus. He argued that
-     the gods were distinguished men, deified by admiring
-     posterity. His theory passed to Rome in Ennius’ translation
-     and supported the imperial cult.
-
-     [662] Plato, _Phaidr._ 229 C.
-
-     [663] Plato, _Ion_, 530. Cp. Xen. _Banquet_, iii. 6, where
-     Anaximandros is mentioned.
-
-     [664] Cp. Aristoph. _Clouds_, 905, 1080, representing
-     “Sophist” arguments.
-
-     [665] Plato, _Rep._ 377 D.
-
-     [666] Isok. _Bous._ 228 D.
-
-     [667] Cp. the statement of Herodotos (ii. 53) that Homer and
-     Hesiod created the details of Hellenic mythology, even the
-     names and functions of the deities.
-
-     [668] Plato, _Rep._ 377 B.
-
-     [669] _Ibid._ 378.
-
-     [670] Plato, _Rep._ 380.
-
-     [671] Plato, _Rep._ 388 D.
-
-     [672] _Ibid._ 391 B. Plato maligns Achilles. He only
-     promised the hair to Spercheios on condition that he
-     returned home alive, which he knew he would not do if he
-     slew Hektor.
-
-     [673] Compare Tennyson, _In Memoriam_, xxxvi.:
-
-       For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers,
-           Where truth in closest words shall fail,
-           When truth embodied in a tale
-       Shall enter in at lowly doors.
-
-     [674] Plato, _Rep._ 389 C.
-
-     [675] In the _Phaidros_.
-
-     [676] In the _Republic_, and elsewhere.
-
-     [677] _Rep._ 414-417, etc. For the use which Plato made of
-     myths as popular expositions of his views, cp. _Laws_, 663,
-     664, 713, 714, 716.
-
-     [678] Isokrates recognised this too, _Antid._ 105 C.
-
-     [679] Xen. _Ag._ x. 2.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-ART, MUSIC, AND POETRY
-
-
-Since poetry, music, singing, and dancing were the chief components of
-a Hellenic boy’s education, the æsthetic canons by which these were
-regulated came to be of great importance in the moral history of
-Hellas, and were the objects of much thought and inquiry on the part
-of the educational theorists. It is hard for a modern reader to
-understand the attitude which Plato and Aristotle adopt towards
-poetry, art, and music, partly owing to the way in which these
-subjects are neglected in many modern schools, and still more owing to
-the immense changes which have taken place both in the subjects
-themselves and in their relations to the State as a whole.
-
-In ancient Hellas art, literature, and music were addressed to the
-whole citizen-body, not to a cultured upper class. The epics were
-recited to crowds that might number thousands. The choral lyrics were
-danced and sung by large choruses in the presence of a whole city.
-Tragedy and Comedy were acted before the whole Athenian populace,
-swollen by crowds from every part of Hellas. The great orations were
-spoken either to the national assembly, where every grown man might be
-present, or to a jury of several hundred citizens. So with Hellenic
-art. The statues and pictures were not created for private
-drawing-rooms, but for public temples, colonnades, or gymnasia.
-
-Thus it was national, not individual taste which was the standard of
-Hellenic art and literature: they had to follow the taste of the city,
-not of a clique. But every city in Hellas, as in the Italy of the
-Renaissance, had an intense individuality of its own, which dominated
-its poets, artists, and musicians. The art-schools of the islands, of
-Argos, of Athens were as distinct from one another as those of Venice,
-Florence, Perugia. The greater centres had types of music so far
-distinct that they required different instruments. Language,
-character, and politics in like manner presented a different aspect in
-each community. But underneath this ubiquitous local individuality lay
-the fundamental distinction between the Dorian, on the one hand, and
-the Ionian, with whom for æsthetic purposes may be classed the
-Aeolian, on the other. For Hellenism began to run its course in two
-distinct channels, the Doric and the Ionic.[680]
-
-The Doric characteristics were the sacrifice of the detail and the
-individual to the whole and the community, a love of terseness and
-simplicity, a strong sense of harmony, order, and proportion, a hatred
-of complexity, mystery, vagueness, and luxury, and a preference for
-the perfect body over the developed intellect. The Dorians were
-essentially one-sided, and lacking in imagination, intellect, and
-invention; they were strong conservatives, and any innovation was
-repugnant to them.
-
-The Ionians were a very different people. Individualism was strong in
-them from the first. They had a tendency to floridity, to exaggeration
-of detail, and to luxury. A quick-witted and imaginative race, they
-were fond of perpetual innovation. Versatility was characteristic of
-them. They preferred intellectual to physical success. Their
-imagination outran their powers of execution. They had none of the
-solidity of the less brilliant Dorian, none of his discipline,
-self-restraint, directness, or perseverance. They were his inferiors
-in most physical and ethical qualities, his superiors in all
-intellectual pursuits.
-
-Till the fifth century the two conflicting types exercise little
-influence upon one another. The Ionians produce a sensuous, dreamy,
-refined, and imaginative sculpture; the Dorians a series of physically
-excellent but wholly unintellectual athlete-statues. The Aeolians
-produce the personal lyrics of love and wine; the Dorians the choral
-poetry of athletic triumphs and gymnastic dances. The Dorians can
-claim the ethical and collectivist philosophy of Pythagoras; the
-Ionians the intellectual and individualist philosophy of the so-called
-Ionian schools.
-
-Athens during this period was purely Ionic, as her statues, the
-remains of which are now being recovered from the rubbish heaps where
-Xerxes threw them, abundantly testify. Further evidence comes from the
-style of dress shown in these statues and in other works of art of the
-period: it is almost oriental.[681] The statues reveal an excess of
-detail and over-refinement: the most common type was a draped woman.
-The Dorians, on the other hand, were most successful in the nude male
-type; and the great Aeginetan school quite failed to represent the
-goddess Athena.
-
-The same principle of differentiation applied to music as well as to
-art, in Hellas: the Dorian, the Ionian, the Aeolian, as well as the
-neighbouring Phrygian and Lydian, each produced a type of their own,
-or “harmony,” as it was called. Each “harmony” bore the mark of the
-“ethos,” or moral character, of the tribe or race which produced it,
-plainly and unmistakably. Music in early Hellas must have been of a
-primitive type, and an acute musical ear had not yet been developed by
-long training. Consequently, the average Hellenic audience was in the
-position of the utterly unmusical man of modern times: the complicated
-music of modern masters would have been wholly unintelligible to them,
-and the only meanings which they could extract from music were certain
-broad ethical impressions. The unmusical man is stirred by a good
-marching tune, moved to a certain depression by a dirge or dead march,
-enlivened and excited by a rollicking bacchanalian song, and reduced
-to a solemn and half-religious frame of mind by the tones of a great
-organ. So with the average Hellene: he extracted this amount of
-impressions from his music, and no more. Any idea of music as the
-voice of the unutterable was quite foreign to his mind; in fact, he
-disliked any music that was unaccompanied by singing: tunes without
-words were unknown in earlier Hellas.
-
-How these different harmonies were produced, by what combination of
-notes and scales each was regulated, may be left to the specialists:
-it is one of those questions which will probably never be settled
-conclusively. The fact remains that they existed, each with an
-unmistakable moral characteristic of its own. But what exactly the
-moral characteristic of each was, is rendered doubtful by the
-conflicting evidence of different writers; probably, as musical taste
-changed and developed, the same “harmony” came to cause a different
-impression. Plato’s ear, accustomed to the prevalent Dorian, found the
-Lydian doleful and depressing; Aristotle and his contemporaries, more
-used to softer music, praised it as valuable for educational
-purposes.[682] Herakleides of Pontos,[683] who made a special study of
-music, gives, in a fragment, a sketch of the old Hellenic “harmonies.”
-The Dorian, according to him, was manly, dignified, stern, and robust,
-not effeminate nor merry nor variegated nor versatile.[684] The
-Aeolic, afterwards called “Hypo-Dorian,” was haughty and pretentious,
-rather conceited, not, however, base in any way, but inflated and
-confident. It was the right music for “woman, wine, and song.” The
-Ionic, representing the old Ionic character before the race
-degenerated, was passionate, headstrong, contentious, showing no signs
-of benevolence or merriment, but revealing a certain hardness of heart
-and temperament. It was not florid nor cheerful, but austere and
-harsh, with a not ignoble dignity which fitted it to accompany
-Tragedy. Later, the race and the “harmony” seem to have degenerated,
-and are charged with being luxurious and effeminate. There used also
-to be a Locrian “harmony,” which was used by Pindar and Simonides, but
-afterwards it fell into contempt and died out.
-
-Besides these purely Hellenic types, there were two which came from
-barbarian races, the Lydian and the Phrygian. Of the Lydian there were
-several varieties. The Mixed-Lydian was doleful and suitable to
-dirges: it made the audience feel mournful and grave. The
-Syntono-Lydian was very similar. The pure Lydian is rejected as
-effeminate by Plato;[685] but Aristotle, resting on the musical
-experts, declares that it involves order and arrangement (κόσμος
-[kosmos]) and is well adapted for education. About the Phrygian
-opinion is still more divided. Plato commends it. According to him it
-suitably represents the notes and accents of a self-controlled man “in
-peaceful and unconstrained circumstances, trying to persuade some one
-or making a request, praying to a god or advising a man, or giving his
-attention to the request or advice or arguments of some one else; and
-if he attains his object, not puffed up, but in all things acting, and
-accepting the consequences of his actions, with moderation and
-self-control.” The philosopher then goes on to reject the flute, as
-suitable only to hysterical enthusiasm. But this, as Aristotle pointed
-out, was inconsistent. For the Phrygian harmony and the flute went
-hand in hand: the wild orgies of Dionusos and other worships of an
-enthusiastic nature were usually accompanied by the flute and could
-only be set to the Phrygian harmony. The dithyramb, for instance,
-could only be set in this way; when Philoxenos definitely tried to
-write one to the Dorian, he slid back without being able to prevent it
-into the Phrygian. Aristotle therefore, accounting it an enthusiastic
-harmony, reserves it as a “purge” (κάθαρσις [katharsis]), which, by
-providing under well-regulated conditions an occasional outlet for
-hysteria, will work such affections out of the system for a long
-period: at the end of which another dose will be required.[686]
-
-In Hellas music was held to be an efficacious medicine for the ills
-alike of body, soul, and mind. Even the grave and learned philosopher
-Theophrastos, the pupil of Aristotle, asserted that the Phrygian
-“harmony” on the flute was the proper means of curing lumbago.[687]
-Pindar states that Apollo “gives to men and women cures for grievous
-sickness, and invented the harp, and gives the Muse to whom he will,
-bringing warless peace into the heart”:[688] the god of medicine is
-the son of the god of the harp. The Pythagorean philosopher Kleinias,
-when he was in a bad temper, used to take up his harp, saying, “I am
-calming myself.”[689] He and his school regarded the harp as the true
-means of attaining that peace and solemn orderliness of soul which as
-true Dorian musicians they desired. Lukourgos produced at Sparta the
-state of mind necessary to enable his reforms to be carried, by
-sending from Crete a lyric poet named Thales, whose songs, by their
-calm and orderly tune and rhythm, were an incentive to discipline and
-concord: by this means the Spartans were imperceptibly calmed in
-character.[690] The Arcadians, according to their compatriot Polubios,
-from ancient times onwards “made music their foster-brother” from
-their cradles till they were thirty years of age, in order to
-counteract the brutalising tendencies of their rough life and harsh
-climate; and the inhabitants of one district, Kunaitha, which
-neglected this preventive, were notorious for their wickedness.[691]
-
-Thus music came to be regarded as the best means of forming character.
-It was only necessary to apply the right sort of “harmony” to the
-young and susceptible personality, and the right “ethos” would be
-produced. The Dorian was most in request for educational purposes: its
-merits were universally recognised. For it “suitably represented the
-notes and accents of a brave man in the presence of war or of any
-other violent action, going to meet wounds or death or fallen into any
-other misfortune, facing his fate with unflinching resolution.”[692]
-Of the others, as has been said, Plato preferred the Phrygian and
-Aristotle the Lydian.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Not only beautiful music, but beautiful art also, was believed to
-produce, by an unconscious but irresistible influence, beautiful
-characters in those who came into contact with it; while, on the other
-hand, bad art, as well as bad music, was the cause of vice and low
-moral ideals.[693] This, they naturally thought, was particularly true
-in the case of children, who are so sensitive to all external
-influences; moreover, it is the early impressions that make most
-difference in a man’s life. To serve this educational end, the
-Hellenes expected every statue and painting, as well as every poem and
-tune, to have ἦθος [êthos], that is, according to Aristotle’s
-definition,[694] to be such that its moral purpose was manifest to the
-average man. For this purpose Hellenic art had to become impersonal:
-the great statues represent a single trait of character. The smaller
-individualising traits are omitted: the single trait chosen is then
-idealised and carried to its utmost possible development. This
-produced a single and easily intelligible effect. The frieze on the
-Parthenon represented the perfect knight in various attitudes, not
-So-and-so and Somebody-else. The same idealised abstractions can be
-traced in the “Theseus” of the Pediment, and in most of the dramas of
-Sophocles.
