Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/historyofmanners01stjo MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT GEEECE. VOL. I. Price S\s, 6d. NOTICE. The Proprietors of Circulating Libraries in all parts of the country are compelled by the new Copyright Act to discontinue pur- chasing and lending out a single copy of a foreign edition of an English work. The mere having it in their possession ticketed and marked as a library book, exposes them to A PENALTY OF TEN POUNDS. Several clauses of the new Copyright Act award severe punishments for introducing and exposing for sale or hire pirated editions of English works, both in Great Britain and in the Colonies. The Government absolutely prohibits the introduction of these nefarious reprints through the Custom-houses on any pretence whatever. The public should be made fully and perfectly aware that, in con- sequence of a Treasury Order to that effect, even single copies of works so pirated, brought in a traveller's baggage, which were formerly admissible, are so no longer, unless they be cut, the name written in them, and, moreover, so worn a7id used as to render them unfit for sale; and that if afterwards they are found in a Circu- lating Library, the Proprietor is subject to a severe penalty. Two clauses of the new Cus- toms' Act, moreover, exclude them altogether after the commencement of the next financial year. These measures will, no doubt, be rigor- ously enforced both at home and in the Colo- nies. THE HISTORY OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT GREECE. BY J. A. ST. JOHN. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, ^PuJjli'^sftcr tn (©itJutai'i) to f^cr Plajesitw. 1842. LONDON : PRINTED BY S. AND J. BKNTLEY, WILSON, AND FLEY, Bangor House, Shoe Lane. DEDICATION. TO BAYLE ST. JOHN. I DEDICATE the following work to you, my dear Son, as a token of my gratitude for the cheerful patience with which you have aided me in com- pleting it, despite the calamity that overtook me in the midst of my labours. Whatever may be the fate of the publication it will always recall to me some of the happiest hours of my life, ren- dered so chiefly by beholding the contented serenity with which you subdued the irksomeness of studies so little suited to your years. At length, however, you are delivered from lexicographers and scho- liasts. The final page has been written, the last proof read. I escape from a task commenced be- fore you were born, and you from a four years' apprenticeship to the craft and mystery of author- ship. All that now remains- is to watch the recep- tion which the fruit of our toil may meet with in the world. It has been produced and has grown up under very peculiar circumstances. Whithersoever we have travelled, the wrecks of Grecian litera- vi DEDICATION. ture have accompanied us, and the studies to which these pages owe their existence have been pur- sued under the influence of almost every climate in Europe. Nay, if I pushed my researches still further and visited the portion of Africa commonly supposed to have been the cradle of Hellenic ci- vilisation, it was solely in the hope of qualifying myself to speak with some degree of confidence on the subject of those arts which represent to the Modern World so much of the grandeur and genius of Greece. Here, probably, the action of pestilen- tial winds, and of the sands and burning glare of the desert commenced that dimming of the " visual ray," which, in all likelihood, will wrap me gra- dually in complete darkness, and veil for ever from my sight those forms of the beautiful which have been incarnated, if I may so speak, in marble. This is a language which neither you nor your sister can read to me. All that sweet Olympian brood which used to smile upon me with kindly recog- nition when I was a solitary wayfarer in lands not my own, will, as far as I am concerned, be anni- hilated. Those twelve mystical transformations of Aphrodite into stone, which may be beheld all together at Naples, and appeared to me more lovely than its vaunted bay, or even the sky that hangs enamoured over it, will, I conjecture, be seen of me no more, or seen obscurely as through a mist. Homer, however, and jEschylus, with Plato and Thucydides and Demosthenes, will be able still through the voices of my children — voices more cheerful and willing than ministered to the old DEDICATION. vii age and blindness of Milton — to project their beauty into my soul. I will not, therefore, re- pine ; but, imitating the example of wiser and better men, submit unmurmuringly to the will of God. Had things been otherwise ordered, I might have continued these researches. As it is, I take leave of them here. Our friend, Mr. Keightley, who has visited Italy for the purpose, will per- form for the Romans what I have endeavoured to accomplish for the Greeks ; and his extensive and varied learning, the excellence of his method, and the pleasing vivacity of his style, will, pro- bably, ensure for his work a still greater degree of popularity even than that which, his very suc- cessful productions already enjoy. Believe me, my dear son. Ever affectionately yours, J. A. St. JOHN. London, October 13th, 1842. INTRODUCTION. Many moral phenomena appear to baffle the sa- gacity of statesmen, because, confiding too implicitly in experience, they omit to widen the range of their contemplation so as to embrace the whole circle of the peoj^le's existence whose fortunes and character they desire to comprehend. To be suc- cessful in such an inquiry it is requisite to lay open, as far as possible, the influence on that people of climate and geographical position, to break through the husk and shell of customs, manners, laws, re- ligions, that we may come to the kernel of its moral nature, to that inner organization, intellec- tual and physical, of which the external circum- stances of its civil and political life are but so many fluctuating symbols. To accomplish this, however, even in the case of a contemporary nation, among whom we may behold in full activity all the material movements of society, is no easy task. But the difldculty must be very much augmented, when, in addition to the obsta- cles which necessarily under the most favourable circumstances beset every avenue to a people's inner life, those are added arising out of the dis- tance on the track of time at which the nation X INTRODUCTION, we are considering happens to stand, the scanti- ness and contradictory nature of the reports that reach us, and more, perhaps, than all, the atmo- sjohere of prejudice through which we are apt to view whatever in any degree differs from our own manners and institutions. But this consideration, though it should bespeak indulgence for the un- avoidable errors even of the most diligent investi- gator, can certainly be no reason for abstaining from all further investigation. For, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which we labour, it is still possible to extract from the fragments remaining of ancient literature materials for reconstructing some- thing more than the skeleton of antiquity. We can invest the bones with sinews and muscles, clothe them with flesh and skin, spread over the whole colours that shall resemble life ; and if we cannot steal from heaven celestial fire to kindle this image of surpass- ing beauty, that, at least, is the only thing which exceeds our power. In saying this, I merely state my opinion of what is possible, not by any means what I con- ceive myself to have effected in the present work. I am but too sensible of how far the execution falls short of "the ample proposition that hope made," when, many years ago, the idea suggested itself to me at that ardent and flattering season of life in which we are apt to imagine all things within our reach. But as Every action that hath gone before Whereof we have record, trial did draw Bias, and thwart ; not answering the aim INTRODUCTION. XI And that unbodied figure of the thought That gave 't surmised shape ; SO, no doubt, in my own case, the realisation will be found to be a very imperfect embodying of the ideal plan. Few subjects, however, abound more in interest or instruction than the one I have here ventured to treat. The inquiry turns upon the institutions and moral condition of a people to whose fortunes history affords no parallel ; of a people that, like the cloud no bigger than a man's hand, which the servant of the prophet saw from the top of Carmel, contained within itself the seeds of miofh- tiest and most momentous events. The Hellenes can never, in fact, by any but the uninformed be regarded in the same light as ordinary politi- cal communities. Their power, vast and astonish- ing for the age in which they flourished, arose entirely out of their national character and the spirit of their institutions. It was the power of intellect. They were in reality the sun and soul of the ancient world, and darted far into the dark- ness around them those vivifying rays which, re- flected from land to land, have since lighted up the world. Athens, the wisest and noblest of Grecian states. Mother of arts And eloquence, was the great preceptress of mankind. The spirit of her laws, transmitted through those of Rome, still pervades the whole civilized world. Her wis- dom and her arts form, in all polished communi- xii INTRODUCTION. ties, a principal object of study ; and to compre- hend and to enjoy them is to be a gentleman. Sallust, therefore, notwithstanding his genius and sagacity, took but a commonplace view of national greatness, when he considered that of Athens to be chiefly based on the splendour shed around her achievements by historians. Her triumphs, it is true, were not effected by vast military masses, such as those which many barbarous nations in different ages have put in motion for the purpose of spoil or conquest. Athens built her glory on other foundations. She could not, indeed, lead countless armies into the field, but she knew how, with a little band, to defeat those who could. In the days of her freedom no human force could subdue her. To effect this, every man within the borders of Attica must have been exterminated ; for so long as an Athenian was left, the indo- mitable spirit of democracy would have survived in him and sufficed to kindle up fresh contests. But the energies of Athens, how great soever, did not, like those of most other states, develope themselves chiefly in war. It is the characteristic of barbarians to destroy, but to create nothing. The delight and glory of the people of Athens consisted, on the contrary, in the exercise of crea- tive power, in calling into existence new arts, founding colonies, widening the circle of civilisa- tion, covering the earth with beautiful structures, sacred and civil ; in producing pictures, statues, vases, and sculptured gems, of conception and deli- cacy of workmanship inimitable. Wherever the INTRODUCTION. xiii Athenian set his foot, the very earth appeared to grow more lovely beneath it. His genius beautified whatever it touched. His imagination vivified everything. He spread a rich mythological colour- ing over land and sea. Gods, at his bidding, en- tered the antique oak, sported in the waters of brook and fountain, scattered themselves in joyous groups over the uplands and through the umbrage- ous valleys, and their voices and odoriferous breath mingled with every breeze that blew. In the distant colonies whither he betook him- self, when poverty had relaxed the chain that bound him indissolubly to the Attic soil, a few years saw a new diminutive Athens springing up. The Pnyx, the Odeion, the Theatre of Bacchos, the Prytaneion, the Virgin's Fane, rose on a dimi- nished scale around him, presenting an image, though faint, of his earlier home, the loveliest, undoubtedly, and, after Jerusalem, the most hal- lowed spot ever inhabited by man. Above all things, he was everywhere careful to enjoy the blessings of his ancestral institutions, and listened, as in the mother city, to those popular thunders which, thrice in every month, rolled from the bema over the assembled crowd, communicating pleasur- able emotions to his mind, and rousing continually the passion for freedom. It were needless to dwell at any considerable length on the naval and military achievements of the Athenians. The world is still full of the vic- tories of Marathon, Salamis, and Platsea, and the soil, drenched in defence of liberty with Attic XIV INTRODUCTION. blood, is to this day sacred in the eyes of the most phlegmatic. I appeal in proof of this to every man's daily experience : for does not the bare men- tion of any spot where the great Demos triumphed or suffered some national calamity, make the blood bound more rapidly and tingle in our veins ? Even the grovelling and vrorldly-minded, who affect to consider nothing holy but Mammon, can have fire struck out of their cold natures by the spell of those glorious syllables ; for virtue, and valour, and that religious link which binds the soul to the spot where a mother's dust reposes, are found, and will ever be found, to kindle warm admiration in every heart. And never since society began did these great qualities develope themselves more visi- bly than among the people of Athens. For this reason, who can visit Syracuse, or the shores of the Hellespont, or the site of Memphis's White Castle, without experiencing as he gazes on the scene an electrical thrill of mental anguish at the recollec- tion of what Athenian citizens more than two thousand years ago suffered there ? Even Thermo- pylae, glorious as it is, scarcely stirs our nature so deeply as Marathon ; for the coarser and more ma- terial genius and institutions of Sparta, the nurse of those heroes who fell at the Gates of Hellas inspire less of that fervent admiration which the great actions and great men of Athens awaken in every cultivated mind. Of the political institutions which throughout Hellas influenced so powerfully the developement of the national character, it is not my design in the INTRODUCTION. XV present volumes to speak. I confine myself en- tirely to the other causes which rendered the an- cient Greeks what they were ; reserving the exami- nation of their forms of government for a separate treatise. The subject here discussed possesses suffi- cient interest of itself. It has been my aim to open up as far as possible a prospect into the domes- tic economy of a Grecian family, the arts, comforts, conveniences, regulations affecting the condition of private life, and those customs and manners which communicated a peculiar character and colour to the daily intercourse of Greek citizens. For, in all my investigations about the nature and causes of those ancient institutions which, during so many ages constituted the glory and the happiness of the most highly gifted race known to history, I found my attention constantly directed to the circum- stances of their private life, from which, as from a great fountain, all their public prosperity and grandeur sqemed to spring. Indeed, the great sources of a nation's happiness and power must always lie about the domestic hearth. There or nowhere are sown, and for many years cherished by culture, all those virtues which bloom afterwards in public, and form the best or- naments of the commonwealth. Men are every- where exactly what their mothers make them. If these are slaves, narrow-minded, ignorant, unhappy, those in their turn will be so also. The domestic example, small and obscure though it be, will im- press its image on the state; since that which in- dividually is base and little, can never by congre- XVI INTRODUCTION. gating with neighbouring littleness, become great, or lead to those heroic efforts, those noble self- sacrifices, which elevate human nature to a sphere in which it appears to touch upon and partake something of the divine. By minutely studying, as far as practicable, those small obscure sanctuaries of Greek civilisation — the private dwellings of Attica — I hoped to discover the secret of that moral alchemy by which were formed Those dead, but sceptred sovereigns who still rule Our spirits from their urns. In these haunts, little familiar to our imagination, lay concealed the germs of law, good government, philosophy, the arts, and whatever else has tended to soften and render beautiful the human clay. That this was the case is certain ; why it should have been so, we may perhaps be unable satisfac- torily to explain ; but that is what we shall at least attempt in the present work, and for this purpose, it will at the first glance be apparent, that the most elaborate delineation of the political in- stitutions of Athens must prove altogether insuffi- cient. These were but one among many powerful causes. The principal lay deeper in a combination of numerous circumstances : — a peculiarly perfect and beautiful physical organization ; a mind fraught with enthusiasm, force, flexibility, and unrivalled quickness ; a buoyancy of temper which no cala- mity could long depress ; consequent, probably, upon this, a strong religious feeling ineradicably INTRODUCTION. XVll seated in the heart; an unerring perception of the beautiful in art and nature ; and lastly, the en- joyment of a genial climate, and an atmosphere pure, brilliant, and full of sunshine as their minds. Races of men, though not in precisely the same manner as individuals, yet exhibit, at particular pe- riods of their history, a freshness, a vigour, a dis- interestedness, like that of youth ; and, because this state of feeling may more than once occur in the course of their career, they seem to spring, like ^son, out of convulsions and apparent disso- lution to a state of perfect rejuvenescence. Ca- lamity and suffering purify whole communities as they do individuals. In the boiling and commo- tion of revolutions the impurities of the national character bubble upwards and are skimmed away by the iron hand of misfortune. These political convulsions are, in fact, so many efforts of nature to expel some disease lurking in the constitution, and which, though the race be immortal, might, if sufTered to remain in the frame, produce a le- thargy worse than death. This truth we should bear constantly in mind; for among the character- istics of the Athenian constitution, not the least remarkable are the many efforts it made to right itself, and adapt its framework to the changing circumstances of the times. In the present inquiry we must, as I have al- ready said, discover, if we can, how much Hellas owed to its climate, to its position on the globe, and to the physical organization of its inhabitants. It would be absurd to infer with some writers, VOL. I. h XVlll INTRODUCTION. that the influence of these circumstances is ima- ginary, because Greece seems to remain where it was of old, and the constitution and temperament of the people to be likewise unchanged. But this is not the case. Greece no longer occupies in the map of the world the position it occupied in anti- quity. It has been lifted out of the centre of ci- vilisation, to be cast upon its outskirts, or, which is the same thing, civilisation has shifted its seat. Nor are the Greeks any longer what they for- merly were, though perhaps by a fortunate com- bination of circumstances they might still be ren- dered so. At present there is the same difference between them and their ancestors as between a jar of Falernian, and an empty jar. The clay, in- deed, is there, beautifully moulded, and the purple hue of life is on the cheek ; but tyranny from the battle of Cheronsea, That dishonest victory Fatal to liberty ! " until now lias been draining out the soul. In the day when Hellas was itself its children walked in light, in the first beautiful light of the morning, which long seemed to shine only upon them ; and now, perhaps, after the revolution of a cycle almost equal to the Great Year, they may, probably, be ap- proaching another dawn. Comparing the several states of Greece toge- ther, it is customary to bestow the palm of energy and military valour upon the Spartans, who made war their sole profession, and passed their lives as INTRODUCTION. xix it were in the camp from the cradle to the grave. But, in thus deciding, justice is scarcely done to the character of Athens ; for, if the former ex- celled in discipline, to the latter belonged, indis- putably, the superiority in native courage. Trained or not trained they faced whatever enemy pre- sented himself, and won at least as many laurels from Sparta, on the ocean, as the Doric State, in all its wars, ever gathered on land. And, lastly, at Plataea, among which race, among lonians or Do- rians, was most activity manifested ? In whose ranks was found the greatest ardour to engage? Who bore the first brunt of the Median horse, and broke the dreaded shock of that vaunted Asiatic chivalry which the Barbarian hoped would have trampled down with its innumerable hoofs the spirit of Gre- cian freedom ? This was effected by the Athenians ; by those gay and seemingly effeminate soldiers, who went forth from their beautiful city curled, per- fumed, clad in purple, as to the mimic combats of the theatre. The spirit of their commonwealth, all splendour without and all energy within, urged them to the field. Their cry at the approach of the king was " Freedom or honourable graves ! " — such as their countrymen had ever been wont to repose in. In fact, the Athenians, under a free government, had learned what it was to live — had imbibed from their education the feeling, that if deprived of such a government, if reduced to bow beneath the yoke of despotism, to die, if the Apostle's words may without blame be thus applied, would h 2 XX INTRODUCTION. be gain. It will readily be conceived that the citi- zens of such a state felt an impassioned attach- ment to their country, — an attachment unintelli- gible to persons living under any other form of civil polity. Athens was the cradle of their free- dom and their happiness. There w^as a religion in the love they bore it ; they had, according to my- thical traditions, which they believed, sprung on that spot from the bosom of the earth. It stood, there- fore to them in the dearest of all relations, being, to sum up everything holy in one word, — their Mo- ther ; and they embodied their profound veneration for the sacred spot in every fond, every endearing, epithet their matchless language could supply. Even the gods, in their patriotic partiality, were believed to look on Athens as the most lovely, no less than the most glorious city on the broad earth, — an idea which they expressed by representing Posei- don and Athena contending for the honour of be- coming their tutelar divinity. To persons so thinking no calamity short of the entire extinction of their race could appear so in- tolerable as beholding that sacred city, with the tombs of their ancestors, the sanctuaries of their gods, the venerable but immoveable S3niibols of their faith and mythological history, delivered over to be trodden down or obliterated with sword and fire by barbarian slaves, strong only from their countless numbers. Yet even to this did the love of freedom reconcile the Athenian people. They abandoned their holy place, and, embarking on board the fleet with their wives and children, took INTRODUCTION. xxi refuge in Troezen and Salamis. History has de- scribed in touching language the circumstances of this event, than which it has nothing more pathetic to record save, peradventure, the carrying away of Judea and her children into captivity. I will not disturb its archaic simplicity. No eloquence could heighten its effect. It goes at once to the heart and rouses our noblest sympathies. " The embarka- " tion of the people of Athens was a very affecting " scene. What pity, what admiration of the firm- "ness of those men w^ho, sending their parents and " families to a distant place, unmoved with their " cries and embraces, had the fortitude to leave " the city and embark for Salamis ! What greatly " heightened the distress was the number of citizens " whom, on account of their extreme old age, they " were forced to leave behind. And some emotions " of tenderness were due even to the tame domestic " animals which, running to the shore with lament- *' able bowlings, expressed their affection and regret " for the persons by whom they had been fed. One of these, a dog belonging to Xanthippos, the father " of Pericles, unwilling to be left, is said to have " leaped into the sea and to have swam by the side " of the galley till it reached Salamis, where, quite "spent with toil, it immediately died. And they "show, to this day, a place called Cynossema — 'the dog's grave ' — where they tell us it was buried." ^ The Athenian people, on this and similar occa- ^ Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, in Langhorne's plain and vigorous translation. XXll INTRODUCTION. sions, were enabled to resolve and perform boldly from the generous spirit inspired by their national system of education. Their institutions, also, were eminently calculated to bring into play the ener- gies of every individual citizen, and to diffuse in consequence through the whole community a gran- deur of sentiment and an heroic enthusiasm pecu- liar to free states. At Athens whoever possessed the means of serving his country could easily, what- ever might be his rank, make those means known, and bring them into operation. If he were virtu- ous his virtue was remarked and placed him on the road to promotion. If genius constituted his title to distinction, if nature had gifted him with the power to serve the state, the state, without inquiry whether he were poor or rich, readily availed itself of his capacity, rewarded him during his life with political honours and authority, and, after his death, with imperishable glory. If in war he performed any act of superior conduct or courage, a general's name was his reward ; if he received wounds that name, or the hope of it, healed them; if in the achieving of any heroic deed he perished, his coun- try, he knew, would honour his ashes, watch over his memory, and, with words powerfully soothing because embodying a nation's sympathy, dry up the tears of his parents and beloved children. He knew that his glory, heightened by matchless masters of eloquence, would flash like lightning from the bema ; that lovely bosoms would beat high at his name ; that hands, the fairest in Greece, would yearly wreath his tomb with garlands ; and that INTRODUCTION. xxiii tears would be shed for ever on the spot by the brave. If children remained behind him, the state would become their parent ; every Athenian would share with them his salt ; would impart to them their best inheritance — the feeling of patriotism and an inextinguishable hatred of tyranny ; would re- peat to them with unenvious pride the eulogy of their father, and point daily to the laurels which kept his grave ever green. The Athenian was taught, from the cradle, to consider death beautiful when met on the red battle-field in defence of his home. And, according to the creed of his country, he believed that his spirit would in such an event be numbered among the objects of public worship. Hence the sublimity, the thrill- ing power of that oath in Demosthenes, who, in swearing by the souls of those that fell at Mara- thon, accomplished their apotheosis and placed them among the gods of Athens. That such were the habitual feelings of this most gallant and generous -minded people appears even from the admission of their bitterest enemies. " They," observe, in Thucydides, the Corinthian ambassadors, when urging Sparta into the Pelo- ponnesian war, — " they push victory to the utmost, and are least of all men dejected by defeat ; " exposing their bodies for their country as if they " had no interest in them, yet applying their minds " in the public service as if that and their pri- " vate interest were one. Disappointment of a pro- " posed acquisition they consider as a loss of what XXIV INTRODUCTION. " already belonged to them ; success in any pur- " suit they esteem only as a step towards farther " advantages ; and, defeated in any attempt, they " turn immediately to some new project by which to " make themselves amends : insomuch, that, through " their celerity in executing whatever they propose, " they seem to have the peculiar faculty of at the " same time hoping and possessing. Thus they " continue ever amid labours and dangers, enjoy- " ing nothing through sedulity to acquire ; esteem- " ing that only a time of festival in which they " are prosecuting their projects ; and holding rest " as a greater evil than the most laborious busi- " ness. To sum up their character, it may be truly " said, that they were born neither to enjoy quiet " themselves, nor to suffer others to enjoy it."^ The feeling that what they fought for was their own, which accounts for the heroism of Hellenic armies, likewise led, particularly at Athens, to the beautifying and adorning of the city, and the per- fection of public taste. The people saw among them no palaces devoted to the private luxuries of a despotic court, where persons maintained at the public expense learn to look with contempt on the honest hands that support them. There, whatever was magnificent belonged to the people at large, no private individuals, during the best ages of the commonwealth, presuming, how great soever might be their talents or their influence, to arrogate to themselves more than can be due 1 Mitford, History of Greece^ iii. 53. INTRODUCTION. XXV to individuals, or to enshrine their perishable bodies in buildings suited only to the worship of God. Yet, in genuine grandeur, no monarch, with the wealth of half a world at the disposal of his caprice, ever rivalled the Athenian people. True taste, the genuine sense of the beautiful and the sublime, will, while the world endures, refuse to be the subject of a tyrant, or to inhabit the same city with him ; because no patronage, pen- sions, or lavish expenditure, can create in one state of society what belongs to another ; and pure taste being nothing more than the cultivated po- pular feeling spontaneously expanding, can nowhere exist but in a free state. A prince may, doubt- less, know what pleases him ; but the people only can tell what pleases the people, which nothing certainly will unless it be produced expressly for them, without the slightest reference to any other person. Such, in the best periods of Grecian history, were the Athenians. Among them Nature gene- rally was allowed to make herself heard ; from the cradle upwards it was their guide. A pure religion they had not, or pure morality. Far from it ; they barely caught indistinct glimpses of what in faith and practice is true and beautiful. Nor could it be otherwise ; for the sun had not then risen, and men but felt their way uncertainly and timidly amid the obscurities of the dawn. Nevertheless, the light vouchsafed them they did not spurn. According to the best notions then prevailing, they were of all men the most pious; and though of xxvi INTRODUCTION. this piety much, nay, the greater part, was super- stition, yet, doubtless, Gocl, according to the saying of the Apostle, accounted it unto them for righte- ousness, that, having not the law, they were a law unto themselves. The Spartans, on the other hand, were mere mo- nastic soldiers, brave, indeed, and true as their swords, but ungifted with those loftier and more exqui- site sympathies which properly constitute the beauty of human character, and are alone the parents of love. Few, perhaps, were all things within their reach, would choose to be citizens of Sparta ; while no one, for whom the poetry of life has any charms, would hesitate, after his own country, perhaps, to select Athens for his home. And that this is no scholastic fancy created by literary preferences is clear from the practice of antiquity. Every man possessing superior genius, whether sprung from Ionic or Doric race, betook himself to Athens, as to the Greece of Greece — the common country of letters, sciences, and arts. Thither, too, as now to London, fled the oppressed and persecuted of all lands, and there they found welcome and encou- ragement. It was the great asylum, the common city of refuge to all men. Strangers who could be content with hospitality and generous protection were never driven from thence. There every man might live as he pleased, think as he pleased, and utter freely what he thought. The recorded in- stances of persecution are barely sufficiently nu- merous to serve as exceptions to the general rule ; and in Gorgias of Leontium, Polos, Protagoras, INTRODUCTION. xxvii Prodicos, Hippias, " and what the Cynic impudence " uttered," we discover to how great an extent the spirit of toleration was carried at Athens. It would be absurd to object the examples of Anax- agoras, Aspasia, and Socrates ; for these were merely instances of the rage of party spirit, from which, while men continue men, no state will ever be free, and can no more be imputed to the Athenian people, or to the spirit of their govern- ment, than the execution of Sir Thomas More, or Cranmer, or Fisher, can be laid to the charge of the English Constitution. i 1 I I i I 1 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Original Inhabitants of Hellas . II. Character of the Greeks III. Geographical Outline IV. Capital Cities of Greece — Athens V. Capital Cities of Greece — Sparta BOOK 11. EDUCATION. I. Theory of Education. — Birth of Children. — Infanticide ..... II. Birth-feast. — Naming the Child. — Nursery. Nursery Tales. — Spartan Festivals III. Toys, Sports, and Pastimes . • . IV. Elementary Instruction V. Exercises of Youth .... VI. Hunting and Fowling VII. Schools of the Philosophers and Sophists VIIL Education of the Spartans, Cretans, Arca- dians, &c. .... XXX CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE IX. Influence of the Fine Arts on Education . 289 X. Hellenic Literature . . . .314 XI. Spirit of the Grecian Religion . . . 349 BOOK III. WOMEN. 