ON THE LITERARY EDUCATION 



celebrated grammarians, the chief object of Athenian education was, as I 

 have just observed, to strengthen the body and give pUancy to the muscles 

 by athletic exercises ; for which purpose three magnificent establishments 

 were instituted and supported at tlie public expense, consisting of an exten- 

 sive range of buildings surrounding gardens that were defended by groves, 

 porticos, and shady walks, from the rays of the mid-day sun, and still fur- 

 ther cooled and embellished by sheets of limpid water. These schools 

 were called gymnasia, and comprised the Lycseum, the Cynosarges, and 

 the Academy. Here the Athenian youth were instructed in the arts of 

 wrestling, leaping, boxing, tennis, and foot-racing. In different parts of 

 the buildings, large and commodious halls, duly provided with seats, were 

 allotted to the philosophers, rhetoricians, and sophists ; and in these halls 

 the students were completed in the higher branches of instruction. At 

 the age of eighteen the young Athenian had his name formally enrolled in 

 the register of that division of the curia or mihtiaof which his father was a 

 znember, and at twenty was admitted to all the rights and privileges of citi- 

 zenship, and might plunge as soon as he chose into a contest for its honours 

 and emoluments ; or, if he were able, set up a magnificent establishment, 

 and endeavour to distinguish himself at the chariot and horse-races. 



The education of Athenian females was for the most part very limited. 

 Those of the middle ranks of life were seldom taught any thing more than 

 to read, write, sew, prepare wool for clothing, and superintend domestic 

 concerns ; while even the higher ranks, or those who were educated with 

 more refinement, independently of this general knowledge, were only in- 

 structed how to take some part in the public festivals and other rehgious 

 ceremonies of the country : such as that of carrying the sacred baskets on 

 their heads, or of joining in the hymns and sacred dances. Upon this point, 

 however, no expense was deemed too costly, that could endow them with 

 the requisite arts of modulating their voices and measuring their steps ; no 

 pains or sacrifice too extravagant that could bestow upon them elegance of 

 shape and gracefulness of motion. Nor is this to be wondered at, since, 

 excepting on such occasions, Athenian females, above the lower classes, 

 seldom appeared abroad, and perhaps never without having their faces 

 veiled. The married women, indeed, were allowed to receive and return 

 visits among themselves, but even these were never permitted to be present 

 at their husbands' parties, though the latter occasionally joined them at 

 their own houses, and had the liberty of introducing their more intimate 

 friends and companions. So that, among the female sex, none but those 

 of acknowledged licentious manners had even an opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted with the general literature, or literary characters, of their owij 

 times ; whence, with a singular subversion of the very principles of their 

 system of ethics, such persons were often noticed and even visited by philo- 

 sophers and moralists. 



Education, therefore, among the Athenians appears rather to have been 

 directed to purposes of elegance and accomplishment than to the acquisi- 

 tion of useful knowledge. To possess the first dignities of the state ; to be 

 applauded in the assemblies of the people, or at the bar ; to bear away the 

 prize tripods at the palestr 33, or public places for games of exercise among 

 men, as the gymnasia were for youths, or the prize-crowns at the theatre, 

 were the chief objects of ambition among the more active. While the 

 great body of citizens idled away almost the whole of their leisure hours by 

 sauntering on the pleasant banks of the Ilissus, or in the agora, or great 

 square of the city, frequenting every shop in succession, and especially those 