-
-The realisation of this artistic ideal was made possible by the fusion
-of the two currents, Doric and Ionic. At the end of the sixth century
-a wave of Doricism passes over Athens, and the first competent
-athlete-sculptors arise there. A second wave came in the middle of the
-next century, in the period of Perikles. The Dorian characteristics
-now dominate Attic artists alike in poetry, sculpture, and
-vase-painting. Aeschylus had possessed the best traits of the Ionic
-temperament, chastened by the great crisis of the Persian wars: his
-imagination is half oriental, and he has often been compared to a
-Hebrew prophet. But the canons of Sophocles are purely Doric, as are
-those of Pheidias. The mixture of Doric ethics with Ionic imagination
-produces the great age of Hellenic art and literature. With art in
-such an educative condition, the effect of the great public buildings
-and temples, which adorned even quite humble villages, and of the
-glorious statues of which every temple, agora, and gymnasium formed a
-perfect treasure-house, must have been very great upon the Hellenes,
-who were probably the most susceptible of all peoples to artistic
-influences. Moderns vaguely realise that a great Gothic Cathedral does
-direct the emotions quite perceptibly. The more susceptible Athenians
-must have been much more strongly influenced by the Parthenon and the
-Propulaia. In fact, it is related that Epaminondas declared that his
-countrymen could never become great unless they removed these
-buildings bodily to Thebes. Strangers visiting Athens were so overcome
-by her architectural glories that they thought her the natural capital
-of the world――an effect which Perikles may well have intended. Great
-works of art produce great effects: it is not unnatural to suppose
-that smaller works produce a not inconsiderable, if smaller, effect.
-Modern theorists often declare that the pictures and wall-paper of the
-nursery ought to be in the best taste. Plato and Aristotle ruled that
-everything, however humble, which surrounds the growing child should
-be in accordance with the best canons of art, since art influenced
-morality so strongly. “Ought we not to keep an eye,” says Plato,[695]
-“on the craftsmen also, and prevent them from representing moral evil
-or disorderliness or bad taste or lack of grace or lack of harmony
-either in their imitations of animals or in their buildings or in any
-other object of their craft? If they are unable to carry out our
-directions in this matter, ought we not to expel them from the
-community, lest boys who are brought up in the bad pasture of these
-bad representations may pluck poison daily from everything around
-them, and little by little insensibly accumulate a large amount of
-evil in their souls? Must we not rather search for such craftsmen as
-are able, by their native genius, to discover what is beautiful and
-graceful? For in this way our children, dwelling in a region of
-health, will be influenced for good by every sound and every sight of
-these works of beauty, inhaling as it were a healthy breeze that blows
-to them from a goodly land.” Every article of furniture, every detail
-of architecture, is to take its part in educating the citizens. But if
-art and music are so potent a factor in education, they require to be
-carefully regulated: a depravation of popular taste, which will cause
-a depravation of the dependent artists, will by its educating
-influence increase the national decadence both of taste and of morals,
-in an ever-widening degree.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Poetry had at least an equally potent influence upon contemporary
-ethics. The works of the great poets were the chief medium of
-education, and large quantities of them were learned by heart in all
-the elementary schools.[696] What the boys learned, they then recited,
-with as much dramatic action as they were capable of: the rhapsodes
-provided them with models. Thus the boys really _acted_ the poets as
-far as they could. Acting was a new thing in Hellas in Solon’s time,
-and it was received with apprehension. When Thespis first acted one of
-his plays, Solon asked him if he was not ashamed to tell such lies in
-public, making himself out to be what he was not. Thespis replied that
-it was only in fun. Then Solon struck the ground with his stick and
-said, “We shall soon find this fun of yours invading our commercial
-transactions.” Later, when Peisistratos obtained the bodyguard, to
-which he owed his tyranny, by pretending to have been wounded by his
-enemies, Solon said the stratagem was a case of acting.[697] This
-objection was echoed by Plato, and is not wholly unjustified by the
-course of history. For the great vice of Hellenic life was its
-insincerity: it is impossible to tell how far a Hellene is in earnest.
-It is this vice which ruins their oratory; it is this which, in later
-times, made the “hungry little Greek” the type of a fawning liar in
-Roman opinion. It was not only in recitations that acting played a
-great part. The dances were essentially dramatic: it was this quality
-which enabled them to give birth to the drama. In the war-dance all
-the gestures and attitudes of attack and defence in actual battle were
-represented. The Dionysiac dances were originally the acts of devotees
-trying to assimilate themselves to the god in his sufferings and
-triumphs.
-
-How vividly a Hellene entered into the dramatisation may be seen from
-the case of the rhapsode Ion. When he recited Homer, his eyes filled
-with water and his hair stood on end; and his audience were in much
-the same condition. The effect in the “Mimetic” dances, where music,
-gestures, rhythm, and poetry all combined to produce a single
-impression, must have been greater still; the audience, as well as the
-performers, must often have been quite carried away. Such performances
-were very frequent. Is it unnatural to suppose that such frequent
-assimilation had an important effect on the Hellenes, with their
-artistic temperament and great susceptibility? At any rate, Plato,
-Aristotle, and Aristophanes, not to mention lesser names, believed
-that it had.
-
-Among these potent poetic influences, the drama must certainly not be
-forgotten. Sokrates regarded the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes as a far
-more deadly attack upon his career than anything that Anutos and
-Meletos could say. To Plato, the theatre plays the part of the “Great
-Sophist,” the educating influence which forms the opinion and the
-character of the young.
-
-It must be remembered that Hellenic poetry enshrined the religion of
-the race: this fact gave it an enormous influence. The characters in
-Aeschylus and Sophocles are divine or semi-divine; many of the
-audience in the theatre were wont to revere Agamemnon or Theseus; all
-paid worship to Athena and Apollo. The Athenian drama was sacred to a
-Hellene as is the play at Oberammergau to a Christian. Had Shakespeare
-dramatised the Bible, modern children might have recited his speeches
-and acted his plays with somewhat similar feelings to those with which
-Hellenic boys recited Homer or Aeschylus. Suppose Shakespeare had thus
-dramatised the story of Esau and Jacob, and an imaginative child was
-set to learn Jacob’s speeches and repeat them; suppose he was also in
-the habit of hearing them recited by a first-class actor who knew how
-to bring out the minuter traits of character.[698] Is it not, at any
-rate, quite rational to argue that the child would gradually absorb
-some of these traits of character, just as children often pick up the
-peculiarities of nurses and others with whom they have no hereditary
-connection? Might not underhand habits be reasonably attributed to
-frequent acting of the part of Jacob? Yet in ancient Hellas the
-influence was much stronger, for the people were more susceptible and
-the characters were believed to be half-divine.
-
-       *     *     *     *     *
-
-Thus in ancient Hellas music, art, and poetry had an immense effect on
-the characters and morals of the race. This influence may well have
-been exaggerated by Hellenic thinkers. Damon the musician declared
-that every change in artistic standards produced a change in the tone
-and constitution of a State; and Plato agreed with him.[699] The
-danger of such innovations is a large part of the theme of the _Laws_,
-and, in a less degree, of the _Republic_. Sparta accepted this
-attitude and forbade all change. The opinion was certainly widely
-held, and must have rested on experience.
-
-Just as the thinkers were beginning to realise this principle, it
-happened that a very great change in the artistic canons did take
-place. Sophocles is succeeded by Euripides, Pheidias by Praxiteles:
-music suffers a similar transformation. Idealism gives way to realism:
-Sophocles and Pheidias had represented men as they ought to be,
-Euripides and Praxiteles represent them as they are. Poets and
-sculptors still pretend to be delineating deities, but in reality they
-are delineating contemporary life.[700] Their creations not only cease
-to be idealised, they cease to have only a single trait. The “Hermes”
-of Praxiteles is a dreamy but vigorous young Athenian who might have
-been met in the Akademeia or Lukeion; the “Herakles” of Euripides is
-now a homicidal maniac, now a reckless mercenary.[701] The characters
-become human by losing their divineness. In the next generation the
-divine names are dropped, and Menander can depict contemporary life
-without having to call his characters Orestes or Phaidra. Music also
-ceased to be so severely separated off into types. All manner of
-musical innovations arise, which it is very hard for a modern to
-grasp. But the result is clear enough. It became no longer possible to
-detect the ethical meaning of a tune: music was becoming complex, just
-as characters in drama and sculpture were becoming complex. It was
-also more homely in subject. It became daringly “mimetic” also,
-imitating all the sounds of nature. This was an age of daring
-experiments, and musicians shared the general movement.
-
-To the Conservative party in Hellas and to the educational theorists
-these changes naturally appeared ruinous. In their opinion, Euripides
-was practically parodying the Bible and making divine characters share
-all the follies and weaknesses, and use the homely language, of mere
-men. Boys, learning such poetry by heart, would cease to have ideals:
-everything would be commonplace to them. They would recite the most
-homely language, and act the most homely parts, under the idea that
-they were half-divine. Moreover, with the attack of the new school
-upon the old religion, the more immoral parts of Hellenic mythology
-were brought into undue prominence. Euripides seems to have chosen
-some questionable subjects; the dithyrambic poets were worse, and
-chose themes quite unsuitable for children to act or hear. And music
-ceased to have any ethical value; it was all trills and onomatopœia.
-Such changes meant a revolution in the results of education.
-
-The poet Aristophanes is the first to raise his voice against the
-change. A few months before the utter ruin of Athens, he produces the
-_Frogs_, which really repeats the attack of the _Clouds_, with
-Euripides instead of Sokrates for the defendant. The poet is attacked
-as at once the prophet of the new culture of the Sophists and of the
-new artistic standards. The following are some of the chief faults
-which Aristophanes finds with the new school represented by
-Euripides:[702] (1) an undignified style of music, worthy only of the
-bones as an accompaniment; (2) its habit of mixing all sorts of
-incongruous musical rubbish together, “lewd love-songs, drinking
-catches of Meletos, Karian flute-music, dirges, and dances”; (3) its
-trills or shakes, as in εἰειειειειλίσσετε [eieieieieilissete]; (4) its
-mixture of incongruous pictures, “dolphins, spiders, halcyons,
-prophet-chambers, and race-courses,” pathos and bathos, commonplace
-and solemnity; (5) bad metre, licenses of every sort, and frequent
-“resolved” feet. As a parody of its habitual incongruity Aristophanes
-gives:
-
-     “O God of the sea, that’s what it is. O ye neighbours,
-     behold yon monstrous deed: Gluke’s gone off with my cock.
-     Nymphs, ye daughters of the hills! Mary Ann, lend a hand.”
-
-Aristophanes’ voice comes with a certain pathos, for the play is the
-last utterance of Periclean Athens, just at the point of falling and
-trying to find a scapegoat on whom to lay the responsibility of its
-ruin: and the scapegoat chosen is the new artistic and musical
-standard. The Ionic temperament had, in fact, broken away from all
-restraint. The Doric canons of order, symmetry, regularity, and
-solidity were thrown aside. Everything antique was treated with
-disdain; all authority was rejected with scorn. No standards, ethical
-or artistic, were tolerated. Perpetual change, daily novelty, became
-the one desire of Athens. The foundations of belief, the bases of the
-moral code, were broken down. The whole world seemed to be crumbling
-away, and nothing was arising to take its place. Spectators became
-dizzy with the eternal fluctuations. What wonder if they turned
-longing eyes towards the one centre of gravity in Hellas, towards the
-one place where politics, art, and ethics retained their old
-stability, towards Sparta? So Sparta becomes the philosopher’s ideal,
-and it is the Spartan canon that Plato tries to reimpose on Ionicism
-running riot.[703] The fault which he finds with contemporary art and
-music is that they simply try to please and amuse the audience, not to
-educate and improve it.[704] They are like parents who try to soothe a
-fractious child with sweetmeats when his health requires castor oil.
-But the poets and artists are the slaves of the mob which pays them.
-They must be freed from this control, and made the servants of the
-government. Strict canons must be drawn up, which they must follow on
-pain of being expelled from the State. The canons must be drawn up by
-a select body of experts; the mob is incapable of judging in such
-matters; the critic must guide their taste, not follow it.[705] Good
-music and art must bear the stamp of a good “ethos,” and, since men
-appreciate the character most which most resembles their own, it will
-be the good man who will most appreciate good music:[706] so the good
-man becomes the standard. In order to point his moral, Plato sketches
-the history of the Athenian drama, showing how its dependence on
-popular opinion ruined it[707]:――
-
-“At the time of the Persian wars Athens was a limited democracy, with
-the magistracies arranged according to a property qualification. The
-spirit of obedience and discipline prevailed in those days, and was
-strengthened by the dread of Persia. The populace willingly obeyed the
-laws that fixed the artistic and musical standards. By these
-regulations the different types of song and accompaniment, hymns or
-prayers to the gods, lamentations, pæans, dithyrambs, and so forth
-were kept quite distinct, no one being allowed to mix them together;
-the standard, too, was not fixed, as now, by the shouts and stampings
-and confused applause of the mob, but every one listened in silence
-until the end of the play, the educated classes from preference, and
-boys and their paidagogoi, and the mob generally, under the direction
-of the rod. Thus the mass of the citizens were ready to obey in an
-orderly manner, not venturing to make noisy criticisms. In course of
-time some poets, who ought to have known better, led the way in
-breaking down these laws. Frenzied and distracted by their desire for
-pleasure, they mixed lamentations with hymns and pæans with
-dithyrambs, they imitated the flute on the lyre, they confused
-everything with everything else. Blinded by ignorance, they lied and
-said that there was no question of accuracy of representation in
-music: the only standard was the pleasure of the hearer, whatever sort
-of man he might be. With such style of poetry, and arguments to match,
-they inspired the many with contempt for the laws of Art, and gave
-them the idea that they were capable of criticising it. So the
-audience was no longer silent but noisy, since it supposed that it
-knew what was good and what was bad. Art was no longer governed by
-good taste, but by the bad taste of the mob. Nor was this the worst of
-it. From Art the infection spread to other spheres, and every one
-began to think that he knew everything, and consequently to break the
-laws. For, thinking themselves wiser than the laws, they no longer
-feared them.… Next comes a refusal to obey the Archons, then contempt
-for the orders of parents and elders, then a desire to be free from
-the restraints of a constitution. The end is utter contempt for oaths
-and covenants and the gods.”