1. Women in Heroic Ages . . . .369 II. Women of Doric States . . . .382 III. Condition of unmarried Women. — Love . .401 THE HISTORY OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT GREECE. BOOK I. CHAPTER I. ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF HELLAS. The country of the Hellenes, which, in imitation of the Romans, we denominate Greece, was to its own inhabitants known by the name of Hellas. But the signification of this term was not fixed, being some- times confined to Greece Proper, at others, compre- hending likewise the possessions of the Hellenes in Asia ; that is, Hellas within and beyond the jEgsean, as we now say, India within and beyond the Ganges/ The progress of the name seems to have been as fol- lows : it designated, originally," a city of Thessaly, built by Hellen son of Deucalion ; next, Plithiotis ; the whole of Thessaly ; all Greece, with the exception sometimes of Peloponnesos, sometimes of Macedonia, ' Paus. V. 21. 10. Palm. Desc. Gr. Ant. p. S2. Exercit. p. 397. ' II. ft. 190. Strab. ix. 5. VOL. I. 297. Tauchnitz. with the au- thorities quoted by Palmerius, Grsac. Ant. i. 3. B 2 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS sometimes, — which is very remarkable, — of Thessaly itself ; sometimes of Epeiros ; then all Greece within the iEgsean ; afterwards all countries inhabited by Greeks in whatever part of the world ; and, lastly, it would appear to have been occasionally employed to signify Athens alone.^ The most ancient name, Pelasgia, sprang from the race who first, perhaps, peopled that part of Europe. Nearly all writers who treat of Grecian history or antiquities, have ventured more or less upon in- quiries respecting the original inhabitants of the coun- try, some contending that it was peopled by many in- dependent races, while others content themselves with supposing one primary stock. To arrive at certainty in such investigations is scarcely to be hoped for, since, over the whole field, facts have moved in so close a conjunction with fables, " that the most which re- " maineth to be seen, is the show of dark and obscure " steps where some part of the truth hath gone."^ It appears, however, to be a fact established, that the Hellenes were not the first who occupied Greece. They were preceded by a number of tribes all appa- rently of Pelasgian origin. But who and what the Pelasgians were, how and whence they came into the country, and by what gradations and influences they were ripened into Hellenes, or were by these expel- led from the land, are questions to which no satis- factory answers have ever been given, but must still be discussed whatever the result of the investigation may be. Even the name of this people has opened up an endless labyrinth of conjecture, at least among the moderns, for the ancients when such points were to be cleared up, easily removed the difficulty by invent- ing a hero or a demigod, with an appellation exactly suited to their purpose. Thus from Hellen they de- rived the name of the Hellenes, from Heracles that of ' Fisch. ad Theoph. Char. p. 5. ' Hooker, Ecc. Pol. i. p. 95. L. Bos. Ant. Gr, Zeun. i. 1, OF HELLAS. 8 Heracleiclse, from Ion that of the lonians, and from Pelasgos, the son sometimes of Zens, sometimes of Poseidon, sometimes of Triops or Inachos or Lycaon or Palachthon or of the earth itself,^ that of the Pelasgi. An Attic writer, familiar with this question, and hinting at a part of the theory which I have adopt- ed, imagines the name of Pelasgi to have been at first bestowed on the race because they usually made their appearance on the shores of Hellas like migratory birds in spring.^ But though conjecture in such mat- ters may amuse, it is not likely, at this distance of time, to lead to truth. The ancients had evidently formed no theory as to whence the Pelasgi came, but were satisfied with the notion of their autochthoneity,^ which we cannot adopt. It must be acknowledged, however, that we are little able to trace them with certainty beyond the limits of Greece, before their arrival in that country. My own opinion is, that when the migrations began from that vast and lofty table land of Central Asia, which formed the primitive abode of mankind, and where the mother language of the Sanskrit, the Greek, and many other dialects was first spoken, the illustrious race, after- wards known under the name of Pelasgi, moved west- ward by the Caspian, along the Caucasian range, through Armenia and Kourdistan, until they descend- ed into the plains of Asia Minor. Here we seem to touch upon the obscurest verge of Grecian fable, for the tradition which sent Argo to Colchis, at the Eastern ex- tremity of the Black Sea, evidently contemplated the people of the land as a kindred race, of similar faith, character, and manners. By what precise channel the stream of population rolled westward, caftnot be deter- mined : but here and there, on the southern shores of ' Paus. viii. L G ; ii. 14. 4 ; 22. Lyc. 177. 481. Natal. Com. p. 1. Herod, ii. 56. ^sch. Prom. 96. and conf. Palm. Greec. Ant. 859. Supp. 248. Nieb. Hist, of p. 4l.sqq. Exercit. p. 527. with Rome, i. 24. Apollod. ii. 1. Serv. Buttm. Lexil. p. 155. ad ^n. i. 628 ; ii. 83. Sch. ' Philoclior. Siebel. p. 14. Apol. Rhod. i. 580. Tzetz, ad ' Marsh. Chron. Sec. ix. p. 1 30, B 2 4 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS the Euxine, wo discover some obRciire footsteps of tlie parents of the Greeks, as they continued their journey- ings towards the hind which they were afterwards to encircle with glory. Moving through Pontes, Paphla- gonia, and Bithynia, they appear everywhere to have made settlements on the coast, until they reached the narrow stream of the Bosporos, over which they threw themselves into Europe. Up to this point we have little whereon to build our conclusions, save what is supplied by the general the- ory of ancient migrations, and what appear to be facts dimly seen within the extreme orbit of mythology. The ancients themselves seem to have obtained some uncertain glimpses of links connecting their ancestors with Asiatic Scythia, for there were those among them who represented the Caucons of Paphlagonia stretch- ing along the banks of the Parthenios, and between the Maryandinians and the sea, as a nation of Scythian origin. Now the Caucons were undoubtedly Pelas- gians, as were the Phrygians, the Carians, and the Leleges, who, united by the ties of blood, flocked to the defence of Troy.^ In a much remoter age, the heroes of the traditional Argo were, it is said, con- founded by night at Cyzicos,^ in Mysia, with the war- like Pelasgi, even then masters of the sea, and accus- tomed with their galleys to vex the coast and plunder the settled inhabitants. I regard the working of the gold and silver mines on the southern shores of the Euxine, anterior to the Trojan war, as another proof of the settlement of the Pelasgi in that part of Asia Minor and who but they, at a period beyond the ' Stral). viii. 3, p. 127. tioii. They fought with the Ar- ^ Apollod. i. 9. 1 8. The my- gonauts, and were afterwards ex- thology describes the Pelasgi as pelled by the Tyrrhenians, who driven out of Thessaly by the in their turn were driven out by iEohans, and, under the guidance the Milesians. Phot. Bib. p. 139. of Cyzicos, taking possession of a. 25. Bekk. the peninsula of that name pre- II. /3. 857. vious to the Argonautic expedi- OF HELLAS. 5 reach of tradition, could have opened those gold mines on the shores of Thrace, which on his conquest of the country Philip of Macedon found to have been long ago worked and abandoned by some unknowai people ? ^ Be this as it may, it was over the Bosporos and through Thrace that the Pelasgi seem to have made their earliest approaches towards Greece. The Thra- cians themselves were of Pelasgi an origin. Thracians inhabited both sides of the Bosporos ; traces of Pelas- gian settlements and Pelasgian names are likewise found on both sides. The stream of knowledge un- questionably poured through Thrace into Greece ; and it is highly probable that the stream of population had, at a remoter period, flowed in the same channel. Once in Macedonia, the adventurers would be tempted southward by the beauty of the climate and country ; so that while some moved up the valley of the Haliac- mon, others, perhaps, took possession of the ridge of Olympos, Ossa and Pelion, where they were known under the names of Centaurs and Lapitha?.^ From these lofty ridges they looked down upon the great lake which in those ages covered the whole plain of Thessaly, and, following the ramifications of the moun- tains, peopled Pelasgian Argos, Phthiotis, and the roots of CEta, while the lowlands were still under water : thence, too, they crossed over into Euboea, where they assumed the names of Macrones^ and Curetes. This latter tribe settling at Chalcis,^ and having been worsted in a contest for the Lalantian plain, fled across the Euripos, and traversing the whole of Boeotia, founded a new settlement about Pleuron in iEtolia, and gave the name of Curetis to the whole country. Hence, also, in process of time, they were 1 Payne Knight, on the Wor- Find. Pyth. ii. 78. Cf. Schoell. ship of Priapus, p. 147. Hist, de la Lit. Grecq. i. 4. seq. Af'Xeyae yc/p (j>a(Tt Trporepoy ^ Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1024. avrovQ 7rpo(Taycoptvof-ievovg, ^la to Cf. Winkel. Hist, de I'Art. i. aTTOKeprfjaai tovc 'Ittttovq irpoa- 317. nyoptvOi]vaL'iTnzoKevTavpovQ.^ch. Strab. x. 3. p. 349. 6 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS driven by the ^tolians from Pisa in Elis, upon which they took refuge in Acarnania/ But the principal tribe, and that which subsequently spread throughout Greece, after filling with population the valley of the Haliacmon, traversing the Caulavian range, and descending along the course of the Aoos, seem on the banks of the Celydnos, to have turned their faces southward. Following that stream upwards towards its source, they found themselves in Epeiros, a land abounding with water brooks, with lovely moun- tains, and lovelier valleys, and at length settled, and erected themselves lasting habitations in the sacred neighbourhood of Dodona," where the first oracle known to the Hellenes flourished under the protection of the Pelasgian Zeus.^ Up to this point we have been treading, with little or no light to guide us, over a soil shifting, unsure, and treacherous ; but here we touch upon compara- tively firm ground, while the light of poetry dawns around, and enables us to direct our footsteps towards the luminous terra firma of historv. It must not be denied that much of the foregoing theory is erected on inference and conjecture. Never- theless, it rests in part on facts which an historian ought not to reject. For example, though it be no- where, perhaps, distinctly stated that the Thracians were entirely of Pelasgian origin, we are compelled by various circumstances to believe that such was the case : first, Samothrace on the coast was undoubtedly peopled by Pelasgi ; ^ secondly, the Macedonians, ' Strab. X. 3. p. 349. Sch.Pind. Olymp. iii. 19. Pliny, iv. 2. Eustath. ad II. /3. 637. Certain ancient writers maintained that the j^itolians were called Curetes by Homer ; and at a still earlier period Hyantes, and the country Hyantis. — Steph. Byzant. v. 'At- rwA. p. 7 1 . a. Palm. G. Ant. p. 426. — Acarnania itself was for- merly called Curetis-'-Demet. ap. Steph. V. 'Adrjv. p. 45. a. Hard, ad Plin. iv. 2. p. 7. Strab. vii. 7. p. 124. seq. He- siod. Frag. 54. et 124. Goettl.— A second Dodona is supposed to have existed in Thessaly. — See ThirL Hist, of Greece, i. 36. — Cf. Buttm. Diss, de orac. Dodon. Orat. Att. vii. 133. sqq. ' II IT. 233, " Herod, ii. 51. OF HELLAS. 7 plainly of the same stock with the Thracians, are ac- knowledged to have been Pelasgi ; ^ and since the Illyrians likewise were a kindred people/ we have a line of Pelasgian settlements stretching along the whole northern frontier of Greece, the JEggean, the Hellespont, and the Propontis, from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The chain of proofs, indeed, is not complete, but appears and disappears alternately, like the stream of the Alpheios, though little doubt can be entertained of the existence of the links which happen to lie out of sight. In nearly every part of Macedonia the footsteps of the Pelasgi are clearly discernible ; at Crestona,^ on the Echidoros in Poe- onia ; in Emathea, and Bottioea ;^ and looking at the language of the country, we find it at all times to have been identical with that of Greece. That the same thing must be predicated of Thrace, even in the remotest ages, appears indisputably from this, that her bards, Thamyris and Orpheus traversed the whole of Hellas, and sang their wisdom to its inhabitants ; while Olen coming from Lycia, a Pelasgian settle- ment,^ likewise brought his kindred songs to the same tolerant and hospitable land. But to follow the movements of the Pelasgi through Greece itself, where, though no chronology of events can be attempted, our views rest on a stable founda- tion. Much, however, of our reasoning will be con- fused or perhaps unintelligible, if it be not borne in mind that the name of the Pelasgi, like that of the Tartars or Arabs, was a general appellation applied to the whole race, while the several tribes bore separate denominations ; as the Chaones,^ the Dryopes, the Leleges, the Caucons, the Cranaans, with many 1 Justin, vii. 1. Thucyd. ii. 99. Justin, vii. 1. iEsch. Supp. ' Miiller, Dor. i. 2. p. 261. Cf. Thucyd. iv. 109. ^ Herod, i. 57. — On the situ- ^ Diod. v. p. 396. Wesseling. ation of this city see Poppo, Pro- ^ Steph. Byz. v, Xaoria, p. leg. ad Thucyd. ii. p. 383. 753. g. 8 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS others/ precisely as among the Arabs, we find the Ababde, the Mahazi, the Beni Sakker, &e. The Pe- lasgian tribe which first made its appearance, and became powerful in Epeiros, a country not to be sepa- rated from Greece, was that of the Chaones, whose chief seat was Cheimera,^ at the foot of the Ceraunian mountains. An obscure scholiast, indeed, denominates them barbarians ;^ but as from the best authority we know them to have been Pelasgi, this shows the value of the term in the mouth of the later writers. An- other class, — the Levites, perhaps, of those primitive people, — settled amid the oak forests which surround- ed the lovely lake of Dodona, where under the name of Selli,* they founded the most celebrated oracle of early antiquity. In their habits they remind us of the Sanyasis, and other religious anchorites of India, living from views of penance with unwashed feet, and sleeping on the bare ground. Other tribes renowned of old in Epeiros, and all Pelasgian,^ were the Thes- protians, the Molossians, the PerrhaBbians, and the Dolopians, the last rough mountaineers inhabiting both the eastern and western slopes of Pindos.^ When Epeiros had been thus thickly sprinkled with settlements, an earthquake appears to have produced in the range of Pelion the narrow precipitous gap, afterwards known as Tempo, by which the waters of the Thessalian lake discharged themselves into the sea. This happened, we are told, while one Pelasi- gos'^ reigned over the mountaineers in the district of ' Hermann, however^ (Polit. Ant. p. 14,) imagines that the Caucons, Leleges, &c. were in-, dependent raceS;, though less civi- lised and illustrious than the Pe- lasgi. ^ Plin. iv. 1. ^ Schol. ad Aristoph. Eq. 78. * Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. p. 39.— II. TT. 234. seq. ^ Steph. Byz. v. "E(j)Vf)a, p. 367. c. Strab. vii. 7 p. 119. See also Miill. Dor. i. 6. Plut. Pyrrh. 1. — See the autho- rities collected by Niebuhr, i. 26. ^ Dolops was the son of Her- mes, and dying in the city of Mag- nesia in Thessaly, had there a tomb erected by the sea- shore. Sch. Apoll. Hhod. i. 687. 558. ' Palmer. Exercit. p. 527. — Sch. Apoll. Rhod, i. 500.— Dion. Hal. i. 3. 1 . OF HELLAS. 9 Hsemonia. They were celebrating a great feast, wlien a certain slave named Peloros, brought them tidings of what had come to pass, speaking with admiration of the vast plains which were appearing through the ebbing waters. In gratitude for the news he com- municated, they caused the man to seat himself at table while both the king and his attendants, in the joy and fulness of their hearts ministered to him. This, it is said, was the origin of the Pelorian festival, afterwards, down to a very late period, celebrated with great pomp and magnificence in Thessaly, where, for the day, masters changed condition with their slaves, and became their servants.^ The same festival in the Pelasgian settlements of Italy was known down to the latest times, under the name of Saturnalia. On the interior of Thessaly becoming thus habit- able, the Pelasgian tribes of Epeiros, beginning to be straitened for room, and feeling still the original wan- dering impulse, poured over the heights of Pindos into the valleys of Histiseotis, and moved eastward along the foot of the Cambunian mountains, settling every where as they advanced. The tribe which took this direction bore the name of Perrhsebians, and left traces of their movements in the great Perrhoebian forest, stretching to the foot of Olympos, and in the name of the whole district extending from the Peneios to the northern limits of Thessaly. In this rich and fertile tract they became powerful, spreading their dominion along the banks of the Peneios, quite down to the sea. But the Lapithse rising into consequence and overcoming the Perrhaibians in battle, reduced a por- tion of the tribes under their yoke, while the re- mainder, enamoured of independence, retreated inland, again crossed the Pindos, and established themselves in the upper valley of the Acheloos. About the same time, perhaps, a fragment of this tribe traversing the whole of Thessaly crossed over into Euboea, where they subdued and took possession of liistia^otis. It 1 A then. xiv. 45. 10 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS was possibly the entrance of these adventurers into the island, pushing fresh Avaves of population south- ward, that caused the contest for the Lalantian plain, and the emigration of the Curetes to the continent. Other Pelasgian tribes established themselves, and became illustrious in Thessaly. The Centaurs, for example, a Lelegian clan inhabiting Mount Pelion, where they were, perhaps, the first tamers of the horse, whence the fable of their double form. Other sections of the Leleges were also found in Thessaly,^ as were also the Dry opes. In this country,^ notwith- standing that it must be regarded upon the whole as only the second stage of the Pelasgians in their mi- grations southward, we find more traces of their power and influence than anywhere else in Northern Greece. Here were two cities, called Larissa ; here was Pe- lasgian Argos f here, too, was a great district known by the name of Pelasgiotis, while that of Pelasgia seems to have preceded Thessaly as the appellation of the whole province.* This people, like most others, seem to have had a number of names, to which they were peculiarly attached, which we nearly always find re- appearing wherever they formed a settlement. Gene- rally, too, it may be regarded as certain that the more northern w^ere the most ancient : thus we find Pelagonia in the kingdom of Macedon and in Thes- saly ; Larissa ^ on the Peneios ; Larissa Cremaste near the shore. The Dryopes/' again, appear first in Epeiros, not far from Dodona ; next we find them in Thessaly, then in Doris, finally in Peloponnesos ; and Strabo is ' Serv. ad. Mn. viii. 725. ' Paus. iv. 36. 1. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1239. ^ Pliny, iv. 14. — Even Phthi- otis itself, one of the earliest cra- dles of the Hellenes, is recorded to have been a Pelasgian settlement. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 14.— Cf. ad. i. 40. 580. ' Sch. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 26. ; i. 906. 580. ^ Steph. Byzant. v. Aapiaa. p. 5 1 1 . b, c, d. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 40. ^ That the Dryopes were Pe- lasgi, appears from this : — they received their national appellation from Dryops, son of Lycaon, (Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1218,) who was himself the son of Pelasgos. — Suid. V. AvK. Cf. Etym. Mag. 154, 7. 288, 32. Paus. viii. 2. 1. OF HELLxiS. 11 careful to remark that the last-mentioned were an off- shoot from those in the north. From Thessaly the tide of population rolled south- ward;^ different tribes of Pelasgi, under the name of Leleges, Hyantes, Aones, and Dryopes taking pos- session of the mountains and valleys of Doris, Locris, Phocis, and extending their migrations into the plains of Boeotia. From thence, across the isthmus, some few straggling hordes appear to have found their way into Peloponnesos, where, as shepherds, they gradually diffused themselves over its rich plains. All the Pe- lasgi in fact appear like the Arabs and Tartars to have been originally Nomades, different tribes of whom, as they were tempted by the beauty of par- ticular regions, quitted their wandering life, as the Arabs have done in Egypt, Yemen, and elsewhere, and from shepherds became husbandmen. In process of time, the descendants of the settlers, accustomed to the easy and luxurious life of cities, learned to look back upon their wandering ancestors as a wretched and a barbarous race. Indeed, they sometimes speak of them ^ after their arrival in Peloponnesos as can- nibals, naked, houseless, ignorant of the use of fire, on a level, in short, with the fiercest and most brutal savages existing in the islands of the Pacific. But these erroneous ideas evidently arose from the theory of 1 Just. xiii. 4. — The Epicne- midian Locrians were anciently called Leleges, and by them the channel of the Cephissos was opened to the sea. — Pliny, iv. 12. Solin. vii. p, 55. Bipont. Hesiod. Frag. 25, Goettl. Strab. vii. 7. p. 115 ; ix. 1. p. 248. Scymn. Chius, p. 24.— Phot. Bib. 321. b. 2 Mnaseas of Patrae ap. Sch. Find. Pyth. iv. 104.— Dion. Hal. ( Ant. Rom. i. 31) is one of those writers who considers the Pe- lasgi miserable because tliey were wanderers. Upon this notion Palmerius remarks judiciously : " Sed si tales migrationes miserae sunt, miserrimi olim Galli majores nostri, qui usque in Asiam, post multas errores, armis victricibus penetrasse histori£e oranes testan- tur, et hoc seculo miserrimi Tar- tari et Arabes, qui Nomadice vivunt, et sedes identidem mutan- tes, non se miseros existimant, et id genus vitse Attalicis conditio- nibus mutare recusarent." — -Graic. Antiq. p. 60. 12 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS aiitoclitboneity which supposes man to have gradually ripened out of a beast into a man ; whereas, the low savages discovered in various parts of the world, do not represent the original state of mankind, but are mere instances of extreme degeneracy. In fact, a different set of traditions also prevailed among the Greeks, which, referring evidently to the period when their ancestors were Nomades, spoke with rapture and enthusiasm of their happy and tranquil life, when, following their flocks from vale to vale and from stream to stream, they fed upon the spontaneous pro- ductions which nature spread before them. On this period the poets bestowed the name of the Golden Age, and, perhaps, if examined philosophically, there is no stage in the history of civilisation at which there is so much to enjoy and so little to suffer, as when the whole nation are shepherds, and happen to light upon a land where, as yet too few to in- convenience each other, they can live unmolested by foreign tribes. It has now been shown how Hellas might have been entirely peopled from the north ; but certain tra- ditions, prevailing from the earliest times, compel us to admit that some portion, at least, of its popula- tion reached it by a different route ; that is, through Asia Minor and the islands. I have already al- luded briefly to the existence of a Pelasgian tribe in Paphlagonia,^ that is to say, the Caucons, whose establishment in this region supplies a link in the chain of proofs by which we endeavour to connect the Pelasgi with the Scythians of Central Asia ; for the Caucons are admitted to have been of Pelas- gian origin, and an opinion prevailed among the ' According to the reading of must suppose with the Scholiast, Callisthenes, Homer himself fixes that they were not separately their residence in Paphlagonia. — mentioned in the catalogue, be- Ct'. Strab. xiii. p. 16. viii. p. cause Homer confounded them 157. Sch. Hom. Y. 329. — Un- with the Leleges, or because they less we adopt this reading we arrived late in the war. OF HELLAS. 13 ancients tliat tliey were likewise Scythians.^ Thus we find that certain Scythians settled in Paphla- gonia, were called Caucons, that the Caucons were Pelasgi, and that the Pelasgi peopled Greece. The Greeks, therefore, by this account, traced their ori- gin to Scythia. Circumstances connected with the geography of Asia Minor and of Hellas, seem to furnish traces of the route of the Pelasgi westward. It appears to have been among the primitive articles of their creed, that the deity delighted to abide on the summits of lofty and even of snowy mountains ; and whenever in their settlements the features of the earth presented any such towering eminence, they seem to have bestowed on it the name of Olym- pos, or Celestial Mansion.^ Immediately south of the Cauconian settlements, on the limits of Bithy- nia and Galacia, we accordingly find a mountain of this name ; again, travelling westward, we have another Mount Olympos, on the northern confines of Phrygia ; a third meets us in the island of Les- bos ;^ a fourth in Cypres, a fifth in Arcadia,* a sixth in Elis, and a seventh, best known of all, near the cradle of the Hellenes in Thessaly. In Mysia/ the footsteps of the race are numerous ; Pelasgian cities — Placia, Scylace, Cyzicos, Antandros — studded the coast ; inland there was a Larissa f and the lovely- leafed evergreen, which shaded the slopes and crags of the Trojan Ida, was named the Pelasgian laurel.^ ' Ol y.ev iKvdac (paaiv, ol tCjv MaKsSovoJV Twac, ol raiv lie- Xaaywr. Strab. xiii. p. 16. — To the same tradition alludes the Scholiast : "Edrog Ila(f)\ayortag, ol ^£ YKvdiag' ol rovg Xeyofje- vovg Kavviovg eiirov. II. k. 429. ^ In the dialect of the Dry- opes, this mountain was known by the name of B/yXoc, by which word the Chaldseans denoted the highest circle of the heavens. — Etym. Mag. 196. 19 seq. ' Plin. V. 39. ' Pans. viii. 38. 2. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 599. Meurs. Cypr. i. 28. p. 76. Steph. Byzant. v/'OXv/nr. p. 612. e. — Mention, moreover, is made of an eighth Olympos in Cilicia. (Sch. Apoll. ut sup.) — A ninth in Lycia. (Plin. xxi. 7.) ' Phot. Bib. 139. a. 12. 25. Herod, vii. 42. cf. i. 57. Pomp. Mela. i. 19. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 40. 7 Phny, XV. 39. . 14 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS Other facts there are connecting the Trojans with the Pelasgian stock : thus the Caucons, whom we find among their allies in Homer, are called a Trojan tribe ; the language of Troy was evidently a Pelas- gian dialect, closely allied to the Greek,^ which may likewise be predicated of the Phrygian, the Lydian, the Carian, the Lycian extending along the whole western coast of Asia Minor. The gods, oracles, rites, ceremonies of all these people appear in early times to have been identical with those of Hellas, and mythology represents the heroes of both conti- nents as sprung from the same gods. Nay, positive testimony describes the Pelasgi as a great nation, holding the whole western coast of Asia Minor, from Mycale to the Hellespont and speaks of the Leleges as inhabiting a part of Caria, where their deserted fortifications, called Lelegia,' appa- rently of Cyclopian construction, were still found in the time of Strabo,* together with their tombs, pro- bably barrows, resembling those scattered through Peloponnesos, and called the " Tombs of the Phry- gians."^ Similar sepulchral relics of Carian domi- nion were found and opened by the Athenians in the purification of Delos.^ Possibly, too, the tumuli, existing to this day in Tartary, and occasionally rifled by the Siberians, mark the original seat of the Pe- lasgi in Asia ; though similar monuments are found in other parts of the East, as in Nubia, where I 1 Plato, Cratyl. i. iv. p. 58.— See, likewise, Miiller (Dor. i. 9 — 11), where, however, too much ingenuity by far is displayed. Another proof of relationship is supplied by Homer (II. p. 288) who represents Hippothotis, a Pe- lasgian, insulting the body of Pa- troclos. — Strab. xiii. 3. p. 142. — Niebuhr (i. 28) conjectures that the Trojans were not a Phrygian, but a Pelasgian tribe ; though, in reality, both Phrygians and Trojans sprang from the same stock. Strab. xiii. 3. p. 144^. " Paus. vii. 2. 8. ' W. f. 7. p. 1 1 4.— The Carians themselves are said to have lived habitually amid inaccessible rocks. — Schol/Arist Av. 292. ^ Athen. xiv. 21. " Thucyd. i. 8. OF HELLAS. 15 counted a cluster of ten or twelve, and nearly all over Europe. Homer speaks of one on the plains of Troy, and the Greeks themselves cast up barrows over their heroes, as Ajax, where " Far by the solitary shore he sleeps." Not to omit any material facts, on which ray view of Pelasgian history is founded, I shall proceed to mention in order the principal points on the Asi- atic shore where the footsteps of the Pelasgi ap- pear. We find, then, that they occupied the greater part of Lydia,^ and at the time of the Ionian migra- tion held the citadel of Ephesos. They, too, in con- junction with the Nymphs were the founders of the temple of Hera at Samos,~ and crossing the Mseander they re-appear again at Miletos on the coast of Caria. Indeed this city^ was originally, from its inhabitants, called Lelegeis, though it afterwards was known under a variety of names, as Pituoussa from the surrounding pine woods, Anactoria, and lastly, Miletos. A lit- tle further southward was another Lelegian settle- ment at Pedasos on the Satneios.'* From a passage in Homer it has been supposed that the Carians and Lelegians were distinct races, but in reality the Ca- rians were a Lelegian tribe ;^ that is Pelasgi, who like the Hellenes in Greece, gradually acquired power and 1 Pans. vii. 2. 8. Steph. By- zant, V. 'KyvWa, p. 30, d. Ed. Berkel. 2 Athen. xv. 12. Thirl. Hist, of Greece, i. 43. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 14. 3 Pliny, ii. 31. Steph. de Urb- V. MiXer. p. 559. b. c. Eustath. in Dion. Perieg. 825. 456. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1 86. 4 II. 0. 86. Cf. Sch. ad k. 429. ^ A glimpse of this fact is ob- tained from a tradition preserved by Hecatseos : — Tovg AeXeyag TLVEQ fxkv TOVQ aVTOVQ Kapfftv eiKci^ovaty. Strab. vii. 7. p. il4. From other authorities we learn that the Carians were regarded as Pelasgians. — Habitator incer- tse originis. Alii indigenas, sunt qui Pelasgos, quidam Gretas ex- istimant. Pomp. Mela, i. 16. — See likewise Barnes ad Eurip. Heracl. 317. But the strongest testimony is that of Herodotus, i. 171. 16 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS dominion, and eclipsed their brethren. This they were enabled to do by applying themselves passionately to the use of arms, a circumstance which at a later period led them to make a traffic of their valour and hire their swords to the best bidder. In earlier and better times they achieved conquests for themselves, and rivalling the Phoenicians in maritime enterprise and success, reduced under their sway the greater number of the j^gsean islands,^ and even some portion of the Hellenic continent itself- Certain clans of this mar- tial race sought an outlet for their restless daring by joining the Cilicians^ in their piratical enterprises, and probably it was in this character that they first obtained possession of some of the smaller isles. Positive historical testimony there seems to be none for fixing the Pelasgi in Cypros,* though we cannot doubt that it was included in their dominions, from the ruins of Cyclopian fortresses still found there, and the Olympian Mount already mentioned. In Rhodes, however, and Samos antiquity speaks of their settlements;^ they, too, were the earliest in- habitants of Chios,^ whence they sent forth a colony to Lesbos,^ which received from them the name of Pelasgia. They expelled the Minyans from Lemnos,^ which afterwards, through fear of Darius, their king ceded to the Athenians,^ and held Imbros^^ and Sa- mothrace^^ in the north ; Scyros, too, was originally 1 Strabo, xiv. 2. p. 208. Thu- cyd. i. 8. 2 Strabo, viii. 6. p. 204. 3 Strab. ap. Palmer. Gr. Ant. i. 10, p. 65. Serv. ad JRn. viii. 725. We again find these two people united at Troy ; but not mentioned in the catalogue, be- cause their leader had fallen and there were few of them left to be ranged under Hector. Their leaders were Helicon and his sons. Their capital city " Thebes with lofty gates " had been sacked by Achil- les. Strab. xiii. 3. p. 141. * Travels of Ali Bey. 5 Phot. Bib. 141. a. 6 According, however, to a tradition preserved by Ephoros, the city of Karides, in this island, was founded by those who escaped with Macar from the Deluge of Deucalion. Athen. iii. 66. 7 Plin. V. 39. 8 Pans. vii. 22. 9 Suid. V. 'EpjicovLog x^P'-^' ^• i. p. 1044. 10 Herm.Pol. Antiq. p. 13. He- rod, vi. 138, 140. V. 26. 11 Herod, ii. 51. OF HELLAS. 