The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks

by Hugo Blümner

We are no longer in a position to state how arithmetic, with whose practical uses the ancients were naturally well acquainted, was taught; but it is probable that—at any rate at Athens—this instruction was given at home and not at school, and was acquired by children in play by means of concrete objects, which enabled them to learn the principal notions and relations. As regards method, counting on the fingers was very common in Greece. The left hand was used to represent all the units and tens, and with the addition of the right hand all the hundreds and thousands; the mode in which a finger was placed on the open palm and the number of the fingers, which were either bent or stretched out, determined the number required. More complicated calculations were performed by help of an abacus with little stones, an ancient invention long known to the Egyptians, in which the arrangement of the stones in the parallel lines on the board determined their value as units, tens, hundreds, etc. We do not, however, know anything further about the arrangement of the Greek abacus.

The instruction in these elementary subjects occupied the first years of school life. In the twelfth or thirteenth year the instruction in music began, and was given by a special master called the harpist (κιθαριστής), the Greeks regarding music not from the standpoint of the modern amateur, as only a pleasant distraction for hours of recreation, but rather as an essential means of ethical development. The main object of the instruction was not the attainment of facility in execution on any instrument, but rather ability to render as well as possible the productions of the poets, especially the lyrists, and at the same time to accompany themselves suitably on a seven-stringed instrument. Accordingly, most weight was given to the instruction in the lyre (which we see in Fig. [75] in the hand of both teacher and pupil), while the cithara, on account of its louder sounding-board, as well as the phorminx, which was connected with it, if not, in fact, identical, were reserved for the use of professionals, and were regarded as a kind of concert instrument, and therefore learned specially by those who desired to attain something more than average proficiency in music. No doubt there was opportunity given in the ordinary schools for learning both kinds of stringed instrument. The flute, which, when used for purposes of accompaniment, could naturally not be played by the singer, was on this account less popular at Athens; at Thebes, on the other hand, it was universally popular, and it has been supposed that the neglect of the flute at Athens was due to the ancient antagonism between Attica and Boeotia; moreover, the flute, which originally belonged to the Bacchic worship of Asia Minor, with its sharp, shrill tone, was regarded as an exciting instrument, hostile to a calm state of mind, and therefore the philosophers all agreed in considering it unsuitable from a pedagogic point of view. We must not forget that the Greek flute was very different from that to which we give the name at the present day, which is regarded as a somewhat sentimental, effeminate instrument. There was, however, a time when flute-playing was popular at Athens among amateurs; according to Aristotle, the flute was introduced into Attic schools after the time of the Persian Wars, and soon became so popular that almost all the youths of the better classes learnt to play on it. Afterwards, however, apparently about the time of the Peloponnesian War, they recognised how very unsuitable this instrument was for intellectual and musical development, and it was again discarded by people of culture, probably in consequence of the example set by Alcibiades, who was regarded as a leader of fashion. Afterwards the flute was still learnt, and on vase pictures we see flutists and hetaerae playing it, as well as youths, but it was no longer a subject of instruction in the ordinary schools—at any rate, not at Athens. Naturally Sparta carefully avoided an instrument which was regarded as absolutely dangerous in its ethical effect.

No musical instruction, besides the elementary subjects and playing on stringed instruments and singing, was given at school during the best period of Athens. Boys attended school until the age of adolescence: that is, about their sixteenth year; though it is not probable that there was a definite limit of age; those who wished to extend their education had opportunities for doing so, even in the fifth century, by attending the sophists’ lectures. However, compared with the cheap fees of the elementary schools, the honorarium paid to these by their pupils was very high. There was no question of organised school instruction.

In the course of the fourth and the third centuries B.C. some other subjects of instruction were added to these. After the time of Alexander the Great, drawing was also taught to boys; probably this was due to the influence of Pamphilus, who was the Principal of the Painting School of Sicyon. The pupils learnt to draw with a style, or brush, on boxwood tablets, specially prepared for the purpose. As the school of Sicyon laid especial stress on correct drawing, and appears to have been rather behind the others in colouring, we may assume that the instruction in drawing was chiefly confined to outline, but we have few exact details concerning it.

At that time instruction in the elements of geometry was added to the teaching in arithmetic, but only the older boys appear to have learnt it. This seems to have begun as early as the fifth century, but Socrates thought it ought to be limited to what was absolutely necessary. The philosophers of the fourth century, however, recommended geometry as an excellent means for developing and sharpening the intellect and logical powers. Plato even suggests teaching boys in play not only arithmetic and geometry, but also the first principles of astronomy, and afterwards continuing the study more seriously till about their eighteenth year. Astronomy, however, would only signify to them what we now include in mathematical geography. Less educated people had a decided prejudice against geometry and other such abstract studies, on the ground that they were quite superfluous, since they were of no practical use in after years, either for the purposes of private or public life; and the opinion so often heard at the present day prevailed even then, that these subjects, since they could not be practically applied in after life, were only learnt for the purpose of being forgotten as soon as possible.

In this manner the grammatical and musical instruction developed the intellect of the boys, while gymnastic exercises were used to strengthen and train their bodies. Although these did not occupy quite so prominent a position at Athens as in the Dorian states, yet considerable time and attention were devoted to them, since the real aim of all pedagogic efforts was supposed to be the harmonious development of body and mind. It is not easy to determine at what age the gymnastic training began; what Plato and Aristotle say on the subject merely gives the pedagogic opinion of these philosophers, but does not refer to actual existing circumstances. Among modern scholars some assume that both musical and gymnastic instruction began with the seventh year, and that from that time onwards boys went every day to two distinct schools. Others suppose that gymnastic instruction came first, but that at first the exercises were easy ones, suited to the previous life of the child and tending to strengthen his body, and that afterwards the training in elementary subjects began. We have too little information to pronounce a definite opinion.