-
-It is the lack of order and system in contemporary music which Plato
-dislikes.[708] In modern dances, he complains, manly words are set to
-effeminate tunes or gestures, and the voices of men and beasts and
-instruments are mixed together into a confused and unintelligible
-hodgepodge.[709] Music without words is equally detestable. Music that
-runs on without the proper pauses and loves mere speed and meaningless
-clamour, using flutes and harps without words, is in the worst taste.
-The meaning must be quite plain.
-
-Music must also be good. Poets say much that is good, much that is
-bad: they are irresponsible beings.[710] The State ought to appoint
-censors who will reject all unsuitable poems and tunes and dances.
-Those which are already in existence must be selected and expurgated.
-If this ruins the poetry, never mind: moral tone is far more important
-than poetical skill. In fact, poetry ought to be written by moral
-citizens without any regard being paid to their poetical talents: it
-would also be well if they did not compose till they were fifty![711]
-A sketch of a Platonic Censor re-editing Homer is given in Books ii.
-and iii. of the _Republic_: his methods are drastic.
-
-But Plato’s chief denunciation is reserved for the “mimetic” or
-imitative aspect of poetry. The poet teaches “posing.” Homer, when he
-described the siege of Troy, is posing as a skilled tactician (as his
-admirers often claimed that he was), when really the silence of
-history proves that he was nothing of the sort. So too the painter who
-represents a plough is posing as an authority upon agriculture:
-question him, and he will prove to be completely ignorant of the
-subject. Both poetry and painting are a fraud and a deception; by
-their pretence of knowledge, they encourage the mind in the habit, to
-which it is so prone, of accepting vague opinions as certainties
-without testing their truth.[712] They foster that belief in the
-sense-perceptions which it is the object of Platonic education to
-destroy.
-
-But the poet not only poses himself: he makes his audience, his
-reader, his performer pose. The boy who recites the dying speech of
-Aias in Sophocles’ play is posing as Aias, pretending to be Aias, and
-adopting the tone and the traits of Aias. The boy who dances in the
-dithyramb _Semelé_ is trying to enter into Semelé’s feelings and
-moods, being helped by the music and the gestures and the words.[713]
-Such posing, if begun in early years, will invade the character and
-change it: the boy will become like the personages whom he is
-accustomed to act. Hence Plato lays down strict laws dealing with the
-recitations and dances of the young.[714] “If they speak in character,
-it must only be in the character of those who are, what they
-themselves must be when they are grown up, brave, temperate, pious
-gentlemen. They must have no skill in taking unsuitable characters,
-lest from their dramatic representation of what is vulgar and base
-they become infected with the reality of vulgarity and baseness. For
-imitation, if begun in early years and carried far, sinks into a boy’s
-habits and nature, and influences his voice, his gestures, and his
-ideas.… So boys must not be allowed to take the character of a woman,
-young or old, abusing her husband or blaspheming against the gods or
-uttering lamentations,――certainly not of a woman in sickness or in
-love or in pangs; nor the character of slaves performing slavish
-duties; nor of bad men, cowards, insulting or mocking one another,
-using foul language, drunk or sober; nor yet of madmen.”[715] It will
-be seen that this will exclude much of Hellenic drama, especially of
-the plays of Euripides and Aristophanes. Comedy, according to Plato,
-should only be acted by foreigners, and should serve as an awful
-warning of everything that a gentleman ought not to do. The new music
-is subjected to similar rules. “Boys must not imitate blacksmiths at
-the forge, or craftsmen occupied in any trade, or sailors rowing, or
-boatswains giving them orders, or anything of the sort; nor yet horses
-neighing, or bulls roaring, or the noise of rivers or the sea or
-thunder or wind or hail or chariot-wheels or pulleys or trumpets or
-flutes or pipes …; nor the sounds made by dogs and sheep and birds.”
-So the proper style of poetry for educational purposes will be mostly
-narrative, with occasional dramatisation of virtuous men. To accompany
-this simplified and purified poetry only the Dorian and Phrygian
-“harmonies” will be required: all the others may be rejected. Simple
-instruments alone will be wanted: many-stringed lyres and the flute
-can be banished. The seven-stringed lyre and the shepherd’s pipe will
-be left.
-
-Plato finds it too difficult to carry these principles into rhythm,
-since he is not an expert in the subject. But he thinks that the
-metres could be regulated in accordance with his canons; the expert
-Damon declared that some had a demoralising tendency.
-
-As a whole, Plato’s aim is to restore Doric standards, to combat
-amateurism and dabbling, by which boys were made Jacks-of-all-trades,
-and above all to insist that the refined few ought to set the standard
-of taste in matters musical, literary, and artistic, not the unrefined
-many. With his view may be contrasted Perikles’ boast to the Athenian
-people, “We can all criticise adequately, if we cannot all invent,”
-and Aristotle’s belief that a crowd judges better than an individual
-because its judgment is compounded of many judgments.
-
-But when we come to Aristotle the creative instinct of the Hellenic
-nation, apart from a few gifted individuals, is dead. To him and his
-contemporaries music and painting are no longer rendered necessary
-parts of education owing to the irresistible craving of an artistic
-temperament for expression. Listen to his theory. Painting gives boys
-an eye for beauty, and prevents them from being cheated in
-art-dealing: there is no inward compulsion to paint. Boys had better
-learn to sing and play, since children must needs make a noise. All
-they really need is the power of criticising professional music. This
-power, unluckily, cannot be acquired without personal study. But let
-them drop their music as soon as they can, or they might be mistaken
-for vulgar professionals. Such words could hardly have been addressed
-to a nation that was still musical and artistic. So Aristotle’s
-æsthetic criticism is really a study of the past, the discussion of a
-dead age. He has no natural affinity for such things himself: he
-prefers to sum up the opinions of experts. Consequently his remarks on
-the subject are scientific but no more; for a real appreciation of the
-Hellenic artistic and musical spirit it is necessary to go to Plato,
-who combated it so fiercely just because he was more in sympathy with
-it than suited his philosophic desires.
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE X. A.
-
-  IN A RIDING-SCHOOL
-
-  From a Kulix by Euphronios, now in the Louvre. Hartwig’s
-  _Meisterschalen_, Plate 53.]
-
-  [Illustration: PLATE X. B.
-
-  IN A RIDING-SCHOOL
-
-  From a Kulix by Euphronios, now in the Louvre. Hartwig’s
-  _Meisterschalen_, Plate 53.]
-
-
-     [680] The characteristics are sketched in Thuc. i. 70. Cp.
-     the difference between Florence and Venice in Renaissance
-     Italy.
-
-     [681] See also Thuc. i. 6; Athen. 512 B.C.
-
-     [682] No doubt all the theorists had a fatal temptation to
-     judge the harmony by the opinion which they held of the race
-     which produced it. The Lydian may have recovered prestige
-     during the fourth century, for it included Karian, and Karia
-     became a great power under Mausolos.
-
-     [683] Athen. 624 C.
-
-     [684] It is the only true Hellenic harmony (Plato, _Lach._
-     188 D).
-
-     [685] Plato’s opinion of the harmonies is in _Rep._ 398-399.
-     Aristotle, who professes only to summarise the views of
-     experts, discusses them in _Pol._ viii. 7.
-
-     [686] Plato apparently accepts this principle with regard to
-     the Korubantic dances (_Laws_, 790 D).
-
-     [687] Athen. 624 b.
-
-     [688] Pind. _P._ 5. 60-63. Cp. the story of Saul and David.
-
-     [689] Athen. 624 a.
-
-     [690] Plut. _Luk._ 4.
-
-     [691] _Pol._ iv. 20. 2.
-
-     [692] Plato, _Rep._ 399 A.
-
-     [693] Londoners must devoutly hope that the Hellenic theory
-     is false.
-
-     [694] Aristot. _Rhet._ ii. 21. 16.
-
-     [695] Plato, _Rep._ 401 B.
-
-     [696] A poetical education probably develops the imagination
-     at the expense of the logical mind. Plato is a good instance
-     of this: his imagination, against his will, outweighs his
-     reason. It may be this personal experience which gives so
-     much bitterness to his attack on poetry.
-
-     [697] Plut. _Solon_, 29. 30.
-
-     [698] Children have a natural tendency to act, and need
-     little inducement or instruction.
-
-     [699] Plato, _Rep._ 424 C.
-
-     [700] So in the later Renaissance the “Madonna” is the
-     artist’s wife.
-
-     [701] According to Dr. Verrall.
-
-     [702] Aristoph. _Frogs_, 1301, 1340.
-
-     [703] Ionicism = Herakleiteanism, πάντα ῥεῖ [panta rhei].
-     Doricism = Parmenideanism, τὸ πᾶν μένει [to pan menei].
-
-     [704] Plato, _Gorg._ 501-502; _Polit._ 288 C.
-
-     [705] Plato, _Laws_, 657-659.
-
-     [706] _Ibid._ 656.
-
-     [707] _Ibid._ 698-701 C.
-
-     [708] The essence of dancing is that it is _orderly_
-     movement; of singing that it is _orderly_ sound (_Laws_,
-     654).
-
-     [709] Plato, _Laws_, 669-70.
-
-     [710] _Ibid._ 800-802.
-
-     [711] _Ibid._ 829 c.
-
-     [712] Consequently the painter and the poet are, in Plato’s
-     opinion, allies of the Sophist.
-
-     [713] This is true, in a less degree, of the audience. Cp.
-     Plutarch’s account of the Spartans (_Lac. Inst._ 239 A):
-     “They did not listen to tragedies or comedies, in order that
-     neither in earnest nor in jest they might hear men
-     gainsaying the laws.”
-
-     [714] Plato, _Rep._ 395 ff.
-
-     [715] Plato holds that no one likes to imitate his
-     inferiors; so the good man will not care to imitate any but
-     the good. He ascribes this attitude to the Deity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-XENOPHON: “THE EDUCATION OF KUROS”
-
-
-The central figure in many parishes in England is a retired
-Major-General or Colonel. He constitutes the chief pillar of the
-neighbouring church, reads the Lessons on Sundays, teaches in the
-Sunday School, gives away the prizes at School-treats held in his own
-grounds, and heads every subscription list; while his leisure is given
-to the compilation of a military memoir or two, and perhaps, if he is
-very literary, of a few short stories. Just such a man was Xenophon.
-On retiring from active service, he withdrew to the little village of
-Skillous in Elis, where he owned a house and a park. The whole country
-swarmed with fish and game, so that he and his sons could have as much
-hunting as they pleased. Guests were numerous, for past his gates ran
-the great high-road from Lakedaimon to Olympia. In his grounds he
-built a chapel to Artemis, the expenses being defrayed from a tithe of
-the spoils he had taken in the heart of the Persian Empire. The tenth
-of the produce of his land was paid to the goddess, and once a year he
-gave a great sacrificial feast in her honour, to which all the
-neighbours were invited. In this way the retired General lived for
-twenty years, devoted to his religion, his hunting, and the
-composition of his books. Having two sons of his own, he naturally
-gave some attention to the problems of education. His treatise on the
-constitution of Lakedaimon is simply a sketch of the Spartan school
-system, no doubt intended for his boys, who were brought up at Sparta.
-A curious passage in his _Economics_[716] shows that he considered the
-most effective mode of teaching to be a series of appeals, by means of
-question and answer, to personal observation and common-sense.
-Ischomachos asks Sokrates whether he knows how to plant trees.
-Sokrates at first replies “No,” but when he is questioned point by
-point, whether on his excursions to Lukabettos, he has noticed the
-depth of the trenches in the orchards, and some similar details, and
-when his common-sense has shown him that plants grow quicker through
-soft than through hard soil, he finds that he is an expert nurseryman,
-and decides that questioning must be the way to teach.
-
-But the most important of Xenophon’s educational works is the
-_Education of Kuros_. In this he becomes the classical Miss Edgeworth
-and Henty combined. The book is really an historical novel, mostly
-fiction, embodying a moral story for the young, an ideal system of
-education, and a practical treatise on the whole duty of a general.
-The ideal system comes first, as a sort of preface, and presents a
-curious parallel to the rival schemes of his contemporary Plato.
-Xenophon makes the reader suppose that his system was practised in
-Persia in the time of Kuros’ boyhood, but there is no authority for
-his statement. Persia is in this case a convenient title for Utopia.
-
-The ordinary State, according to Xenophon, leaves its citizens to form
-their own characters; but the Persian system definitely aims at
-producing virtue. In every Persian city there is what is called the
-“Free Agora.”[717] This is an open square, like the ordinary
-market-place, but unlike it in being without shops or booths, for the
-vulgar bustle and clamour of buying and selling is forbidden here, as
-likely to disturb the peace and calm of the educated. Round it lie the
-royal palace and the State buildings, so that it would be a place of
-some architectural pretensions and not unlike the quadrangle of a
-College at an English University. The square is divided into four
-parts――one for the children, one for the epheboi, one for full-grown
-men, and one for the old; for men of all ages have their place in this
-College. Any Persian is at liberty to send his son to school here, but
-only the rich can afford to support their sons while they attend the
-classes: the poor man’s children, in Utopian Persia as in modern
-England, must needs work for their living at an early age. The schools
-are apparently only for boys: Xenophon has nothing to say here about
-feminine education, although he approves of the Spartan system.