17 named Pelasgia/ Andros was peopled by one" of their colonies, and Delos, as we have already seen, held their bones until they were cast forth by the Athenians. But it is unnecessary to enumerate each separate point, since we know generally that all the Mgsesin isles were anciently in their possession,^ and that even the great island of Crete formed, in remote ages, a portion of their empire. Here under the names of Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines and Dactyli,* they flourished in the mythical times, and were the reputed preservers and nurses of the infant Zeus, a god pre-eminently Pelasgian, so that wherever his worship was found I regard it as a proof that the Pelasgi had settled there. Passing thus from island to island in the very infancy of navigation, the Pelasgi appear by way of the Sporades and Cycladse, to have migrated into Peloponnesos, first landing at Argos. Probably on their arrival they found there some few inhabitants who by the isthmus had entered and scattered them- selves at leisure over the peninsula. But whether this was so or not, certain it is that the oldest legends of Hellenic mythology allude to the peoj)ling of Argos by sea, representing Inachos, its first ruler, as a son of the ocean. ^ From this chief, whether historical or fabulous, the principal river of Argos received its appellation, and members of his family bestowed their names on Argolis first, and afterwards on the whole of Peloponnesos, which from Apis was denominated Apia;^ from Pelasgos, Pelasgia;^ and from another prince so called, it received the name of 1 Thucyd. i. 98. cum not. Wass. 2 Phot. Bib. 139. a. 3 Phot. Bib. 141. a. Both the island of Lesbos, and its city Himera were called Pelasgia. Pliny, V. 39. 4 Serv. ad ^n. iii. 131. Stra- bo, X. 3. Pelasgic remains are VOL. I. still found in the island. Pashley, Trav. in Crete, i. 152. 5 Apollod. ii. 1 . Keightley, My- thol. 405. 6 Cf. Athen. xiv. 63. 7 Tzet. ad Lyc. 177. Plin. iv. 5. Sch. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1024. Nic. Damasc. in Exc. p. 492. C 18 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS Argos.^ In this division of Hellas, which the rays of poetry and mythology unite to render luminous, the Pelasgi^ seem early to have struck deep root, and made a rapid progress in civilisation. Here, accord- ingly, in historical times were found the most numer- ous monuments of their power and grandeur; and here, in the treasury of Atreus and the walls of Tiryns denominated Cyclopian, we still may con- template proofs of their opulence and progress in the arts. Among them would appear to have existed a class or caste named Cyclops, addicted extremely to handicrafts, particularly building. These it was who erected the walls and citadel of Argos,^ on which they bestowed the name of Larissa, together with certain labyrinths, said to have existed in the neigh- bourhood of Nauplia. Mycense appears to have been the most ancient capital of the country, built while the site of Argos was yet a marsh, ^ or perhaps under water ; then came Tiryns, and lastly Argos. Other early seats of the Pelasgi were at Epidauros and Hermione.^ But the province of Peloponnesos which the Pelasgi most delighted to consider their home, was the rough, wild, and elevated table land of Arcadia,^ resembling on a small scale their original seat in central Asia ; belted round by mountains with many streams and rivers pouring down their sides : here long shut out from commerce with the rest of mankind they multi- plied in ease and security, and became a great nation,^ who, to express the idea of their own extreme anti- quity, professed themselves to be older than the moon.^ Having lost all tradition of their arrival in the country, they looked upon themselves as autoch- ' Sch. Eurip. Orest. 1245. ^ Strab. viii. 6. p. 204. ' ^sch. Supp. 642. 919. ^ Which Strabo (viii. S, 157,) ^ Strab. viii. 6. p. 202. Miill. says was the original seat of the Dor. i. 90. Frag. Incert. Pind. p. Caucons. 660. Diss. ' Sch. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 264. 4 Aristot.Meteorol.i. 14.p. 38. ^ Clem. Alex. i. 6. OF HELLAS. 19 thons, and regarded their mountain -girt land as the great reservoir of Pelasgian population/ whence its colonies like streams, flowed outwards, and peopled the rest of Hellas ; and probably it was thence that the first emigrants descended into the valley of the Eurotas, spread themselves through Laconia, and found a mountain on which they bestowed the holy name of Olympos. In this province one of the most famous of the Pelasgian tribes, is by some traditions said to have had its origin ; for Lelex,^ who gave his name to the Leleges, they fabled to have been an autochthon of Laconia, and down even to the times of Pausanias an heroum was shown at Sparta erected in honour of his name. Undoubtedly a mythical legend connected with this hero was deeply inter- woven with the fabulous history of Laconia. His son Eurotas was the father of Sparta, wife of Lacedsemon, who gave his name to the country. He had two daughters, Amycla and Eurydice, the latter of whom became the wife of Acrisios."^ The Acarnanians, how- ever, had among them a tradition which made Lelex an autochthon of Leucadia,* and the people of Me- gara spoke of one Lelex ^ who arrived in their coun- try by sea from Egypt. To proceed, however, with the traces of the Pelasgi in Peloponnesos. It has sometimes been supposed that no proof exists of their having held any part of this peninsula excepting Argos, Achaia and Arcadia f but erroneously, for we have seen the Leleges, a Pelasgian tribe, in Laconia ; and we find a settlement of the Pelasgi in Messenia. Here also at Andania flourished the Pelasgian worship of the Dii Kabyri 1 Herod, i. 146. Pliny, iv. 10. Nic. Damasc. in Exc. p. 494. Paus. viii, 1. 4 2 Paus. iii. 12. 5.— i. 1. The country, moreover, obtained the name of Lelegia, iv. i. 1. 3 Apollod. iii. 1 0. 3. 4 Strab. vii. 7. p. 115. ^ From whom the people v^ere called Leleges. Paus. i. 39. 6. He was said to be the son of Poseidon and Libya, and his tomb was shown near the sea-shore, 44. 3. ^ Thirl. Hist, of Greece, i. 38. 20 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS from Samotlirace ;^ a colony of Leleges, under Pylos, son of Cleison, settled at Pylos on the Corypliasian promontory." The Caucons held Cyparissos;^ that is both in the interior of Messenia and along the sea coast we find settlements of the race which peopled the whole peninsula. Passing northward into Elis, we immediately on crossing the Neda find Caucons in the Lepreatis,* where, probably, in proof that the tribe originated there, they showed in Strabo's^ time the tomb of Caucon. They had likewise a river Caucon^ in the north of Elis, and in short the whole country from the Neda to the Larissos bore anciently the name of Cauconia.^ Some, however, maintain that they were found only at three points on the coast, that is, in the south of Triphylia,^ in the north near Dyme, and at Hollow Elis on the Peneios, which Aristotle considered their chief seat.^ Nevertheless Antimachos regarded the Epeians as Caucon s,^° and since these inhabited the whole western coast from Messenia northward, we must consider Elis as the principal though not the original seat of this tribe ; for we find them represented as issuing from Arcadia, and we have already shown that they were settled in Paphlagonia, and were denominated a Trojan tribe. Turning our faces eastward from the promontory Araxos, we discover along the coast a chain of Pelas- gian settlements founded by lonians from Athens.^^ To complete our list of proofs that there was no spot in all Hellas not possessed by the Pelasgi, we find a prince of that race, and named Pelasgos, receiving the 1 Paus. Iv. 1. Miill. Dor. i. 116. 2 Paus. iv. 36, i. 3 Strab. viii. 3. 156. 4 Ibid. viii. 3.152. 5 Ibid. viii. 3. 157. 6 Ibid. viii. 3. 151. 7 Ibid. viii. 3. 157. 8 Ibid. viii. 3. 151. The Caucons, however, mentioned by Athena in the Odyssey 3G6.) were different from those of Tri- phylia. The TriphyUan Cau- cons held all the land lying- south-east of Pylos on the way to Lacedsemon . Strab. viii. 3 . 1 5 7 . 9 Strab. viii. 3. 157. 10 Ibid. 11 Herod, vii. 14. OF HELLAS. 21 goddess Demeter at Corinth in the remotest periods of the mythology/ Thus, then, we have traced this illustrious people under various names through every region of Greece, save Attica ; and there also they were found, but whether they arrived by land or sea, I profess myself wholly unable to determine. A modern historian'^ who experienced the same difficulty, observes, that the lonians appear to have dropped from heaven into Attica. Unquestionably we do not know whence they came, and as their own legends represent them as autochthons'' we can expect no aid from tradition. The most probable supposition is, that when the mi- gratory hordes were pushing southward from Thes- saly, some clans, more fortunate than the rest, travers- ing the heights of Citliseron soon found themselves in possession of this unfertile but lovely land, covered in those ages with forests, diversified by hill and dale, and breathing perfume from every thicket. The suc- ceeding tide of emigration breaking against the ridge of Cithseron seems to have turned westward and flowed into the Peloponnesos, leaving Attica un- molested. Some have regarded its own barrenness as the rampart which protected it from invasion. But why may we not suppose that the inhabitants finding themselves thriving and tranquil, resolved early to fight for their possessions, and hedged them- selves from invasion by courage and arms ? be this as it may, Attica was the first part of Hellas that enjoyed permanent exemption from war, so that the olive, its principal ornament and riches, became in all after ages the emblem of peace. Once settled in this country the Pelasgi were never driven thence,"^ nor did they ever receive any considerable mixture of foreign settlers. Individuals from time to time were permitted to take up their abode among them ; 1 Paus. i. 14. 2. 2 Mull. Dor. i. 12. ^ Sell. Aiist. Acharn. 75. — Nubb. 971. •* Herod, i. 56. vii. 161. Les- bon. Protrept. ii. 22. f. Conf, Wessel. ad Herod, p. 26o 22 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS but, in this favoured spot, unalloyed by foreign mix- ture, the Pelasgic genius completely developed itself, and reached the highest pitch of civilisation known to the ancient world. The earliest name bestowed on the Pelasgian tribe which held Attica was that of Cranaans ;^ but whe- ther they were so distinguished before their migra- tion thither, or, which is more probable, derived their appellation from the rocky nature^ of their country, does not appear. Like most of the ancient nations, however, they frequently changed their name : at first perhaps simply Pelasgi, next Cranaans, then Cecropidse and lonians ; afterwards, under the reign of Erech- theus they obtained from their patron divinity the name of Athenians, by which they have been known down to the present day. Among the fables of the mythology we discover traces of several attempts at disputing with the Aborigines the sovereignty of Attica. Thus Eumolpos, with a colony of Thracians, is by one tradi- tion said to have obtained possession of the whole country,^ while another and more probable legend represents him as settling with a small band at Eleusis, where his family during the whole existence of Paganism exercised the office of priests of De- meter.* The Cretans again under Minos sought to obtain a footing in the country ; but the close of the tradition which speaks of this invasion shows that though disgraceful to Attica it was without any permanent result. Afterwards, when the unsettled Pelasgi had degenerated into pirates and freebooters, a powerful band of them appears to have found its way thither, and obtained a settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital,^ on con- dition, apparently, of labouring at the erection of walls round the Acropolis. A portion of the fortifica- tions is said to have been completed by these ma- 1 Herod, i. 57. viii. 44. * Palmer. Grsec. Antiq. p. 62. 2 Suid. Kj)aj/.t. i.p.l518.d. ^ Paus. ii. 8. 3. Pliiloch. p. 3 Strab. vii. 7. p. 114. 12. Siebel. Herod, ii. 51. seq. OF HELLAS. 23 rauders, and to have obtained from them the name of the Pelasgian wall. But even these strangers were not suffered to remain ; quarrels arising either about the land which the Pelasgi had obtained on the slopes of Hymettos, or on account of violence offered to certain Athenian maidens descending to the fountain of Callirrhoe for water. The emigrants were expelled and took refuge in Lemnos. In revenge for what they regarded as an injury, they carried away a number of Attic virgins who were celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron, which led in after times to the capture of Lemnos by Miltiades. It seems to result from the above inquiry that every district in Hellas was originally peopled by the Pelasgi, which the poets in after ages expressed by saying that a king of that nation reigned over the whole country as far northward as the Strymon in Thrace.^ We have shown that their dominions extended much further, and included not Thrace only, beyond the limits of Greece, but a great part likewise of Asia Minor and nearly every island in the ^gsean. But even these spacious limits were not wide enough to contain the whole Pelasgian population ; for tra- versing the Adriatic, they penetrated into Etruria, and there and elsewhere in Italy, under the name of Tyrrhenians, erected Cyclopian cities, and deposited the germs of its future civilisation." Hence the great resemblance which historians and antiquaries have observed between the Etruscans and the Greeks. Both were offshoots from the great Pelasgic stem ; though the simplicity of the original race in religion and manners maintained longer its ground in Italy 1 iEschyl. Suppl. 259. sqq. Plin. iii. 8. Serv. ad iEn.viii. 479, 2 Goettl. ad Hes. Theog. 311. who also gives another tradition 1014. OlTvpffrjvoi ^SfUeKaayot. according to which Agylla was Sch. Apoll. Rhod. 580. The Pe- built by Tyrrhenians from Lydia. lasgi were the founders of Agylla, Cf. Vibius, Sequest. 421, who afterwards Caere in Etruria. says that the Tuscans were Pe- Steph.ByzantjV.'AyuAXa, p. 30.d. lasgi. The Poseidoniatee^ a Tus- 24 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS than under the warmer skies of Greece. In these more western settlements, however, new tribes sprang up, who in glory eclipsed the mother race, which they learned to regard with contempt, so that they bestow- ed the name of Pelasgi on their slaves. A similar circumstance had previously occurred in Asia Minor, where the Carians reduced to servitude such of their brethren as in later times retained the name of Leleges.^ If now we cast a rapid glance over the sciences and civilisation of the Pelasgi, we shall probably have acquired as complete an idea of that ancient people as existing monuments enable us to frame.^ Tradi- tion attributed to them the invention of several arts of primary necessity, as those of building houses and manufacturing clothing, which they did from the skins of wild boars, the animals first slain by man for food. A relic of this primitive style of dress remained, we are told^ to a very late age among the rustics of Phocis and Euboea/'^ Other traditions will have it that mankind fed on grass and herbs until the Pelasgi taught them the greater refinement of feeding upon acorns. But leaving these poetical fancies, we shall find in many genuine monuments and facts undis- puted proofs of the power and knowledge of the Pelasgi. In the first place, they it was who be- queathed to their Hellenic descendants some know- can tribe, entirely forgot their ori- ginal language, the manners of their country, and all its festivals, save one, in which they assem- bled to repeat the ancient names of kings, and recall the remem- brance of their original home. They then separated with groans, cries, and mingling together their tears. — Athen. xiv. 81. The Bruttii are said to have been driven out of their country by the Pelasgi (Plin. iii. 8) ; who also settled in Lucania and Bruttium (9, 10). Pelasgi came out of Peloponnesos into Latium, settled on the Sarna, called themselves Sarrhastes, and built, among others, the town of Nuceria. — Serv. ad ^n. vii. 738. A dif- ferent tradition brings them from Attica; another from Thessaly, because of the many Pelasgian relics found there. — Idem. viii. 600. Dion. Hal. i. 33* 1 Nieb. i. 22. Steph. Byzant. v. Xtoe,p. 758. b. Victor. Var.Lect= i. 10. Athen. vi. 101. 2 See Nieb, i. 24. ' Paus. viii. 1. 5. OF HELLAS. 25 ledge, though imperfect and obscure, of the true God/ In their minds the recognition of the unity of the Divine Being formed the basis of theology, and the philosophers of after ages who reasoned best and thought most correctly rose no higher on these points than their rude ancestors. But the natural tendency of the human mind to error soon disturbed the simplicity of their faith ; for as the tribes separated, each taking a different direction, they all in turns learned to consider the God as their patron, so that speedily there were as many gods as tribes, and polytheism was created. Thus the Pelasgi, who had at first like the polished nations of modern times no name for the gods^ because they believed in but one, degenerated in the course of time, and invented that system of divinities and heroes which afterwards prevailed in Greece. They, too, it was, who in the developement of their super- stition made the first steps towards the arts by setting up rude images of the powers they worship- ped, and to them accordingly the introduction of the Hermsean statues at Athens is attributed.^ There was likewise in a temple of Demeter between mount Eboras and Taygetos, a wooden statue of Orpheus, supposed to be the workmanship of the Pelasgi.^ Evidently too, the worship of Demeter, and of all the rural gods grew up originally among them, as did likewise the adoration of supreme power and supreme wisdom in Zeus and Athena.* Usually the Pelasgi are considered as a much wandering people,^ though it would be more correct to represent them, like the Anglo-Saxon race in modern times, as the prolific parents of many settle- ments, spreading widely, but taking root wherever they spread. A proof of this still exists in the vast ^ Herod, ii. 32. 51. Plato, Tim.t. vii. 22 — 31. 06. 142. ' Herod, ii. 5 1 . Pans. iii. 20. 6'. ^ We find mention, too, of a Pelasgian Plera, Alex. ab. Alex, p. 321. Sch. Apol. Rhod. i. 14. 5 Strab. xiii. 3. .p. 144. 26 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS structures^ which they reared, whose ruins are yet found scattered through Asia, Greece, and Italy. These Cyclopian buiklings, palaces, treasuries, fortresses, barrows, were not the works of nomadic hordes, but of a people attached to the soil and resolute in defending it. Navigation, likewise, they cultivated, and were among the earliest nations who possessed a power at sea,^ which led necessarily to the study of astro- nomy, together with the occult science of the stars.^ Of their progress in the more ordinary arts of utility we have very little knowledge, but we find in the Iliad a Pelasgian woman staining ivory to be used as ornaments of a war-horse ;^ the invention of the shepherd's crook was attributed to them ; so likewise was the religious dance called Ilyporchema ; ^ their proficiency in music is spoken of ; ^ and their pre- eminence in war was signified by representing them as inventors of the shield.''^ On the language of the Pelasgi various opinions are entertained. Some, relying on particular passages in ancient writers, have imagined that it was very different from the Greek,^ but although in support of such an opinion much ingenuity may be exhibited there are circumstances which compel us to reject it. The Athenians and Arcadians, for example, though of Pelasgian origin, spoke, and that from the re- motest times, the same language with the rest of the Greeks ; and though the j^olic dialect,^ the most an- cient in Arcadia, or indeed in all Greece, was trans- formed to Latin in Italy, we are not on that ac- count to infer that Latin bore a closer resemblance 1 Serv, ad Mn, vi. 630. Win- kelmann, ii, 557. On the Cyclo- pian walls of Crotona. Mus. Cor- tonen. pi. i. Horn. 1756. 2 Palm. Gr. Ant. p. 60. Herm. Pol. Ant. p. 1 3. 3 Palm. Gr. Ant, p. 72, 4 a U2. Sch. Apol. Rhod. iii. 1323. Natal. Com. 611. 5 Phot. Bib. 320. b. ^ They were the inventors of the trumpet. IleXacrymc eepefie adX-Kiy^, Nonn. Dion. 47. 568. Cf. Paus. ii. 2\. 3. Goettl. ad Hes. Theog. 311. 7 Serv. ad JEn. ix. 505. 8 Nieb. i. 23. y Palm. Gr. Ant. p. 55. OF HELLAS. 27 than the Greek to the mother tongue of both. The Pelasgian language indeed appears to have been the Hellenic in the earlier stages of its formation, just as the Pelasgi themselves v^ere Greeks under another name and in a ruder state of civilisation. Whether they possessed any knowledge of written characters before^ the introduction of the Phoenician we have now no means of ascertaining, the passages usually brought forward in behalf of such an opinion being of small authority. To them, however, tradition attri- butes the introduction of letters into Latium,^ and there can be no doubt that the use of written cha- racters was known in Greece before its inhabitants had ceased to be called Pelasgi. • I have now, I imagine, proved that the Pelasgi whencesoever they came, occupied, under one name or another, the whole continent of Greece and most of the islands. The Athenians, and consequently the lonians, are on all hands acknowledged to have sprung from the Pelasgian stock. It only remains to be shown that the Dorians also traced their origin to this people, and we shall be satisfied that the whole of the illustrious nation, known to history under the name of Greeks, flowed from one and the same source. The Hellenes, of whom the Dorians were a tribe,^ occupied in later times the south of Thessaly, but at a much earlier period, along with the Selli,* dwelt in the mountainous tracts about Dodona, where they were known under the name of Greeks or moun- taineers,^ which was the original signification of the term. This district of Epeiros, it has been shown, was among the very earliest of the Pelasgian settlements, from which of itself it might be inferred that the Hellenes were Pelasgi. We are not left to rely in this matter on mere inference, since Herodotus ' See, however^ the question xi. 14. et Rupert ad loc. Hygin. discussed in Palmerius, Gr. Ant. Fab. 277. p. S36. p. 49. sqq. Conf. Eustath. ad II. ^ g^rv. ad ^n. ii. 4. /). 84 1 . 4 Aristot. Meteorol. i. 14. p. ^9. 2 Plin. vii. 56. Tacit. Annal. ^ Pal.n. Gr. Ant. 5. 28 ORIGINAL INHABITANTS. states distinctly that they were a fragment of the Pelasgi/ It will be seen that I have hitherto made no allu- sion to the received fables about Egyptian and Phoe- nician colonies.^ Nevertheless it is quite possible that on many occasions certain fugitives, both from Phoenicia and Egypt, may have taken refuge in Greece, and been permitted, as in after ages, to settle there. These persons, coming from countries farther advanced in civilisation, would undoubtedly bring along with them a superior degree of knowledge in many useful arts, which, in gratitude for their hospitable reception, they would undoubtedly communicate to the inha- bitants. But the most active agent in the diffusion of civilisation was probably commerce, which, by- bringing neighbouring nations into close contact, by enlarging the sphere of their experience, and teaching them the advantages to be derived from peaceful in- tercourse, has in all ages softened and refined man- kind. When the use of letters began first to prevail in the East is not known, but it was probably commu- nicated early to the Pelasgi, along with the materials for writing ; and whatever inventions were made on either side of the Mediterranean passed rapidly from shore to shore, so that the civilisation of the Egyp- tians, Phoenicians, and Greeks, advanced simulta- neously, though the beginnings of improvement were undoubtedly more ancient on the banks of the Nile and among the maritime Arabs than in Hellas. The amount, however, of eastern influences I conceive was not great, and as to colonies, properly so called, with the exception of those already described from Asia Minor, I believe there never were any. 1 I. 58. nies. Herod, i. 2. Conf. Thirl. - See Mitford (Hist, of Greece, i. 185. Keightley, Hist of Greece, 81. £f.) who is full of these colo- p. 11. Miill. Dor. i. 16. 29 CHAPTER 11. CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. Having in the foregoing chapter endeavoured to ascertain by what races Greece was originally peopled, we shall next speak of the character and physical or- ganisation of its inhabitants. In doing this it may be useful to consider them in three different stages of their progress : first, in the heroic and poetical times ; secondly, in the historical and flourishing ages of the Hellenic commonwealth ; thirdly, in their corrupt and degenerate state under the dominion of the Macedo- nians and Romans. The most distinguishing characteristic of the Hellenes, when poetry first places them before us, is a profound veneration for the divinity and every thing connected with the service of religion. By the force of imagination heaven and earth were brought near each other, not so much, indeed, by elevating the latter, as by bringing down the former within the sphere of humanity. Gods and men moved together over the earth, cooperated in bringing about events, keeping up a constant interchange of beneficence ; the god aiding, the mortal repaying his aid with grati- tude ; ^ the god guiding, the mortal submitting to be directed, until, sometimes, as in the case of Odysseus and Athena, the feeling of grace and favour on the one side, and of veneration and gratitude on the other, ripened into something like friendship and aflection. No man entered on any important enterprise with- out first consulting the gods, and throwing himself 1 Cf. Plut. Pericl. § \3. 30 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. upon their protection, by sacrifice, divination, and prayer.^ They conceived, according to the best lights afforded them by their rude creed, that although means existed of warping the judgment, perverting the affections, and vitiating the decisions of their divi- nities, yet upon the whole and in the natural order of things they were just and beneficent, mercifully caring for the poor and the stranger, the guardians of friendship and hospitality, and avenging severely the offences committed against their laws. Habitually, when not provoked to vengeance by impiety or crimes, the gods they believed were not only beneficent to- wards mankind, but given among themselves to cheer- fulness and mirth, loving music, songs, and laughter, feasting jovially together in a joy serene and almost imperturbable, save when interrupted by solicitude for some favoured mortal. Philosophy, in more intel- lectual times, condemned this rude conception of divine things ; but men s ideas, like their offerings, belong to the state of society in which they live, and the Greeks of the heroic ages unquestionably attributed to their gods the qualities most in esteem among themselves. Next to religion the most prominent feeling in the mind of the early Greeks was filial piety. ^ Nowhere among men were parents held in higher honour. The reverence paid to them partook largely of the religious sentiment. Regarded as the instruments by which God had communicated the mysterious and sacred gift of life, they were supposed by their children to be for ever invested with a high degree of sanctity as minis- ters and representatives of the Creator. Hence the anxiety experienced to obtain a father's blessing and the indescribable dread of his curse. A peculiar set of divinities, the terrible Erinnyes, all but implacable and unsparing, were entrusted with the guardianship of a ' See Man. Moschop. ap Arist. de la Grece, i. 292. On the Nubb. 982. same trait in their ancestors see 'Respect for old age is still Mitf. i. 186. Odyss. w. 254. a remarkable feature in the Greek Plat. Repub. vi. p. 6. f. lE&ch. character. Thiersch. Etat. Actuel cont. Tim. § 7. CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 31 parent's rights, and indescribable were the pangs and anguish supposed to seize upon transgressors. These were the powers who tracked about the matri- cides Orestes and Alcmseon, scaring them with spectral terrors and filling their palaces with the alarms and agonies of Tartaros. On the other hand, nothing can be more beautiful than the pictures of filial piety ex- hibited by the nobler characters of heroic times. The examples are innumerable, but none is so striking or complete as that of Achilles towards his father Peleus. Fierce, vehement, stern in the ordinary relations of life, towards his aged father he is gentle as a child. His heart yearns to him with a strength of feeling incomprehensible to a meaner nature. He submits to his sway and authority not from any apprehension of his power, not even from the fear of offending him, but from the fulness of his love, from the natural ex- cellence and purity of his heart. He would erect his valour and the might of his arm into a rampart round the old man, to protect him from injury and insult ; and even in the cold region of shadows beyond the grave this feeling is represented as still alive, so that in death, as in life, the uppermost anxiety of the hero's soul is for the happiness of his father. Even in the government of his impetuous passions during his mor- tal career, in the choice of the object of his love, Achilles expresses a desire to render his feelings sub« ordinate to those of his parent, thus verging on the utmost limits of self-denial and self-control conceiv- able in a state of nature. Homer understood his countrymen well when he gave these qualities to his hero. Without them, he knew that no degree of courage or wisdom would have sufficed to render him popular, and, therefore, we find him not only pre- eminent for his piety towards the gods, but at the same time the most affectionate and dutiful of sons, the warmest, most disinterested, and unchangeable of friends. And this leads us to consider another remarkable feature of the Greek character, — its peculiar apti- 32 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. tude for friendship. No country's history and tra- ditions abound with so many examples of this virtue as those of Greece. In truth, it was there regarded as the most unequivocal mark of an heroic and ge- nerous nature, being wholly inconsistent with any- thing base, sordid, or ignoble, and flourishing only in company with virtues rarest and most difficult of acquisition. Poetry, no doubt, has clad the friend- ship of heroic times with a splendour scarcely be- longing to real life, but the experience of history warrants us in making but slight deductions. Nature in those ages appeared to delight in producing men in pairs, each suited to be the ornament and solace of the other, possessing diiferent qualities, imperfect when apart, but complete, united. Men thus consti- tuted were a sort of moral twins, an extension, if we may so speak, of unity, the same yet different, bringing two souls under the yoke of one will, de- siring the same, hating the same, possessing the same, valuing life and the gifts of life only as they were shared in common, seeking adventures, facing dan- gers together, conforming their thoughts, opinions, feelings, each to the other, having no distinct inte- rest, no distinct hope, but engrafting two lives on the chances of one man's fortune, and both perishing by the same blow. This feeling has by some been supposed to have owed its strength, in part at least, to the degraded position of women in society ; a subject on which I shall have more to say hereafter, but may here re- mark that such an opinion is wholly incompatible with an impartial interpretation of the Homeric poems and the older traditions of Greece. Throughout fa- bulous times women are the prime movers in all great events ; and the respect which as mothers, sis- ters, wives, and daughters they received, though ex- pressed in uncourtly language, was perhaps as great as has ever been paid them in any age or country. Every distinguished woman in Homer is the centre of a circle of tender and touching associations. We CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 33 behold them beloved by their relatives, honoured by their dependants, enjoying every decent freedom, every becoming pleasure, with all the influence and authority appertaining to their sex. Thus Helen, both before and after her fall, is entire mistress of her house, and treated with all possible deference and delicacy : so Hecuba, Andromache, Penelope, Arete, Nausicaa, and Iphigeneia in their respective positions, are held in the highest esteem, and com- mand as great a share of love from those whose duty it was to love and honour them, as any other women in history or fiction. Nor were due respect and tenderness confined to the high and the noble ; for innumerable proofs occur in Homer that even among the humblest ranks, that delicate self-respect which is shown by respect to our other self, and may be regarded as the pivot of civilisation, was already in that age very generally diffused. But if the Greeks of heroic times possessed the good qualities we have attributed to them, they were still more, perhaps, distinguished for others, which often obliterated the footsteps of their virtues, and appeared to be the guiding principles of their lives. Chief among these was their passion for war and violence,^ which engaged them in everlasting strug- gles with their neighbours, developed overmuch their fierce and destructive qualities, and threw into comparative shade such of their propensities as were ' See Thirl wall i. 1 80. sqq. and Mitford i. 1 8 1 . — Among the Sau- romatse, in the time of Hippo- crateSj even the women mounted on horseback and fought in battle. They were not allowed to marry until they had slain three ene- mies. — De Aer. et. Loc. § 78. A circumstance is related of the Parthian court, illustrative of the ferocity which prevailed generally in antiquity. The monarch, it is said;, kept a humble friend, VOL. I. whom he fed like a dog, and whipped till the blood flowed, for the slightest offence at table, apparently for the amusement of the guests. — Athen. iv. 38. This trait of barbarism was imitated by the Czar Peter, by servile historians denominated the Great, who used brutally to maltreat the princess Galitzin before his whole court. — Mem. of the Mar- grav. of Bayreuth, vol. i. p. 34. D 34 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. gentler and more humane. War by land, piracy by sea, filled the whole country with incessant alarms. Commerce was checked and confined within very narrow channels, both travelling and navigation being exceedingly unsafe, while bands of marauders traversed land and sea in quest of ra}3ine and plun- der. In some states no other mode was known of arriving at opulence, and the humbler classes of so- ciety were wholly subsisted by it.