A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

GYMNĀSIUM (γυμνάσιον). The whole education of a Greek youth was divided into three parts,—grammar, music, and gymnastics (γράμματα, μουσική, γυμναστική), to which Aristotle adds a fourth, the art of drawing or painting. Gymnastics, however, were thought by the ancients a matter of such importance, that this part of education alone occupied as much time and attention as all the others put together; and while the latter necessarily ceased at a certain period of life, gymnastics continued to be cultivated by persons of all ages, though those of an advanced age naturally took lighter and less fatiguing exercises than boys and youths. The ancients, and more especially the Greeks, seem to have been thoroughly convinced that the mind could not possibly be in a healthy state, unless the body was likewise in perfect health, and no means were thought, either by philosophers or physicians, to be more conducive to preserve or restore bodily health than well-regulated exercise. The word gymnastics is derived from γυμνός (naked), because the persons who performed their exercises in public or private gymnasia were either entirely naked, or merely covered by the short chiton. Gymnastic exercises among the Greeks seem to have been as old as the Greek nation itself; but they were, as might be supposed, of a rude and mostly of a warlike character. They were generally held in the open air, and in plains near a river, which afforded an opportunity for swimming and bathing. It was about the time of Solon that the Greek towns began to build their regular gymnasia as places of exercise for the young, with baths, and other conveniences for philosophers and all persons who sought intellectual amusements. There was probably no Greek town of any importance which did not possess its gymnasium. Athens possessed three great gymnasia, the Lyceum (Λύκειον), Cynosarges (Κυνόσαργες), and the Academia (Ἀκαδημία); to which, in later times, several smaller ones were added. Respecting the superintendence and administration of the gymnasia at Athens, we know that Solon in his legislation thought them worthy of great attention; and the transgression of some of his laws relating to the gymnasia was punished with death. His laws mention a magistrate, called the gymnasiarch (γυμνασίαρχος or γυμνασιάρχης), who was entrusted with the whole management of the gymnasia, and with everything connected therewith. His office was one of the regular liturgies like the choregia and trierarchy, and was attended with considerable expense. He had to maintain and pay the persons who were preparing themselves for the games and contests in the public festivals, to provide them with oil, and perhaps with the wrestlers’ dust. It also devolved upon him to adorn the gymnasium, or the place where the agones were held. The gymnasiarch was a real magistrate, and invested with a kind of jurisdiction over all those who frequented or were connected with the gymnasia. Another part of his duties was to conduct the solemn games at certain great festivals, especially the torch-race (λαμπαδηφορία), for which he selected the most distinguished among the ephebi of the gymnasia. The number of gymnasiarchs was ten, one from every tribe. An office of very great importance, in an educational point of view, was that of the Sophronistae (σωφρονίσται). Their province was to inspire the youths with a love of σωφροσύνη, and to protect this virtue against all injurious influences. In early times their number at Athens was ten, one from every tribe, with a salary of one drachma per day. Their duty not only required them to be present at all the games of the ephebi, but to watch and correct their conduct wherever they might meet them, both within and without the gymnasium. The instructions in the gymnasia were given by the Gymnastae (γυμνασταί) and the Paedotribae (παιδοτριβαί); at a later period Hypopaedotribae were added. The Paedotribae were required to possess a knowledge of all the various exercises which were performed in the gymnasia; the Gymnastes was the practical teacher, and was expected to know the physiological effects and influences on the constitution of the youths, and therefore assigned to each of them those exercises which he thought most suitable. The anointing of the bodies of the youths and strewing them with dust, before they commenced their exercises, as well as the regulation of their diet, was the duty of the aliptae. [[Aliptae].]—Among all the different tribes of the Greeks the exercises which were carried on in a Greek gymnasium were either mere games, or the more important exercises which the gymnasia had in common with the public contests in the great festivals. Among the former we may mention, 1. The game at ball (σφαιριστική), which was in universal favour with the Greeks. [[Pila].] Every gymnasium contained one large room for the purpose of playing at ball in it (σφαιριστήριον). 2. Παίζειν ἑλκυστίνδα, διελκυστίνδα, or διὰ γραμμῆς, was a game in which one boy, holding one end of a rope, tried to pull the boy who held its other end, across a line marked between them on the ground. 3. The top (βεμβηξ, βέμβιξ, ῥόμβος, στρόβιλος), which was as common an amusement with Greek boys as it is with ours. 4. The πεντάλιθος, which was a game with five stones, which were thrown up from the upper part of the hand and caught in the palm. 5. Σκαπέρδα, which was a game in which a rope was drawn through the upper part of a tree or a post. Two boys, one on each side of the post, turning their backs towards one another, took hold of the ends of the rope and tried to pull each other up. This sport was also one of the amusements at the Attic Dionysia. The more important games, such as running (δρόμος), throwing of the δίσκος and the ἄκων, jumping and leaping (ἅλμα, with and without ἁλτῆρες), wrestling (πάλη), boxing (πυγμή), the pancratium (παγκράτιον), πένταθλος, λαμπαδηφορία, dancing (ὀρχήσις), &c., are described in separate articles. A gymnasium was not a Roman institution. The regular training of boys in the Greek gymnastics was foreign to Roman manners, and even held in contempt. Towards the end of the republic, many wealthy Romans who had acquired a taste for Greek manners, used to attach to their villas small places for bodily exercise, sometimes called gymnasia, sometimes palaestrae, and to adorn them with beautiful works of art. The emperor Nero was the first who built a public gymnasium at Rome.