-
-All boys under sixteen are ranged together in twelve companies,
-according to the number of Persian tribes; of arrangement in classes
-by age or intelligence nothing is said. They have to be in their
-quarter of the Free Agora at daybreak. Their education is under the
-control of twelve masters chosen from the elder men. What they learn
-in school is _Justice_, as boys elsewhere learn letters. The system is
-as curious as the subject. A sort of miniature law-court is
-constituted, where the masters act as judges and the boys accuse one
-another before them. The accusations must not be concocted for the
-occasion, for any one found guilty of bringing a false charge against
-a schoolfellow is severely punished. Smith Major has stolen Brown’s
-bow and arrows, or Jones has called Robinson various opprobrious
-names; the offenders are hauled up before the tribunal, duly tried,
-and, if convicted, flogged.[718] Ingratitude is regarded as a
-particularly heinous crime. It appears that promising pupils were
-allowed to act as judges sometimes. The boy Kuros tells his mother how
-he received this honour and once gave a wrong verdict, to his own
-discomfiture. “The case was like this, mother,” he is made to say. “A
-big boy wearing a small coat met a small boy wearing a big coat, and
-compelled him to exchange. I was told to decide the case, and said
-that it was best that each should have the coat which fitted him. Then
-the master flogged me. For the point was, To whom did the big coat
-belong? not, Whom did it fit best? It belonged to the boy who bought
-or made it, not to the boy who took it by force, breaking the law.”
-
-Besides “Justice,” the children were taught the properties of plants,
-in order that they might avoid those that were harmful and use those
-which were good.[719] This seems a curious anticipation of
-“Nature-study,” with a strictly utilitarian object, and Xenophon
-deserves credit for an original suggestion.
-
-The boys are assisted in the formation of good habits by the sight of
-their elders in the adjacent quarter of the Free Agora, setting them
-an example in temperance and obedience and self-restraint. They also
-learn not to be greedy, by taking their meals, when ordered, in the
-school, under supervision, off the very simple fare of bread, water,
-and a sort of seed resembling the modern mustard, which is all that
-they are allowed to bring with them from home for the purpose. What is
-more, this probably constituted the only meal which the children had
-on such days. It must have been a pretty stiff lesson in abstinence!
-How they would have hated a master who ordered it too often! For games
-and exercise they had shooting with the bow and hurling the
-javelin――that is, military training.
-
-The other three ages are also organised each under twelve masters in
-its own quarter of the Agora of Education. The epheboi, who in Utopia
-include all from sixteen to twenty-six, even sleep there, acting as a
-standing army and a police force to guard the palace and the State
-buildings. Xenophon thinks it well that the men of this age, who need
-more attention, in his opinion, than even the boys, should be always
-under the eye of the authorities. They are organised into twelve
-companies, one from each of the Persian tribes. Their time is largely
-occupied in police-work, such as catching brigands, and in hunting.
-Xenophon attaches great importance to hunting of all sorts, as being
-the best training for war.[720] For it involves exposure to heat and
-cold and other hardships, training in marching and running, and skill
-with bow and javelin;[721] it also requires courage, to meet the
-sudden charge of a panther; and long and patient strategy, to catch
-birds and hares.[722] So, several times a month, the king goes out
-hunting and takes six companies of the epheboi with him, armed with
-bows and arrows, a dagger, a light shield, and two spears――one for
-throwing and one for stabbing. When not engaged in hunting or in
-police-work, the epheboi revise what they learned as boys, and
-practise shooting, competing with one another; there are also public
-contests, with prizes. Prizes are also given to the officer in charge
-of the company which shows itself the most intelligent, courageous,
-and trustworthy; the master who taught this company in its school-days
-is also commended.
-
-The men from twenty-six to fifty occupy the third, and the elders the
-fourth, quarter of the Agora. The former act as a standing army of
-heavy infantry; the latter as a reserve force for home defence, as
-Judges, as the electors to the offices of State, and as the teachers
-of the children. The other offices are filled by the third age. Any
-freeborn Persian can climb this four-runged Ladder of Education to the
-very top; but no one may enter a higher class without having served
-his full time in those below it. To Xenophon, it appears, belongs the
-credit of being the first theorist to recognise the merits of this
-Thessalian custom of the “Free Agora,” the State-provided centre of
-culture, afterwards adopted so extensively in Alexandria, where the
-educated classes of all ages might meet in an intellectual atmosphere
-and amid beautiful surroundings, and provide that exchange and mart of
-ideas by personal intercourse which Newman considered to be the
-essence of a University. In the Free Agora of Utopian Persia all the
-educated spend their days, influencing one another by talk and
-example, exchanging and criticising ideas, competing in warlike
-exercises――and all in an atmosphere untainted by the vulgarity of
-money-making. On the other hand, culture there does not mean idleness;
-to Xenophon, as to Plato, education seemed to entail great
-responsibilities, and the educated classes provide the sole standing
-army of the State and have to give their countrymen the benefit of
-their intelligence by serving as Rulers and Judges.
-
-But Xenophon’s University provides only legal and military
-instruction; intellectual culture is not recognised in his “Persia.”
-The boys learn the principles of their national law; for, as Xenophon
-is careful to proclaim, the Justice which they are taught is no
-Platonic elaboration, but simple conformity to the law of the
-land.[723] Their other lessons aim solely at the soldier’s life: this
-is the object of their severe diet, their botany, and their training
-in arms. General morality is to be imbibed from contact in the Agora
-with their exemplary seniors, not by ethical contemplation. The system
-has the merit of being extremely practical, as would be expected from
-a man of Xenophon’s stamp. The boys are to be soldiers all their
-lives, and Rulers and Judges in their old age. Consequently they are
-to be taught only what is essential to this calling. The soldier must
-be well versed in the use of arms and capable of enduring hardships;
-so the boys are taught to use the bow and javelin and lead a sternly
-simple life. The chief essential to the Ruler and Judge is a sound
-knowledge of the national law: the boys are taught law from the first,
-in a highly practical way, and even learn to administer it, acting as
-judges to their schoolfellows. No better means could be devised for
-teaching boys the legal procedure of their native land than this of
-constituting them into a miniature Court.[724] It is a scheme,
-however, which would be repugnant to the whole idea of an English
-public school, where the boys are expected to fight their own battles
-and set their own tone without calling in the master’s assistance
-except in grave cases. But the Hellenic boy was never left without
-supervision: the paidagogos, or some elder, was always in
-attendance.[725] Probably the chief criticism which it would have
-occurred to an Athenian of that age to urge against Xenophon’s system
-would be, not that it encouraged tale-bearing, nor that it failed to
-teach self-reliance, but that his countrymen were quite sufficiently
-litigious already without any teaching. The absence of literature and
-music would also have seemed a fatal objection.
-
-The “Persian” schools are apparently open, free of charge, to any boy
-whose father chooses to send him. For the only expense which the
-parents are mentioned as incurring is the loss of any wages which
-their son might have been earning if set to a trade instead of being
-sent to school. Xenophon thus institutes free education without
-compulsion. Pupils may be withdrawn at any age; if they or their
-families have enough private means to enable them to live in leisure
-all their lives they can rise through the various stages to the
-highest offices of the State, provided that they are not rejected as
-unfit during their upward passage. Theoretically the educational
-ladder is open to all; practically it is closed to all but those who
-are well-to-do and fairly capable to boot. But the education provided
-is not a general culture, intellectually and morally good for all
-children, nor yet utilitarian knowledge, such as arithmetic or
-writing, which will serve as a useful, or even necessary, basis for a
-trade or profession: it is a strictly technical education in the work
-of War and Government. Few parents, therefore, would send their boys
-to Xenophon’s schools, at any rate for a longer period than would be
-required for learning just the rudiments of national law and morality,
-unless they designed them for a public career.
-
-Thus Xenophon, like his beloved Spartans, has made war the main object
-of education, and, like the Romans, uses law as the chief instrument
-of instruction. But he has seen the demerits of the Spartan
-“Mess-clubs,” and his boys take their meals and sleep, as a rule, at
-home; only the epheboi, as in Crete, dine and sleep always in the
-agora. His chief merit is that he recognised that an educational
-atmosphere, εὐκοσμία τῶν πεπαιδευμένων [eukosmia tôn pepaideumenôn],
-free from the associations of money-making, is essential to an
-educational establishment.
-
-After this deeply interesting sketch of Xenophon’s educational ideals,
-the _Education of Kuros_ becomes a historical novel with a purpose, an
-idealised Kuros acting as example throughout. In Book i. there is the
-description of him as the model boy, courteous to his elders, quick
-and eager to learn, brave, impetuous, loved by all, but rather a prig.
-The description is full of improving anecdotes and little sermons. The
-book concludes with a lecture on the duties of a general, dealing with
-tactics and the best means of training the army and providing
-supplies. Xenophon puts all his personal experience into this, and
-there is plenty of adventure to make the book palatable to his young
-readers.
-
-A few extracts will make the characteristics of this curious work
-plain.
-
-When quite young, Kuros went with his mother Mandané to stay with his
-grandfather Astuages, King of Media. The old man, thinking that the
-boy would be homesick and wishing to comfort him, sent for him at
-dinner the first evening and set all sorts of rich meats and sauces
-before him. Then Kuros said, “Grandfather, you must find it a great
-nuisance, if you have to help yourself to so many courses and taste so
-many kinds of food.” His grandfather replied, “Why, don’t you think
-this a much finer dinner than what you get at home?” “No,
-grandfather,” replied Kuros; “at home we satisfy our appetites by a
-short-cut, just bread and meat, but here, although your object is the
-same, you wind in and out so much on the way that it takes you ever so
-much longer to reach it.” “But, my boy, the delay is only so much
-pleasure, as you will see if you try.” Kuros, however, persisted in
-refusing the unwholesome dainties, so his grandfather compensated him
-by giving him an enormous help of meat. “Is all this meant for me,”
-asked Kuros, “to do what I like with?” “Yes, my boy.” Then Kuros took
-the meat and distributed it to the servants who were waiting at table,
-saying to one, “This is because you taught me to ride”; to another,
-“This is because you gave me a javelin”; to a third, “This is for
-waiting on my grandfather so nicely.” From this example the young
-reader doubtless learned not to desire too many courses or too rich
-sweets at table, and perhaps also to be grateful to every one, even
-servants. After this Kuros remained in Media, while his mother
-returned home. “He soon won the love of his schoolfellows, and quite
-charmed their parents when invited to their houses by the affection
-which he showed for their sons.” A good moral, this, for little boys
-who go out to parties.
-
-This model boy does not die young, but grows up. He had been rather a
-chatterbox when small (a warning to the young readers), but only owing
-to his desire for knowledge and his readiness to answer questions;
-besides, he chattered in such a nice way that it was a pleasure to
-hear him. But as he grew older, he grew more bashful. “He always
-blushed when he met his elders, and he talked in a quieter tone. When
-he played with his schoolfellows, he chose the games where he expected
-to be beaten, not those in which he expected to win; and he was always
-ready to lead the laugh against himself when beaten.” Model youth! Of
-course, he soon became the champion at every form of sport, just as in
-a modern book of the kind he would have won at least five “Blues.”
-
-Kuros next appears as a mighty hunter, and then at the age of fifteen
-takes a leading part in a battle against the Assyrians; in fact, it is
-his strategy and prowess that decide the day. What more could be
-wanted in a book for boys? The modern author would give him a grizzly
-bear, a lion, and a V.C.: Xenophon gives him the Persian equivalents.
-
-After this, little more is said of Kuros’ boyhood. He is next
-introduced as a man of twenty-six, just put into command of a Persian
-expedition to help Media against the Assyrians.[726] Henceforth
-Xenophon’s object is no longer to point a moral, but to instruct
-budding generals and princes in strategy and government. The remaining
-books are a “Handbook of Tactics, with hints on the proper treatment
-of inferiors”; so they fitly begin with a long lecture by Kuros’
-father on the whole duty of a general.[727] There is, however, a good
-deal of moral advice and occasional allegory interspersed amid the
-tactics. For instance, a certain Gobruas came to dine with the Persian
-army. “Seeing how plain the food was, he regarded the Persians as
-rather _bourgeois_. But then he observed what good manners the guests
-had. No educated Persian would allow himself to be seen staring at a
-dish, or helping himself hurriedly, or acting at table without proper
-deliberation. For they think it piggish to be excited by the presence
-of food or drink. He noticed, too, that they never asked one another
-questions which might cause pain, that their jests were never
-malicious nor their wit rude, that everything that they did was in the
-best taste, and that they never lost their tempers with one another.”
-And so on. “Manners for men,” we might call it, by Xenophon.
-
-A curiously interesting case of allegory, which well shows how
-imaginary most of the history is, may be found in the third book.[728]
-The son of the king of Armenia had had for a companion and tutor a
-certain Sophist, of whose wisdom he was very proud. But his father
-condemned the Sophist for corrupting[729] the boy. When he was being
-led to execution, the man showed what a saint and hero he was by
-calling the boy and saying, “Do not be angry with your father for
-putting me to death. For it is no wicked purpose which makes him do
-it, but only ignorance. All sins which men commit in ignorance I rank
-as involuntary errors.” Later, the father confesses that he put the
-Sophist to death for stealing away his son’s affections, “for I feared
-that my boy might love him more than he loved me.” Kuros admits that
-such jealousy is an explanation and regards it as pardonable.
-
-The analogy to Sokrates is obvious to any one. The half-apology for
-the Athenian people is very interesting in the mouth of the old
-Socratic companion Xenophon.