^ The laws of war, too, were proportionably savage. It was customary either to give no quarter, or to devote all prisoners taken to servitude ; and, accordingly, every petty state was filled with unfortunate captives, many of them of illustrious birth and qualities, reduced to the humblest conditions, being compelled to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. In peace, too, and in their own homes their warlike habits led frequently to the perpetration of violence ; their passions being strong and unbridled they resented insults on the spot, and numerous homicides were, in consequence, found flying from the country whose infant institutions their passions had sought to over- throw. But in all stages of society it has been ordained by Providence that out of the wickedness of man some compensating good shall flow : thus, from the dangers and difficulties surrounding the stranger the virtue of hospitality^ sprang up in generous minds. 1 Thucyd. i. 5. 2 H. or. 212. seq. The word ^dvog signified, actively and pas- sively;, the host and the guest. The rights of hospitality were hereditary, the descendants of men being compelled to entertain the descendants of those with whom their forefathers had con- tracted hospitable ties. Upd^evoi sometimes signified persons who publicly received ambassadors, as Antenor among the Trojans. Agamemnon had hospitable ties with the Phrygians, because he came of Phrygian ancestors. Damm. v. Uvoq. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 347. Cf. Virg. ^En. viii. 165. et Serv. ad loc. Plat. Soph. t. iv. p. 125, where Socrates alludes to a passage in Homer, in which Zeus is said to be the companion of the wanderer, observing jocu- larly that the Eleatic stranger might probably have been some deity in disguise. Cf. Tomas. CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 35 From the distress and misery of the passionate or accidental slayer of man arose the merciful rites of expiation, and all the friendly ties which sub- sisted between the purifier and the purified. Wan- derers driven from their home often found a better in a foreign land ; and thus even the transgressions and misfortunes of men, by breaking down the nar- row enclosures of families and clans, and connecting persons of distant tribes together by benefits and gratitude, hastened the progress of refinement and paved the way for the greatness and glory of suc- ceeding ages. It will, from what has been said, be seen that among the elements of the Greek character passion greatly predominated ; but, even from the earliest times, the existence was apparent of other power- ful principles, by the influence of which the nation was led to emerge rapidly from its period of bar- barism. These were an innate love of magnificence, and a striking inclination towards all social enjoy- ments ; the former leading to the cultivation of com- merce and industry, the latter communicating an ex- traordinary impetus to the natural desire common to mankind for companionship and society. But in developing these j)rinciples nature pursued in Greece a peculiar route. Instead of establishing a common centre, towards which the energies of the whole nation might tend, society was broken up into numerous parts, each forming, when considered sepa- rately, a whole, but united with its neighbours by identity of origin, language, religion, and national character. Tess. Hosp. c. 23. ap. Gronov. any one, let him who refuses to Thesaur. ix. 266. sqq. It was a be his host be fined for want of proverb at Athens that the doors hospitality." The object, I ima- of the Prytaneion would keep out gine, of the law, says -^lian no stranger. — Sch. Aristoph. Ach. (Var. Hist. iv. i.) was at once to 127. TheLucanianshad alawthus avenge the stranger and Hos- expressed : " If a stranger arriv- pitable Zeus, ing at sunset ask a lodging of D 2 36 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. Philosophers usually seek in geographical position a key to the fact of the formation of so many se- parate states as the Hellenic population was divided into ; but the cause was probably of a different kind. Among every other people, a difficulty has always been experienced in discovering men capable of conducting public affairs ; and, when any such have arisen, they have easily subdued to their will their less intellectual and, consequently, less am- bitious neighbours. Among the Greeks the case was wholly different : every province, every district, nay, every town and village abounded with men en- dowed with the ability and passion for governing. These feelings begot the aversion to submit to the government of others ; this aversion engendered strife ; and it was only the accident of a numerical supe-' riority existing in one division of the country, or of a statesman of extraordinary genius springing up, that enabled one village to subdue its neighbours for a few miles around, and thus establish a small political community. History rarely penetrates back so far as the period in which this state of things existed. But we have an example in the annals of Attica, where the twelve small municipal states, if one may so speak, were, partly by persuasion, partly by force, brought under the authority of one city, possessing the advantages of a superior position and wiser and more enterpris- ing leaders. These diminutive polities once formed, many causes concurred to preserve their integrity, of which the most obvious and powerful was the pride of race, and, next to this, certain religious feelings and peculiarities, which stationed gods along the frontier line of states, and rendered it im^^ious for the worshippers of other di- vinities to invade or dispossess them of their lands. Communities having at first been thus isolated, nu- merous circumstances arose to make eternal the sepa- ration. The ready invention of the people gave to each state its heroes and heroic traditions, based, CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 37 perhaps, on the exploits of border warfare, in which the ancestors of one community had suiFered or in- flicted injuries on the ancestors of another. Poets sprang up who celebrated these deeds in song, and every assembly, every festival, every merry-making resounded with the commemoration of deeds as galling to one people as they were glorious to the other. These prejudices, this cantonal patriotism, this tribual vanity, if I may coin a new word to express a new idea, constituted a far more impas- sable barrier between the diminutive states of Greece, than either mountains or rivers ; though, in process of time, some few cases occurred in which very small communities were immersed and lost in greater ones. The heroism, however, with which the smallest com- monwealth struggled to preserve its separate exist- ence, the watchful jealousy, the undying solicitude, the fierce and sanguinary valour by which it hedged round its independence, the indescribable agonies of political extinction, may be seen in the examples of Mgiua, Megara, Platsea, and Messenia. In fact the most remarkable peculiarity in the Greek character was a certain centrifugal force, or abhorrence of centralisation, which presented insur- mountable obstacles to the union of the whole Hellenic nation under one head. The inhabitants of ancient Italy exhibited on this point an entirely dissimilar character. Though differing from each other widely in manners, customs and laws, they still possessed so much of affinity as enabled them successively to unite themselves with Rome, and melt into one great people. The causes lay in their moral and intellectual character: possessing little genius or imagination, but much good sense, they experienced less keenly the misery of inferiority, the anguish of defeat, the tortures of submission, and calculated more coolly the advantages of protection and tran- quillity, and all the other benefits of living under a strong government. Where the masses are but slightly impregnated with the fire of genius they 38 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. are naturally disposed to amalgamation, and form a vast body necessarily subjected to one head. But where a nation is everywhere pervaded and quickened by genius, where imagination is an universal attribute, where to soar is as natural as to breathe, where the principal enjoyment of life is the exercise of power, where men hunger and thirst more for renown than for their daily bread, where life itself without these imaginary delights is insipid and despicable, no force, while the vigour of the national character continues unbroken, can erect a central government, or achieve extensive conquests, that is, subject one part of the nation to the sway of the other. And perhaps it may be found when we shall farther have perfected the science of government, that in politics as in physics the largest bodies are not the most valuable, or the most difficult to be shattered. The diamond resists when the largest rock yields. The true tendency of civilisation, therefore, is to reduce unwieldy empires into compact bodies, which the light of education can penetrate and render luminous. Vast empires are but opaque masses of ignorance. From precisely the same causes arose the peculiar notions of the Greeks on the subject of government ; that is, the citizens of each state applied to one an- other the principle which regulated the conduct of communities. Every man experienced an aversion to yield obedience to his neighbour, every man was ambitious to rule ; but, as this was impossible, it became necessary to invent some means by which public business could be carried on without offering too much violence to the national character. Hence the origin of republicanism and the establishment of commonwealths, in which the sovereignty was ac- knowledged to reside in the body of the people, and where such of the citizens as by abilities, rank, friends, were qualified, might rule in vicarious succession. But the various families of the Hellenes were not all equally endowed with the energy and intellect which belonged to their race; some possessed more CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 89 of these qualities, others less, and there were besides in operation numerous peculiar and local causes which modified the forms of polity adopted by the various states of Greece. The heavier, the colder, the more inert naturally chose that form of government which would least tax their mental faculties, and most com- pletely relieve them from the care of public alFairs, in order the more sedulously to attend to their own ; while the fierier, the busier, more active and buoyant preferred that political constitution which would af- ford their energetic natures most employment, and supply a legitimate outlet for the ardour and impetu- osity of their temperament. Thus, in certain commu- nities there was a leaning towards monarchy, in others towards oligarchy; in a third class towards aristocracy ; while Athens and some few smaller states preferred the stir, bustle, and incessant animation of democracy. Again these institutions, springing at first out of national idiosyncrasies, became in their turn among the most active causes whicli impressed the stamp of individuality on the population of each separate state : for the principle which animates a form of government is not a barren principle, but impregnates, leavens, and vivifies the community subjected to its influence, and produces an offspring analogous to the source from which it sprang. Thus, in monarchies the summits of a nation are rich with verdure and glorious with light ; in aristocracies a broad table-land is fertilized and ren- dered beautiful ; while in commonwealths, properly so called, the whole surface of society unrolls itself like a vast plain to the sun, and receives the light and com- fort, and invigorating influence of its beams : — and all these various modifications of civil polity were at dif- ferent times and in different parts of the country be- held in Greece, where they produced their natural fruits. Among the principal results of the causes we have enumerated were a high intellectual cultivation, the profoundest study of philosophy, the most ardent pur- suit of literature, a matchless taste for the beautiful 40 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. in nature and in art, an irrepressible enthusiasm in the searcli after knowledge of every kind, and, join- ed with these, as their cause sometimes, and some- times as their consequence, an invincible and limitless craving after fame. And these characteristic qualities of the people exhibited themselves in various ways. Sometimes, as in Tliessaly, men sought to distinguish themselves by their wealth and the pomp by which they were surrounded : — sometimes their ruling pas- sion urged them to pluck, amidst blood and slaughter, the laurels of war, as in Crete and Sparta, where mili- tary discipline was carried to its utmost perfection, where men lived perpetually encamped around their domestic hearths, cultivated the habits, preferences, tastes, and feelings of soldiers, and looked upon domi- nion as the supreme good : — sometimes religion, with its rites and pomp and sacrifices, absorbed a whole people, as in Elis, where the worship of supreme Zeus and the celebration of sacred games conferred a sanc- tity upon the land and people which all men of Helle- nic blood respected : — elsewhere mountaineers,^ of in- domitable valour, hired out their swords to the best bid- der, and became, as it were, the journeymen of war : — elegant pleasures in many cities, and commerce and magnificence, occupied and depraved the whole com- munity ; while others,^ of grosser minds and more sordid propensities, passed their whole lives in indo- lent gluttony round the festive board, amid crowds of singers, flute-players, and dancers; or else, like the Delphians, were ever seen hovering amid the smoke of the altars, whetting their sacrificial knives or feast- ing on the savoury victims ; and yet the triumphs of the Thebans proved that even the lowest of the Greeks, when circumstances led them to cultivate the arts of war, were capable of planning and executing great 1 According to Hippocrates, the philosopher describes the Area- inhabitants of lofty mountains, dians without nanning them. De well watered, are generally hardy Aer et Loc. § 120. and of tall stature, but fierce and ^ Athen. iv. 74. ferocious. In saying this, the CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 41 designs, and acquiring lasting celebrity. The arts, however, by which the Greeks rose to greatness,^ and became the instructors and everlasting benefactors of mankind, flourished chiefly at Athens, and in the nu- merous colonies vs^hich she planted in various parts of Asia and the islands. To men of Ionian race we owe, in fact, the invention and most successful culture of poetry and philosophy, and those plastic and mimetic arts which added to the world of realities another world more beautiful still. If the Greeks borrowed, as no doubt they did, certain varieties and forms of art and learning from the barbarians, they immediately so refined and improved them, that the original in- ventors would no longer have recognised the works of their own hands. The glory of giving birth to several of the arts and sciences belongs to them : they were the inventors of the art of war ; among them alone, in the ancient world, painting and sculpture assumed their proper dignity; and in politics and statesman- ship, and that art of arts, philosophy, they led the way, and taught mankind the steps by which to arrive at perfection. Greece, by the means we have described, was gra- dually reclaimed from the state of nature, covered with beautiful cities, harbours, docks, temples, palaces adorned with infinite variety of works of art, with sculpture in ivory and gold, with paintings, gems, and vases, which converted her principal cities into so many museums. Her plains, her dells, her mountain reces- ses were studded with sanctuaries and sacred groves, conferring the external beauty of religion on the whole face of the country. Public roads, branching from numerous capital cities, traversed the land in every direction ; bridges spanned her rivers, agriculture co- vered her hills and plains with harvests, the vine hung in festoons from tree to tree, the foliage of the olive clothed the mountain sides, and a belt of beautiful gardens surrounded every city, town, and village. * Clem. Alex. Stiom. i. p. 355. 1. \ 2. Wink. Hist, de I'Art, i. 316. 42 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. The primary cause of all this amazing activity lias, by philosophers, been sought for in various cir- cumstances of the condition of the Greeks, in the form of their institutions, in the rivalry of so many small communities, in the fact of their being inventors, and the consequent freshness of their pursuits. But although all these circumstances and many others con- tributed, as we have shown, to expedite the progress of the Greeks in civilisation, they were none of them the fountain head, which lies far beyond our ken. It were in fact as easy to tell why one star differs from another star in glory, as why one nation or one man rises in intellect above his fellows. But we are sup- plied with a link in the chain which connects the above effects with their cause, by the physical organi- sation of the Greeks, who possessed the most perfect forms in which humanity ever appeared. Their frame exhibiting all the beauty of which the human body is susceptible, uniting strength with lightness, dignity and elegance with activity, the utmost robustness of health with extreme delicacy of contour, the muscles developed by exercise, and developed over the whole structure alike, suggested the idea of power and inde- fatigable energy ; the stature, generally above the middle size, the free and unembarrassed gait, the fea- tures^ full of beauty, the expression replete with intell- ect, and the eye flashing with a consciousness of inde- pendence : — all these united conferred upon the form of the Greek an elevation, a grandeur, a majesty which we still contemplate with admiration in their sculpture, and denominate the ideal. Above all things, the form of the Grecian head was most exquisite, with its smooth, 1 Among the ancient Scythians every country, the climate being an extraordinary miiformity of aUke for all, the same effect ought feature was observable, as also to be produced on the whole popu- among the Egyptians, (the same lation. The similitude is chiefly is the case at present,) supposed to be traced to the absence of all to proceed, in the one case from mixture with foreign races ; and -the rigour, in the other from the the equal indevelopement of the extreme heat, of the climate. Hip- mind, poc. de Aer. et Loc. § 91. But in 1 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 43 I .1 expansive, almost perpendicular forehead and majestic j outline, describing a perfect oval. Generally the com- j plexion was of a clear olive, the hair and eyes black, j the temperament inclined to melancholy, though nu- j merous instances occurred of sanguine fair persons \ with light eyes and chesnut or auburn hair, which the j youth wore, as now, in a profusion of ringlets falling \ to the shoulders. Instances likewise occurred among j the Greeks of individuals, who, like our own Chatter- \ ton, had eyes of different colours. Thus the poet Tha- i myris^ is said to have had one eye grey, the other I black. Nay, this peculiarity was even remarked j among the inferior animals, more particularly the 1 horses.^ \ The characteristic beauty of the nation displayed it- j self in every stage of life, only assuming new phases in | its progress from the beauty of infancy to the beauty | of old age, inspiring the mingled feelings of love and j admiration ; and notwithstanding the effects of time, \ and inter-marriage with barbarous races, the same is \ the case still. For nowhere in Europe do we meet \ with infants so lovely, with youths so soft, so virginal, J so beautiful in their incipient manliness, with old men I so grave, stately, and with countenances so magnificent, I as among the living descendants of the Hellenes, whose i destiny may yet be, one day, as enviable as their j forms. i To push our enquiry one step further; it may be | questioned, whether the glorious organisation we have j been describing was not itself an effect of air, climate, j and soil.^ Certain at any rate it is, that the atmo- i sphere of Greece is clearer, purer, more buoyant and ; elastic, than that of any other country in our hemi- sphere. At night, particularly, there is a transparency ] in the air, which appears to impart additional lustre 1 and magnitude to the stars and moon. Its mountain : 3 Cfl Hippoc. de Aer. et Loc. § 125^ seq. § 23, seq. Casaiib. \ ad Theoph. Char. p. 94. seq. j 1 Poll. iv. 141. 2 Aristot. de Gen. Anim. v. i. 44 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. tops, the intervening space being, as it were, removed, seem to mingle with the constellations which cluster in brightness on the edge of the horizon. A principal cause of this clearness and pellucidness is the great prevalence of the north wind,^ which brings with it few or no vapours, but gathers together the clouds in heaps and rolls them from the land to- wards the Mediterranean. The reason why this wind so often prevails may be discovered in the geographical configuration of the country, which is not, like Italy, divided from the rest of the continent by a range of Alps that might have screened it from the colder blasts, but lies open like an elevated threshing-floor, to be purged and winnowed on all sides by the winds, which in many parts are so violent that no tree can attain to any great height, while the stunted woods throw all their branches in one direction, and the vines and other climbing shrubs are laid prostrate along the rocks. These winds, however, prevail not con- stantly, but the southern and western breezes, blow- ing at intervals, bring along with them the warm atmosphere of Syria or Egypt, or the cooling freshness of the ocean. Another cause, which greatly tends to promote the purity of the air, is the lightness, friability, and dryness of the soil, which, distributed for the most part in thin layers over ledges of rocks, permits no stagnation of moisture, but enables the rain that falls to trickle through, collect in rills and brooks, and find its way rapidly to the sea. The plains and irregular valleys, which form an exception to this rule, are not numerous enough, or of sufficient magnitude to affect the general proposition. There appear, moreover, to be many peculiar properties and virtues in the soil itself, causing all fruits transplanted thither to attain to speedy ripeness and superior flavour, while odori- ferous plants and flowers, as the jasmine, the wild ' This wind, wherever it pre- The wind Ornithias was often so vails, increases the appetite ; and cold as to strike birds dead on the Greeks were a hearty-eating the wing. Schol. Aristoph. Ach. people. — Aristot. Probl. xxvi. 45. 842. CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 45 thyme, and the rose exhale sweeter and more deli- cious fragrance. This is more particularly the case in Attica, which accordingly produced in antiquity, where due care was bestowed on gardening and agriculture, the finest fruits and sweetest honey in the world/ The same qualities in soil and climate which alfect vegetation, likewise powerfully influence the character and temperament of men and animals. It is, for exam- ple, well known in the Levant, that the Bedouins inha- biting Arabia Proper and the Eastern Desert degenerate both in character and physical organisation when trans- planted to the Libyan wastes on the western banks of the Nile. But if particular soil and situation engender particular diseases ; if the air of fens and marshes blunt the senses and paralyse, to a certain degree, the intel- lectual faculties, the converse of the proposition must also hold good ; so that it is conceivable that the light soil and pure air of Greece may have produced corre- sponding effects on the bodies and minds of its in- habitants. The experiment, in fact, is made daily ; for strangers arriving there with the germs of disease in their constitution, are, in most cases, speedily destroyed by the force of the climate ; while the healthy and vigorous acquire the vivacity, the cheerfulness, the nervous and impetuous energy of the natives them- selves, and, like them, extend the term of life to its utmost span. Greece, indeed, has always been the habitation of longevity; its philosophers in antiquity, — its monks, anchorites, and rural population in mo- dern times, furnishing, perhaps, more examples of extreme old age than could be found on the same extent of territory in any other part of the globe. Now this excess of vitality, this superabundance of the principle of life, which constitutes what we intend by physical or moral energy, almost inevitably pro- duces, among an ill-governed, ill-educated people, a ' Aristot. Probl. xx. 20. The breezes were considered highly black myrtle, which is much larger salutary to the plants of the than the white, grew wild about Thriasian plain, (xxvi. 18.) the hills, (xx. 36.) The southern 46 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. large harve>st of crime, and, accordingly, the modern Greeks have often been distinguished for audacious villany; the intrepid vigour of their character, con- trolled neither by religion nor philosophy, easily break- ing through the restraints of tyranny and unjust laws in the chase after power or excitement. That French- man spoke more truly than he thought, who said the Greeks were still the same " canaille " as in the days of Themistocles : for, give them the same laws, the same education, the same incentives to virtue and to heroism, and they will probably be again as virtuous, as wise, and as heroic as their illustrious ancestors. I judge in this way partly from my own experience, for I have seldom become acquainted with a Greek, — and I have known many, — who has not improved upon ac- quaintance, won my esteem, and, in most cases, my alFection, and impressed me with the firm belief that there is no nation in the varied population of Europe which, if ruled with wisdom and justice, would exhibit loftier or more exalted qualities. In these views I am happy to be borne out by the testimony of Monsieur Frederic Thiersch, whose facilities for studying the mo- dern Greek have been far more ample than mine, and whose opinions are marked by the cautious acuteness of the statesman with the depth and originality of the philosopher. In alluding to the causes which pervert the feelings and misdirect the energies of the existing race, I have touched also at the great source of crime among their ancestors, — I mean, defective laws and institutions ; for although the Greek character was, in force and excellence, all that I have said, and more, it, never- theless, contained other elements than those I have described, which it now becomes my duty to speak of. From a very early period there existed in Greece two political parties, variously denominated in various states, but upholding, — the one, the doctrine that the many ought to be subjected to the few ; the other, that the few ought to be subjected to the many : in other words, the oligarchical and democratical parties. From CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. 47 the struggles of these two factions the internal history of Greece takes its form and colour, as to them may be traced most of the fearful atrocities, in the shape of conspiracies, massacres, revolutions, which, instruct- ing while they shock us, stain the Greek character with indelible blots/ Ambitious men are nowhere scrupulous. To enjoy the delight imparted by the exercise of power, individuals have in all ages stifled the dictates of conscience ; and where, as in modern Italy and in ancient Greece, numerous small states border upon each other, sufficiently powerful to dream of conquest though too weak to achieve it, the num- ber of the ambitious is of necessity greatly multiplied. In proportion, however, to the thirst of power in one class was the love of freedom and independence in the other, so that the process of encroachment and resistance, of tyranny and rebellion, of usurpation and punishment, was carried on perpetually, — the oligarchy now predominating, and cutting off or sending into exile the popular leaders, while the democratic party, triumphing in its turn, inflicted similar sufferings on its enemies. By degrees, moreover, there sprang up two renowned states to represent these opposite principles, and the contests carried on by them assumed conse- quently many characteristics of civil war, — its obsti- nacy, its bitterness, its revenge. In these struggles seas of blood were shed, and crimes of the darkest dye perpetrated. Cities, once illustrious and opulent, were razed to the ground ; whole populations put to the sword or reduced to ser- vitude ; fertile plains rendered barren ; men most re- nowned for capacity and virtue made a prey to treachery or the basest envy ; the morals of great states corrupted, their glory eclipsed, their power undermined, and a way paved for the inroads of barbarian conquerors who ultimately put a period to the grandeur of the Hellenes. Examples without number might be collected of ' See the savage anecdote of Stratocles in Plutarch. Demet. §12. 48 CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS. these horrors. It will be sufficient to advert briefly to a few, more to remind than to inform the reader. In the troubles of Corcyra^ the nobles and the com- mons alternately triumphing over each other, carried on with the utmost ruthlessness the work of exter- mination with abundant baseness and perfidy, some portion of which attached to the Athenian generals : the wrongs and sufferings inflicted by the Spartans on the brave but unfortunate inhabitants of Messenia, with the annual butchery of the Helots, the trea- cherous withdrawal of suppliants from sanctuary, and their subsequent slaughter," the extermination of the people of Hysia,"^ the precipitating of neutral mer- chants into pits,* the betrayal of the cities of Clialcidice and the islands, the massacre in cold blood of the Platseans, of four thousand Athenians in the Helles- pont,^ the reduction of innumerable cities to servitude : by the Athenians, the extermination of the people of Melos,^ the slaughter of a thousand Mitylenians, the cruelties at Skione, J^£ KaWicTTOv^ - the barbarous nations of the East, where the whole resources of the country lay at the disposal of the monarch or of the priestly caste, as in Hindus- tan, Persia, and Egypt, full scope, on the contrary, was given to the imagination of the architect, who, if his invention were equal to it, might give his structures the elevation of a mountain and the spaciousness of a vast city. Hence, the grandeur arising from magnitude, is, in most cases, found to belong to the sacred edifices of Egypt ;^ and in some instances a feeling of sym- metry, a sense of the beautiful, appears to have re- strained the artist within due bounds, as in the great temple of Apollinopolis Magna, which, whatever may be the imperfections of its architectural details, is in- vested, as a whole, with an air of genuine magnificence and sublimity. Proceeding from the contemplation of these to the religious structures of Greece, there would be found, I imagine, in most minds a slight feeling of disappointment, and though afterwards, the delight im- parted by the presence of extreme beauty, — a delight serene, soft, and inexpressibly soothing, may more than compensate for the want of awe and wondering admi- ration, their absence will still be felt. But to proceed : in rich and elaborate decorations the Parthenon resembled the temple of Tentyris. Every part of its exterior, where ornament was admissible, presented to the eye some creation of Hellenic taste and fancy, figures in high and low relief, grouped in action or repose, conceived and executed in a style worthy of the prince of the mimetic art.^ Many wrecks of these matchless compositions are now pro- tected from further defacements in the metropolis of Great Britain, but withal so mutilated and decayed that none but a practised eye can discern, through the ravages of age, all the sunshine of beauty and loveli- ^ or these temples Lucian says: ojxoiai . . . Toig AlyviTTiotQ lepolc : Kc^KeH yap, avTOQ jJisv 6 vsojq kclX- XiaroQ re kul fxeyiffTOc, XiOokj Tolc TroXvTeXdatv i^(TKr}jxevoQ, Kai OrjKOQ tariv, r) 'i(jig, r) rpa'yoc, rj a'iXovpoQ. Imagin. §11. 2 Vid. Mlill. De Parthenon. Fastig. p. 72^ sqq. ATHENS. 89 ness which beamed from them when fresh from the Pheidian chiseL One of the greatest works of this ar- tist filled the interior of the Parthenon with the ema- nations of its beauty, the statue of Athena in ivory and gokl/ which, representing a form distinguished for all the softness and roundness belonging to woman- hood, and a countenance radiant with the highest intellect, must in some respects have borne away the palm from the Olympian Zeus ; for in the latter, after all, nothing beyond masculine energy, dignity, majesty could have existed. These indeed were so blended, so subdued into a glorious and god-like serenity, that this creation of human genius, like the august being of which it was a mute type, possessed in a degree the celestial power of chasing away sadness and sorrow, and shedding benignity and happiness over all who beheld it.