A Day In Old Athens

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[*]Herodotus, VI. 27.

49. The First Stories and Lessons.--Athens has no kindergartens.
The first teaching which children will receive is in the form of
fables and goblin tales from their mothers and nurses,--usually
with the object of frightening them into "being good,"--tales of the
spectral Lamie, or of the horrid witch Mormo who will catch nasty
children; or of Empusa, a similar creature, who lurks in shadows
and dark rooms; or of the Kabaloi, wild spirits in the woods. Then
come the immortal fables of Aesop with their obvious application
towards right conduct. Athenian mothers and teachers have no
two theories as to the wisdom of corporeal punishment. The rod
is never spared to the spoiling of the child, although during the
first years the slipper is sufficient. Greek children soon have
a healthy fear of their nurses; but they often learn to love them,
and funeral monuments will survive to perpetuate their grateful
memory.

50. The Training of Athenian Girls.--Until about seven years old
brothers and sisters grow up in the Gyneconitis together. Then the
boys are sent to school. The girls will continue about the house
until the time of their marriage. It is only in the rarest of
cases that the parents feel it needful to hire any kind of tutor
for THEM. What the average girl knows is simply what her mother
can teach her. Perhaps a certain number of Athenian women (of good
family, too) are downright illiterate; but this is not very often
the case. A normal girl will learn to read and write, with her
mother for school mistress.[*] Very probably she will be taught
to dance, and sometimes to play on some instrument, although this
last is not quite a proper accomplishment for young women of good
family. Hardly any one dreams of giving a woman any systematic
intellectual training.[+] Much more important it is that she
should know how to weave, spin, embroider, dominate the cook, and
superintend the details of a dinner party. She will have hardly
time to learn these matters thoroughly before she is "given a
husband," and her childhood days are forever over (see section 27).

[*]There has come down to us a charming Greek terra-cotta (it is
true, not from Athens) showing a girl seated on her mother's knee,
and learning from a roll which she holds.

[+]Plato suggested in his "Republic" (V. 451 f.) that women should
receive the same educational opportunities as the men. This was
a proposition for Utopia and never struck any answering chord.

Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education
which, both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of
the most interesting and significant features of Athenian life.

Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.

51. Athenians Generally Literate.--Education is not compulsory by
law in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a
modicum of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no
slight penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate.
In Aristophanes's famous comedy, "The Knights," a boorish
"sausage-seller" is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play,
must be one of the very scum of society, and he is made to cry,
"Only consider now my education! I can but barely read, just in
a kind of way."[*] Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in
Athens, the fellow should have been made out utterly ignorant. "He
can neither swim[+] nor say his letters," is a common phrase for
describing an absolute idiot. When a boy has reached the age of
seven, the time for feminine rule is over; henceforth his floggings,
and they will be many, are to come from firm male hands.

[*]Aristophanes, "Knights", II. 188-189.

[+]Swimming was an exceedingly common accomplishment among the
Greeks, naturally enough, so much of their life being spent upon
or near the sea.

52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education.--The true
education is of course begun long before the age of seven. CHARACTER
NOT BOOK-LEARNING, IS THE MAIN OBJECT OF ATHENIAN EDUCATION, i.e.
to make the boy self-contained, modest, alert, patriotic, a true
friend, a dignified gentleman, able to appreciate and participate
in all that is true, harmonius and beautiful in life. To that end
his body must be trained, not apart from, but along with his mind.
Plato makes his character Protagoras remark, "As soon as a child
understands what is said to him, the nurse, the mother, the pedagogue,
and the father vie in their efforts to make him good, by showing
him in all that he does that 'THIS is right,' and 'THAT is wrong';
'this is pretty,' and 'that is ugly'; so that he may learn what to
follow and what to shun. If he obeys willingly--why, excellent.
If not, then try by threats and blows to correct him, as men
straighten a warped and crooked sapling." Also after he is fairly
in school "the teacher is enjoined to pay more attention to his
morals and conduct than to his progress in reading and music."