-
-But the object of the _Education of Kuros_ is, after all, to teach
-generalship. A couple of examples of the way in which this is done
-will suffice. On one occasion[730] Kuros orders the foot-cuirassiers
-to lead the way in a forced march, and kindly explains the object of
-such a manœuvre. “This command I give,” he says, “because they are the
-heaviest part of the army. When the heaviest part is in the van,
-obviously it is quite easy for the other arms, being lighter, to keep
-up. But if the quickest detachment is in front on a night march, it is
-not surprising if the army straggles, for the vanguard goes faster
-than the rest.” Again, Kuros could call all his officers by name, to
-their great surprise.[731] “For he thought it very absurd that
-tradesmen should know the names of all their tools, and yet a general
-should be so stupid as not to know the names of his officers whom he
-must use as his tools in the most serious emergencies. Soldiers who
-thought that their general knew their names would, he considered, be
-more eager to do heroic deeds in his presence, and less eager to play
-the coward. It seemed also to be foolish to be obliged to give orders,
-when he wanted something done, in the way some masters do in their
-households, ‘Fetch me some water, Somebody’; or ‘Cut some firewood,
-Someone.’ For when the order is addressed to no one in particular,
-each stands looking at his neighbour and expecting him to carry it
-out.”
-
-The military part is exceedingly well done. Xenophon was one of the
-few good strategists whom Hellas produced, and his remarks on tactics,
-the hygiene of an army, and discipline are sound and useful. What is
-more, his novel is interesting and occasionally witty: it is
-distinctly good reading. He has disguised his powder in the most
-appetising jam, and so has achieved with success the difficult task of
-writing a novel with a purpose. Had books been common then, his work
-would have been both popular and useful in Boys’ Libraries, and have
-done good service as a school prize. But from Plato it only provoked
-the malicious and not very deep criticism that it was unhistorical and
-unsound.[732] “Of Kuros,” he says, “I conjecture that, though he was a
-good general and a patriot, he had not come across the merest scrap of
-sound education, and never applied his mind to the art of managing a
-household.[733] For, being absent on campaigns all his life, he
-allowed the women to bring up his children. The women spoilt the boys,
-letting no one gainsay them, and made them effeminate, not teaching
-them the Persian habits or their father’s profession, but Median
-luxury. Hence the collapse of Persia under Kambuses.”
-
-
-     [716] Xen. _Econ._ 19.
-
-     [717] Aristotle (_Pol._ vii. 12) says that “Free Agoras”
-     were customary in Thessaly. He adopts the system for his
-     ideal state――a clear compliment to Xenophon.
-
-     [718] Floggings were apparently to be frequent. “Tears are a
-     master’s instruments of instruction” (ii. 2. 14).
-
-     [719] viii. 8. 14.
-
-     [720] Hence his treatise on hunting.
-
-     [721] i. 2. 10.
-
-     [722] i. 6. 39-40.
-
-     [723] i. 3. 17.
-
-     [724] Cp. the experiment which was, I believe, tried in an
-     American school, where the boys learned the national
-     constitution by themselves electing in due form a President,
-     Congress, etc.
-
-     [725] “The perpetual presence of masters,” according to
-     Xenophon, “best inculcates proper modesty and discipline.”
-
-     [726] i. 5. 5.
-
-     [727] i. 6. 1-46.
-
-     [728] iii. 1. 38.
-
-     [729] διαφθείρειν [diaphtheirein], the word used in
-     Sokrates’ accusation.
-
-     [730] v. 3. 37.
-
-     [731] v. 3. 46. Notice the Socratic comparison.
-
-     [732] Plato, _Laws_, 694 C-D.
-
-     [733] A hit at Xenophon’s _Economics_.
-
-
-
-
-PART III
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-CONCLUDING ESSAY: THE SCHOOLS OF HELLAS
-
-
-The preceding chapters have sufficiently established, as it seems to
-me, that Hellenic education alike at Sparta and at Athens, in theory
-and in practice, aimed at producing the best possible citizen, not the
-best possible money-maker; it sought the good of the community, not
-the good of the individual. The methods and materials of education
-naturally differed with the conception of good citizenship held in
-each locality, but the ideal object was always the same.
-
-The Spartan, with his schoolboy conception of life, believed that the
-whole duty of man was to be brave, to be indifferent to hardships and
-pain, to be a good soldier, and to be always in perfect physical
-condition; when his Hellenic instincts needed æsthetic satisfaction,
-he made his military drill into a musical dance and sang songs in
-honour of valour. Long speaking and lengthy meditation he regarded
-with contempt, for he preferred deeds to words or thoughts, and the
-essence of a situation could always be expressed in a single sentence.
-This Spartan conception of citizenship fixed the aim of Spartan
-education. Daily hardships, endless physical training, perpetual tests
-of pluck and endurance, were the lot of the Spartan boy. He did not
-learn to read or write or count; he was trained to speak only in
-single words or in the shortest of sentences, for what need had a
-Spartan of letters or of chattering? His imagination had also to be
-subordinated to the national ideal: his dances, his songs, his very
-deities, were all military.
-
-The Athenian’s conception of the perfect citizen was much wider and
-much more difficult of attainment. Pluck and harmony of physical
-development did not satisfy him: there must be equal training of mind
-and imagination, without any sacrifice of bodily health. He demanded
-of the ideal citizen perfection of body, extensive mental activity and
-culture, and irreproachable taste. “We love and pursue wisdom, yet
-avoid bodily sloth; we love and pursue beauty, yet avoid bad taste and
-extravagance,” proclaims Perikles in his summary of Athenian ideals.
-Consequently Athenian education was triple in its aims; its activities
-were divided between body, mind, and taste. The body of the young
-Athenian was symmetrically developed by the scientifically designed
-exercises of the palaistra. At eighteen the State imposed upon him two
-years of physical training at public cost. In after life he could
-exercise himself in the public gymnasia without any payment; there was
-no actual compulsion, except the perpetual imminence of military
-service, which, however, almost amounted to compulsion.
-
-As to mental instruction, every boy had to learn reading, writing,
-arithmetic, and gain such acquaintance with the national literature as
-these studies involved. The other branch of primary education, playing
-and singing, intended to develop the musical ear and taste, was
-optional, but rarely neglected. The secondary education given by the
-Sophists, rhetors, and philosophers was only intended for the
-comparatively few who had wealth and leisure.
-
-Taste and imagination were cultivated in the music- and art-schools,
-but the influences of the theatre, the Akropolis, the temples and
-public monuments, and the dances which accompanied every festival and
-religious occasion, were still more potent, and were exercised upon
-all alike. This æsthetic aspect of education was regarded as
-particularly important in Hellas owing to the prevalent idea that art
-and music had a strong influence over character.
-
-For the training of character was before all things the object of
-Hellenic education; it was this which Hellenic parents particularly
-demanded of the schoolmaster. So strongly did they believe that virtue
-could be taught, that they held the teacher responsible for any
-subsequent misdemeanour of his pupils. Alkibiades and Kritias had
-ruined Athens: they were Sokrates’ pupils: therefore execute Sokrates;
-this seemed perfectly logical to an Athenian. If a Sophist sued a
-defaulting pupil for an unpaid bill, he was regarded as ridiculous,
-for it was his business to teach justice, and if those who had learned
-under him behaved unjustly, it was clearly because his teaching had
-been worthless.
-
-Since the main object of the schools of Hellas was to train and mould
-the character of the young, it would be natural to suppose that the
-schoolmasters and every one else who was to come into contact with the
-boys were chosen with immense care, special attention being given to
-their reputation for virtue and conduct. At Sparta this principle was
-certainly observed. Education was controlled by a paidonomos, selected
-from the citizens of the highest position and reputation, and the
-teaching was given, not by hired foreigners or slaves, but by the
-citizens themselves under his supervision. But then the teaching at
-Sparta dealt mostly with the manners and customs of the State, or with
-bodily and military exercises, known to every grown man, and the
-citizens had plenty of leisure. The Athenians were in a more difficult
-position. There were more subjects for the boy to learn, and some of
-them the parents might have neither the capacity nor the time to
-teach. Owing also to the day-school system at Athens and the
-peculiarities of Hellenic manners, the boys needed some one always at
-hand to take them to and from school and palaistra. Thus both paid
-teachers and attendants were needed. But it was also necessary not to
-let education become too expensive, lest the poor should be unable to
-afford it. Consequently the paidagogoi came often to be the cheapest
-and most worthless slaves, and the schoolmasters as a class to be
-regarded with supreme contempt. No doubt careful parents chose
-excellent paidagogoi, schoolmasters, and paidotribai for their sons,
-and made the choice a matter of much deliberation: the teachers at the
-best schools and palaistrai were often men of position and repute. But
-that the class as a whole was regarded with contempt there can be
-little doubt. The children went into a school as they would have gone
-into any other shop, with a sense of superiority, bringing with them
-their pets, leopards and cats and dogs, and playing with them during
-lesson-times. Idlers and loungers came into the schools and
-palaistrai, as they came into the market-booths, to chatter and look
-on, seriously interrupting the work. The schoolmasters and paidotribai
-at Athens were, in fact, too dependent upon their public for
-subsistence to take a strong line, and, in spite of their power, often
-exercised, of inflicting corporal punishment, they seem to have been
-distinctly at the mercy of the pupils and their friends. The
-paidagogoi too, though they seem to have kept their pupils in order,
-were often not the right people to control a boy’s conduct; they were
-apt to have a villainous accent, and still more villainous habits. It
-must be confessed that the Athenians, in their desire to make
-education cheap, ran a very great risk of spoiling what in their
-opinion was its chief object, the training of character.
-
-Otherwise, they sought this end whole-heartedly. The games, physical
-exercises, and hardships of a boy’s life were meant to develop his
-pluck, fortitude, and endurance. For, according to the Hellenic view,
-now too much neglected in many quarters, the condition and treatment
-of the body had a very important effect both upon mental activities
-and upon character. It was for this reason that physical training
-formed at least half of every system of education practised in
-Hellenic states or recommended by Hellenic philosophers. A National
-School which trained the minds only, and neglected the bodies of the
-pupils, would have been inconceivable to a Hellene. It was not merely
-that physical infirmities interrupted the free exercise of thought, or
-led to peevishness and lack of decision. Man was a whole to the
-Hellenes, and one part of him could not be sound if the other parts
-were not. So strongly did they hold this opinion, that they more than
-half believed that physical beauty was a sign of moral beauty; it was
-this latent idea which added an additional significance to the
-exercises of the palaistra with their symmetrical development of the
-body, and to the competitions for manly beauty which were prevalent
-throughout the country; it lent, moreover, a nobler aspect to that
-passion for the outward loveliness of youth which the vases,
-sculpture, and literature of ancient Hellas reveal so surprisingly.
-But, besides this vaguer and more doubtful connection with character,
-bodily exercise and development were supposed to have a special and
-indubitable effect in strengthening the resolution and will-power. The
-object of physical training was only in a minor degree to keep the
-body in good condition; its main aim was to develop strength of
-character, determination, fortitude, endurance, pluck, and energy.
-But, in accordance with that Hellenic canon of “moderation in all
-things,” which was worked out so thoroughly by Aristotle, there might
-be too much, as well as too little, of all these ethical qualities.
-Consequently physical exercise must be taken only in due moderation,
-and carefully balanced by artistic and musical training, which
-militated in an opposite direction, leading, if pursued in excess, to
-weakness of character, indecision, effeminacy, cowardice, and sloth. A
-scientifically arranged symmetry between the two would produce the
-perfect character.
-
-In the literary and æsthetic schools there were two elements of the
-subjects taught, both with an ethical effect, matter and form. The
-literature studied in the schools was expected to be full of improving
-suggestions and life-histories of heroes worthy of imitation, couched
-in the form most attractive to young minds, in order that they might
-appreciate and love its teaching and examples. The music which the
-boys played or heard, the songs which they sang, the dances which they
-performed or watched, the art which they copied or observed, must be
-such as would influence their characters for good――mould them, that
-is, in accordance with the national ideal. For Hellenic morality was
-æsthetic; they followed the course which appealed to their imagination
-and sense of beauty. It was therefore the object of education to make
-the children see and feel beauty in virtue, and good art in good
-ethics, in order that they might find satisfaction for their æsthetic
-cravings――the dominant instinct of a Hellene――in living good and
-upright lives.
-
-For the unanimous feeling of Hellas based ethics not upon duty, but
-upon happiness――upon the satisfaction, that is, of the instincts. But
-this eudæmonistic attitude was qualified by an important consideration
-which is often forgotten. Owing to the solidarity of Hellenic life,
-the happiness which was sought was primarily not that of the
-individual but that of the community. The readiness of the average
-Hellene, during the best period of the country, to sacrifice
-everything on behalf of his city is very remarkable. The real, if
-unformulated, basis of his ethics came thus to be not personal
-pleasure, but duty to the State. When the individualism of the
-Socratic age overthrew this basis, the Hellenes fell back from the
-happiness of the State to the happiness of the self, and both
-patriotism and personal morality suffered from the change.
-
-It was the sense of duty to the State, the resolution to promote the
-happiness of the whole citizen-body, which made parents willing to
-undergo any sacrifice in order to have their sons educated in the way
-which would best minister to this ideal. The bills of the masters of
-letters and music and of the paidotribai, and the lengthy loss of the
-son’s services in the shop or on the farm in Attica, the break-up of
-family life at Sparta, must have been a sore trial to the parents and
-have involved many sacrifices. Yet there is no trace of grumbling. The
-Hellene felt that it was quite as much his duty to the State to
-educate her future citizens properly as it was to be ready to die in
-her cause, and he did both ungrudgingly. If the laws which made the
-teaching of letters compulsory at Athens fell into desuetude, it was
-only because the citizens needed no compulsion to make them do their
-duty. Nor had the State to pay the school bills; for every citizen,
-however poor, was ready to make the necessary sacrifices of personal
-luxuries and amusements in order to do his duty to the community by
-having his children properly taught. The State only interfered to make
-schooling as cheap and as easy to obtain as possible.
-
-The solidarity of Hellenic life, which converted eudæmonism into
-patriotism, was carefully encouraged by the educational system.
