The Historical Child / Paidology; The Science of the Child

by Oscar Chrisman

Other Amusements.

The entertainments in the home were sometimes simply an informal affair, while again they were quite formal. A man wishing to give an entertainment would go out to the market-place or the gymnasium and invite his friends or he might send the invitations by a slave. After entrance into the home and the exchange of greetings, the meal was partaken of and the drinking was entered upon. Toasts were drank to one another and to absent ones, the young men taking the occasion to drink to their loved ones and to sing love-songs. Conversation would be entered upon and jokes and puns made, professional jesters being quite often hired for the evening. There would be games and conundrums and riddles and enigmas. A favorite game for such an evening was called kottabos, in which the player would throw the last drops of wine in his cup on to the head of a small brazen figure, which produced a clanging sound and a bobbing of the head; the louder the clang and the more violent the bobbing with the smaller the amount of the wine thrown, the greater the success of the player. There were dancing-girls and flute players and jugglers and contortionists. Recitations of passages from the poets were given and there were pantomimic and dramatic scenes acted. There might have been little of the kind of entertaining as noted above and the evening spent in deep conversation upon the important topics of the day and by the great philosophers and poets and dramatists and the other great men gathered on the occasion.

One of the very greatest amusements of the Greeks was that of the theater. These were usually built along a hillside, the seats being cut into the solid rock. The performances were held in connection with two of the leading religious festivals, the one in the midwinter and the other in the spring. The theaters were public and open to all the citizens and free of expense, the expenses being borne by the state or by wealthy citizens. There were no playbills nor similar kind of announcements of the plays, usually the audience not knowing what was to come till the play opened.

Dancing and music were among the pleasures of the young people. Of these were mimetic dances, representing mythological scenes. There were also warlike and choral dances performed at the feasts of the gods. There were professional dancers and singers and flute-players. There were a number of kinds of musical instruments. The types of the stringed instruments were represented by the lyre, the kithara, and the harp; the wind-instruments were the pipes, clarionets, and trumpets; and the clanging instruments were the castanets, cymbal, and tambourine.

The young men indulged in horse-racing; they frequented gambling places where dice was used; and they placed metal spurs on cocks, pheasants, and quails and fought them thus armed. Hunting was a favorite sport. It was quite fashionable for rich young men to have fine horses and, although they did ride some, yet they preferred to drive their horses to chariots.

The jugglers and acrobats were quite skilful and they were of both sexes. Outside the help of present day science, they seemed to have performed as remarkable feats as at the present time. They gave sword dances; they tossed hoops and balls; they did rope-walking and dancing; they extracted things from their eyes and ears and noses and mouths. They would stand on their hands and head and perform feats with their toes, as filling vessels with water and shooting bows and arrows. In one feat a woman acrobat would bend back her head till it met her heels, then she would clasp her feet with her hands and roll off like a hoop. In one exhibit there was a contrivance, known as the potter's wheel, in which a young woman would be whirled round rapidly and yet she managed to read and write while being so twirled.

Sickness and Death.

Although the Greeks enjoyed an exceptionally fine climate and gave especial care to the body, yet they were subject to diseases as other people. Their houses were not in sanitary conditions, the streets were not in proper order, and the water was not always pure. There were physicians who had quite good skill in the treatment of diseases and both medicine and surgery were in a fair condition, although superstition and folk-lore too often ruled. Athens and other cities employed physicians at public cost to care for the poor free of charge.

Burial of the dead was a very important function and one demanded by both custom and religion. Without this final honor, it was thought the spirit would wander restlessly on forever. So when a man died his family was bound to give him proper burial. This was considered so important that when a man died in a foreign land his body was brought home, or, if that was impossible, then a tomb was erected to him and the burial rites enacted. It was even considered disgraceful not to let enemies in war bury their dead and after battles a truce was entered upon that the dead might be buried.

When dead the body was washed and anointed and clothed in white and placed on a couch. A wreath was placed on the head and garlands about the body, which were given by friends. On the floor about the couch were set pitchers that were to be put into the grave or on the funeral pile. The burial took place early in the morning, at Athens, at least, before sunrise. In the earlier times the dead were buried in the houses, but later they were placed outside the cities, usually along a road, but in Sparta they were kept in the city, while in the country they were buried in the fields. The bodies either were buried or cremated, but as the latter was quite expensive it was used usually by the wealthy only.