^ But for men at least, the Zeus must have lacked some attributes possessed by the Athena. She was in all her ethe- rial loveliness, a woman still, but without a woman's weakness, or a single taint of earth. The Athenians paid the highest possible compliment to woman- hood when they gave wisdom a female form ; and the delicacy of the thought was enhanced by sur- rounding this mythological creation with an atmo- sphere of purity which no other divinity of the pagan heaven could lay claim to. Nor in beauty did Athe- na yield even to Aphrodite herself. Her charms par- took indeed of that noble severity which belongs to virtue ; and to intimate that she was rather of hea- ven than of earth, her eyes were of the colour of the firmament. Yet this spiritual elevation above the reach of the passions, only appears to have en- hanced, in the estimation of the Athenians, the splen- dour of her personal beauty, which shed its chastening and ennobling influence among her worshippers like the droppings of a summer cloud. ^ Thucyd. ii. 13. Schol. t. v. p. 375. Bipont. Miill. De Phid.Vit. p. 22. ^ Arrian. Epict. 1. 6. p. 27, seq. 90 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. According to Pliilochoros/ this colossus was set up during the archonship of Theodores, that is, in the third year of the eighty-fifth Olympiad. The Athe- nians, it has been ingeniously conjectured, seized for the dedication of the statue, on the period of the celebration of the most gorgeous festival in their ca- lendar, the greater Panathenaia, which like a kind of jubilee occurred but once in an Olympiad.^ What length of time Pheidias employed in finishing this statue we possess no means of determining ; but as the Parthenon itself is supposed not to have been completed in less than ten years, the artist need not have been hurried in his work.^ In the temple of Zeus at Olympia and in every sacred structure we visited in Egypt and Nubia, there was a staircase conducting to the roof. No positive testimony remains to prove this to have been the case in the Parthenon, though antiquarians, with much probability, have supposed it to have been so.* Let us therefore assume the fact, and ascending to the summit of the edifice survey the surrounding scene and the superb city encircling the rock at our feet. Few landscapes in the world are more rich or varied, none more deeply interesting. History has peopled every spot within the circle of vision with spirit-stirring associations; or if history has passed over any, there has poetry been busy, building up her legends from the scattered fraof"ments of tradi- tion. Carrying our eye along the distant edge of the horizon we behold the promontory of Sunium, Mginsi rising out of the Myrtoan sea, Troezen, the birth-place of Theseus the national hero, the moun- tains of Argolis, the hostile citadel of Corinth, with Phyla3 and Deceleia rendered too famous by the Peloponnesian war. Nearer the shore is " sea-born"" Salamis, and that low headland where the barba- 1 Frag. ed. Siebeh p. 54. Miill. ^ Quatremere de Quincy, Jup. Phid. Vit. § II. p. 22, 0]ymp. p. 222. 2 Boeckh. Corp. liiscrip.p. 182. * Leake, Topog. p. 215. ATHENS. 01 rian took his seat to View the battle in the straits. Yonder at the extremity of the long walls are the ports of Munjchia, Phaleron and Peira^eus ; on our left is Hymettos with its bee swarms and odorife- rous slopes;^ to the right Colonos, the grove of the terrible Erinnyes, and the chasm in the rock by which the wretched (Edipus, having reached the end of his career, descended to the infernal world.- Be- yond lies Eleusis and the Sacred Way.^ Yonder in the midst of groves is the Academy ; here is the Cerameicos* filled with the monuments which the republic erected to its heroes, there the Cynosarges and the Lyceium. The hill of Areiopagos, conti- guous to the rock of the Acropolis, divides the Pnyx from the Agora planted by Conon with plane trees. Near at hand, encircled by ordinary dwellings, are the Leocorion, the temple of Theseus, the Odeion, the Stoa Poecile, and the Dionysiac theatre, with various other monuments remarkable for their beauty or historical importance.^ ' About half a mile from Athens in this direction was a temple of Artemis ("Aypa), on the Ilissos, with an altar to Boreas ; where, according to the fable, the god carried away Orithyia while playing on the rock with Pharma- cia. — Plat. Phaed. i. 7. In conse- quence of the alliance thus con- tracted Boreas always felt a par- ticular friendship for the Athe- nians, to whose succour he has- tened with his aerial forces during the Median war. — Herod, vii.189. ^ Antigone, in Sophocles, ((Edip. Col. 14— 18) speaks of the towers of Athens as seen from Colonos, and describes that vil- lage, the birth-place of the poet, as rendered beautiful by the sa- cred grove of the Eumenides, con- sisting of the laurel, the olive, and the vine, in which a choir of nightingales showered their music on the ear. ^ Near this road stood the Hiera Suke. Athen. iii. 6. •* KepafieiKogy diro rov Kepajx- evg. Etym. Mag. 504. 16. Cf. Suid. et Harpocrat. in voce. Paris, in like manner, has given the name of Tuileries to its principal palaces and gardens, from the tiles (tuiles) which were anciently manufac- tured on the spot. 5Strab. ix. 1. 239—241. 92 CHAPTER V. CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. SPARTA. From what has been said, the reader will, perhaps, have acquired a tolerably correct idea of the city of Athens, its splendour and extent. But the remaining fragments of Hellenic literature do not enable us to be equally clear or copious in our account of Sparta.^ In fact so imperfect and confused is the information that has come down to us respecting it, so vague, un- satisfactory, and in many respects contradictory are the opinions of modern scholars and travellers, that after diligently and patiently examining their accounts, and comparing them with the descriptions of Pausa- nias, the hints of Xenophon, Livy, Polybius, and Plu- tarch, with the casual references of the poets, I am enabled to offer the following picture only as a series of what appear to me probable conjectures based upon a few indisputable facts. The reader who has endeavoured to discover any- thing like order in Pausanias' topography of Sparta,^ will fully comprehend the difficulty of constructing from his information anything like an intelligible plan ' The plan which accompanies the present chapter, based on the description of Pausanias, agrees in many of the main points with that given by Mr. Miiller in his map of the Peloponnesos. M. Barbie du Bocage's Essay on the Topography of Sparta, upon the whole faulty, is, nevertheless, in my opinion, right with respect to the portion of the bridge Babyx which Mr. Miiller throws over the Tiasa, contrary to all the reasonable inferences to be de- rived from history. Colonel Leake's plan, given in his travels in the Morea, conveys a different idea of Spartan topography ; but I am unable to reconcile his views with the account of the city in Pausanias, though I very much regret that the plan I have adopt- ed should not be recommended by the support of a writer so learned and so ingenious. ' III. 11—20. Cf. Polyb. V. 22. Liv. xxxiv. 26. seq. SPARTA. 93 of the city. Nevertheless, by setting out from a fixed point, by laboriously studying the thread of his narra- tion, by divining the secret order he seems to follow in enumerating and delineating the various public buildings of which he speaks, and by comparing his fragmentary disclosures with the present physiognomy of the site, I have formed a conception of the features of ancient Sparta which may, perhaps, be found to bear some resemblance to the original. We will suppose ourselves to have passed the Euro- tas, and to be standing on the summit of the loftiest building of the Acropolis, the Alpion for example, or the temple of Athena Chalcioecos,^ from which we can command a view of the whole site of Sparta from the Eurotas, where it flows between banks shaded with reeds and lofty rose laurels" on the east, to the brisk sparkling stream of the Tiasa, and the roots of the Taygetos on the west. North and south the eye ranges up and down the valley,^ discovering in the latter direction the ancient cities of Therapne^ and Amyclse,^ celebrated for their poetical and heroic as- sociations. Beyond the Eurotas eastward, occupying the green and well-wooded acclivities upwards, from ' In the precincts of this temple, evidently the strongest place in the city, the /Etolian mercenaries took refuge after the assassination of Nabis. — Liv. xxxv. 36. ^ Plut. Instit. Lacon. § 1 0. Cha- teaubriand, Itin. xi. 110. Poucque- ville's description of the stream is striking and picturesque : " The banks," he says, " are bordered with never-fading laurels, which, inclining towards each other, form an arch over its waters, and seem still consecrated to the deities of whom its purity is a just emblem ; while swans, even of a more daz- zling whiteness than the snows that cover the mountain-tops a- bove, are constantly sailing up and down the stream." — Travels, p. 84. The Viscount Chateau- briand, however, sought in vain for these poetical birds, and, therefore, evidently considers them fabulous. ^ Strabo's brief description of the site deserves to be mentioned : e(7Ti fiiv ovv iv KoiXorepo) X^'^P'V ''^ r>yc Tro'Xfwc t^a^oe, Kanrep ano- \ajxtavov opt] ixera^v. viii. 5. t. ii. p. 185. 4 Xen. Hellen. V. 5. 2. ^ At this ancient city Castor and Polydeukes were worshipped not as heroes but as divinities. Isoc. Encom. Helen. § 27. Cf. Pind. Pyth. xi. 60, sqq. Nem. X. 56. Dissen supposes these tombs to have been vaults under ground in the Phoebaion. — Comm. p. 508. 94 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. the banks of the stream towards the barren and red- tinted heights of the Menelaion/ lay scattered the villas of the noble Spartans, filled with costly furniture and every other token of wealth," while here and there, on all sides, embosomed in groves or thickets, arose the temples and chapels of the gods surrounded by a halo of sanctity and communicating peculiar beauty to the landscape. Contracting now our circle of vision, and contem- plating the distinct villages or groups of buildings of which the capital of Laconia anciently consisted,^ we behold the encampments as it were of the five tribes, extending in a circle about the Acropolis.* The quarter of the Pitanatse,^ commencing about the Issorion and the bridge over the Tiasa on the west, extended east- ward beyond the Hyacinthine road^ to the cliffs over- hanging the valley of the Eurotas above the confluence of that river with the Tiasa. Immediately contiguous to the dwellings of this tribe in the north eastern divi- sion of the city, opposite that cloven island in the Eurotas, which contained the temple of Artemis, Orthia, and the Goddess of Birth, dwelt the Limnatse,^ who possessed among them the temple erected by the Spartans to Lycurgus. North again of these, and clus- tering around that sharp eminence which constituted as it were a second Acropolis, were the habitations of the Cynosurse,^ whose quarter appears to have extended ' Steph. de Urb. v. MeveXaos, p. 551, a. Berkel.— Polyb. v. 22. ' Xen. Hellen. vi. 5. 27. ' Thucyd. i. 10. 4 See Miiller, Dor. ii. 48. 5 Paus. Olymp. vi. 27. Diss. 1] UiTavr] (pvXri. Hesych. Cf. He- rod, iii. 55. ix. 5S. Eurip. Troad. 1101. Thucyd. I. 20. et schoL Plut. de Exil. § 6, Apophth. La- con. Miscell. 48. Plin. H. N. iv. 8. Athen. i. 57. Near this KcjfiT] were the villages of CEnos, Ono- glse and Stathmse, celebrated for their wines. ^ Athen. iv. 74. 7Strab.viii.4.p.l84.5.p.l87. The marshes existing in this quar- ter anciently had been drained by the age of Strabo : — a'XX' ov^eV ye fjiepog avrov Xijivd^ei ' to §e TraXawp eXijura^e rd irpodaTHOv^ KaX EKciXovv avTO Atjivag ' icai to Tov AiovvfTov lepbv iv M^ivaig ecf vypov l3e€r]K0Q irvyxave ' vvy iiTL Irjpov rrjv 'l^pvaLP t'x^t' 5. p. 185. seq. ^ Hesych. in v. Berkel. ad Steph. Byzant. p. 490. Schol. ad Calhm SPARTA. 95 from the old bridge over the Eurotas to the temple of Dictynna, and the tombs of the Euripontid kings on the west. From this point to the Dromos, lying directly opposite the southern extremity of the Isle of Plane Trees, formed by the diverging and confluent waters of the Tiasa, lay the village of the Mes- soatae/ where were situated the tomb of Alcman, the fountain Dorcea, and a very beautiful portico over- lookinof the Platanistas. The road extendino^ from the Dromos to the Issorion formed the western limits of the tribe of the iEgidse,- whose quarter extending in- ward to the heart of the city, appears to have com- prehended the Acropolis, the Lesche Poecile, the theatre, with all the other buildings grouped about the foot of the ancient city. The prospect presented by all these villages, nearly touching each other, and comprehended within a circle of six Roman miles, was once, no doubt, in the days of Spartan glory, singularly animated and picturesque. The face of the ground was broken and diversified, rising into six hills of unequal elevation, and consti- tuting altogether a small table-land, in some places terminating in perpendicular cliffs ; ^ in others, shelv- ing away in gentle slopes to meet the meadows on the banks of the surrounding streams. Over all was diffused the brilliant light* which fills the atmo- sphere of the south, and paints, as travellers uniformly in Dian. 94. Spanh. Observ. in loc. p. 196. 1 Steph de Urb. in v. p. 554. b. who refers to Strabo (viii. 6. p. 187). The words of the geogra- pher are Mecroay 3' ov rrjQ )(a>jOac etJ^ai [j,epoQf rrje ^TtctpTrjQ Ka- OaTzep Kai to Atfxvaioy, Paus. vii. 20. 8. ^ Herod iv. 149. Leake, Trav. in Morea, v. i. p. 154. 4 Cf. Chateaub. Itin. i. 112. Similar, also, is the testimony of Mr. Douglas. " The mixture of the romantic with the rich, which still diversifies its aspect, and the singularly picturesque form of all its mountains, do not allow us to wonder that even Virgil should generally desert his native Italy for the landscape of Greece ; who- ever has viewed it in the tints of a Mediterranean spring, will agree with me in attributing much of the Grecian genius to the influence of scenery and climate." Essay, &;c. p. 52. 96 CAPIT.'O. CITIES OF GREECE. confess, even the barren crag and crumbling ruin with beauty. The structures that occupied the summit of the Acropolis appear to have been neither numerous nor magnificent. The central pile, around which all the others were grouped, was the temple of Athena Chal- cioecos,^ flanked on the north and south by the fanes of Zeus Cosmetas and the Muses. Behind it rose the temple of Aphrodite Areia, with that of Artemis Cnagia, and in front various other edifices and statues, dedicated to Euryleonis, Pausanias, Athena Ophthal- mitis, and Ammon. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of the temenos of Athena stood two edifices, one called Skenoma and the other Alpion. The relative position of all these it is now extremely diflUcult, if not impossible, to deteripine. Let us therefore de- scend into the agora, and having briefly described the objects which there olFered themselves to the eye of the stranger, endeavour to thread our way through the A^arious streets of Sparta, pointing out as we go along the most remarkable monuments it contained. In all Greek cities the point of greatest importance, next to the citadel, was the market-place, where the body of the citizens assembled not only to buy and sell, but to transact public business, and perform many ceremonies of their religion. Thus, in the agora of Sparta, in the centre of which probably stood an altar, surrounded by the statues of Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and the soothsayer Hagias who foretold the victory of Lysander at jE.gospotamos, sacred chorusses and pro- cessions were exhibited during the Gymnopsedia in honour of Phoebos Apollo, in consequence of which, a j)art at least of the place obtained the name of Chores : here, likewise, was a colossal statue, erected in honour of the Spartan Demos, with a group repre- senting Hermes bearing the infant Dionysos in his arms, and a statue of King Polydoros, doubtless set up in the neighbourhood of his house, Boonetos, 1 Plut. Apophtheg. Lacon. Ardiid. G. Lycurg. ? . SPARTA. 97 lying between the street Aplietse and the steep road leading up to the citadel. The edifices by which the agora was encircled, though in most cases, perhaps, far from magnificent, when separately considered, pre- sented a grand coup-d'ceil. This will be made evident if, placing ourselves near the central altar, we enume- rate and briefly describe them in the order in which they followed each other in the great circle of the agora. First, beginning on the right-hand corner of the street Aphetse we behold the palace of the Bidisei, the five magistrates who watched over the educa- tion of the youth ; next succeeds that of the No- mophylaces, or guardians of the laws ; then that of the Ephori ; and, lastly, the senate-house, standing at the corner of the street leading to Therapne. Cross- ing over to the south-eastern side of the Agora we behold a spacious and stately portico called the Per- sian, because erected from the spoils of the Persians. Its columns of white marble were adorned with bassi relievi representing Persian warriors, among others Mardonios and Artemisia daughter of Lygdamis queen of Halicarnassos, who fought in person at the battle of Salamis. Beyond the road to Amyclse, we meet with a range of temples to Gaia, Zeus Agorseos, Athena, Poseidon the Preserver, Apollo, and Hera ; and traversing the western street opening into the Theomelida, and affording us a glimpse in pass- ing of the tombs of the Agid kings we arrive at the ancient halls of the Ephori, containing the monu- ments of Epimenides and Aphareus. To this edifice succeed the statues of Zeus Xenios and Athena Xenia. Next follows the temple of the Fates, near which was the tomb of Orestes lying on the left hand of the road leading to the sanctuary of Athena Chal- cioecos. On the other side stands the house of King Polydoros, which obtained in after ages the name of Boonetos because purchased of his widowed queen with a certain number of oxen. With this terminates the list of the buildings by which the Agora was en- compassed. VOL. I. H 98 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. Quitting, now, this central point, we proceed north- ward through the street called Aphetse, and observe on the right hand at a short distance from each other three temples of Athena Keleuthia, together with the heroa of lops, Lelex, and Amphiaraos. On the oppo- site side apparently, stood the temenos of Tsenarian Poseidon, with a statue of Athena, erected by the Dorian colonists of Italy. We next arrive at a place called the Hellenion, probably nothing more than a large open space or square in which the deputies or ambassadors of foreign states assembled on extraor- dinary occasions. Close to this was erected the mo- nument of Talthybios. A little further on were the altar of Apollo Acreitas, the Gasepton, a temple of earth, and another altar sacred to Apollo Maleates. At the end of the street, near the walls of the late city, was a temple of Dictynna, with the tombs of the kings called Eurypontidse. Returning to the Hellenion, and proceeding eastward up the great public road leading to the bridge Babyx, you saw the temple of Arsinoe, daughter of Leucip- pos, and sister to the wives of Castor and Polydeukes. Further on, near the Phrouria or Barriers, stood a temple of Artemis ; and advancing a little you came to the monument of the Eleian soothsayers called lamidse, and the temple of Maron and Alpheios, who were among the bravest of those who fell with Leoni- das at Thermopylae. Beyond this stood the fane of Zeus Tropseos erected after the reduction of Amyclse, when all the ancient inhabitants of Laconia had been brought under the yoke of the Dorians. Next fol- lowed the temple of the Great Mother and the heroic monuments of Ilippolytos and Anion. On a spot com- manding the bridge stood the temple of Athena Alea. Setting out once more from the Agora, and ad- vancing up the street leading towards the east the first building on the left-hand was called Skias^ con- ' 2/ctag, TO (J^eioy eKaXelro dp'yaiav ^m'fiv. k. t. X. — Etym. TtLv AaKelaifxavihiv Kara rrjv Mag. 717. 36. seq. SPAJITA. 99 tiguous to the senate-house : it was of a circular form with a roof like an umbrella, and erected about seven hundred and sixty years before Christ, by Theodores of Samos, inventor of the art of casting statues in iron. Here the Spartan people held their assemblies even so late as the age of Pausanias, who relates that the lyre of Timotheus^ the Milesian, confiscated as a punish- ment for his having added four strings to the seven already in use, was suspended in this building as a warning to all innovators. Near the Skias was another circular building erected by Epimenides, con- taining statues of Olympian Zeus and Aphrodite. On the other side apparently of the street, in front of the Skias, were the tombs of Idas and Lynceus, the temple of Kora Soteira, said to have been built by Orpheus, or Abaris the Hyperboragan, the tomb of Cynortas and the temple of Castor. Near these were the statues of Apollo Carneios, and Aphetaeos, the latter of which marked the point whence the suitors of Penelope started in their race for a wife, running up the street Aphetse, whence the name. Immediately beyond this was a square surrounded with porticoes, where all kinds of cheap wares were anciently sold. Further on stood altars of Zeus, Athena, and the Dioscuri, all surnamed Amboulioi ; opposite which was the hill called Colona whereon was erected a temple of Dionysos, and close at hand a temenos sacred to the hero who conducted the god to Sparta. Not far from the Dionysion was a temple of Zeus Euanemos, giver of gentle breezes ; and immediately to the right the hereon of Pleuron. On the summit of a hill at a little distance stood a temple of the Argive Hera, toge- ther with the fane erected in honour of Hera Hypercheiria, built by order of the oracle after the subsiding of an inundation of the Eurotas. In this edifice was a very ancient wooden statue of Aphrodite Hera. Close to the road which passed to 1 Cf. Plut. Agis, § 10. 100 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. the right of the hill was a statue of Etymocles many times victor in the Olympic games. In descend- ing towards the Eurotas you beheld a wooden statue of Athena Alea, and a little above the banks a temple of Zeus Plousios. On the further side of the river were temples of Ares and Asclepios. Once more retracing our steps to the Agora, and quitting it by a street leading towards the west, the first remarkable object that struck the eye was the cenotaph of Brasidas, and a little beyond it a spacious and beautiful theatre of white marble.^ Directly op- posite were the tombs of Leonidas and Pausanias, and near these a cippus, on which were engraved the names of the heroes who fell at Thermopylae, together with those of their fathers. At this spot games were annually celebrated, in which none but Spartans were allowed to contend for the prizes. Discourses were likewise here pronounced in honour of the dead. The multitudes at these games required a large clear space in which to congregate, and this I suppose to have been the place called Theomelida, opening on both sides of the road, and extending as far as the tombs of the Agid Kings, and the Lesche of the Crotoniatse. Near this edifice stood the temple of Asclepios, the tomb of Tsenaros, and temples of Poseidon Hippocou- rios, and Artemis ^geinea. Turning back towards the Lesche, probably round the foot of the Hill of the Issorion,^ you observed on the slope of the eminence towards the Tiasa the temple of Artemis Limnsea the Britomartis of the Cretans, somewhere in the vi- cinity of which were temples of Thetis, Chthonian Demeter, and Olympian Zeus. Starting from the crossroad at the north-west foot ' This theatre, as Mr. Douglas ^ 'IcrcrojpLoy, opog Trjg Aa/cw- has observed, is the only remain- piicrjg d(p' ov r/ "Aprefiig 'Itro-wjom. ing fragment of ancient Sparta, — Steph. Byz. in v. 426. d. with the other ruins still visible on its the note of Berkel. Cf. Hesych. site, belonging all to Roman times, in v. Polyeen. Strat. ii. 1. 14. — Essay on certain Points of Re- Plut. Agesil. § 32. semblance between the Ancient and Modern Greeks, p. 23. SPARTA. 101 of the Issorion, on the way to the Dromos, the first edifice which presented itself on the left was the monument of Eumedes, one of the sons of Hippocoon, A little further on was a statue of Heracles, and close at hand, near the entrance to the Dromos, stood the ancient palace of Menelaos, inhabited in Pausanias' time by a private individual. Within the Dromos it- self were two gymnasia. This was the most remarkable building in the western part of the city, from whence branched off many streets, while numerous public structures clustered round it ; to the north, for exam- ple, the temples of the Dioscuri, of the Graces, of Ei- leithyia, of Apollo Carneios, and Artemis Hegemona : on the east the temple of Asclej)ios Agnitas, and a trophy erected by Polydeukes after his victory over Lynceus. On the west towards the Platanistas were statues of the Dioscuri Apheterii, and a little further was the hereon of Alcon, near which stood the temple of Poseidon Domatites, near the bridge leading over to the island covered with plane trees. On the other hand apparently of the road a statue was erected to Cynisea, daughter of Archidamos^ the first lady who ran horses at Olympia. Along the banks of the Tiasa from the Dromos to a line extending westward from the temple of Dictynna to the upper bridge leading to the Platanistas, lay a road adorned with numerous public buildings, among others a portico, behind which were two remarkable monuments, the heroa of Alcimos and Enarsepho- ros. Immediately beyond were the heroa of Dorceus and Sebros, and the fountain Dorcea flowing between them. The whole of this little quarter obtained from the latter hero the name of Sebrion. To the rie^ht o of the last mentioned hereon was the monument of the poet Alcman;^ beyond which lay the temple of Helen, and near it that of Heracles close to the modern wall. 1 'AXfCjua'j'^ Adicijjy a7ro Meff- vile parents. — Suid. i. p. 178. ed. aoag — He was an erotic poet said Port, to have been descended from ser- 102 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. Hard by a narrow pathway, striking into the fiekls from the road leading eastward from the Dromos, was the temple of Athena Axiopsenos, said to have been erected by Heracles. Leaving the Dromos by another road running in a south-easterly direction through the midst of the quarter of the Mgidse, we behold, on one hand, the temples of Athena and Hipposthenes^ and directly opposite the latter, a statue of Ares in chains. At a short distance beyond these was the Lesche Poecile, and in front of it, the heroon of Cadmos son of Age- nor, those of two of his descendants, (Eolycos and his son jEgeus, and that of Amphilocos. Farther on lay the temples of Hera ^Egophagos, so called because she-goats were sacrificed to her, and at the foot of the Acropolis, near the theatre, the temples of Poseidon Genethlios, on either side of which pro- bably stood an heroon, the one sacred to Cleodseos son of Hyllos, and the other to (Ebalos. We must now return to the Lesche Poecile, and following a road skirting round the hill of the Acro- polis, towards the east-south- east, pass by the mo- nument of Teleclos, and the most celebrated of all the temples of Asclepios at Sparta, situated close to the Boonetos. Traversing the street Aphetse and proceeding along the road leading to the Lim- nse, the first temple on the left was that of Aphro- dite, on a hill, celebrated by Pausanias for having two stories. The statue of the goddess was here seated, veiled and fettered. A little beyond was the temple of Hilaeira and Phoebe wherein were statues of the two goddesses, the countenance of one of which was painted and adorned by one of the priestesses according to the later rules of art, but warned by a dream she suffered the other to remain in its archaic simplicity. Llere was preserved an egg adorned with fillets and suspended from the roof, said to have been brought forth by Leda. In a building near at hand, certain women wove annually a tunic for the Apollo of Amyclse, from which cir- SPARTA. 103 cumstance the edifice itself obtained the name of Chiton. Next followed the house of the Tyndaridse, the heroa of Chilon and Athenseus, and the temple of Lycurgus, with the tomb of Eucosmos behind it. Near them was the altar of Lathria and Anaxandra, and directly opposite the monuments of Theopompos and Eurybiades and Astrabacos. In an island in the marshes were the temple and altar of Artemis Orthia, and the fane of Eileithyia. On the road leading from the Agora to Amyclse^ there were few remarkable monuments. One only, the temple of the Graces, is mentioned north of the Tiasa, and beyond it the Hippodrome ; towards the west the temple of the Tyndaridse near the road, and that of Poseidon Gaiouchos towards the river. ^ Let us now consider the proofs on which the above description is based. Pausanias informs us that the citadel was the highest of the hills of Sparta. Colonel Leake observes that the eminence found in the quarter which I have assigned to the Cynosurse is equal in height to that immediately behind the theatre ; but the former is pointed and appears to have retained its natural shape, while the summit of the latter has been levelled for building. Now if its height be still equal, it must have been considerably greater before the levelling process took place. Therefore the hill be- hind the theatre was the Acropolis. Admitting this, the spacious flat or hollow immediately at its foot on the south-east side must have been the Agora,^ for that the Agora was close to the citadel is clear from history, which represents Lycurgus and king Chari- laos escaping thither from the market-place.* Again we know from Pausanias that it lay a little to the east of the theatre, having nothing between them but the cenotaph of Brasidas. The position of the Agora being thus fixed beyond dispute, we arrive * Ov TO Tov *A7r6X\(ovoQ Upor. ^ Plut. Lycurg. § 11. Lacon. Strab. viii. 5. t. ii. p. 185. Apoph. Lycurg. 7. ' Xen. Hellen. vi. 5. 30. ' Plut. Lycurg. § 5. 104 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. with certainty at the direction of the four great streets that diverge from it ; for, first, we know that the road to the Issorion lay towards the west ; the road to Amy else towards the south. The street called Skias terminated at the extremity of the city be- tween two small hills. These two hills are still there on the brink of the high ground overlooking the valley of the Eurotas on the east. This therefore was the direction of the Skias. As an additional proof, it may be mentioned that the temple of Hera Hy- percheiria was erected in commemoration of the sub- siding of an inundation of the Eurotas, which shows it must have been somewhere nearly within reach of the waters of that stream. For the street Aphetse no direction is left but that towards the north-west or the north-east ; but the latter led to the temple of Artemis Orthia in the Limnae, the former to the temple of Dictynna. The street Aphetse led there- fore to the north-west, no other road being men- tioned but that leading from Mount Thornax over the bridge Babyx, which was not the street called Aphetse. Thus we have the direction of every one of the great streets of Sparta incontrovertibly de- termined. Proceed we now to establish the posi- tion, with respect to the citadel, of each of the five tribes who occupied as many quarters of the city. First we learn from Pausanias that the Pitanatae inhabited the quarter round the Issorion:^ from Pin- dar^ and his scholiast that they dwelt likewise near the banks of the Eurotas. They possessed therefore the whole southern quarter of the city.^ As the Limnatse obtained their name from the marshes near which they lived, the position of the Limnae deter- mined by the chain of reasoning given above, proves them to have occupied the eastern quarter of the city directly opposite the temple of Artemis Orthia. 1 Poly ten. Stratag. ii. 1. 14. - Olymp. vi. 28. Cf. Spanheim, with the notes of Casaub. and ad Callim. in Dian, 172. Maasvic. ' Cf. Athen. i. 57. SPARTA. 105 That tlie tribe of the ^gidae inhabited all that part extending in one direction from the Issorion to the Dromos, and in the other from the banks of the Tiasa to the Boonetos, may almost with certainty be inferred from the circumstance that the tomb of Ji^geus, their founder, was situated in this quarter, close to the Lesche Poecile. The quarter of the Me- soatse lay in the north-west, between the Dromos and the temple of Dictynna ; for here was found the tomb of Alcman who belonged to that tribe. All the rest of the site being thus occupied, there remains only for the tribe of the Cynosurse that part lying between the road to Thornax and the temple of Dic- tynna, where accordingly we must suppose them to have lived. With respect to the bridge Babyx, if bridge it really was, it appears very difficult^ to believe that it spanned the Tiasa, though we still find massive ruins of arches in the channel of that stream. There seems to be much stronger reason for supposing it to have been thrown over the Eurotas, where the road from the Isthmus traversed it.