-Sparta, with this object, invented the boarding-school, where boys
-learnt from early years to sink their individualities in a community
-of character and interests. The Athenians and most of the other
-Hellenes, on the other hand, had day-schools. This fact might seem to
-militate against the principle which I have stated. But Hellenic
-custom qualified the system of day-schools in a particular way. There
-were no home-influences in Hellas. The men-folk lived out of doors.
-The young Athenian or Ephesian from his sixth year onwards spent his
-whole day away from home (excepting possibly for an interval for the
-mid-day meal), in the company of his contemporaries, at school or
-palaistra or in the streets. When he came home, there was no
-home-life. His father was hardly ever in the house. His mother was a
-nonentity, living in the women’s apartments; he probably saw little of
-her. His real home was the palaistra, his chief companions his
-contemporaries and his paidagogos. He learned to dissociate himself
-from his family and associate himself with his fellow-citizens. No
-doubt he lost much by this system, but the solidarity of the State
-gained.
-
-The duties of citizenship were also impressed upon the boys in other
-and more direct ways, especially its supreme duty, at any rate in
-those days, of military service. The schools of Sparta and Crete were
-one long training for war. The other States set apart two years of the
-boy’s life, those from eighteen to twenty, as a period of
-conscription, during which he was at the service of his city and under
-the orders of the military authorities, learning tactics and the use
-of arms, and being practised in the life of camps and forts. The young
-recruit took a solemn oath of allegiance to his country and its
-constitution: the sacredness of his civic duties was impressed upon
-him from the first. The first function of his new officers was to take
-him on a personally conducted tour, so to speak, of the national
-temples, that he might realise something of the religious life and
-history of his country. His weapons were solemnly presented to him in
-the theatre of Dionusos, before the assembled people; they were
-sacred, and to lose them in battle or disgrace them by cowardice was
-not only dishonourable, it was impious. Nor were the boys allowed to
-grow up in ignorance of the constitution of their city: the ephebos of
-eighteen had to be acquainted with the laws, some of which he had
-probably learnt in the music-school, set to a tune. Every means was
-taken of making the boys realise that they were members of a
-community, to whose prosperity and happiness their own advantage or
-pleasure must be subordinated. In this way grew up the strong Hellenic
-sense of an obligation of utter self-sacrifice on behalf of the State.
-
-But education had also to consult the happiness of the children as
-well as the happiness of the community, although in a lesser degree.
-This may seem a startling statement to make with regard to Spartan
-education. Nevertheless, I believe it to be strictly true. It must be
-remembered that all our accounts of the rigours and horrors of Spartan
-methods come from Athenian writers who in all probability had never
-been to Lakedaimon. Xenophon, who had his sons educated there, gives a
-much milder, and wholly eulogistic, account. The somewhat hedonistic
-Attic visitor must have watched Spartan games and exercises with much
-the feelings of a French visitor at an English public school; he found
-it difficult to realise that the boys underwent such hardships of
-their own free will. Then we must remember what the Spartan boys were.
-They were a picked breed of peculiar toughness, strength, and health;
-for centuries every invalid had been exposed at birth or rejected as
-incapable of the school-system. Generation after generation had been
-trained to be thick-skinned and stout-hearted; pluck and endurance
-were hereditary, and asceticism was a national characteristic. The
-whole system, with its perpetual fighting, its rough games, its
-hardships, its fagging and “roughing-it” in the woods, is just what
-boys of this sort might be expected to evolve for themselves because
-they liked it. I have already pointed out, in my account of the
-Spartan schools, how very similar are many of the customs which grew
-up at the older English public schools, mainly on the boys’ own
-initiative. If English boys, brought up on the whole much less
-roughly, evolved such customs of their own free will, the young
-Spartans may reasonably be supposed to have accepted them gladly. One
-significant token of this survives. The violent and sometimes fatal
-floggings of the epheboi at the altar of Artemis Orthia were entirely
-voluntary on the part of the victims; yet there was no lack of
-candidates even in Plutarch’s days. The Spartan school-system was, in
-fact, an exact expression of the national characteristics, and
-accordingly was entirely acceptable to the Spartan boys.
-
-That the Athenian system was designed to suit the wishes of the
-Athenian children is less difficult to establish. It is only necessary
-to think what the primary schools were like. When once the letters and
-rudiments of reading and writing had been mastered, the process
-perhaps being aided by metrical alphabets and dramatised spelling, the
-boys began to read, learn by heart, and write down the fascinating
-stories of adventure and the romantic tales of Homer. There was no
-grammar to be studied; that, when invented, came at a later age as a
-voluntary subject. There were no years wasted over “Primary Readers”
-consisting of dull and second-rate stories. The boys began at once
-upon the best and most attractive literature in their language, and it
-remained their study for many years, and was still remembered and
-loved in after life. Nor can it be doubted that the music- and
-art-schools were attractive to Athenian boys, sons of a people who
-filled their whole city with art, and made their year a round of
-musical festivals. A large part, too, of Athenian schooling was what
-now would be called play; for the Hellene recognised the importance of
-physical exercise in the upbringing of the young, and included it in
-his conception of education.
-
-The effect upon Hellenic culture of thus making education attractive
-was far-reaching. Instead of regarding with aversion or a bored
-indifference the subjects which they had studied at school, the
-Hellenes had an affection for them and continued to practise and
-improve themselves in them. Throughout their lives they were eager to
-hear recitations of Homer. At banquets they sang the songs and played
-the music on the lyre which they had learnt at school. Elderly men
-would return to a music-master, to improve their style, or rush off to
-hear a Sophist lecture on geography or astronomy. The exercises of the
-palaistra were pursued till old age made them impossible. Grown
-citizens retained throughout an affection for education, and went on
-educating themselves all their lives. Thus an Hellenic city formed a
-centre of widely diffused culture, a home where literature and art and
-music and research could flourish surrounded by appreciation and
-capable criticism. Children, too, seeing how much their elders were
-preoccupied with education, found it even more attractive than its
-designers had made it, since they were not constrained by
-nursery-logic to see in it one of the plagues of youth from which
-“grown-ups” were set free. No doubt the Hellenic schoolmaster was much
-assisted in his endeavour to make education attractive by the
-intellectual curiosity which was a feature of all those States where
-the intellect was systematically trained. The young Athenian or young
-Chian was exceedingly eager to learn. In fact, his eagerness was
-excessive; he was too much in a hurry; he desired to have his
-information given to him ready-made, not having the patience to think
-or to undertake researches on his own account. Hence the phenomenal
-success and educational unsoundness of those prototypes of the modern
-“crammer,” the Sophists, who supplied their pupils with a superficial
-knowledge of many subjects ready-made, and already dressed in striking
-phraseology. This intellectual appetite for the accumulation of facts
-made secondary education at Athens attractive without much effort on
-the part of the teachers, but it was not allowed to influence the
-primary schools; a sound and symmetrical development of mind and body,
-artistic taste and moral character, had to precede the accumulation of
-facts. This latter stage too was universally treated as optional. In
-unintellectual districts it found no place, and even in Athens it was
-only for those who felt a desire for it; it was not forced upon the
-unwilling and incapable. For education was regarded as the development
-of the latent powers of the individual personality, it was no vain
-attempt to excite or implant non-existent faculties. Every one had a
-body, which he must make as efficient as possible, for the service of
-the State; every one, in an æsthetic people, had a taste which could
-be developed; every one had enough intellect to learn his letters; and
-every one, above all, had a character to be formed. But not every one
-could be an international athlete or a first-class artist or musician,
-and not every one had sufficient mental gifts to combine the
-accumulation of facts with profit or enjoyment.
-
-In fact, Hellenic sentiment was distinctly adverse to great
-development in any one direction: the Hellenes had a reasonable horror
-of undue specialisation at school. The object of education was to make
-symmetrical, all-round men, sound alike in body, mind, character, and
-taste, not professional athletes who were mentally vacuous and without
-any appreciation of art, nor great thinkers of stunted physique, nor
-celebrated musicians who lacked brains. Opponents of the Spartan
-system tried to condemn it on this ground, as a specialisation
-intended only to produce good soldiers; but the pro-Spartans seemed to
-have claimed in return that it developed both character and good taste
-in judging art and music, even if it produced small capacity for
-painting or playing, while Laconian terseness involved a greater depth
-of mental exercise than Athenian verbosity.
-
-Thus Hellenic education was not intended to produce professional
-knowledge of a single subject; such technical instruction was deemed
-unworthy of the name of education, and was excluded from the schools.
-The subjects studied were for the most part a means, not an end. Just
-as a walk is sometimes taken not for the sake of reaching any
-particular place, but in order to keep the muscles of the body in good
-condition, so education in Hellas was meant to develop and exercise
-the muscles of mind, imagination, and character, not to inculcate
-so-called “useful” information. The literature read at school was
-imaginative poetry, like that of Homer or Simonides, not the practical
-prose treatises upon Agriculture and Economics which utilitarian
-motives would have demanded. For the poetry was both attractive to the
-boys and improving for their characters, while the handbooks, however
-excellent, only enhanced their financial prospects. The immediate
-future of the individual boy may, it is true, depend somewhat largely
-upon the utilitarian knowledge which he has learnt at school, although
-a sound education in the Hellenic sense of the word will prove more
-advantageous to him in the long run; but the future of a State depends
-upon the character of its citizens. Thus a truly national education
-like that of Sparta or of Athens seeks to train the characters of the
-future citizens; having formed their characters, it leaves them with
-well-justified confidence to gain what technical instruction they need
-for themselves. At a national crisis it was not skill in trade or
-profession, not good cobbling, nor good weaving, that Athens required
-of her citizens; but pluck, energy, self-sacrifice, obedience, and
-loyalty. Money was, it is true, required for building the triremes and
-for fortifying the city: it was therefore well that Athenian trade and
-manufactures should prosper. But Athens recognised, and rightly, that
-her financial resources would be better served if she trained her boys
-to be industrious and thrifty and ascetic, if she made it repugnant to
-their taste to fling their money away upon luxury and self-indulgence,
-than if she founded the finest system of technical instruction
-possible.
-
-But whether Sparta and Athens could have ignored technical and
-utilitarian subjects so wholly in their schools, if they had been
-educating the whole population of the State, is another question. It
-must be remembered that the Spartan and Athenian citizens who attended
-the schools were only a fraction of the inhabitants of Laconia and
-Attica. They corresponded pretty closely to the upper classes, the
-aristocracy and gentlemen, of a modern State. The bulk of the middle
-and lower classes in a Hellenic State were either foreign immigrants,
-who possessed no civic rights and did not usually attend the schools,
-or serfs and slaves. Athens, like mediæval Florence, was only a
-democracy in the very limited sense that her full citizens――a
-governing class, that is, and a mere fraction of the population――had
-equality of civic rights among themselves: the rest had no rights at
-all. Sparta was a “mixed constitution”; but that did not mean that the
-middle and lower classes, the Perioikoi and Helots, had any share in
-it whatever.
-
-Consequently education in Hellas is the education of a small upper
-class, not of the whole population of the State. The schools of Hellas
-were not necessarily for the wealthiest inhabitants of the country,
-for there were plenty of rich Metoikoi and poor citizens at Athens;
-not necessarily for the boys who had most leisure, for the
-sausage-seller goes to school as well as a Nikias or Alkibiades; but
-for a hereditary aristocracy of birth, for that is what Hellenic
-“citizenship” means. The boys who attended the lessons of Dionusios or
-Elpias were the sons and grandsons of a cultured class, no matter how
-humble their circumstances might be; their families had lived in
-Attica, they believed, from time immemorial, and were probably
-descended from the local deities. They had the views of an hereditary
-caste, including a certain preoccupation with physical and military
-activities, and a contempt for trade.
-
-For the duties of such an aristocracy did not consist in heaping up
-riches; their position was comparatively independent of their
-financial successes. Their work was, in brief, to govern and to fight.
-They composed the electorate of the State, which chose the
-magistrates; they alone were members of the public Assembly; they
-alone were eligible for office. They sat as dikastai――jurymen and
-justices in one――in the law-courts; they made the laws and they
-administered them. The national honour and morality lay in their
-hands, for they controlled alike the foreign and the home policy of
-the State. They formed, too, the cultured circle which governed
-natural taste; it was their criticism which shaped the art of the
-vase-painters, the architects, the sculptors, the bronze-makers, and
-the countless other artistic tradesmen, the style of the orators, the
-literature of dramatists and dithyrambists, the music of the choric
-composers. When governors and administrators were needed for the
-outlying districts of the Athenian or Spartan Empires, or if officers
-were required to lead local levies to battle, any citizen, rich or
-poor, might be sent. The citizens, too, formed the core of the fleets
-and armies in the best days of Hellas. The object of Hellenic
-education was to produce this type of citizen――a man capable of
-governing, of fighting, and of setting the taste and standards of his
-country.
-
-Thus the schools of Hellas correspond in England not to the national
-schools, but to the “public schools.” I do not mean to assert that the
-English public-school boy stands, in after life, in the position of
-the Hellenic citizen to the bulk of the population. English democracy
-rests on a wider basis than Athenian or Florentine, and, in theory at
-any rate, the exclusive power of the “upper classes” is at an end.