53. The Schoolboy's Pedagogue.--It is a great day for an Athenian
boy when he is given a pedagogue. This slave (perhaps purchased
especially for the purpose) is not his teacher, but he ought to be
more than ordinarily honest, kindly, and well informed. His prime
business is to accompany the young master everywhere out-of-doors,
especially to the school and to the gymnasium; to carry his books
and writing tablets; to give informal help upon his lessons; to
keep him out of every kind of mischief; to teach him social good
manners; to answer the thousand questions a healthy boy is sure to
ask; and finally, in emergencies, if the schoolmaster or his father
is not at hand, to administer a needful whipping. A really capable
pedagogue can mean everything to a boy; but it is asking too much
that a purchased slave should be an ideal companion.[*] Probably
many pedagogues are responsible for their charges' idleness or
downright depravity. It is a dubious system at the best.

[*]No doubt frequently the pedagogue would be an old family servant
of good morals, loyalty, and zeal. In that case the relation might
be delightful.

The assigning of the pedagogue is simultaneous with the beginning
of school days; and the Athenians are not open to the charge
of letting their children waste their time during possible study
hours. As early as Solon's day (about 590 B.C.) a law had to be
passed forbidding schools to open BEFORE daybreak, or to be kept
open after dusk. This was in the interest not of good eyesight,
but of good morals. Evidently schools had been keeping even longer
than through the daylight. In any case, at gray dawn every yawning
schoolboy is off, urged on by his pedagogue, and his tasks will
continue with very little interruption through the entire day.
It is therefore with reason that the Athenian lads rejoice in the
very numerous religious holidays.

54. An Athenian School.--Leaving the worthy citizen's home, where
we have lingered long chatting on many of the topics the house and
its denizens suggest, we will turn again to the streets to seek
the school where one of the young sons of the family has been duly
conducted (possibly, one may say, driven) by his pedagogue. We
have not far to go. Athenian schools have to be numerous, because
they are small. To teach children of the poorer classes it is
enough to have a modest room and a few stools; an unrented shop
will answer. But we will go to a more pretentious establishment.
There is an anteroom by the entrance way where the pedagogues can
sit and doze or exchange gossip while their respective charges are
kept busy in the larger room within. The latter place, however,
is not particularly commodious. On the bare wall hang book-rolls,
lyres, drinking vessels, baskets for books, and perhaps some simple
geometric instruments. The pupils sit on rude, low benches, each
lad with his boxwood tablet covered with wax[*] upon his lap, and
presumably busy, scratching letters with his stylus. The master
sits on a high chair, surveying the scene. He cultivates a grim
and awful aspect, for he is under no delusion that "his pupils
love him." "He sits aloft," we are told, "like a juryman, with an
expression of implacable wrath, before which the pupil must tremble
and cringe."[+]

[*]This wax tablet was practically a slate. The letters written
could be erased with the blunt upper end of the metallic stylus,
and the whole surface of the tablet could be made smooth again by
a judicious heating.

[+]The quotation is from the late writer Libanius, but it is
perfectly true for classic Athens.

Athenian schoolboys have at least their full share of idleness, as
well as of animal spirits. There is soon a loud whisper from one
corner. Instantly the ruling tyrant rises. "Antiphon! I have
heard you. Come forward!" If Antiphon is wise, he will advance
promptly and submit as cheerfully as possible to a sound caning;
if folly possesses him, he will hesitate. At a nod from the master
two older boys, who serve as monitors, will seize him with grim
chuckles. He will then be fortunate if he escapes being tied to a
post and flogged until his back is one mass of welts, and his very
life seems in danger. It will be useless for him to complain to
his parents. A good schoolmaster is supposed to flog frequently to
earn his pay; if he is sparing with the rod or lash, he is probably
lacking in energy. Boys will be boys, and there is only one remedy
for juvenile shortcomings.

This diversion, of course, with its attendant howling, interrupts
the course of the school, but presently matters again become normal.
The scholars are so few that probably there is only one teacher,
and instruction is decidedly "individual," although poetry and
singing are very likely taught "in concert."