^ We should then understand by the oracle which commanded Lycurgus to assemble his people between Babyx and Cnacion,^ that he was to gather them together anywhere with- in the precincts of the city. Accordingly we find in the time of Lycurgus, that the Agora in the centre of Sparta was the place were the Apellse * were held. This, too, is evident, by the sense in which the matter was understood by Plutarch, who, speaking of the victory of the Boeotians over the Spartans at Tegyra, observes, that by this event it was made manifest that not the Eurotas, or the space between Babyx and 1 This, however, is the opinion ^ Plut. Lycurg. § 6. of Mr. Miiller, Dor. ii. 456. ^ See the passage in which * Goettl. ad Aristot. Pol. Ex- Xenophon (v. 5. 27), describes curs. i. p. 464. the advance of the Thebans upon Sparta. 106 CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE. Cnacion alone produced brave and warlike men/ Now it appears to me, that a few meadows without the city on which assemblies of the people were occasionally convened could never be said to produce these people. I have therefore supposed that Babyx was the bridge by which travellers coming from the Isthmus entered Sparta. 1 Pelop, § 17. i BOOK II. EDUCATION. CHAPTER I. THEORY OF EDUCATION. — BIRTH OF CHILDREN. — INFANTICIDE. Whether on education the Greeks thought more wisely than we do or not,^ they certainly contemplated the subject from a more elevated point of view. They regarded it as the matrix in which future generations are fashioned, and receive that peculiar temperament and character belonging to the institutions that presid- ed at their birth. Their theories were so large as to comprehend the whole developement of individual ex- istence, from the moment when the human germ is quickened into life until the grave closes the scene, and in many cases looked still further ; for the rites of initiation and a great part of their ethics had re- ference to another world. On this account we find their legislators possessed by extreme solicitude re- specting the character of those teachers into whose 1 Dion Chrysostom tells a cu- rious story respecting a blunder of the Athenians on this subject. Apollo once commanding them, if they desired to become good citi- zens, to put whatever was most beautiful in the ears of their sons, they bored one of the lobes, and inserted a gold earring, not com- prehending the meaning of the God. But this ornament would better have suited their daughters or the sons of Lydians or Phry- gians ; but for the offspring of Greeks, nothing could have been intended by the God but education and reason, the possessors of which would probably become good men, and the preservers of their country. — Orat. xxxii. t. i. p. 653. sqq. — The popular maxim that knowledge is power may be traced to Plato. — De Rep. v. t. vi. p. 268. 108 THEORY OF EDUCATION. hands the souls of the people were to be placed, to receive the first principles of good or evil, to be invigorated, raised, and purified by the former, or by the latter to be perverted, or precipitated down the slopes of vice and effeminacy, by which nations sink from freedom to servitude. Among them, moreover, it was never matter of doubt, whether the light of knowledge should be allowed to stream upon the summits of society only, or be suffered to descend into its lower depths and visit the cottages of the poor. Whatever education had to impart was, in most states, imparted to all the citizens, as far as their leisure or their capacity would permit them to receive it. The whole object, indeed, of education among the Greeks was to create good citizens, from which it has by some been inferred that they confined their views to the delivering of secular instruction. But this is to take a narrow and ignorant view of the subject, since religion was not only an element of education but regarded as of more importance than all its other elements taken together. For it had not escaped the Hellenic legislators, that in many circumstances of life man is placed beyond the reach and scrutiny of laws and public opinion, where he must be free to act ac- cording to the dictates of conscience, which, if not rightly trained, purified, and rendered clearsighted by religion, will often dictate amiss. It is of the utmost moment, therefore, that in these retired situations man should not consider himself placed beyond the range of every eye, and so be tempted to lay the foundation of habits which, begun in secrecy, may soon acquire boldness to endure the light and set the laws them- selves at defiance. Accordingly over those retired moments in which man at first sight appears to com- mune with himself alone, religion was called in to teach that there were invisible inspectors, who regis- tered, not only the evil deeds and evil words they witnessed, but even the evil thoughts and emotions of the heart, the first impulses to crime in the lowest abysses of the mind. Consistently with this view of THEORY OF EDUCATION. 109 the subject, we discover everywhere in Greek history and literature traces of an almost puritanical scrupu- lousness in whatever appeared to belong to religion, so that in addressing the Athenians St. Paul himself was induced to reproach them with the excesses of their devotional spirit, which degenerated too fre- quently into superstition. But the original design with which this spirit was cultivated was wise and good, its intention being to rescue men from the sway of their inferior passions, — from envy, from ava- rice, from selfishness, and to inspire them with faith in their own natural dignity by representing their actions as of sufficient importance to excite the notice, pro- voke the anger, or conciliate the favour of the immor- tal gods. This religion, which base and sordid minds regard as humiliating to humanity, was by Grecian lawgivers and founders of states contemplated as a kind of holy leaven designed by God himself, to per- vade, quicken, and expand society to its utmost di- mensions. The question which commands so much attention in modern states, viz. whether education should be national and uniform, likewise much occupied the thoughts of ancient statesmen, and it is known that in most cases they decided in the affirmative. It may however be laid down as an axiom, that among a phlegmatic and passive-minded people, where the go- vernment has not yet acquired its proper form and developement, the establishment of a national sys- tem of education, complete in all its parts and ex- tending to the whole body of the citizens, must be infallibly pernicious. For such as the government is at the commencement such very nearly will it con- tinue, as was proved by the example of Crete and Sparta. For the Cretan legislators, arresting the pro- gress of society at a certain point by the establish- ment of an iron system of education, before the popu- lar mind had acquired its full growth and expansion, dwarfed the Cretan people completely, and by pre- venting their keeping pace with their countrymen 110 THEORY OF EDUCATION. rendered them in historical times inferior to all their neighbours. In Sparta, again, the form of polity given to the state by Lycurgus, wonderful for the age in which it was framed, obtained perpetuity solely by the operation of his psedonomical institutions. The imperfection, however, of the system arose from this circumstance, that the Spartan government was framed too early in the career of civilisation. Had its lawgiver lived a century or two later, he would have estab- lished his institutions on a broader and more elevated basis, so that they would have remained longer nearly on a level with the progressive institutions of neigh- bouring states. But he fixed the form of the Spartan commonwealth when the general mind of Greece had scarcely emerged from barbarism ; and as the rigid and unyielding nature of his laws forbade any great improve- ment, Sparta continued to bear about her in the most refined ages of Greece innumerable marks of the rude period in which she had risen. From this circum- stance flowed many of her crimes and misfortunes. Forbidden to keep pace with her neighbours in know- ledge and refinement, which by rendering them inven- tive, enterprising, and experienced, elevated them to power, she was compelled, in order to maintain her ground, to have recourse to astuteness, stratagem, and often to perfidy. The Spartan system, it is well known, made at first, and for some ages, little or no use of books. But this, at certain stages of society, was scarcely an evil;^ for knowledge can be imparted, virtues implanted and cherished, and great minds ripened to maturity with- out their aid. The teacher, in this case, rendered wise by meditation and experience, takes the place of a book, and by oral communication, by precept, and by example, instructs, and disciplines, and moulds his pupil into what he would have him be. By this ^ro- 1 Montagne relates, in his Tra- ignorant of the art of reading and vels (t. ill. p. 51), an instance of writing. His Lucchese improvi- how the mind may be cultivated, satrice may be regarded as a particularly in poetry, by persons match for the ancient rhapsodists. THEORY OF EDUCATION. Ill cess both are benefited. The precei^tor's mind, kept in constant activity, acquires daily new force and ex- pansion ; and the pupil's in like manner. In a state, therefore, like that of Sparta, in the age of Lycurgus, it was possible to acquire all necessary knowledge without books, of which indeed very few existed. But afterwards, when the Ionian republics began to be refined and elevated by philosophy and literature, Sparta, unable to accompany them, fell into the back- ground : still preserving, however, her warlike habits she was enabled on many occasions to overawe and subdue them. Among the Athenians,^ though knowledge was uni- versally diffused, there existed, properly speaking, no system of national education. The people, like their state, were in perpetual progress, aiming at perfection, and sometimes approaching it ; but precipitated by the excess of their intellectual and physical energies into numerous and constantly recurring errors. While Sparta, as we have seen, remained content with the wisdom indigenous to her soil, scanty and imperfect as it was, Athens converted herself into one vast mart, whither every man who had anything new to commu- nicate hastened eagerly, and found the sure reward of his ingenuity. Philosophers, sophists, geometricians, astronomers, artists, musicians, actors, from all parts of Greece and her most distant colonies, flocked to Athens to obtain from its quick-sighted, versatile, im- partial, and most generous people that approbation which in the ancient world constituted fame. There- fore, although the laws regulated the material circum- stances of the schools and gymnasia, prescribed the hours at which they should be opened and closed, and watched earnestly over the morals both of preceptors and pupils, there was a constant indraught of fresh science, a perpetually increasing experience and know- ledge of the world, and, consequent thereupon, a deep- rooted conviction of their superiority over their neigh- 1 Cf. Plat. De Legg. vli. t. viii. p. 1 . 112 THEORY OF EDUCATION. hours, an impatience of antiquated forms, and an auda- cious reliance on their own powers and resources which betrayed them into the most hazardous schemes of ambition. But, by pushing too far their literary and philo- sophical studies, the Athenians were induced at length to neglect the cultivation of the arts of war, wdiich they appeared to regard as a low and servile drudgery. And this capital error, in spite of all their acquire- ments and achievements in eloquence and philosophy, — in spite of their lofty speculation and " style of gods," brought their state to a premature dissolution ; while Sparta, with inferior institutions, and ignorance which even the children at Athens would have laughed at, was enabled much longer to preserve its existence, from its impassioned application to the use of arms, aided, perhaps, by a stronger and more secluded posi- tion. From this it appears that of all sciences that of war is the chiefest, since, where this is cultivated, a nation may maintain its independence without the aid of any other ; whereas the most knowing, refined, and cultivated men, if they neglect the use of arms, will not be able to stand their ground against a handful even of barbarians. They mistake, too, wdio look upon literature and the sciences as a kind of palladium against barbarism,^ for a whole nation may read and write, like the inhabitants of the Birman empire, with- out being either civilised or wise; and may possess the best books and the power to read them, without being able to profit by the lessons of wisdom they contain, as is proved by the example of the Greeks and Romans, who perished rather from a surfeit of knowledge than from any lack of instruction. But it is time, perhaps, to quit these general speculations, and proceed to develope, as far as existing monuments will enable us, the several systems of education which pre- vailed in the different parts of Greece. I Notwithstanding that Plato 145. — Of. t. viii. p. 2. seq. — regards knowledge as the medi- Aristot. Ethic, vi. 13. cine of the soul. — Grit. t. vii. p. BIRTH OF CHILDREN. 113 Among Hellenic legislators the care of children commenced before their birth. Their mothers were subject while pregnant to the operation of certain rules ; their food and exercises were regulated, and in most cases the laws, or at least the manners, required them to lead a sedentary, inactive, and above all a tranquil life.^ Physicians, guided by experience, pre- scribed a somewhat abstemious diet ; and wine was prohibited, or only permitted to be taken with water, which, where reason is consulted, we find to be the practice at the present day. But Lycurgus, in the article of exercise, gave birth to, or, at least, sanc- tioned, customs wholly different.^ Even while en- ceinte his women were required to be abroad, engaged in their usual athletic recreations, eating as before and drinking as before. On this occasion, too, as on all others, the deep- rooted piety of the nation displayed itself. Prayers and sacrifices were habitually offered up by all mar- ried persons for children, as afterwards by Christian ladies to the saints and these of course were not discontinued, when it appeared by unequivocal signs that their desires had begun to receive their fulfil- ment. What the divinities were whom on these oc- casions the Athenian matrons invoked under the name of Tritopatores, it seems difficult to determine. De- mon in Suidas* supposes them to be the winds ; but Philochoros, the most learned of ancient writers on the antiquities of Attica, imagined them to be the first three sons of Ilelios and Gaia. According to some they were called Cottos or Cores, Gyges or Gyes, and Briareus ; according to others Amalcides, 1 Plat, de Legg. 1. vii. t. viii. pp. 4. et 11 . — During the preg- nancy of women great care was taken not to bring into the house the wood of the ostrya or car- pinus ostrys, the appearance of which was ominous of difficult births, or even of sudden death. Tlieoph. Hist. Plant, iii. 10. 3. VOL. I. 2 Xenoph. de Rep. Laced, i. 3. Perizon. ad Lilian. Var. Hist. x. 13. 3 Theodoret. iv. 921. 4 V. TpiroT t. ii. p. 947. b. seq. Cf. Siebel. ad Frag. Philoch. p. 11. Meurs. Grsec. Fer. p. 264. Lect. Att. iii. 1. Vales, in Harpoc. p. 223. seq. I 114 BIRTH OF CHILDREN. Protocles, and Protocleon, the watchers and guardians of the wind. There are authors, moreover, by whom they have been confounded with the Dii Kabyri of Samothrace. During the period of their confinement women were supposed to be under the j)rotection of Eileithyia. This goddess, who by Olen the Lycian was considered older than Kronos,^ had the honour as certain mythi- cal legends relate, of being the mother of love,^ though several ancient authors appear to have con- founded her with Pepromene or Fate, others with Hera, and others again with Artemis or the moon. The traditions of the mythology respecting this divi- nity were various. Her worship seems to have made its first appearance among the Greeks in the island of Delos, whither she is said to have come from the country of the Hyperboreans, to lend her aid to Leto, when beneath the palm tree, which Zeus caused to spring up over her,^ she gave birth to the gods of night and day. From that time forward she was held in veneration by the Delians, who in her honour offered up sacrifices, chaunting the hymns of Olen, whence we may infer she was a Pelasgian deity. From thence her name and worship were diffused through the other islands and states of Hellas ; though the Cretans pretended that she was born at Amnisos in the Knossian territory, and was a daugh- ter of Hera. The Athenians, who erected a temple to Eileithyia appeared to favour both traditions, since of the two statues which were found in her fane the more ancient was said to have been brought from Delos by Erisicthon, while the second, dedicated by Phaedra, came from Crete. Among the Athenians, alone, as an indication of the national modesty, the wooden images of this mysterious divinity were sig- nificantly veiled to the toes.* 1 Paus. viii. 21. 3. Paus. i, 18. 5. Cf. Keight- 2 Paus. ix. sr. 2. Cf. Cic. de ley, Mythol. p. 19.3. In Arcadia, Nat. Deor. iii. 23. also, this goddess was so closely 3 Callim. ii. 4. draped that nothing was visible BIRTH OF CHILDREN. 115 The simple delicacy of remoter ages required women to be attended, while becoming mothers, by individuals of their own sex. But the contrary prac- tice, now general among civilised nations, prevailed early at Athens, where the study of medicine, in which the accoucheur s^ art is included, was prohib- ited to women and slaves. The consequences bear stronger testimony to the refined taste and truly feminine feelings of the Athenian ladies than a thou- sand panegyrics. Numbers, rather than submit to the immodest injunctions of fashion, declined all aid, and perished in their harems : observing which, and moved strongly by the desire to preserve the lives of her noble-minded countrywomen, a female citizen named Agnodice, disguised as a man, acquired a competent knowledge of the theory and practice of physic in the medical school of Herophilos ; she then confided her secret to the women who universally determined to avail themselves of her services, and in consequence her practice became so extensive that the jealousy of the other practitioners was violently excited. In re- venge, therefore, as she still maintained her disguise, they preferred an accusation against her in the court of Areiopagos as a general seducer. To clear herself Agnodice made known her sex, upon which the en- vious ^sculapians prosecuted her under the provisions of the old law. In behalf of their benefactress the principal gentlewomen appeared in court, and min- gling the highest testimony in favour of Agnodice with many bitter reproaches, they not only obtained her acquittal, but the repeal of the obnoxious law, and permission for any free woman to become an accoucheuse.^ Mention is made by ancient writers of several rude and hardy tribes, whose women, like those of Hindus- stan at the present day, stood in very little need of but the countenance, fingers, and Tyr. Dissert, xxviii. p. S33. Cf. toes. — Paus. vii. 23. 5. Pignor. de Serv. 184. ' The duties of an accoucheuse ^ Hygin. Fab. 274. are briefly enumerated by Max. I 2 116 BIRTH OF CHILDREN. the midwife's aid. Thus Varro,^ speaking of the rough shepherdesses of Italy, observes that among the countrywomen of lUyria, bringing forth children was regarded as a slight matter ; for that, stepping aside from their work in the fields, they would return presently with an infant in their arms, having first bathed it in some fountain or running stream, appearing rather to have found, than given birth to, a child. Nor are the manners of these uncultivated people at all altered in modern times, as appears from an anecdote related to Pietro Vittore,- by Francesco Sardonati, professor of Latin at Ragusa, who said that he saw a woman go out empty-handed to a forest for wood, and return shortly afterwards with a bundle on her head and a new-born infant in her arms. At Athens, however, where the women were peculiarly tender and delicate, the young mother remained with- in doors full six weeks,^ when the festival of the for- tieth day was celebrated, after which she went forth, as our ladies do to be churched, to offer up sacrifices and return thanks in the temple of Artemis or some other divinity. New-born infants, when designed to be reared, were at Athens and in the rest of Greece bathed in cold water : at Sparta in wine, with the view of pro- ducing convulsions and death should the child be feeble, whereas, were its constitution strong and vi- gorous, it would thus they imagined, " acquire a " greater degree of firmness, and get a temper in pro- " portion, as Potter"^ expresses it, like steel in the " quenching." Swaddling-bands^ also, in use through- out the rest of Greece, were banished from Sparta, which led the way therefore to that improved system of infant management advocated by Rousseau, La- cipede and others,^ and now generally adopted in 1 De Re Rust. ii. 1 0. ^ Coray, ad Hippoc. de Aer. et 2 Var. Lect. xxxiv. 2. Loc. ii. 309. 3 Meiirs. Grsec. Fer. p, 260. ^ Even so early as the age of sqq. Censor, de Die Natali. c 11. Montaigne the necessity of some 4 Antiq. ii. 320. change was felt. Les liaisons et BIRTH OF CHILDREN. 117 this country, though but partially in France. The ceremonies and customs of the Greeks were a kind of symbolical language, many times containing impor- tant meaning, and always perhaps indicative of the character and familiar feelings of the race. Much stress was laid on the thing wherein the infant was placed upon its entrance into the world. This, among the Athenians, consisted of a wrapper adorned with an embroidered figure of the Gorgon's head, the de- vice represented on the shield of Athena, tutelar divinity of the state. From the beginning every citizen seemed thus to be placed under the imme- diate shelter of that goddess's segis which should be extended over him in peace and in war. In other parts of Greece the child's first bed, and too fre- quently his last, was a shield.^ In accordance with this custom we find Alcmena cradling her twin boys Heracles and Iphicles in Amphytrion's buckler ; and the same practice prevailed, as might have been ex- pected, at Sparta, where war constituted to men the sole object of life." Elsewhere other symbols spoke to the future sense rather than the present of the new citizen. In agricultural countries the military symbol was replaced by a winnowing van, not unfrequently of gold or other costly materials;^ though it may be doubted whether the word so rendered meant not rather a cradle in the form of that rustic implement. In another custom, long on these occasions ob- served, we discern traces of that serpent -worship which at different epochs diffused itself so widely over the world. Among opulent and noble families emmaillottements des enfans ne § 101);, and as his able commenta- sont non plus necessaires." He tor, Coray, confirms by example, then alludes to the practice of the uhi sup. Spartan nurses. — Essais, ii. 12. i Theoc. Eidyll. xxiv. 4. ^ However, in certain habits of rav rj eiri rag. Plut. Lacaen. body, swaddling is not merely Apophtheg. t. ii. p. 187. useful, but necessary: as Hippo- " Nonn. Dionys. xH. 168. sec[. crates remarks in his account of Sch. Thucyd. ii. 39. the Scythians (de Aer et Loc. ' Callim. Hymn, in Jov. 48, 118 INFANTICIDE. at Athens new-born children were laid on golden amulets in the form of dragons by which they were supposed to commemorate Athena's delivery of Erich- thonios to the care of two guardians of that descrip- tion/ But under certain circumstances, instead of the joy and gladness by which the noble and the great are greeted on their entrance into the world, the birth of a child was, as in Thrace,^ an event fraught with sorrow and misery. It announced in fact the approach of an enemy, of one who, if he survived, must snatch from them a portion of what already would scarcely sustain life. Together with the an- nouncement of his birth, therefore, came the awful consciousness that war must be made on him- — that he must in short be cast forth, a scape-goat for the sins of society, not for his own — that his parents who should have cherished him, whose best solace he should have been, must steel their hearts and close fast their ears against the voice of nature, and become his executioners. The poor-laws of Greece, or rather their substitutes for poor-laws, were ex- ceedingly imperfect, and foundling hospitals had not been introduced. They got rid of their surplus po- pulation, as many nations still do, by murder; for infanticide, under various forms, has more or less prevailed in all civilised countries, if the term civil- ised can properly be applied to nations among whom crimes so demoralising are habitually perpetrated. No doubt the sullen reluctance of a father to im- brue his hands in the blood of his child produced daily many a heart-rending scene ; no doubt the sting of want must have been keenly felt before the habit of slaughter was confirmed ; — but the fashion once set, children were thrown into an earthen pot and * Eurip. Ion. 15. sqq. — There from fascination and the evil eye. were certain amulets, too, called Pollux, iv. 182. Vict, in Arist. TreptaTrra which superstitious m.o- Ethic. Nicom. p. 42. thers hung about the necks of ' Sext. Empir. p. 186. their children to defend them INFANTICIDE. 119 exposed in mountainous and desert places to perish of cold, or fall a prey to carnivorous birds ^ or wolves, as coolly as they are murdered by their young and frail mothers in our own Christian land. Under all circumstances, however, the parents thus criminal are objects of pity. Misery is blind, and crime is blind. But what shall we say to those priests of hu- manity, those sacred and reverend interpreters of na- ture, — the philosophers who come forward to sanction and justify the practice? It would be criminal to disguise the fact, that both Plato and Aristotle, the great representatives of the wisdom of the Pagan world,^ conceived infanticide, under certain circum- stances, to be allowable. Near, therefore, as the for- mer stood to the truths of Christianity, there was still a cloud between him and them. What he saw, he saw through a glass darkly. Christ had not then stamped the seal of divinity upon human nature, had not shed abroad that light by which alone we discover the true features of crime, no less than the true features of ho- liness. Philosophy is beautiful ; but with the beauty of one involuntarily polluted. Religion alone, breath- ing of heaven, radiant with light, reflected on its whole form from the face of God, is lovely altogether with- out spot or blemish. The Greeks wanting this guide went astray. They looked at the question of popula- tion as coarse utilitarians, — all but the gross, unintellec- tual Thebans, who, relying on the vast fertility of their soil, or led by some better instinct, on this point soared high above their cultivated neighbours, an example of how the foolish things of this world, even in the unre- generate state of nature, may sometimes confound the wise. Among the Tyrrhenians,^ likewise, a people of Pelasgian origin, infanticide was unknown, probably ' Vict. (Var. Lect. ii. 3) has an Lips. Epist. ad Belg. Cent. 1. e. useful chapter on the exposing of 85. withthework of GerardNoodt, infants, in which he has collected entitled '^Julius Paulus/' in opp. several valuable testimonies. Lugd. Bat. 1726. pp. 567, seq. 591. seq. Elmenhorst. ad Minuc. ' Plato de Rep. v. § 9. p. 359. Felic. Octav. 289. ed. Ouzel. Stallb. Aristot. Pol. vii. 16. Cf. ' Athen. xii. 14. 120 INFANTICIDE. because among them it was accounted no disgrace to be the parents of illegitimate offspring; indeed the sense of shame could not, in any case, be very keen among a people whose female slaves served naked at table, and where even the ladies appeared at public entertainments in the same state, drinking bumpers and joining freely in the conversation of the men. In the modern world to take the life of an infant is a capital offence, yet we see with how little fear or ceremony the law is set at nought. It will, therefore, readily be supposed that in those countries of anti- quity where neither law nor public opinion opposed the practice, but in some cases winked at, in others enjoined it, the number of child-murders must have been enormous. Sparta very naturally took the lead in this guilty course.^ Here it was not permitted to private individuals to make away with their off- spring stealthily, and with those marks of shame and compunction inseparable from individual guilt. The state monopolized the right to Herodise, and by shar- ing the criminality among great numbers appeared to silence the objections of conscience. Fathers were compelled by law to bring their new-born infants to certain ofScers, old, grave men,^ who held their sit- tings in the Lesche of their tribe, and after due deli- beration determined on the claim of each child to live or die. By what rules they decided, rude and igno- rant of physiology as they were, it would now be im- possible positively to affirm. Little skill no doubt had they in detecting the latent seeds of robustness and physical energy, still less those of splendid mental en- dowments lurking in the crimson countenance of help- less infancy. They who might have proved the wise and good of their generation no doubt often went instead of the mere animal. However, giving orders that the strong and apparently healthy should 1 Compare the coolness of Hase. iii. 83. Potter, too (ii. 326. sqq.), p. 190. Miiller. ii. 313. with seems to disapprove of the prac- Lamb. Bos. p. 212. seq. and the tice. humane remarks of Ubbo Emmius ^ Plut, Lycurg. 16. INFANTICIDE. 121 be nursed, the weakly and delicate, often the noblest men, and the bravest soldiers, as witness Lucius Sulla, were condemned to be cast like so many puppy dogs into the Apothetse, a deep cavern at the foot of Mount Taygetos. This den of death relieved the Spartans from the necessity of erecting workhouses or enacting poor-laws. The surplus population went into that pit. To a certain extent, and in a mitigated form, the same practice prevailed at Athens. Here, however, it was more a matter of custom than of law, and in this respect differed materially^ from the practice of Sparta, that it was left entirely to the father to determine the fate of his children. Accordingly, the more cold- blooded had recourse to murder, while the less atro- cious exposed them in jars in desert places to perish, or in the thronged and crowded quarters of the city in the hope that they might excite in others that compassion, which he, their father, denied them." And humane individuals were often found who, like our Squire Allworthy, would sympathise with these deserted creatures.^ Numerous examples occur in the comic poets. In these cases poverty was no doubt the motive, particularly when boys were exposed ; but even wealthy persons, reasoning like the Rajpoots of northern India, would prefer exposing their daugh- ters, to the care and expense of educating them to an uncertain destiny. On these occasions the child was dressed and swaddled more or less carefully, placed in a large earthen vessel called a chytra,^ — the same in which soup was made, and which ought, therefore, to have awakened humane associations, — and laid at the mouth of some cave without the walls, or in such situations as I have above described. To this custom allusion is made in the anecdote of a found- ling, who amusing himself by rolling a chytra before 1 Petit is of the contrary opi- ^ On the ceremony of adoption, nion, but his authorities by no see Potter ii. 335. Compare Lady means bear him out. — Legg. Att. Montague's Works, iii. 12. lib. ii. tit. 4. p. 144. * Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 289, or Paulus, ap. Petit, ubi sup. sometimes oarpaKov^ Ran. 122L 122 INFANTICIDE. liim with his foot, " What ! exclaimed some one " desirous of reminding him of his origin, have you "the impiety to kick your mother in the belly Sometimes when the object was rather to escape shame than to shun the expense of education, rings, jewels, or other valuable tokens were suspended about the child, or put along with it into the chytra.^ And in the comic writers these usually assist in bringing about a discovery. If they fell into the hands of the poor the costly marks of noble birth, always held in honour by the ignorant and needy, would perhaps tempt them to preserve and cherish the off-cast, as in the case of Shakespeare's Per- dita, or in the event of death, would defray the expenses of their funerals. Sometimes superstition operated on their minds, urging them into a mock show of sharing their possessions with the little wretches they abandoned.^ Thus Sostrata, wife of Chromes, in the Self-tormentor delivered along with her little daughter to the person who was to expose it, a ring from her own finger to be left with the child, that should it die it might not be wholly de- prived of all share of their property. Such also is the behaviour of Creusa in Euripides ; for Hermes, whom the poet introduces unfolding the argument of the drama, relates that when the young princess laid her new-born son to perish in the cavern, where he had been conceived, she took off her costly orna- ments and with them decked her devoted boy.* From another part of the same play it may be in- ferred that children were often exposed on the steps of Apollo's temple at Delphi, and nurtured by the Pythoness.^ Indeed the priestess, on discovering Ion, who had been brought thither by Hermes from' Attica, concludes at once that some unfortunate Deli)hian ' Sch. Aristoph. Thesmoph. 