-None the less it is true that from among the boys educated at the
-public schools comes a very considerable part of the generals and
-military officers, of the clergy, of the squires, of the Justices of
-the Peace and other administrators of the law, of the governors and
-officials required by the Indian Empire and the various dependencies
-and Crown Colonies, of the members of Parliament and statesmen at
-home. If the influence of the public schools of England upon the
-governing and fighting of the nation is less than that which the
-schools of Hellas were able to exercise, their influence upon national
-taste and standards in art and culture and literature is probably in
-no way inferior. It is therefore their duty to train their pupils’
-characters, that they may be fit and able administrators, governors,
-and justices; and their tastes, that their criticism and demands may
-rightly direct the culture of the nation. In striving after these
-ends, the public schools of England may, I think, take not a few hints
-from the like-motived schools of Hellas.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX
-
-
-  Abacus, illustrated, 104
-
-  Aegina pediment, 5
-
-  Aeolian harmony, 240, 241
-
-  Aeschylus, 245
-
-  Aesop, 49, 96
-
-  Agesilaos, 13, 138, 236
-
-  Aglauros, temple of, 210
-
-  Aineias Tacticus, 208
-
-  Aischines, father of, an usher, 83
-
-  Akademeia, 125
-    description of scene in, 134-142
-    Plato’s teaching in the, 196-207
-    Plato’s lectures in the, described by Epikrates, 199
-    Plato’s lectures, reference by Ephippos and Antiphanes, 200
-    Plato’s lectures in the, reference by Amphis, 201
-    Plato’s lectures in the, references in Comedy, 201
-    Plato’s lectures in the, reference by Alexis, 200-201
-    Plato’s pupils described by Ephippos, 200
-
-  Alexander, 2, 203
-
-  Alexis, 207
-    his catalogue of a school library, 95
-    on the Akademeia, 200-201
-
-  Alkibiades, 207, 277
-    plays the flute, 111
-    in the pankration, 133
-
-  Alphabet, metrical, 88
-
-  Amphis, on the Akademeia, 201
-
-  Anaxagoras, 81, 158, 209, 230
-
-  Angelo, Michel, 5
-
-  Anthology, on wrestling, 132
-
-  _Antidosis_ of Isokrates, 190
-
-  Antigenes, palaistra of, 60
-
-  Antipater, 192
-
-  Antiphanes, on the Akademeia, 200
-
-  Antiphon the Sophist, 172-173
-
-  Apelles, 115
-
-  Apollodoros, 208
-
-  Apprenticeship, 44-45
-
-  Arcadia, 243
-
-  Archephebos, 220
-
-  Archon Eponumos, 71 _n._
-
-  _Areiopagitikos_ of Isokrates, 190
-
-  Areiopagos, supervision of the young, 70
-    and the epheboi, 213
-
-  Ares, 211
-
-  Argos, 12 _n._
-    foot-races for girls at, 142
-
-  Aristophanes, supports athleticism, 123
-    criticism of Sophists in the _Clouds_, 166-167
-    attacks new artistic standards, 251
-
-  Aristotle, 202
-    condemns professional athletes, 123
-    at Plato’s lecture on “The Good,” 198
-    his school in the Lukeion, 203
-    views on art in education, 117, 258
-
-  Aristoxenos, 171
-
-  Arithmetic, teaching of, 100-107
-
-  Arkadia, schools in, 77, 243
-
-  Art, characteristics of Greek, 237-239
-    teaching of, in primary schools, 114-117
-
-  Artemis Koruthalia, 40
-
-  Artemis Orthia, 29, 285
-
-  Artistic education, 237-258
-    Aristotle on, 117
-
-  Art-schools, date of the rise of, 115
-
-  Aster, Plato’s pupil, 201-202
-
-  Astupalaia, school in, 77
-
-  Athleticism at Sparta, 11-34
-    in Crete, 36-38
-    at Athens and the rest of Greece, 118-156
-    revolt against excessive, 75
-    excessive addiction to, 119-132
-
-  Autokrator, 192
-
-  Autolukos, 75-76
-
-  Auxo, 211
-
-  Axiothea, 197
-
-
-  Barbitos, 108
-
-  Bathing-room in the gymnasium, 137
-
-  Boiotia, schools in, 76
-
-  Books, use of, in education, 204-209
-    Isokrates’ opinion of, 204
-    Plato’s opinion of, 205
-    rare before the Periclean age, 207
-    trade in, 207
-    prices of, 208-209
-    variety of, 208
-
-  _Bousiris_ of Isokrates, 185, 187, 195
-
-  Boxing in the palaistra, 132-133
-
-  Bribery, among professional athletes, 121
-
-
-  Cavalry, training for, 143, 149-152
-
-  Chabrias, 202
-
-  Chancellor (Kosmetes) of the epheboi, 212-213
-
-  Chares, 208
-
-  Charondas, 62
-
-  _Cheiron, Precepts of_, 96
-
-  Chess (πεσσοί [pessoi]), 105
-
-  Children, exposure of Spartan, 13
-
-  Chios, Isokrates in, 181
-    collapse of a school of letters in, 76
-    girls wrestling in, 142
-
-  Choirilos, 95, 207
-
-  Choregia, description of, 148-149
-
-  Choregos, 60, 148
-
-  Competitions, local, 62-65
-
-  Conscription, 283
-    at Athens, 55-56
-
-  Cookery-book, 207
-    by Simos, 96
-    by Mithaikos, 208
-
-  Cookery-schools, 45
-
-  Corporal punishment, 18, 29, 66, 68, 98-100, 262 and _n._, 285
-
-  Crete, education at, 34-38
-
-
-  Damon, a music-teacher, 113, 249
-
-  Dancing at Sparta, 22, 30-32
-    dithuramboi, 144-145
-    religious aspect of, 143-144, 248
-    dramatic aspects of, 144-145
-    systems of, 145
-    the War-dance, 146-147
-    the Naked-dance, 31, 147
-    universal throughout Hellas, 143
-    educational importance of, 143
-
-  Delphoi, educational endowments at, 62
-
-  Demosthenes, 195, 202
-
-  Derkulos, 71
-
-  Diaulos, 133
-
-  Dictation, 87
-
-  Diodotos, 192
-
-  Dion, 202
-
-  Dionusia, epheboi at, 214
-
-  Dionusios, Plato’s master, 158, 160
-    Plato’s pupil, 202, 203
-
-  Dionusodoros the Sophist, 173
-
-  Dionusos, 144, 283
-
-  Diskos in the palaistra, 134
-
-  Dorian harmony, 240-241
-
-  Douris, Vase of, 52, 86, 92
-
-  Drama, influence of, in education, 248-249
-
-  Drawing, teaching of, in primary schools, 114
-
-  Dresden Gallery, 5
-
-  Dusting-room in the gymnasium, 137
-
-
-  Edgeworth, Maria, 74, 260
-
-  Egypt, in Plato’s _Laws_, 102-103
-
-  Eleusis, education at, 71
-
-  Elgin marbles, 3, 5
-
-  Elpias, school of, 83
-
-  Empedokles, 230
-
-  Enualios, 211
-
-  Epaminondas, 245
-
-  Ephebarchos, 220
-
-  Ephebic inscriptions, 221-223
-
-  Epheboi, 37, 263
-    examination and oath, 210-211
-    decline in number, 219-220
-
-  Ephippos, on the Akademeia, 200
-
-  Epicharmos, 95, 207
-
-  Epikrates, on Plato’s lectures, 199
-
-  Eponumos, Archon, 71 _n._
-
-  Eretria, school in, 77
-
-  Eros, 135
-
-  Eruthrai, school in, 77
-
-  Euagoras, 191
-
-  Eudikos, son of Apemantos, 98
-
-  Euenos of Paros, 168, 176
-
-  Euhemeros, 229 _n._
-
-  Euripides, his alphabetical puzzle, 90
-    denunciation of athleticism, 122
-    his rationalism, 230
-
-  Euthudemos the Sophist, 173
-
-  Euthudemos, companion of Sokrates, 207
-
-  Eutuchides, 155
-
-  Exposure of Spartan children on Taügetos, 13
-
-
-  Fees, 62, 278, 281
-    paid to schoolmasters, 81
-    of the paidotribes, 134
-    paid to Sophists, 168-169
-    of permanent secondary teachers, 182
-    in the Akademeia, 202-203
-    to the Sophronistai, 213
-
-  Festivals, school, 80-81
-
-  Flute, teaching of, 110
-    condemned by Pratinas, 110
-    condemned by Plato, 242
-    particulars of, 112
-
-  Flute-girls, professional, 111
-
-  “Foreign Legion,” 216, 218
-
-
-  Gelon of Syracuse, 228
-
-  Gesticulation, 129-130
-
-  Girls at Sparta, 29-30
-    wrestle at Chios, 142
-    foot-races for, at Argos, 142
-
-  Gorgias the Sophist, 168, 169, 174-176, 208
-    his euphuistic style, 176
-    his influence on later writers, 176
-
-  Grammatistes, 50
-
-  Gumnasiarchos, 213-214, 220
-    excursus on, 154-156
-
-  Gumnastes, distinct from paidotribes, 126 _n._
-
-  Gumnopaidia, 31, 146-147
-
-  Gymnasium, description of, 124
-    cost, 124
-    description of scene in, 134-142
-    ἀποδυτήριον [apodytêrion], 135
-    patron deities, 135
-    the oil-room, 136
-    the dusting-room, 137
-    the bathing-room, 137
-    the punch-ball room, 137
-    Sophists’ lectures, 138
-    central courtyard, 138-139
-    the xustos, 141
-
-  Gymnastics, excessive addiction to, 119-123
-    professional, disadvantages of, 120
-
-
-  Haltêres, 128
-
-  Hegemone, 211
-
-  _Helen_ of Isokrates, 185, 195
-
-  Hellas, educator of the world, 2-3
-
-  Hellenism, two currents of, 6
-    spread by Alexander, Rome, and the Renaissance, 2-3
-    spirit of, 3
-    methods of teaching, 4, 275-291
-
-  Henty, G. A., 260
-
-  Hephaisteia, 155
-
-  Herakleides of Pontos, 36 _n._, 198, 202, 241
-
-  Herakleitos, 229
-
-  Hermann, K. F., an emendation of, 125
-
-  “Hermes” of Praxiteles, 5, 250
-
-  Herondas, third Mime of, 98-100
-
-  Hesiod, 207
-    authority of, 228
-    teaching of, in primary schools, 95
-
-  Hestiaios, 198
-
-  Hippias of Elis, 97, 168, 169, 172
-
-  Hippokleides, 129
-
-  Hippokrates, 208, 215
-
-  Hippothontid tribe, 215
-
-  Holidays, on festivals, 80-81
-
-  Homer, 207
-    teaching of, in primary schools, 93-95
-    authority of, 228
-
-  Horace, 2
-
-  Hunting, 142-143, 259
-
-  Hupereides, 202
-
-  Hypo-Dorian harmony, 241
-
-
-  Iliaca, Tabula, 84
-
-  Ink, 85, 87
-
-  Inscriptions, ephebic, 221-223
-
-  Inukos, 168
-
-  Ion, the rhapsode, 97
-
-  Ionian harmony, 240-241
-
-  Iphikrates, 202
-
-  Isaios, 195
-
-  Isokrates, 161
-    pupil of Gorgias, 169
-    his school near the Lukeion, 180
-    teaching in Chios, 181
-    on the theory of education, 182
-    on the nature of philosophy, 184
-    his school described, 185-195
-    his methods, 186-190
-    his pupils, 191, 192
-    on theory of education, 192
-    definition of the educated man, 192-193
-    on religious myths, 230-231
-
-
-  Javelin and spear throwing in the palaistra, 134
-
-  Jiu-jitsu, 131
-
-  Jump, long, in the palaistra, 133
-
-
-  Kallias, his metrical alphabet, 88
-    his spelling drama, 88-90
-
-  Kameiros, in Rhodes, 53
-
-  Karia, 241 _n._
-
-  Karneia, 40
-
-  Kekropid tribe, 215, 219
-
-  Kikunna, 166
-
-  Kitharistes, 50
-
-  Klazomenai, 81
-
-  Kleinias, 243
-
-  Kleon, 113
-
-  Knucklebones, 65, 99, 105
-
-  Kolonos, 196
-
-  Konnaros, 65
-
-  Konnos, his music-school, 113
-
-  Korax, 208
-
-  Korubantic dances, 242 _n._
-
-  Kôrukoi, 128, 137
-
-  Kos, 215
-
-  Kosmetes of the epheboi, 212-213
-
-  Kottalos, in Herondas, 99-100
-
-  Kritias, 63, 277
-    plays the flute, 111
-
-  Kunaitha, 243
-
-  Kuretic dance in Crete, 36, 146
-
-  _Kuros, The Education of_, 259-272
-
-
-  Lampriskos, in Herondas, 99-100
-
-  Lampros, a music-teacher, 113, 164
-
-  Lastheneia, 197
-
-  Laughter, statue of, in Sparta, 12
-
-  Leap-frog in the palaistra, 130
-
-  Lectures in primary schools, 97
-
-  Leitourgiai, 60-61, 148
-    excursus on gumnasiarchoi, 154-156
-
-  Leokrates, 219
-
-  Lesbos, schools in, 77
-
-  Leschai at Sparta, 11
-
-  Libanius, 178
-
-  Libraries of Euthudemos, 207
-    of Peisistratos at Athens, 207
-    of Polukrates at Samos, 207
-
-  Library, a school, 95
-
-  Likumnios the Sophist, 176
-
-  Linos, 207
-
-  Literature, teaching of, in primary schools, 93-97
-    in secondary schools, 161-162
-
-  Logographoi, 180-181, 193
-
-  Long jump in the palaistra, 133
-
-  Lukeion, 125
-    description of scene in, 134-142
-
-  Lukourgos the orator, 202, 211
-
-  Lusandros, 16
-
-  Lusias, the logographos, 193
-
-  Lusis, 54
-
-  Lydian harmony, 240-242
-
-  Lyre, and lyric-schools, 107-114
-
-
-  Mantitheos, 60
-
-  Marathon, 3
-
-  Marriage customs, 48
-
-  Mathematics, teaching of, 100-107
-    in secondary schools, 159
-
-  Meals, hours of, 80
-
-  Medical beliefs, 243
-
-  Menander, 250
-
-  Menedemos, 196
-
-  Metrodoros, 230
-
-  Metrotimé, in Herondas, 98-100
-
-  Michel Angelo, 5
-
-  Mikkos, 138 n.