55. The School Curriculum.--As to the subjects studied, the
Athenian curriculum is well fixed and limited: letters, music, and
gymnastics. Every lad must have a certain amount of all of these.
They gymnastics will be taught later in the day by a special
teacher at a "wrestling school." The "music" may also be taught
separately. The main effort with a young boy is surely to teach
him to read and write. And here must be recalled the relative
infrequency of complete books in classic Athens.[*] To read public
placards, inscriptions of laws, occasional epistles, commercial
documents, etc., is probably, for many Athenians, reading enough.
The great poets he will learn by ear rather than by eye; and he
may go through a long and respected life and never be compelled to
read a really sizable volume from end to end. So the teaching of
reading is along very simple lines. It is perhaps simultaneous
with the learning of writing. The twenty-four letters are learned
by sheer power of memory; then the master sets lines upon the
tablets to be copied. As soon as possible the boy is put to learning
and writing down passages from the great poets. Progress in mere
literacy is very rapid. There is no waste of time on history,
geography, or physical science; and between the concentration on a
singly main subject and the impetus given by the master's rod the
Athenian schoolboy soon becomes adept with his letters. Possibly
a little arithmetic is taught him, but only a little. In later life,
if he does not become a trader or banker, he will not be ashamed
to reckon simple sums upon his fingers or by means of pebbles;
although if his father is ambitious to have him become a philosopher,
he may have him taught something of geometry.

Once more we see the total absence of "vocational studies" in this
Athenian education. The whole effort is to develop a fair, noble,
free, and lofty character, not to earn a living. To set a boy
to study with an eye to learning some profitable trade is counted
illiberal to the last degree. It is for this reason that practical
arithmetic is discouraged, yet a little knowledge of the art
of outline drawing is allowed; for though no gentleman intends to
train his son to be a great artist, the study will enable him to
appreciate good sculpture and painting. Above all the schoolmaster,
who, despite his brutal austerity, ought to be a clear-sighted
and inspiring teacher, must lose no opportunity to instill moral
lessons, and develop the best powers of his charges. Theoginis,
the old poet of Megara, states the case well:--

To rear a child is easy; but to teach
Morals and manners is beyond our reach.
To make the foolish wise, the wicked good,
That science never yet understood.

56. The Study of the Poets.--It is for the developing of the best
moral and mental qualities in the lads that they are compelled to
memorize long passages of the great poets of Hellas. Theoginis,
with his pithy admonitions cast in semi-proverb form, the worldly
wisdom of Hesiod, and of Phocylides are therefore duly flogged
into every Attic schoolboy.[*] But the great text-book dwarfing
all others, is Homer,--"the Bible of the Greeks," as later ages
will call it. Even in the small school we visit, several of the
pupils can repeat five or six long episodes from both the "Iliad"
and the "Odyssey," and there is one older boy present (an extraordinary,
but by no means an unprecedented case) who can repeat BOTH of the
long epics word for word.[+] Clearly the absence of many books has
then its compensations. The average Athenian lad has what seems
to be a simply marvelous memory.

[*]Phocylides, whose gnomic poetry is now preserved to us only in
scant fragments, was an Ionian, born about 560 B.C. His verses
were in great acceptance in the schools.

[+]For such an attainment see Xenophon's "Symposium," 3:5.

And what an admirable text-book and "second reader" the Homeric poems
are! What characters to imitate: the high-minded, passionate, yet
withal loyal and lovable Achilles who would rather fight gloriously
before Troy (though death in the campaign is certain) than live a
long life in ignoble ease at home at Phthia; or Oysseus, the "hero
of many devices," who endures a thousand ills and surmounts them
all; who lets not even the goddess Calypso seduce him from his
love to his "sage Penelope"; who is ever ready with a clever tale,
a plausible lie, and, when the need comes, a mighty deed of manly
valor. The boys will all go home to-night with firm resolves to
suffer all things rather than leave a comrade unavenged, as Achilles
was tempted to do and nobly refused, and to fight bravely, four
against forty, as Odysseus and his comrades did, when at the call
of duty and honor they cleared the house of the dastard suitors.
True, philosophers like Plato complain: "Homer gives to lads very
undignified and unworthy ideas of the gods"; and men of a later
age will assert: "Homer has altogether too little to say about
the cardinal virtues of truthfulness and honesty."[*] But making
all allowances the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are still the two grandest
secular text-books the world will ever know. The lads are definitely
the better for them.