36 seq. Victor. Var. Lect. ii. S. 500. Cf. Ter. Hecyr. iii. S. 3\. sqq. - Vict. Var. Lect. ii. 3. Aris- ^ Eurip. Ion, 26. seq. Cf. 15. tot. Poet. xvi. sqq. Terent. Heautontini. iv. I * Conf. Hypoth. Ion. INFANTICIDE. 123 girl ^ is his mother, and adopts him under that impres- sion. From the sequel it would appear that such chil- dren were the slaves of the temple, and under the immediate protection of the god.^ In the plain of Eleutherse, near the temple of Dionysos, is a cavern, and close beside it a fountain. Here, according to the poets, Antiope brought forth Zethos and Amphion, twin sons of Zeus, whom, to conceal her shame, she abandoned where they were born. The infants were immediately after- wards discovered by a shepherd, who, having bathed them in the neighbouring spring, took them to his cot, where they were brought up as his own chil- dren.'^ The catastrophe of many an ancient play was brought about by a discovery of the real cha- racters of persons who had been exposed in infancy. Thus (Edipus, whose story is too well known to need repetition, was abandoned on Mount Cithseron. The daughters of Phineus,* of whom nothing else has come down to us, had been cast forth in infancy and pre- served, and were afterwards brought to be put to death on the same spot ; by alluding to which their lives were saved. The sons,^ likewise, of Tyro, Peleus and Neleus, were deserted by their mother, who placed them in a little bark or chest on the banks of the Enipeus, a circumstance which served afterwards to reveal the parentage of the twins. The story of Ro- mulus and Remus, who were thus abandoned by their vestal mother, is familiar to every reader ; and from the example of Moses recorded in the sacred volume, we may infer that the exposing of children was com- mon in remoter ages in Egypt. Pindar,^ in relating the birth of the prophet lamos, presents us with a poetical picture of one of these unhappy transactions. 1 A£\(pi^(i)v TXaiT) Kopr]. k. t. X. Aristot. Poet. xvi. 8. cum not. Ion, 44. sqq. Herm. p. 156. 2 Ion, 53. sqq. ^ Arist. Poet, xvi. 3. ^ Pans. ii. 6. 4. — Cf. Casaub. ^ Olymp. vi. 39. sqq. Diss. Diatrib. in Dion. Chrysost. ii. I give the passage as it is ele- 469. gantly translated by Mr. Gary. 124 INFANTICIDE. Evadne, daugliter of Poseidon by the river- iiympli Pitana, dwelling at the court of ^pytos a king of Arcadia, going forth, like the daughters of the Pa- triarchs, to draw water from a fountain, is overtaken by her birth-pangs. " Her crimsoned girdle down was flung. The silver ewer beside her laid. Amid a tangled thicket, hung With canopy of brownest shade ; When forth the glorious babe she brought, His soul instinct with heavenly thought. Sent by the golden-tressed god. Near her the Fates indulgent stood, With Eileithyia mild. One short sweet pang released the child, And lamos sprang forth to light. A wail she uttered ; left him then. Where on the ground he lay ; When straight two dragons came, With eyes of azure flame. By will divine awaked out of their den ; And with the bees' unharmful venom they Fed him, and nursled through the night and day. The king meanwhile had come From stony Pytho driving, and at home Did of them all after the boy inquire Born of Evadne ; for, he said, the sire Was Phoebos, and that he Should of earth's prophets wisest be. And that his generation should not fail. Not to have seen or heard him they avouched, Now five days born. But he, on rushes couched. Was covered up in that wide brambly maze ; His delicate body met With yellow and empurpled rays From many a violet : And hence his mother bade him claim For ever this undying name." Generally, it would appear, illegitimate children were exposed in the neighbourhood of the Gymnasium, in the Cynosarges, because, as suggested by Suidas, Hera- cles, who was himself a bastard, had a temple there. On the subject of infanticide the Thebans,^ as I 1 ^lian, Var. Hist. ii. 7. — Cf. Phil. Jud. de Legg. Special, p. 543. INFANTICIDE: 125 have said, entertained juster sentiments than the rest of their countrymen. By their institutions it was made a capital crime ; but because severe laws would not furnish the indigent with the means of supporting the children they were forbidden to kill, they by an- other enactment provided for their maintenance. If a poor man found himself unable to support an addition to his family, he was commanded to bear his children immediately from the birth, wrapped in swaddling- clothes, to the magistrates, who disposed of them for a small sum to wealthy people in want of children or servants : for, according to the Theban laws, they who undertook the charge of foundlings, if they may be so called, were entitled to their services in return for their nursing and education. Connected with infanticide is another subject equally important, but of very difficult treatment ; that is practices to destroy the infant before the birtli.^ In modern nations all such oiFences are theoretically visited with very severe punishment by the law, and public opinion so strongly condemns them that no one solicitous of upholding a respect- able character in society will dare to be their apolo- gist. It was otherwise in antiquity. The greatest dread of a superabundant population was in many states felt, and led to customs and acts of a very nefarious nature ; for some classes of which, if not for all, writers of highest eminence are found to plead. Thus Pliny,^ commonly a great declaimer ^ See in Pollux, ii. 7. and iv. 208. a whole vocabulary of terms connected with this practice. In his note on the former passage, p. 297. lungermann refers to the Commentaries of Camerarius, c. 32. Cf. Comm. in Poll. p. 507. seq. p. 541. et 891. seq. Tim. Lex. Plat, v. klaiitXovv. cum. not. Ruhnken. p. 62. ed. Lond. Plat. The^t. t. iii. p. 190. Max. Tyr. xvi. p. 179. Jacob Gensius (Victimse Humanse, pt. ii. p. 247. seq.), enters fully into the question of abortion, which at Rome, according to Justin, was procured to preserve the shape. The same practice prevails in Formosa. — Richteren, Voyage de la Compagnie des Indes, v. p. 70. Compare Lactant. v. p. 278. Phocyl. V. 172. seq. 2 Hist. Nat. xxxix. 27. t. viii. p. 404. Franz. Impie satis^ as 126 INFANTICIDE. in behalf of virtue, admits that some artificial limit should be put to female productiveness ; and Aristotle, despite his far nobler and more generous ethics, had on this point no loftier views. The regulations also of the Cretan Minos — but let them remain in the obscurity which encompasses his entire code. Among the Romans several modern writers appear to suppose the existence of more humane feelings, for which it would certainly have been difficult to ac- count. An ancient law attributed to Romulus has misled them. By this it was enacted that no male child should be exposed ; and that of daughters the first should be permitted to live, while the others having been brought up till they were three years old, might then if judged expedient be destroyed.^ The legislator, it is argued, knew human nature too well to fear that parents who had preserved their chil- dren three years would after that take away their lives. But infants exceedingly mutilated or deformed might be killed at once, having first been shown to five neighbours, and these neighbours, like the over- seers of murder at Lacedeemon, were probably lax in interpreting the law, which, acknowledging the prin- ciple, would easily tolerate variations in the practice." Be this, however, as it may, child-murder and child dropping were in imperial times of ordinary occur- rence at Rome. There was in the Herb-market a pillar called the " Milky column,"^ whither foundlings were brought to be suckled by public nurses, or to be fed with milk — for the passage in Festus may be both ways interpreted, and their numbers would seem to have been considerable. The Christian writers con- Kiihn observes in his note on ^lian, Var. Hist. ii. 7. Arist. Pol. vii. 15. 253. GcEttl. Cf. Foes. CEcon. Hippoc. vv. 'Aju^Xw- auL and avrof^Qopa'. 1 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. i. 81; ii. 15. ^ Seneca, de Ira, 1. i. Apuleius Metam. x. where a husband gives command for the destruc- tion of his daughter immediately on her birth. — Ap. Lips. Epist. ad Belgas, Cent. i. p. 818. seq. Fest. V. Lactaria Columna. INFANTICIDE. 127 stantly object the practice of infanticide to the Ro- mans. " You cast forth your sons," says Tertullian,^ " to be picked up and nourished by the first woman " that passes." And the poor, as Ambrose remarks, would desert and expose their little ones, and if caught deny them to be theirs.^ Others adopted more decisive measures, and instead of exposing strangled them.^ Probably, moreover, it was the atrocious device of legislators to get rid of their superabundant population that gave rise to the rite of child-sacrificing known to have prevailed among the Phoenicians, who passed their children through fire to Moloch ; and among their descendants the Carthaginians,"^ who offered up infants to their gods, as at the present day our own idolatrous subjects in the East cast forth their first-born infants on islands at the mouth of the Ganges, to be devoured by the alligators. In China Christianity has performed for infancy the same humane duty as in ancient Rome, as many of the converts made by the Jesuits con- sisted of foundlings whom they had picked up when cast forth by their parents to perish in the streets. 1 Apolog. c. 9. 2 Hexgem. 1. v. c. 18. 3 Arnob. cont. Gent. viii. Lac- tant. Instit. vi. 20. ap. Lips. Epist. ad Belg. 819. * Vid. Festus, v. Puelli.— In Syria children were sacrificed to the goddess, in like manner with other victims^ by being tied up in a sack and then flung down from the lofty propyleea of her temple, their parents, in the mean while, overwhelming them with con- tumely, and protesting they were not children, but oxen. — Lucian. De Syria Dea, § 58. 128 CHAPTER II. BIRTH-FEAST NAMING THE CHILD. NURSERY NURSERY TALES SPARTAN FESTIVAL. To quit, however, this melancholy topic : while the poor, as we have seen, were driven by despair to im- brue their hands in the blood of their offspring, their more wealthy neighbours celebrated the birth of a child ^ with a succession of banquets and rejoicings. Of these, the first was held on the fifth day from the birth, when took place the ceremony called Amphi- dromia, confounded by some ancient authors with the festival of the tenth day.~ On this occasion the accoucheuse or the nurse, to whose care the child was now definitively consigned,^ having purified her hands with water,* ran naked^ with the infant in her arms, and accompanied by all the other females of the family, in the same state, round the hearth,^ which was regarded as the altar of Hestia, the Vesta of the Romans. By this ceremony the child was initiated in the rites of religion and placed under the protection of the fire goddess, probably with the same view that infants are baptized among us. Meanwhile the passer-by was informed that a fifth- day feast was celebrating within, by symbols suspended on the street-door, which, in case of a boy, consisted 1 More particularly that of a son. — Casaub. ad Theophr. Char, p. 307. 2Sch. Aristoph. Lysist. 757. ' Etym. Mag. 89. 54. Suid. in v. t. i. p. 214. d. ^ Hesych. in. v. Spoididcpioy, Meurs. Grsec. Fer. p. 20. Brunck, in Aristoph. Av. 922. 6 Harpocrat. in v. Cf. not. Gro- nov. p. 26. NAMING THE CHILD. 129 in an olive crown ; and of a lock of wool, alluding to her future occupations, when it was a girl/ Athe- nseus, apropos of cabbage, which was eaten on this occasion, as well as by ladies " in the straw," as conducing to create milk, quotes a comic descrip- tion of the Amphidromia from a drama of Ephippos, which proves they were well acquainted with the arts of joviality. " How is it No wreathed garland decks the festive door. No savoury odour creeps into the nostrils Since 'tis a birth-feast ? Custom, sooth, requires Slices of rich cheese from the Chersonese, Toasted and hissing ; cabbage too in oil, Fried brown and crisp, with smothered breast of lamb. Chaffinches, turtle-doves, and good fat thrushes Should now be feathered ; rows of merry guests Pick clean the bones of cuttle-fish together. Gnaw the delicious feet of polypi, And drink large draughts of scarcely mingled wine.^ " A sacrifice^ was likewise this day offered up for the life of the child, probably to the god Amphidromos, first mentioned, and therefore supposed to have been invented by ^schylus.^ It has moreover been ima- gined that the name was now imposed, and gifts were presented by the friends and household slaves.^ But it was on the seventh day that the child gene- rally received its name,^ amid the festivities of another banquet ; though sometimes this was deferred till the tenth.^ The reason is supplied by Aristotle.^ They delayed the naming thus long, he says, because most children that perish in extreme infancy die before the seventh day, which being passed they considered their lives more secure. The eighth day was chosen by other persons for bestowing the name, and, this con- * Hesych. ap.Meurs.Graec. Fer. p. 20. 2 Potter, ii. 322. 3 Athen. ix. 10. Cf. Ludovic. Nonn. De Pise. Esu. c. 7. p. 28. 4 Cf. Aristoph. Lys. 700. cum not.etschol. — Plaut.Truc.ii.4. 69. VOL. I. ' Semel. fr. 203. Well. ' Meurs. Gr. Fer. p. 21. ' Alex, ab Alex. 99. a. s Harpocrat. v. 'E^^o/i. p. 92. Cf. Lomeier,De Lustrat.Vet. Gen- til, c. 27. p. 327. sqq. 9 Hist. Anim. vii. 12. Bekk. K 130 NAMING THE CHILD. sidered the natal day, was solemnized annually as the anniversary of its birth, on which occasion it was customary for the friends of the family to assemble together, and present gifts to the child, consisting sometimes of the polypi and cuttle-fish^ to be eaten at the feast. However the tenth day^ appears to have been very commonly observed. Thus Euripides :^ " Say, who delighting in a mother's claim Mid tenth-day feasts bestowed the ancestral name ? " Aristophanes, too, on the occasion of naming his Bird-city, which a hungry poet pretends to have long ago celebrated, introduces Peisthetoeros saying, " What ! have I not but now the sacrifice Of the tenth day completed and bestowed A name as on a child?"* Connected with this custom, there is a very good anecdote in Polysenos, from which Meursius^ infers that there existed among the Greeks something like the office of sponsor. Jason, tyrant of Pherse, most of whose stratagems were played off against members of his own family, had a brother named Meriones, ex- tremely opulent, but to the last degree close-fisted, particularly towards him. When at length a son was born to Jason, he invited to the Nominalia many principal nobles of Thessaly, and among others his brother Meriones, who was to preside over the cere- monies. In these he was probably occupied the whole day, during which, under pretence, apparently, of providing some choice game for his guests, the tyrant went out for a few hours with his dogs and usual followers. His real object, however, soon ap- peared. Making direct for Pagasse, where his bro- ther's castle stood, he stormed the place, and seizing on Meriones' treasures, to the amount of twenty talents, returned in all speed to the banquet. Here, ^ Suid. v.'AjU(^i^. t. i. p. 2 1 4. d. ^ JEgel Frag. i. ^ Isseus, Pyrrh. Hsered. ^5. . » ^..^ \ ^ T> 4. n -7 T Aves, 9^2. seq. Dem. Adv. Boeot. §§ 6, 7. Lys. ' ^ in Harpocrat. v. 'A/i^t^po/^j. p. 19. ^ Greec. Feriat. p. 22. NAMING THE CHILD, 131 by way of showing his fraternal consideration, he de- I legated to his brother the honour of pouring forth I the libations, and bestowing the name, which was the j father's prerogative. But Meriones receiving from 1 one of the tyrant's attendants a hint of what had l taken place, called the boy "Porthaon," or the " Plun- 1 derer."^ At Athens the feast and sacrifice took place j at night, with much pomp, and all the glee which such ^ an occasion was calculated to inspire.^ On the bestowing of the name Potter's information \ is particularly full. He is probably right, too, in his j conjecture, that in most countries the principal object of calling together so great a number of friends to witness this ceremony was to prevent such contro- versies as might arise when the child came out into \ the business of the world. But at Athens the Act of ] Registration^ rendered such witnesses scarcely neces- ] sary. The right of imposing the name belonged, as | hinted above, to the fkther, who likewise app^ears to ] have possessed the power afterwards to alter it if he I thought proper. They were compelled to follow no J exact precedent ; but the general rule resembled one | apparently observed by nature, which, neglecting the ] likeness in the first generation, sometimes reproduces ; it with extraordinary fidelity in the second. Thus, the \ grandson inheriting often the features, inherited also J very generally the name of his grandfather,* and pre- I cisely the same rule applied to women ; the grand- | daughter nearly always receiving her grandmother's j name.^ Thus, Andocides, son of Leagoras, bore the ] name of his grandfather; the father and son of \ Miltiades were named Cimon ; the father and son of i Hipponicos, Cleinias.^ The orator Lysias formed an j exception to this rule, his grandfather's name having j 1 Polysen. Strat. vi. i. 6. Etym. Mag. 533. 37. Meurs. Lect. t.i. p. 654. c. d. 2Suid. V. Att. iii. 1. * Palmer, Exercit. p. 754. 53. Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 810. 3 Harpocrat. v. Mtiov, Poll. iii. Sluiter. Lect. Andocid. c. i. ^ Isseus de Pyrrh. Hsered. § 5. 6 Aristoph. A v. 284. K 2 132 ORIGIN OF NAMES. been Lysanias.^ In short, though there existed no law upon the subject, yet ancient and nearly invariable custom operated with the force of law.^ The names of children were often in remote an- tiquity derived from some circumstance attending their birth, or in the history of their parents. Some- times, too, their own deeds, as in the case of modern titles, procured them a name ; or perhaps some mis- fortune which befell them. Thus, Marpissa, in Homer, being borne away^ by Apollo, obtained the name of Halcyone, because her mother, like the Halcyon, was inconsolable for the loss of her offspring.* Scamandrios, son of Hector, was denominated Astyanax, because his father was rov atrrsog " the defender of the city and Odysseus, metamorphosed by the Romans into Ulysses, is supposed to have been so called ha ro ohvacr- serial rov AvroXvzov, from the anger of Autolychos.^ Again, the son of Achilles, at first called Pyrrhos, as our second William, Rufus, from the colour of his hair, afterwards obtained the name of Neoptolemos, " the youthful warrior," from his engaging at a very early age in the siege of Troy. It came, in aftertimes, to be considered indecorous for persons of humble con- dition to assume the names of heroic families. Thus, the low flatterer Callicrates, at the court of Ptolemy the Third, was thought to be audacious because he bestowed upon his son and daughter the names of Telegonos and Anticleia, and wore the effigy of Odys- seus in his ring, which appeared to be claiming kindred with that illustrious chief. In fact, to prevent the pro- fanation of revered names, the law itself forbade them to be adopted by slaves or females of bad character,^ though, in defiance of its enactments, we find there were hetairse, who derived their appellation from the 1 Plat. Rep. 1. i. t. vi. p. 9. ' Dem. c. Macart. § 17. Taylor, Lect. Lysiac. c. 5. 3 See in Winkel. iii. p. 248, an account of a picture represent- ing this transaction. 4 II. i. 552. seq. 5 Potter, ii. 225. 6 Odyss. T. 406. sqq. T Athen. xiii. 51. NURSERY. 133 sacred games of Greece, Nemeas, Istlimias, and Py- thioiiicaJ But of this enough : we now proceed to the man- agement and education of children, beginning with their earh'est infancy. In old times the women of Greece always suckled their own offspring, and for the performance of this office they were excellently adapted by nature,^ since they had no sooner become mothers than their breasts filled so copiously with milk than it not only flowed through the nipple, but likewise transpired through the whole bosom. On the little derangements of the system peculiar to nurses the Greeks entertained many superstitious opinions ; for instance, they conceived those thread-like indurations which sometimes appear in the breasts to be caused by swallowing hairs, which afterwards come forth with the milk, on which account the disorder was called Trichiasis.^ The nourishment supplied by mothers so robust and lactiferous was often so rich and abun- dant as, like over-feeding, to cause spasms and con- vulsions, supposed to be most violent when they hap- pened during the full moon, and began in the back. The usual remedy among nurses would appear to have been wine, since Aristotle,* in speaking of the dis- order, observes that white, particularly if diluted with water, is less injurious than red, though even from the former he thought it better to abstain. The ad- ministering of aperient medicines and the absence from everything that could cause flatulence, he con- sidered the only safe treatment. Nurses, however, sometimes placed much reliance on the brains of a rabbit.^ In Plato's Republic the nurses were to live apart 1 Anim. adAthen.t.xii.p. 170. of Crete. — Dioscor. i. 120. Tour- When the case happened to nefort. i. 44. be otherwise the remedies recom- 3 Arist. Hist. An. vii. 10. Foes, mended by physicians were nu- CEconom. Hippoc. v. TptYla^tc ' merous^ among which was the . halimos, a prickly shrub found Hist.An. vn.il. growing along the northern shores ^ Dioscor. ii. %\. 134 NURSERY. ill a distinct quarter of the city, and suckle indiscrimi- nately all the children that were to be preserved ; no mother being permitted to know her own child/ Every one must have observed, as well as Plato,^ that children are no sooner born than they exhibit un- equivocal signs of passion and anger, in the moderating and directing of which consists the chiefest difficulty of education. Most men, through the defect of na- ture or early discipline, live long before they acquire this mastery, which many never attain at all. Gene- rally, however, where it is possessed, much may cer- tainly be attributed to that training which begins at the birth, so that of all the instruments employed in the'^ forming of character, the nurse is probably the most important. Of this the ancients generally appear to have been convinced, and most of all the Spartans and Athenians. The Lacedaemonian nurses, on whom the force of discipline had been tried, enjoyed a high reputation throughout Greece, and were particularly esteemed at Athens.* They no doubt deserved it. To them may be traced the first attempt to dispense with those swathes and bandages which in other countries confined the limbs, and impeded the movements of in- fants, and by their skilful and enlightened treatment, combined with watchfulness and tender solicitude, they are said to have preserved their little charges from ' Plat. Rep. V. t. vi. p. 236.— The desire of the philosopher was, that the people, or the state, should be regarded as the father of the child. Among our ances- tors illegitimate children were de- nominated " sons of the people/' which was then thought equiva- lent to being the sons of nobody. Hence the following distich : — Cui pater est populus, pater est sibi nullus et omnis, Cui pater est populus, non habet ipse patrem. Fortescue, Laud. Legg. Angi. c. 40. 2 Repub. i. 315. Stallb — On the harshness and severity of nurses, Teles remarks in that cu- rious picture of human life, which he has drawn quite in the spirit of the melancholy Jaques. Stob. Floril. Tit. 98. 72. 3 Cf. Cramer de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. .9. Odyss. /3. 361. seq. Terpstra, Antiq. Homer. 122. seq. * Plut. Alcib. § 1. NURSERY. 135 those distortions so common among children. But their cares extended beyond the person. They aimed at forming the manners, regulating the temper, laying the foundation of virtuous habits, at sowing in short the seeds, which in after life, might ripen into a manly, frank, and generous character. In the matter of food, in the regulating of which, as Locke confesses, there is much difficulty, the Spartan nurses acted up to the suggestions of the sternest philosophy, accustoming the children under their charge, to be content with what- ever was put before them, and to endure occasional pri- vations without murmuring. Over the fear of ghosts too they triumphed. Empusa and the Mormolukeion, and all those other hideous spectres which childhood as- sociates with the idea of darkness, yielded to the disci- pline of the Spartan nurse.^ Her charge would remain alone or in the dark, without terror, and the same stern system, which overcame the first offspring of supersti- tion, likewise subdued the moral defects of peevishness, frowardness, and the habit of whining and mewling, which when indulged in render children a nuisance to all around them. No wonder therefore, these Doric disciplinarians were everywhere in request. At Athens it became fashionable among the opulent to employ them, and Cleinias, as is well known, placed under the care of one of these she-psedagogues that Alcibiades, whose ambitious character, to be curbed by no re- straints of discipline or philosophy, proved the ruin of his country and the scourge of Greece.^ Plato, however, while framing at will an imaginary system, and though inclined upon the whole to laco- nise, adheres, in some respects, to the customs of his country, and ordains that infants be confined by swad^ 1 Or if not;, the Spartan legisla- ing lawful to make use of a light tor had recourse to other expedi- on these or any other occasions, in ents for extirpating these super- order that they might be accus- stitious terrors in after years. It tomed to walk by night and in being customary among the Laco- darkness boldly, and without fear, nians to drink moderately in the Instit. Lacon. § 3. syssitia, says Plutarch, they went home without a torch, it not be- "Flut. Lycurg. § 16. NURSERY. dling bands till two years old. From the mention of this age, it may be inferred that children commonly did not walk mnch earlier at Athens, which is the case in the East, as we may learn from the story of Ala-ed-deen Abnshamet. Plato wonld also have nurses to be vigorous and robust women, much inclined to frequent the temples, in order, probably, to introduce into the minds of their charges early impressions of religion, and to stroll about the fields and public gar- dens until the children could run alone ; and even then, and until they w^ere three years old, he urged the necessity of their being frequently carried, to prevent crooked legs and malformed ankles. But because all this might press hard on one nurse, several w^ere em- ployed, as among ourselves,^ and a kind of Nursery Governess overlooked the whole. The Gerula or un- der-nurse was, in later times, the person upon whom fell the principal labour of bearing the infant about; but in remoter ages the Greeks, more particularly their royal and noble families, employed in this capa- city a Baioulos^ or nurse-father, who, as in the case of Phoenix, was sometimes himself of illustrious birth. Cheiron, too, the Pelasgian mountain prince, perform- ed this sacred office for the son of his friend Peleus. Our readers, we trust, will not be reluctant to enter a Greek nursery,^ where the mother, whatever might be the number of her assistants, generally suckled her own children. Their cradles were of various forms, some of which like our own required rocking,^ while others were suspended like sailors' hammocks from the ceiling, and swung gently to and fro when they de- sired to pacify the child or lull it to sleep :^ as Titho- nos is represented in the mythology to have been sus- ' Plat, de Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 5. engaged in the work of education. Pignor. de Serv. p. 185. t. i, p. 414. Cf, Max. Tyr. Diss. 2 Pignor. de Serv. p. 186. seq. iv. p. 49. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 713. ^ See in Winkelmann, vignette . t). ji c , , . , „ • p * Pignor. de. berv. p. 186. to 1. IV. cn. 3. a view ot an an- ^ ^ cient nursery, where the mother, ^ Schweigh. Aiiimadv. in Athen. the peedagogue, the nurse, &c. are vi. 74. NURSING. 137 pended in his old age/ Other cradles there were in the shape of little portable baskets wherein they were carried from one part of the harem to another.^ It is probable, too, that as in the East the children of the opulent were rocked in their cradles wrapped in coverlets of Milesian wool. Occasionally in Ilellas,-^ as everywhere else, the nurse's milk would fail, or be scanty, when they had recourse to a very original contrivance to still the infant's cries ; they dipped a piece of sponge in honey which was given it to suck.'* It was probably under similar circumstances that children were indulged in figs ; the Greeks entertaining an opinion that this fruit greatly contributed to render them plump and healthy. They had further a superstition that by rubbing fresh iigs upon the eyes of children they would be preserved from ophthalmia.^ The Persians attributed the same preventive power to the petals of the new-blown rose.*^ Yv^hen a child was wholly or partly dry-nursed, the girl who had charge of it would under pretence of cooling its pap, commonly made of fine flour of spelt,^ put the spoon into her own mouth, swallow the best part of the nou- rishment, and give the refuse to the infant, a practice attributed by Aristophanes to Cleon, who swallowed, he says, the best of the good things of the state him- self, and left the residue to the people.^ All the world over the singing of the nurse has been proverbial. Music breathes its sweetest notes around, our cradles. The voice of woman soothes our infancy and our age, and in Greece, w^here every class of the community had its song, the nurse naturally 1 Eudoc. ap. Villois. Anecdot. Greec. t. i. p. 396. Tzetz. ad Lyc. V. 16. " Mus. Real. Borbon. t. i. pi. 3. ^ It was even then remarked tliat sucking children teethe much better than such as are dry nursed. — Aristot. de Gen. Anim. v. 8. Hist. Anira. vii. 10. 4 Sch. Arist. Acharn. 439. ^ Athen. iii. 15. ^ Geopon. xi. 18. 7 Dioscor. ii. 114. 8 Equit. 7 1 2. Casaub. ad The- oph. Char. p. 326. 138 NURSING. vindicated one to herself? Tiiis sweetest of all me- lodies — " Redolent of joy and youth " was teclinically denominated Katabaukalesis, of which scraps and fragments only, like those of the village song which lingered in the memory of Rousseau, have come down to us. The first verse of a Roman nursery air, which still, Pignorius ^ tells us, was sung in his time by the mothers of Italy, ran thus : — " Lalla, Lalla ; dorme aut lacte. Lalla, Lalla ; sleep or suck." The Sicilian poet, whose pictures of the ancient world are still so fresh and fragrant, has bequeathed to us a Katabaukalesis of extreme beauty and brevity which I have here paraphrastically translated:^ — Sleep ye^ that in my breast have lain, The slumber sweet and light, And wake, my glorious twins, again To glad your mother's sight. 0 happy, happy be your dreams. And blest your waking be. When morning's gold and ruddy beams Restore your smiles to me."* The philosopher Chrysippos^ considered it of im- portance to regulate the songs of nurses, and Quinti- lian,^ with a quaint but pardonable enthusiasm, would 1 Ilgen. de Scol. Poes. p. xxvi. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 204. seq. 2 De Serv. p. 186. seq. Cf. A then. xiv. 10. 3 A nurse's lay prevalent among our own ancestors may not inapt- ly find a place here : "Now suck, child, and sleep, child, thy mother's own joy, Her only sweet comfort to drown all annoy ; For beauty, surpassing the azur- ed sky, I love thee, my darling, as ball of mine eye." DTsraeli, Amenities of Literature ii. 287. 4 Theoc. Eidyll. 24. 7. sqq. 5 Quintil. i. 10. ' Instit. Orat. i. 1. NURSING. 139 have the boy who is designed to be an orator placed under the care of a nurse of polished language and superior mind. He observes/ too, that children suckled and brought up by dumb nurses, will re- main themselves dumb, which would necessarily happen had they no other person with whom to converse. When the infant was extremely wake- ful the soothing influence of the song was height- ened by the aid of little timbrels and rattles hung with bells. A very characteristic anecdote is told of Anacreon apropos of nurses.'^ A good-humoured wench with a child in her arms happening one day to be sauntering more nutricu?n, through the Panionion, or Grand Agora of Ionia, encountered the Teian poet, who returning from the Bacchic Olympos, found the streets much too narrow for him, and went reeling hither and thither as if determined to make the most of his walk. The nurse, it is to be presumed, felt no inclination to dispute the passage with him ; but Anacreon attracted, perhaps, by her pretty face, making a timely lurch, sent both her and her charge spinning off the pavement, at the same time mutter- ing something disrespectful against " the brat.*" Now, for her own part, the girl felt no resentment against him, for she could see which of the divinities was to blame ; but loving, as a nurse should, her boy, she prayed that the poet might one day utter many words in praise of him whom he had so rudely vituperated ; which came to pass accordingly, for the infant was the celebrated Cleobulos, whose beauty the Teian after- wards celebrated in many an ode.^ Traces of the remotest antiquity still linger in the nursery. The word baby, which we bestow familiarly on an infant, was with little variation, in use many thousand years ago among the Syrians, in whose nur- ' Quintil. Inst. Orat. 1. x. c. i. pi. 35. the figure of a nurse Herod, ii. 2. bearing the mfant Bacchos. '"^ See in the Mus. Cortonens. ^ Max. Tyr. Diss. xi. p. 132. 