GYMNĒSII or GYMNĒTES (γυμνήσιοι, or γυμνῆτες), a class of bond-slaves at Argos, who may be compared with the Helots at Sparta. Their name shows that they attended their masters on military service in the capacity of light-armed troops.

GYMNŎPAEDĬA (γυμνοπαιδία), the festival of “naked youths,” was celebrated at Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Pythaeus, Artemis, and Leto. The statues of these deities stood in a part of the agora called χορός, and it was around these statues that, at the gymnopaedia, Spartan youths performed their choruses and dances in honour of Apollo. The festival lasted for several, perhaps for ten, days, and on the last day men also performed choruses and dances in the theatre; and during these gymnastic exhibitions they sang the songs of Thaletas and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotus. The leader of the chorus (προστάτης or χοροποιός) wore a kind of chaplet in commemoration of the victory of the Spartans at Thyrea. This event seems to have been closely connected with the gymnopaedia, for those Spartans who had fallen on that occasion were always praised in songs at this festival. The boys in their dances performed such rhythmical movements as resembled the exercises of the palaestra and the pancration, and also imitated the wild gestures of the worship of Dionysus. The whole season of the gymnopaedia, during which Sparta was visited by great numbers of strangers, was one of great merriment and rejoicings, and old bachelors alone seem to have been excluded from the festivities. The introduction of the gymnopaedia is generally assigned to the year 665 B.C.

GỸNAECONĪTIS. [[Domus], Greek.]

GỸNAECŎNŎMI or GỸNAECŎCOSMI (γυναικονόμοι or γυναικοκόσμοι), magistrates at Athens, originally appointed to superintend the conduct of Athenian women. Their power was afterwards extended in such a manner that they became a kind of police for the purpose of preventing any excesses or indecencies, whether committed by men or by women. Hence they superintended the meetings of friends even in private houses, for instance, at weddings and on other festive occasions.

H

HALTĒRES (ἁλτῆρες) were certain masses of stone or metal, which were used in the gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans. Persons who practised leaping frequently performed their exercises with halteres in both hands; but they were also frequently used merely to exercise the body in somewhat the same manner as our dumb-bells.

Halteres. (Tassie, ‘Catalogue,’ pl. 46.)

HARMĂMAXA (ἁρμάμαξα), a carriage for persons, covered overhead and inclosed with curtains. It was in general large, often drawn by four horses, and attired with splendid ornaments. It occupied among the Persians the same place which the carpentum did among the Romans, being used, especially upon state occasions, for the conveyance of women and children, of eunuchs, and of the sons of the king with their tutors.