[*]The virtue of unflinching HONESTY was undoubtedly the thing least
cultivated by the Greek education. Successful prevarication, e.g.
in the case of Odysseus, was put at altogether too high a premium.
It is to be feared that the average Athenian schoolboy was only
partially truthful. The tale of "George Washington and the cherry
tree" would never have found favor in Athens. The great Virginian
would have been blamed for failing to concoct a clever lie.

Three years, according to Plato, are needed to learn the rudiments
of reading and writing before the boys are fairly launched upon
this study of the poets. For several years more they will spend
most of their mornings standing respectfully before their master,
while he from his chair reads to them from the roll of one author
or another,--the pupils repeating the lines, time and again, until
they have learned them, while the master interrupts to explain
every nice point in mythology, in real or alleged history, or a
moot question in ethics.

57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages.--As the boys
grow older the scope of their study naturally increases; but in
one particular their curriculum will seem strangely limited. THE
STUDY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES HAS NO PLACE IN A GREEK COURSE OF STUDY.
That any gentleman should learn say Persian, or Egyptian (unless
he intended to devote himself to distant travel), seems far more
unprofitable than, in a later age, the study of say Patagonian
or Papuan will appear.[*] Down at the Peireus there are a few
shipmasters, perhaps, who can talk Egyptian, Phoenecian, or Babylonish.
They need the knowledge for their trade, but even they will disclaim
any cultural value for their accomplishment. The euphonious,
expressive, marvelously delicate tongue of Hellas sums up for the
Athenian almost all that is valuable in the world's intellectual
and literary life. What has the outer, the "Barbarian," world
to give him?--Nothing, many will say, but some gold darics which
will corrupt his statesmen, and some spices, carpets, and similar
luxuries which good Hellenes can well do without. The Athenian
lad will never need to crucify the flesh upon Latin, French, and
German, or an equivalent for his own Greek. Therein perhaps he
may be heavily the loser, save that his own mother tongue is so
intricate and full of subtle possibilities that to learn to make
the full use thereof is truly a matter for lifelong education.

[*]This fact did not prevent the Greeks from having a considerable
respect for the traditions and lore of, e.g., the Egyptians, and
from borrowing a good many non-Greek usages and inventions; but
all this could take place without feeling the least necessity for
studying foreign languages.

58. The Study of "Music."--But the Athenian has a substitute for
this omission of foreign language study: MUSIC. This is something
more comprehensive than "the art of combining tones in a manner to
please the ear" [Webster]. It is practically the study of whatever
will develop the noble powers of the emotions, as contrasted to
the mere intellect.[*] Indeed everything which comes within the
ample provinces of the nine Muses, even sober history, might be
included in the term. However, for special purposes, the study of
"Music" may be considered as centering around playing instruments
and singing. The teacher very likely resides in a house apart
from the master of the school of letters. Aristophanes gives this
picture of the good old customs for the teaching of music. "The
boys from the same section of the town have to march thinly clad
and draw up in good order--though the snow be thick as meal--to the
house of the harp master. There he will teach them [some famous
tune] raising a mighty melody. If any one acts silly or turns any
quavers, he gets a good hard thrashing for 'banishing the Muses!'"[+]

[*]Aristotle ["Politics," V. (or VIII.) 1] says that the literary
education is to train the mind; while music, though of no practical
use, "provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure."

[+]Aristophanes's "The Clouds". The whole passage is cited in
Davis's "Readings in Ancient History," vol. I, pp. 252-255.

Learning to sing is probably the most important item, for every
boy and man ought to be able to bear his part in the great chorals
which are a notable element in most religious festivals; besides,
a knowledge of singing is a great aid to appreciating lyric poetry,
or the choruses in tragedy, and in learning to declaim. To learn
to sing elaborate solo pieces is seldom necessary,--it is not quite
genteel in grown-up persons, for it savors a little too much of the
professional. So it is also with instrumental music. The Greeks
lack the piano, the organ, the elaborate brass instruments of a
later day. Their flutes and harps, although very sweet, might seem
thin to a twentieth-century critic. But one can gain considerable
volume by the great NUMBER of instruments, and nearly everybody
in Athens can pick at the lyre after a fashion. The common type of
harp is the lyre, and it has enough possibilities for the average boy.
The more elaborate CITHERA is usually reserved for professionals.[*]
An Athenian lad is expected to be able to accompany his song upon
his own lyre and to play in concert with his fellows.