-
-  Mithaikos, 208
-
-  Mixed-Lydian harmony, 241
-
-  Moderators (Sophronistai), 70, 212-213, 220
-
-  Mounuchia, 213
-
-  Mousaios, 164
-
-  Mukalessos, schools at, 76
-
-  Muronides, 218
-
-  Music, 240-244
-    in Crete, 36-37
-    in primary schools, 107-114
-
-  Music, Plato on the value of, 113
-    Aristotle on the value of, 114
-    characteristics of Greek, 240-244
-    Greek views of the properties of, 243
-    in Arkadia, 243
-
-  Music-schools, experiments in, 110
-
-
-  “Nature-study,” 262
-
-  Nikeratos, 94
-
-  Nikostratos, archonship of, 212
-
-
-  Oberammergau, 249
-
-  Oil-room in the gymnasium, 136
-
-  Oinopides, 158
-
-  Orpheus, 95, 164, 207
-
-  Oxurhunchos, fragment on wrestling unearthed at, 131
-
-
-  Paidagogos, 266, 278-279
-    duties of, 66-69
-
-  Paidonomos, 277
-
-  Paidotribes, 50, 278
-    duties of, 126
-    his symbol of office, 128
-    his fee, 134
-
-  Painting, teaching of, in primary schools, 114
-
-  Palaistra, distinct from gymnasium, 124
-    life in the, 124-134
-    teaching of gesticulation (τὸ χειρονομεῖν) [to cheironomein], 129
-    wrestling (πάλη) [palê], 130-132
-    leap-frog, 130
-    rope-climbing, 130
-    boxing, 132
-    pankration, 132-133
-    long jump, 133
-    running, 133
-    javelin and spear, 134
-    diskos, 134
-    fees of the paidotribes, 134
-
-  Pamphilos the Macedonian, 115
-
-  Panathenaic festival, 148, 152, 155
-
-  _Panathenaikos_ of Isokrates, 187, 189
-
-  Pankration in the palaistra, 132-133
-
-  Parthenon, 244, 245
-    the “Theseus” of the, 5
-
-  Peiraieus, 213
-
-  Peisistratos, 247
-    popularisation of Homer by, 52
-
-  Pencils, 84
-
-  Perikles, 3, 246, 276
-
-  Peripoloi, 214 and n., 215
-
-  Permanent secondary schools, 179-209
-    their natural growth at Athens, 179
-    fees, 182
-    of Isokrates, 185-195
-
-  Phaüllos, 139
-
-  Pheidias, 245, 250
-
-  Pheiditia at Sparta, 13-15
-
-  Pheidostratos, schoolroom of, 98
-
-  Pherekrates, _The Slave-Teacher_, 45
-
-  Philosophy, schools of, 195-207
-    their feuds, 203-204
-
-  Philoxenos, 242
-
-  Phokion, 202
-
-  Phrunichos, 215
-
-  Phrunis, 12
-
-  Phrygian harmony, 240
-
-  Physical education, 279
-    in Athens and the rest of Hellas, 118-156
-    contemporary criticism of excess, 119-123
-    dancing, 143-149
-
-  Pindar, eulogy of athleticism, 121-122
-
-  Pittalos, 45
-
-  Plataea, oath of the army at, 211
-
-  Plato, denounces excessive athleticism, 123
-    criticism of Sophists, 174
-    his teaching in the Akademeia, 196-207
-    his teaching in the Akademeia described by Epikrates, 199
-    teaching in the Akademeia: his affection for his pupils, 201-202
-    teaching in the Akademeia: names of his pupils, 202
-    teaching in the Akademia, gratuitous, 203
-    on the theory of education, 205-206
-    criticism of religious myths, 231-233
-    on the value of myths, 235
-    on the educative value of artistic environment, 246
-    his excessive imagination, 247
-    on the Athenian drama, 253
-    criticism of art, 255-258
-    on Xenophon’s Kuros, 272
-
-  Playgrounds, 83
-
-  Plecktron, 107
-
-  Poetry, place of, in education, 247-249
-
-  Polemon, 201
-
-  Polos the Sophist, 168, 176, 208
-
-  Polugnotos, 115
-
-  Polybios, on Arcadian music, 243
-
-  Pratinas, on the flute, 110
-
-  Praxiteles, the “Hermes” of, 5, 250
-
-  Prizes, 65
-
-  Prodikos the Sophist, 168, 171-172
-    _Choice of Herakles_, 96, 98, 171-172
-
-  Propulaia, 245
-
-  Protagoras the Sophist, 167-168, 170, 230
-
-  Proverbs, Greek, 45, 57 _n._, 110, 111, 152
-
-  Public schools, English, compared, 23, 212 _n._, 265
-
-  Punch-ball, 137
-
-  Pyrrhic dance, 36
-
-
-  Raphael, 5
-
-  Rationalism, spread of, 229-230
-
-  Reading, teaching of, 87-92
-
-  Religious education, 228-236
-    Plato’s revision, 231-233
-
-  Rhetoric in secondary schools, 160-161
-    weaknesses of Greek, 174-175
-
-  Riding, 143, 149-152
-
-  Rope-climbing in the palaistra, 130
-
-  Rowing, 143, 153-154
-
-  Running, long-distance, 133
-    in the palaistra, 133
-
-
-  Salmudessos, 207
-
-  Schoolmaster, status of, 81
-
-  Secondary education, 157-209
-    secondary classes in primary schools, 157-158
-    Sophists, 157-178
-    permanent schools, 179-209
-    variety of subjects, 159
-    rhetoric, 160-161
-    literary subjects, 161
-    the education voluntary, 163
-
-  _Semelé_, 145, 256
-
-  Shakespeare, 249
-
-  Shelley, translation of epigram, 202
-
-  Siburtios, palaistra of, 60
-
-  Sicily, education in Chalcidian cities of, 62
-
-  Sikinnos, 67
-
-  Simon, 208
-
-  Simos, his cookery-book, 96
-
-  Sistine Chapel, 5
-
-  Skias, council-chamber at Sparta, 12
-
-  Skillous, 259
-
-  _Slave-Teacher, The_, of Pherekrates, 45
-
-  Sokrates, 167, 230, 270, 277
-
-  Solon, 57, 247
-    enactment on handicraft, 45
-    regulations about paidagogoi, 67
-    enactments to safeguard morality, 68-69
-    archaic phrases in his laws, 95
-    on courtiers, 104
-    metrical version of Athenian laws, 109
-    ? on gumnasiarchai, 155
-
-  Sophists, 157-178, 286
-    and mathematics, 102
-    subjects taught, 165
-    criticism of Aristophanes, 166
-    criticism of Plato, 174
-    scale of fees, 169
-    secret of their power, 170
-    their undemocratic influence, 177
-    their rationalism, 177
-    criticised by Isokrates, 182
-
-  Sophokles, 3
-
-  Sophronistai, 70, 212-213, 220
-
-  Sparta, education at, 11-34
-    character of people, 11
-    importance of education at, 12
-    details of Pheiditia, 13-15
-    the State a military machine, 12
-    conservatism of, 12
-    strictness of discipline, 13
-    Spartan nurses, 13
-    system of State schools, 14
-    Syssitia, 39-40
-    ideals in education, 275
-    educational methods, 285
-
-  Spelling, teaching of, 88-90
-
-  Spelling-book, terra-cotta fragment of, 89 _n._
-
-  Speusippos, 202
-
-  Stadion, 133
-
-  Stesimbrotos, 230
-
-  Swimming, 143, 152-153
-
-  Syntono-Lydian harmony, 242
-
-  Syssitia at Sparta, 39-40, 267
-    at Crete, 40-41
-
-
-  Tabula Iliaca, 84
-
-  Taügetos, exposure of Spartan children on, 13
-
-  Taureas, palaistra of, 60
-
-  Technical instruction, 44-46
-    of the logographoi, 180-181
-
-  Teles, 115, 160
-
-  Tennyson, quoted, 235
-
-  Teos, 220
-    educational endowments in, 62
-    prizemen in competitions, 63
-    recitations of boys at, 96
-
-  Tertiary education, 210-223
-
-  Thales (Cretan poet), 243
-
-  Thallo, 211
-
-  Thargelia, 148, 155
-
-  Theodoros, 160, 176
-
-  Theognis, 96
-
-  Theophanes, 212
-
-  Theophrastos, 243
-
-  Theory of education, 227-272, 275-291
-    Plato’s views on, 205-206
-    Xenophon’s views on, 259-272
-
-  Thermopylae, 3
-
-  “Theseus,” of the Parthenon, 5, 245
-
-  Thespis, 247
-
-  Thrasuboulos of Kaludon, 215
-
-  Thrasumachos, 177, 208
-
-  Timeas, palaistra of, 60
-
-  Timotheos, 12, 145
-
-  Timotheos the general, 196
-
-  Timotheos of Herakleia, 192
-
-  Tisias, 208
-
-  Tithenidia, 40
-
-  Torch-race, 155
-
-  Trade, Greek views on, 43
-
-  Troizen, schools in, 77, 220
-
-
-  Undressing-room in the gymnasium, 135
-
-
-  Virgil, 2
-
-
-  Wax, tablets of, 84
-
-  Women, gymnastics for, at Sparta, 30
-    seclusion of, 46
-    duties of, 47
-    excluded from athletics in Athens, 142
-    admitted to the Akademeia, 197
-    position of, 282
-
-  Wrestling in the palaistra described, 130-132
-
-  Writing, teaching of, 85-87
-
-
-  Xenokrates, 196, 201, 202, 203
-
-  Xenophanes, 229
-
-  Xenophanes of Kolophon, criticises athleticism, 121
-
-  Xenophon, treatise on _The Horse_, 208
-    handbooks on educational subjects, 208
-    _The Education of Kuros_, 259-272
-    character of, 259-260
-
-  Xerxes, 61, 239
-
-  Xustos, in the gymnasium, 141
-
-
-  Zeuxippos of Heraklea, 114
-
-
-  ἄβακος [abakos], 104
-
-  ἀγέλαι [agelai], 37
-
-  ἀλειπτής [aleiptês], 126 _n._
-
-  ἀνδρεῖα [andreia], 35
-
-  ἀπεργάζεσθαι [apergazesthai], 116
-
-  ἀπόδρομοι [apodromoi], 38
-
-  ἀποδυτήριον [apodytêrion], 135
-
-
-  γραμμαί [grammai], 86
-
-  γραμματιστής [grammatistês], 165
-
-  γυμνασιαρχεῖν [gymnasiarchein], 155
-
-  γυμνοπαιδία [gymnopaidia], 146
-
-
-  ἐλαιοθέσιον [elaiothesion], 136 _n._
-
-  ἐξαλείφειν [exaleiphein], 116
-
-  ἔπαικλον [epaiklon], 39
-
-  ἐπίκροτος [epikrotos], 151
-
-
-  ἦθος [êthos], 244
-
-
-  κάθαρσις [katharsis], 242
-
-  κατάστεγος δρόμος [katastegos dromos], 136
-
-  κιθαριστής [kitharistês], 165
-
-  κοπίδες [kopides], 40
-
-  κρυπτοί [kryptoi], 215, 220
-
-
-  ληξιαρχικὸν γραμματεῖον [lêxiarchikon grammateion], 210
-
-
-  μεγαλόψυχος [megalopsychos], 236
-
-  μειράκιον [meirakion], 53, 191
-
-  μέτοικοι ἰσοτελεῖς [metoikoi isoteleis], 216
-
-
-  ξηραλοιφεῖν [xêraloiphein], 136 _n._
-
-
-  ὁμόνοια [homonoia], 172
-
-  ὄρμος [hormos], 30 _n._
-
-
-  παιδαγωγεῖον [paidagôgeion], 84
-
-  παιδονόμος [paidonomos], 36
-
-  πάλη [palê], 130-132
-
-  πεμπάζειν [pempazein], 104
-
-  περιγραφή [perigraphê], 116
-
-  περιτόλια [peripolia], 215
-
-  πεσσοί [pessoi], 105
-
-  πλέξον [plexon], 131
-
-
-  σκιαγραφία [skiagraphia], 116
-
-  σοφιστής [sophistês], 164, 165
-
-  στλεγγίς [stlengis], 142
-
-  σχῆμα [schêma], 131
-
-
-  ὑπαίθριοι [hypaithrioi], 215
-
-  ὑπογραμμός [hypogrammos], 85
-
-  ὑπογράφειν [hypographêin], 116
-
-  ὑπογραφή [hypographê], 86
-
-
-  φορβέια [phorbeia], 112, 128
-
-
-  χειρονομεῖν [cheironomein], 129
-
-  χυτλοῦσθαι [chytlousthai], 136 _n._
-
-
-
-
-
-THE END
-
-_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note
-
-Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
-this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
-end of the chapter in which related anchors occur. Dialect, obsolete
-words and misspellings were left unchanged. Final stops missing at
-the end of sentences were added. Transliterations of words and phrases
-in Greek follow within brackets.
-
-The following items were noted or changed:
-
-  There are two anchors to Footnotes [28], [291], [449], [537], and
-    [548]. Footnote [585] has 3 anchors.
-  Unprinted “I.” added at the beginning of the list of Illustrations.
-  In Footnote [513], reference letter after 384 is unclear; it could be
-    either E or B.
-  In Footnote [651], changed stop to comma in list: “… 466, 470”.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Schools of Hellas, by Kenneth John Freeman
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