The buildings in which the boys received their gymnastic training were not, as was formerly supposed, the gymnasia, but the wrestling schools (παλαῖστραι)—a name given to these establishments because wrestling and running were regarded as the most important exercises in elementary gymnastic training. No doubt other gymnastic exercises were practised at the wrestling school. Of course, many changes took place in the course of centuries till the time of the Roman Empire, and therefore it is but natural that very various opinions should prevail about the wrestling school and the gymnasium. The most probable theory is, that, at any rate at Athens in its best period, the instruction in gymnastics was given at the wrestling school, while the gymnasium was used for the further training and development of the youths. The wrestling school was not a public institute, but a private undertaking conducted by a teacher of gymnastics, who received a fee for the use of the building and the instruction given by him. These schools were under directors and managers (παιδοτρίβαι); the institutes usually bore their names, but they were sometimes called after the founder. Like other masters, they had a full disciplinary right over their pupils but they were also subject to the supervision of the inspectors mentioned above, whose duty it was to see that nothing which offended against morality took place in the gymnastic institutes, and also that the instruction was methodical and suited to the different ages. Besides these inspectors, no one else, except the paidagogoi who accompanied their charges, was allowed to be present at the instruction in the wrestling school; an ordinance of Solon’s forbade admission to grown men, but in later times this rule seems to have fallen into disuse.

The gymnastic training had a double purpose; in the first place to teach the boys a modest and dignified bearing (much as dancing is taught in the present day), and in the second, which, of course, was most important, to train them in the chief gymnastic exercises. These were jumping, which included both the high and long jump, for which purpose dumb-bells were generally used; racing, throwing the quoit and the spear, and wrestling. Boxing was not included in the instruction given to boys, nor yet the pancratium, a combination of wrestling and boxing, nor the pentathlum, a combination of five exercises specially used in athletic contests, and therefore not generally practised at the wrestling unless boys were to take part in some public contest, in which case they might, of course, be prepared here beforehand. We shall deal later on in greater detail with the separate exercises, and must therefore content ourselves for the present with merely enumerating them, since the exercises of the boys only differed in degree, but not in kind, from those of the youths and men.

Such was the training given to the boys until about their sixteenth year. This was, however, by no means the end of their education, at any rate not for boys of the better classes, who were not obliged to follow any definite profession; and the gymnastic training extended for several years longer. The years between adolescence and somewhere about the twentieth year were generally called ephebeia; but besides this expression we find a good many others, especially in inscriptions, which prove that there were several sub-divisions for the purposes of gymnastic exercises and tests, made according to age; in fact, they generally distinguished between a first, second, and third class of ephebi. But there were other special names in use. In ancient times the only distinction in the gymnastic tests was between boys and men, and the ephebi were therefore included in the former class; but afterwards they distinguished between boys, youths, and men, though these designations and their sub-divisions according to age seem to have varied a good deal according to time and place. In any case, we must distinguish between the use of the term ephebus in the gymnastic classes and in the State. For State purposes it was not applied till the eighteenth or nineteenth year, and the boy had then to take his oath as a citizen; his name was entered in the book of his deme, and he received a warrior’s shield and spear. The oath taken by the ephebi, composed by Solon, has been preserved to us. The youth had to swear “Never to disgrace his holy arms, never to forsake his comrade in the ranks, but to fight for the holy temples and the common welfare, alone or with others; to leave his country, not in a worse, but in a better state than he found it; to obey the magistrates and the laws, and defend them against attack; finally to hold in honour the religion of his country.” The witnesses to this oath were, besides Zeus, a number of special Attic local deities of military or agrarian importance.

When a boy attained to the condition of ephebus he discarded the himation and adopted the chlamys as his characteristic dress. The hair, which was worn long by boys, was cut short, and this act of cutting the hair was a kind of religious ceremony, since the hair cut off was often dedicated to some deity. This sacred rite, the importance of which we can better understand if we imagine our modern rite of Confirmation combined with the attainment of majority, was usually celebrated as a festival in the family circle. The new ephebi, after taking their oath and receiving their arms, were presented publicly to the people in the Theatre. This usually took place at the festival of Dionysus, immediately before the performance of a tragedy. It is, however, not quite certain whether this introduction was confined to the sons of those only who had fallen in battle, whose equipment was presented to them by the State. This, however, like most of the details which we have about the ephebeia in Ancient Greece, refers specially to Athens; at Sparta and other places there were customs, more or less different, of which we know little or nothing. Moreover, at Athens, as well as in the rest of Greece and Asia Minor, the usage concerning the ephebi underwent many changes during the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire. The numerous inscriptions give us far more exact details of this later period than of the best time; but we refrain from discussing them, since this institution, which originally had an essentially warlike character, gradually became a mere matter of form, and was confined to the sons of rich citizens, who merely played with the customs without regarding their ethical or political importance. Most of the information which the inscriptions supply about the officers and teachers of the ephebi also belongs to the later period; a great many boards of management for the arrangements concerning the ephebi, which became more and more complicated, were either created fresh or transformed out of the older ones, but their importance and powers were entirely different. Moreover, our purpose is to confine our attention to the classical and Hellenistic period.