[*]For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary
of Antiquities.

The other instrument in common use is the FLUTE. At its simplest,
this is a mere shepherd's pipe. Anybody can make one with a knife
and some rushes. Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted
together into one wooden mouthpiece. Now, we really have an
instrument with possibilities. But it is not in such favor in the
schools as the lyre. You cannot blow day after day upon the flute
and not distort your cheeks permanently. Again the gentleman's
son will avoid "professionalism." There are amateur flute players
moving in the best society, but the more fastidious frown upon the
instrument, save for hired performers.

59. The Moral Character of Greek Music.--Whether it is singing,
harp playing, or flute playing, a most careful watch is kept upon
the CHARACTER of the music taught the lads. The master who lets
his pupils learn many soft, dulcet, languishing airs will find his
charges' parents extremely angry, even to depriving him of their
patronage. Very soft music, in "Lydian modes," is counted effeminate,
fit only for the women's quarters and likely to do boys no good.
The riotous type also, of the "Ionic mode," is fit only for drinking
songs and is even more under the ban.[*] What is especially in
favor is the stern, strenuous Dorian mode. This will make boys
hardy, manly, and brave. Very elaborate music with trills and
quavers is in any case frowned upon. It simply delights the trained
ear, and has no reaction upon the character; and of what value is
a musical presentation unless it leaves the hearers and performer
better, worthier men? Let the average Athenian possess the
opportunity, and he will infallibly stamp with disapproval a great
part of both the popular and the classical music of the later
ages.[+]

[*]The "Phrygian mode" from which the "Ionic" was derived was still
more demoralizing; it was counted "orgiastic," and proper only in
certain excited religious rhapsodies.

[+]We have extremely few Greek melodies preserved to us and these
few are not attractive to the modern ear. All that can fairly be
said is that the Hellenes were obvious such esthetic, harmoniously
minded people that it is impossible their music should have failed
in nobility, beauty, and true melody.

60. The Teaching of Gymnastics.--The visits to the reading school
and to the harp master have consumed a large part of the day; but
towards afternoon the pedagogues will conduct their charges to the
third of the schoolboys' tyrants: the gymnastic teacher. Nor do
his parents count this the least important of the three. Must not
their sons be as physically "beautiful" (to use the common phrase
in Athens) as possible, and must they not some day, as good citizens,
play their brave part in war? The palestras (literally "wrestling
grounds") are near the outskirts of the city, where land is cheap
and a good-sized open space can be secured. Here the lads are
given careful instruction under the constant eye of an expert in
running, wrestling, boxing, jumping, discus hurling, and javelin
casting. They are not expected to become professional athletes,
but their parents will be vexed if they do not develop a healthy
tan all over their naked bodies,[*] and if they do not learn at
least moderate proficiency in the sports and a certain amount of
familiarity with elementary military maneuvers. Of course boys
of marked physical ability will be encouraged to think of training
for the various great "games" which culminate at Olympia, although
enlightened opinion is against the promoting of professional
athletics; and certain extreme philosophers question the wisdom of
any extensive physical culture at all, "for (say they) is not the
human mind the real thing worth developing?"[+]

[*]To have a pale, untanned skin was "womanish" and unworthy of a
free Athenian citizen.

[+]The details of the boys' athletic games, being much of a kind
with those followed by adults at the regular public gymnasia, are
here omitted. See Chap. XVII.

Weary at length and ready for a hearty meal and sleep, the boys
are conducted homeward by their pedagogues.

As they grow older the lads with ambitious parents will be given
a more varied education. Some will be put under such teachers of
the new rhetoric and oratory, now in vogue, as the famous socrates,
and be taught to play the orator as an aid to inducing their fellow
citizens to bestow political advancement. Certain will be allowed
to become pupils of Plato, who has been teaching his philosophy
out at the groves of the Academy, or to join some of his rivals in
theoretical wisdom. Into these fields, however, we cannot follow
them.

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