140 NURSERY TALES. sery dialect hahia ^ Lad the same signification. Tatta, too, pappa and mainmcr were the first Avords lisped by the children of Hellas. And from various hints dropped by ancient authors, it seems clear that the same wild stories and superstitions that still flourish there haunted the nursery of old. The child was taught to dread Empusa or Onoskelis or Onoskolon,'^ the monster with one human foot and one of brass, which dwelt among the shades of night and glided through dusky cham- bers and dismal passages to devour " naughty children." The fables which filled up this obscure part of Hel- lenic mythology, were scarcely less wild than those the Arabs tell about their Marids, their Efreets, and their Jinn ; for Empusa, the phantom minister of Hecate,* could assume every various form of God's creatures, appearing sometimes as a bull, or a tree, or an ass, or a stone, or a fly, or a beautiful woman.^ Shakspeare, having caught, perhaps, some glimpse of this superstition, or inventing in a kindred spirit, attributes a similar power of transformation to his mischievous elf in the Midsummer Night's Dream, lo- cated on Empusa's native soil. I '11 follow you, I '11 lead you about, around, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through briar. 1 Phot- Biblioth. 31. 1. 11. Menage shrewdly supposes Baby, Babble, &c. to have been derived from Babel. — D 'Israeli, Ameni- ties of Literature, i. 5. 2 Pignor. de Serv. p. 1 87. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1 365.— Pac. 1 19. 3 Lil. Gyrald. Synt. xii. Hist. Deor. 361 seq. Cf. Lucian. Ver. Hist. lib. 2 § 46. This spectre was said to glide before the sight of persons celebrating the rites of initiation, and therefore the mother of i^^schines who per- formed a part in the rites, and also appeared to the initiated was, with much bad taste, called Empusa by Demosthenes. — De Corona, § § 41. 79. Adam Little- ton in his Cambridge Dictionary supposes this to have been her real name, which, however, was Glaueis or Glaucothea. Stock, and Wunderl. ad loc. Cf. Harpoc. in. v. Sch.Aristoph.Concion. 1056. Ran. 293, 294. op^e tov Alax*-- vrjv OQ TVjxiTavLaTpiaQ vloq i)y» Lucian. Somn. § 12. ^ This goddess was also known by the name of Artemis Phospho- ros. Aristopli. Concion. 444 et schol. 5 Aristoph. Ran. 293. Epicharm. ap. Nat. Com. p. 854. See also Sch. Apol. Rhod. iii. 478. iv. 247. NURSERY TALES. 141 Sometimes a horse I '11 be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, somethnes a fire, And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn. Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire at every turn." It was this spectral being tliat was said to appear to those who performed the sacrifices to the dead, to men overwhelmed with misfortune/ and travellers in remote and dismal roads ; as happened to the com- panions of Apollonios of Tyana who, in journeying on a bright moonlight night, were startled by the appear- ance of Empusa, which having stood twice or thrice in their way, suddenly vanished.^ To protect themselves against this demon the superstitious were accustomed to wear about them a piece of jasper, either set in a ring, or suspended from the neck.^ The Lamia, too, fierce and beautiful, the ancestress of our "White ladies," and of the Katakhanas or Vampire of the modern Greeks, roamed through solitary places to terrify, delude, or destroy good folks, big or little, who might lose their way amid moonlit crags or shores made white with bones and sea- shells. They loved to relate " around the fire o' nights," how Lamia had once been a beautiful woman caressed and made the mother of a fair son by Zeus ; how Hera through jealousy had destroyed the boy ; and how, thereupon Lamia took to the bush and devoted her wretched immortality to the destroying of other w^omen's chil- dren.'* According to another form of the tradition there were many Lamise, so called from having capa- cious jaws, inhabiting the Libyan coast,^ somewhere about the Great Syrtis, in the midst of sand hills, rocks, and wastes of irreclaimable aridity. Formed above like women of surpassing beauty, they ter- minated below in serpents. Their voice was like the 1 Meurs. Lect. Att. iii. 17. * Sch, Aristoph. Vesp. 103.5. 2 Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. iv. 25. 1. ii. c. 2. 3 Cf. De Boot, De Lap, p. ' Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 1035. 251. sqq. on the properties and virtues of this stone. 142 SPARTAN FESTIVAL. hissing of an adder, and whatever approached them they devoured.^ Anotlier race of wild and grotesque spirits were the Kobaloir companions of Dionysos, who doubtless subsist still in our woods and forests under the name of goblins and hobgoblins. Our Elves and Trolls and Fairies appear likewise to belong to the same brood, though in these northern latitudes, they have become less mischievous and more romantic, delioht- ing the eyes of the wayfarers by their frolics and gambols, instead of devouring him. " Fairy elves. Whose midnight revels, by a forest side. Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth Wheels her pale course ; they on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear. At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds." Though, as we have seen, weak children were un- scrupulously sacrificed at Sparta, they still made offer- ings to the gods in favour of the strong. The ceremony took place annually during certain festivals, denomi- nated Tithenidia,^ when, in a moment of hospitality, they not only made merry themselves, but overlooked their xenelasia, and entertained generously all such strangers as happened to be present. The banquet given on this occasion was called Kopis, and, in preparation for it, tents were pitched on the banks of the Tiasa near the temple of Artemis Corythalis. Within these, beds formed of heaps of herbs were piled up and covered with carpets. On the day of the festival the nurses proceeded thither with the male children in their arms, and, presenting them to the goddess, offered up as vic- tims a number of sucking pigs. In the feast which en- sued loaves baked in an oven, in lieu of the extempo- rary cake, were served up to the guests. Choruses of Corythalistria) or dancing girls, likewise performed > Lil. Gyrald. Hist. Deor. ' Schol Aristoph. Plut. 279. Synt. XV. 447. seq. ^ Athen. iv. 16. SPARTAN FESTIVAL. 143 in honour of the goddess ; and in some places persons, called Kyrittoi, in wooden masks, made sport for the guests/ Probably it may have been on occasions such as this that the nurses, like her in Romeo and Juliet, gave free vent to their libertine tongues, and indulged in those appellations v^hich the tolerant literature of antiquity has preserved.^ When children were to be weaned, they spread, as the moderns do, something bitter over the nipple,^ that the young republican might learn early how — " Full in the fount of joy's delicious springs Some bitter o'er the flower its bubbling venom flings." ' Meurs. Graec. Fer. 261. seq. ^ Athen. vi. 51. s Casaub.adTheoph.Char.161. 144 CHAPTER HI. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. Having described, as far as possible, the manage- ment of infants and young* children, it may not be uninteresting to notice briefly their toys, sports, and pastimes ; for, though children have b,een substantially the same in all ages and countries, the forms of their amusements have been infinitely varied, and where they have resembled each other it is not the less in- structive to note that resemblance. The ancients^ have, however, bequeathed us but little information respecting the fragile implements wherewith the happiness of the nursery was in great part erected. Even respecting the recreations which succeeded and amused the leisure of boys our materials for working- out a picture are scanty, so that we must content our- selves with little more than an outline. Nevertheless, though the accounts they have transmitted to posterity are meagre, they attached much importance to the subject itself ; so that the greatest legislators and phi- losophers condescended to make regulations respecting 1 Plato had the utmost faith in the power of education over both mind and body ; but his system embraced much more than is usually comprehended under the term^ even taking charge of the infant before its birth^, and immediately afterwards^, in the hope of wisely regulating its phy- sical developement. As the child grows most during the first five years, its size in the following twenty being seldom doubled, most care, he thought, should then be taken that the great im- pulses of nature be not counter- acted. Much food is then con- sumed, with very little exercise ; hence the multitude of deaths in infancy and diseases in after-life, of which the seeds are then sown. For this reason he would en- courage the violent romping and sports of children, that the excess of nourishment may be got rid of. De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 2. seq. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 145 it. Thus Plato, with a view of generating a profound reverence for ancient national institutions, forbade even the recreations of boys to be varied with reckless fickleness ; for the habit of innovation once introduced into the character would ever after continue to influ- ence it, so that they who in boyhood altered their sports without reason, would without scruple in man- hood extend their daring hands to the laws and insti- tutions of their country.^ Amongst the Hellenes the earliest toy consisted, as in most other countries, of the rattle, said to be the invention of the philosopher Archytas.~ To this suc- ceeded balls of many colours,^ with little chariots, sometimes purchased at Athens in the fair held during the feast of Zeus.* The common price of a play- thing of this kind would appear to have been an obolos. The children themselves, as without any au- thority might with certainty be inferred, employed their time in erecting walls with sand,^ in constructing little houses,^ in building and carving ships, in cutting carts or chariots out of leather, in fashioning pome- granate rinds into the shape of frogs,^ and in forming with wax a thousand diminutive images, which pur- sued afterwards during school hours subjected them occasionally to severe chastisement.^ Another amusement which the children of Hellas shared with their elders was that afforded by puppets,^ which were probably an invention of the remotest antiquity. Numerous women appear to have earned 1 Plat, de Legg. vii. t. viih p. 21. seq. 2 Aristot. Polit. viii. 6. 1. ^ Dion. Chrysost. Nat. viii. p. 281. 4 Aristoph. Nub. 862. sqq. et Schol. Rav. in loc. Cf. Suid. v. 'Ajua^tc, t. i. p. 194. b. Pollux^ x. 168, 5 Damm. y." Advpfia. 6 Lucian. Hermot. § 33. VOL. I. 7 Aristoph. Nub. 877. sqq. et Schol. ^ Lucian. de Somn. § 2. 9 Buleng. de Theat. 1. i. c. 36. sqq. Muret. ad Plat. Rep. p. 645. Eustath. in Odyss. p. 176. Mount.Not. ad Dem.Olynth. ii. § 5. Perizon. ad JEL Var. Hist. viii. 7. See also the article Marionnette in the Encyclopedie Fran^aise; and Caylus, Rec. d'Antiq. t. vi. p, 287. t. iv. pi. 80. no. i. L 146 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. their livelihood by carrying round from village to vil- lage these ludicrous and frolicsome images, which were usually about a cubit in height, and may be re- garded as the legitimate ancestors of Punch and Judy. By touching a single string, concealed from the spec- tators, the operator could put her mute performers in action, cause them to move every limb in succession, spread forth the hands, shrug the shoulders, turn round the neck, roll the eyes, and appear to look at the audience/ After this, by other contrivances within the images, they could be made to go through many humorous evolutions resembling the move- ments of the dance. These exhibitors, frequently of the male sex, were known by the name of Neuro- spastae. This art passed, together with other Grecian inventions, into Italy, where it was already familiar to the public in the days of Horace, who, in speaking of princes governed by favourites, compares them to puppets in the hands of the showman. " Tu;, mihi qui imperitas, aliis servis miser ; atque Duceris, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum."^ A very extraordinary puppet, in the form of a silver skeleton, was, according to Petronius Arbiter,^ ex- hibited at the court of Nero ; for, like the Egyptians, this imperial profligate appears to have been excited ' Aristot. de Mund. c. 6. trans- lated by Apuleius, p, 20. Herod, ii. 48. See Comment, ad Poll. vii. 189. Duport. ad Theophr. Char, p. 308. This juggler having, for his ill behaviour, been driven from Athens, flew to Philip, with whom such persons were always in fa- vour. Dem. Olynth. i. § 7. ^ Sat. ii. 7. 81. seq. Plerum- que simulacra de ligno facta nervis moventur. — Vet. Schol. Satyric. p. 80. Helenop. 1610. Wouwer. Anim. p. 418. Erhard. Symbol, p. 611. Plut. Con v. Sept. Sap. ch. 2. — A story is told of an Ionian juggler who proceeded to Babylon to perform what he deem- ed a wonderful feat before the Great King, and the feat was this: fixing a long point of steel on a wall, and retiring to a considerable distance, he threw at it a number of soft round pellets of dough, with so nice an aim that every one of them was penetrated, the last pel- let driving back the others. Max. Tyr. Diss. xix. p. 225. Anim. ad Poll. vii. 189. p. 532. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 147 to sensual indulgences by the remembrance of the grave : " Let us eat and drink," cried he, " for to- morrow we die." The skeleton being placed upon the table, in the midst of the tyrant's orgies, threw its limbs strangely about, and bent its form into various attitudes with wonderful flexibility, which having per- formed once and again, and then suddenly ceasing to move, the master of the feast exclaimed, " Alas, alas ! what a mere nothing is man ! Like unto this must we all be when Orcus shall have borne us hence. There- fore let us live while enjoyment is in our power." But to return to the children of Hellas. Among the earliest sports of the Greek boy was whipping the bembyx or top,^ which would appear to have been usually practised in those open spaces occurring at the junction of several roads: — " Where three ways meet there boys with tops are found. That ply the lash and urge them round and round." ^ Sometimes also, as with us, they spun their tops with cord. The amusement is thus described by Tibullus i "^ ^* Namque agor, ut per plana citus tota verbere turben, Quem celer assueta versitat arte puer." The hoop, too, so familiar to our own schoolboys, formed one of the playthings of Hellenic children. It was sometimes made of bronze, about three feet in diameter,* and adorned with little spherical bells and movable rings, which jingled as it rolled. The instru- ment employed to urge " the rolling circle's speed/' as Gray expresses it, in his reminiscences of the Eton play-ground, was crooked at the point, and called a plectron : its exact representation may any day, in the proper season, be seen in the streets of London im- pelling forward the iron hoop of our own children. ' Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 1517. M 5 3 ' Callim. Ep. i. 9. seq. p. 180. ^i- ^18. seq. L 2 148 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. Tlie passages of ancient authors, in which mention of the trochos occurs, appear to have been imperfectly understood before the discovery of a basso-rilievo, in marble, on the road from Rome to Tivoli, afterwards removed to the vineyard of the Cardinal Alexander Albani. On certain engraved gems also, in the cabi- net of Stosch, are several representations of boys play- ing at hoop, where the trochos in some cases reaches to the waist, in others to the breast, and where the child is very small up to the chin. It has been con- jectured by Winkelmann,^ that a circle represented in one of the paintings of Herculaneum was no other than an ancient trochos. Rolling the hoop formed a part of the exercises of the palaestra, which were per- formed even by very young children. Thus we find the nurse describing the sons of Medeia returning from playing at hoop the very day that they were slain by their mother." This amusement has been described briefly by the Roman poets. Thus Martial:^ — " Garrulus in laxo cur annulus orbe vagatur Cedat, et argutis obvia turba trochis." Propertius^ notices the crooked form of the plec- tron, or clavis : — " Increpat et versi clavis adunca trochi." Horace^ likewise alludes to the game : — Indoctusque pite discive trochive quiescit." This poet clearly informs us that the Romans received the game from the Greeks :^ — Ludere doctior, Seu Grseco jubeas trocho, Seu malis vetita legibus alea." Another less innocent amusement was^ spinning gold- chafers, which appears to have afforded the Greek 1 Descr. des Pierres Grav. du or a top : — " Trochus dicitur tur- Cab. de Stosch. 452. seq. ben, qui flagello percutitur, et in 2 Eurip. Med. 45. et Sch. vertiginem rotatur, aut rota quam 3 L. xiv. Ep. 169. currendo pueri scutica vel virga * iii. 12. regunt." 5 Ars Poet. 380. where the ^ Carm. iii. 24. 56. sqq. ancient scholiast seems doubtful 7 On the games at present prac- whether the trochus was a hoop tised in Greece, see Dodwell, ii. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 149 urchins the same delight as tormeiitiDg cockchafers does their successors of the north. This species of beetle making its appearance when the apple-trees were in bloom, was therefore called Melolanthe, or apple-blossom. Having caught it, and tied a linen thread about its feet, it was let loose, and the fun was to see it move in spiral lines through the air as it was twisted by the thread.^ It was the practice among the children of Greece, when the sun happened to be obscured by a cloud, to exclaim, ""M^x oj ^/x' ! " — " Come forth, be- loved sun ! " Strattis makes allusion to this custom in a fragment of his Phoenissse : — " Then the god listened to the shouting boys, When they exclaimed, ' Come forth, beloved sun V" ^ It is. fortunate that our English boys have no such passion for sunshine ; otherwise, as Phoebos Apollo hides his face for months together in this blessed cli- mate, we should be in a worse plight than Dionysos among the frogs of Acheron, when his passion for Euripides led him to pay a visit to Persephone. In some parts of the country, however, the children have a rude distich which they frequently bawl in chorus, when in summer-time their sports are interrupted by a long-continued shower: — *' Rain, rain, go to Spain ; Fair weather, come again." The Mui'nda was our " Blindman's-buff," " Blind Hob," " Hobble 'em-blind," and " Hood-nian-blind," in which, as with us, a boy moved about with his eyes bandaged, spreading forth his hands, and crying " Be- ware !" If he caught any of those who were skipping around him, the captive was compelled to enact the blind-man in his stead. Another form of the game was for the seers to hide, and the blind man to grope 37. sqq. ; and Douglas, Essay on i Poll. ix. 124. certain points of resemblance be- tween the Anc. and Mod. Greeks, " Poll. ix. 123. p. 127. sqq. 150 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. round till he found them ; the whole probably being a rude representation of Polyphemos in his cave search- ing for the Greeks who had blinded him. A third form w^as, for the bystanders to strike or touch the blindfolded boy until he could declare who had touched him, when the person indicated took his place. To this the Roman soldiers alluded when they blindfolded our Saviour and smote him, and cried, Prophesy who struck thee."^ In the Kollabismos,^ the Capifolet of the French, one person covered his eyes with his own hands, the other then gave him a gentle blow, and the point was, for the blindfolded man to guess with which hand he had been stricken. The l^oChxn Mxna^ or Bra- zen Fly, was a variety of Blindman's-buff, in which a boy, having his eyes bound with a fillet, went groping round, calling out, " I am seeking the Brazen Fly." His companions replied, " You may seek, but you will not find it " — at the same time striking him with cords made of the inner bark of the papyros ; and thus they proceeded till one of them was taken. Apodi- draskinda ("hide and seek," or "whoop and holloa!") was played much as it is now. One boy shut his eyes, or they were kept closed for him by one of his suspi- cious companions, while the others went to hide. He then sallied forth in search of the party who lay con- cealed, while each of them endeavoured to gain the post of the seeker; and the first who did this turned him out and took his place. Another game was the Ephedrismos, in which a stone called the Dioros w^as set up at a certain distance, and aimed at with bowls or stones. The one who missed took the successful player upon his back, and was compelled to carry him about blindfolded, until he went straight from the standing-point to the Dioros. 1 This has been observed by 2 u jg^ Ja main chaude.'* Hemsterhuis, ad Poll. t. vi. p. Steph. Thes. Ling. Grsec. v. Ko\- 1 1 73, where his commentary Xa^ia/bidg. alone can render the text intelli- gible. ~ Cf. Matthew, xxvi. 68. ^ Hyde, Hist. Nerdilud. p. Mark, xiv. 64. Luke, xxii. 65. 266. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 151 This latter part of the game has been described by several ancient authors, under the appellation of Enco- tyle, though they are rightly, by Hesychius,^ consi- dered as different parts of the same sport. The vari- ety called Encotyle, — the " Pick-back " or " Pick-a- back," of English boys, consisted in one lad's placing his hands behind his back, and receiving therein the knees of his conqueror, who, putting his fingers over the bearer's eyes, drove him about at his pleasure. This game was also called the Kubesinda and Hippas,^ though, according to the conjecture of Dr. Hyde, the latter name signified rather our game of " Leap-frog," — the " mazidha" of the Persians, in which a num- ber of boys stooped down with tlie hands resting on the knees, in a row, the last going over the backs of all the others, and then standing first. In the game called Chytrinda, in English^ " Hot- cockles," " Selling of pears," or " How many plumbs for a penny," one boy sat on the ground, and was called the chytra or pot, while his companions, forming themselves into a ring, ran round, plucking, pinching, or striking him as they went. If he who enacted the chytra succeeded in seizing upon one of the buffeters the captive took his place. Possibly it was during this play that a mischievous foundling, contrary to rule, poking, as he ran round, the boy in the centre with his foot, provoked from the latter the sarcastic inquiry, " What ! dost thou kick thy mother in the belly ? " alluding to the circumstance of the former having been exposed in a chytra.^ Another form of the Chytrinda required the lad in the centre to move about with a pot on his head, where he held it with his left hand, while the others struck him, and cried out, "Who has the pot?" To which he replied, "I Midas," endeavouring all the while to reach some one with his foot,^ — the first whom he thus touched being compelled to carry round the pot in his stead.^ 1 In V. 'E(j>£dpi^eir. ^ gch. Aristoph. Thesm. 509. " Hyde, Hist. Nerdilud. p. 241. But see above, p. 122. 3 Hyde, Hist. Nerdilud.p. 263. ^ PoU. ix. 114. 152 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. Another game, peculiar to girls, was the Cheli Che- lone, or " the tortoise," of which I remember no re- presentative among English pastimes. It somewhat resembled the Chytrinda of the boys. For one girl sat on the ground and was called the tortoise, while her companions, running round, inquired " Tor-tortoise what art thou doing there in the middle ? " Spin- ning wool,'' replied she, "the thread of the Milesian wooff' "And how, continued they, was thy son en- gaged when he perished?" "He sprang from his white steeds into the sea."^ If this was, as the lan- guage would intimate, a Dorian play, I should consider it a practical satire on the habits of the other Hellenic women, who remained like tortoises at home, carding and spinning, while their sons engaged in the exercises of the palaestra or the stadium. Possibly, also, origin- ally the name may have had some connection with zoCKKiy^iXcovog " beautiful tortoise," the figure of this animal having been impressed on the money of the Peloponnesians ; in fact, in a fragment of the Helots of Eupolis, we find the obolos distinguished by the e])ithet of r.GCKkiyk\oovog^ The Kynitinda was so called from the verb tivum to kiss, as appears from Crates in his " Games," a play in which the poet contrived to introduce an account of this and nearly all the other juvenile pastimes. The form of the sport being little known, the learned have sometimes confounded it with a kind of salute called the chytra in antiquity, and the " Florentine Kiss" in modern Italy, in which the person kissing took the other by the ears. Giraldi^ says he remembers, when a boy, that his father and other friends, when kissing him, used sometimes to take hold of both his ears, which they called giving a " Florentine kiss." He afterwards was surprised to find that this was a most ancient practice, commemorated both by the Greek 1 Poll. ix. 125. 3 Opp. ii. p. 880. Theocrit. 2 Id. ix. 74. Cf. Suid. v. KaX- v. 133. Wart.— Poll. x. 100. \uioK(ovY\. t. i. p. 1359. c. Meurs. De Lud. Gra3C. p. 41. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 153 and Latin authors. It obtained its name, as lie con- jectures, from the earthen vessel called chytra, which had two handles usually laid hold of by persons drink- ing out of it, as is still the practice with similar utensils in Spain. This writer mentions a present sent from the peninsula to Leo X, consisting of a great number of chytrse of red pottery, if we may so call them, of which he himself obtained one. Crates, as Hemsterhuis^ ingeniously supposes, intro- duced a wanton woman playing at this game among the youths in order that she might enjoy the kisses of the handsome. The Epostrakismos^ was what English boys call " Ducks and Drakes," and sometimes, among our an- cestors at least, " A duck and a drake and a white penny cake, " and was played with oyster -shells. Standing on the shore of the sea at the Peirgeeus, for example, they flung the shells edgeways over the water so that they should strike it and bound up- wards again and again from its surface. The boy whose shell made most leaps before sinking, won the game. Minucius Felix gives a very pretty de- scription of this juvenile sport. " Behold, he says, " boys playing in frolicsome rivalry with shells on " the sea-shore. The game consists in picking up " from the beach a shell rendered light by the con- " stant action of the waves, and standing on an even " place, and inclining the body, holding the shell flat " between the fingers, and throwing it with the great- " est possible force, so that it may rase the surface " of the sea or skim along while it moves with gentle flow, or glances over the tops of the waves as they " leap up in its track. That boy is esteemed the " victor whose shell performs the longest journey or " makes most leaps before sinking."^ The Akinetinda was a contention between boys, in which some one of them endeavoured to maintain his ^ Comment, ad Poll. t. vi. p. - Poll. ix. 119. n 80. 3 Seber ad Poll. t. vi. p. 1188. 154 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. position unmoved. Good sport must have been pro- duced by the next game called Schoenophilinda, or " Hiding the Rope." In this a number of boys sat down in a circle, one of whom had a rope concealed about his person, which he endeavoured to drop secret- ly beside one of his companions. If he succeeded, the unlucky wight was started like a hare round the circle, his enemy following and laying about his shoulders. But on the other hand, if he against whom the plot was laid detected it, he obtained pos- session of the rope and enjoyed the satisfaction of flog- ging the plotter over the same course. The Basilinda^ was a game in which one obtained by lot the rank of king, and the vanquished, whether one or many, became subject to him, to do whatever he should order. It passed down to the Christians, and was more especially practised during the feast of the Epiphany. It is commonly known under the name of Forfeits, and was formerly called " One pen- ny,'' " One penny come after me," " Questions and commands," " The choosing of king and queen on Twelfth night." In the last-mentioned sense it is still i^revalent in France, where it is customary for bakers to make a present to the families they serve, of a large cake in the form of a ring in which a small kidney bean has been concealed. The cake is cut up, the pieces are distributed to the company, and the person who gets the bean is king of the feast. This game entered in Greece likewise into the amusements of grown people, both men and women, as well as of children, and an anecdote, connected with it, is told of Phryne, who happened one day to be at a mixed party where it was played. By chance it fell to her lot to play the queen ; upon which, observing that her fe- male companions were rouged and lilied to the eyes, she maliciously ordered a basin and towel to be brought in, and that every woman should wash her face. Conscious of her own native beauty, she began 1 Poll. ix. 110. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 155 the operation, and only appeared the fresher and more lovely. But alas for the others ! When the anchusa, psimmuthion, and phukos had been removed by the water, their freckled and coarse skins exposed them to general laughter.^ The Ostrakinda was a game purely juvenile. A knot of boys having drawn a line on the ground, separated into two parties. A small earthenware disk or ostrakon, one side black with pitch, the other white, was then produced, and each party chose a side, white or black. The disk was then pitched along the line, and the party whose side came up was accounted victorious, and prepared to pursue while the others turned round and fled. The boy first caught obtained the name of the ass, and was compelled to sit down, the game apparently proceeding till all were thus caught and placed hors de combat. He who threw the ostrakon cried, "night or day," the black side being termed nigJit^ and the opposite day. It was called the " Twirling of the ostrakon." Plato alludes to it in the Phsedros.^ The Dielkustinda, " French and English," was played chiefly in the palaestra, and occasionally else- where. It consisted simply in two parties of boys laying hold of each other by the hand, and pulling till one by one the stronger had drawn over the weaker to their side of the ground. The Phryginda was a game in which, holding a number of smooth and delicate fragments of pottery • between the fingers of the left hand, they struck them in succession with the right so as apparently to pro- duce a kind of music.^ There was another game called Kyndalismos, played with short batons, and requiring considerable strength and quickness of eye. A stick having been fixed up- 1 Galen. Protrept. § 10. Kiihn. ^ PoU. ix. 1 1 1. seq. Plat. Pheed. Compare the admirable note of t. i. p. 29. seq. Bekk. Hemsterhuis ad Poll. t. vi. p. ^ Turneb. Advers. xxvii. SS. 1066, seq. Poll. ix. 1 14. Comment, t. vi. p. 1178. 156 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. right in a loose moist soil, the business was to dislodge it by throwing at it other batons from a distance; whence the proverb, " Nail is driven out by nail, and baton by baton.'' ^ A person who played at this game was called by some of the Doric poets Kyndalopactes.~ A similar game is played in England, in which the prize is placed upon the top of the upright stick. The player wins when the prize falls without the hole whence the upright has been dislodged. The game of Ascoliasmos^ branched off into several varieties, and afforded the Athenian rustics no small degree of sport. The first and most simple form con- sisted in hopping on one foot, sometimes in pairs, to see which in this way could go furthest. On other oc- casions the hopper undertook to overtake certain of his companions who were allowed the use of both legs. If he could touch one of them he came off conqueror. This variety of the game appears to have been the Empusse Indus of the Romans. " Scotch hoppers,'' or " Fox to thy hole," in which boys, hopi)ing on one leg, beat one another with gloves or pieces of leather tied at the end of strings, or knotted handkerchiefs, as in the diable hoiteuw of the French. At other times victory depended on the number of hops, all hopping together and counting their springs, — the highest of course winning. But the most amusing variety of the game was that practised during the Dionysiac festi- val of the Askolia. Skins filled with wine or inflated with air, and extremely well oiled, were placed upon the ground, and on these the shoeless rustics leaped with one leg and endeavoured to maintain a footing, which they seldom could on account of their slipperi- ness. However, he who succeeded carried off the skin of wine as his prize. ' Vid. Vatic. Append. Proverb. Cent. ii. prov. 1 2. et lb. not. And. Schotto. Kiihn ad Poll. t. vi. p. 1190. ^ Meursius, Grtec. Lud. p. 26. and after him Pfeiffer, Ant. Grsec. iv. p. 120. read Kip^aXoTraiKTrjQ, which Hemsterhuis observes is con- trary to the authority of the MSS. ^ Phurnutus, De Nat. Deorum, c. 30. p. 21 7. seq. Gale.— Poll. ix. 121. Sch. Aristoph. Plut. 1130. Kust. — Meurs. Grsec. Fer. p. 52 ; Grsec. Ludibunda, p. G. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 157 A game, evidently also of rustics, was the Trygodi- pliesis, Tantali Indus, " Bobbing for cherries," " Bob cherry," in which something very nice was thrown into a bowl of wine lees, which the performer, with his hands behind his back, was to fish up with his lips. The fun was to see the ludicrous figure he cut with his face daubed and discoloured by the lees. Phitta Maliades, Phitta Meliai, Phitta Rhoiai, " Hasten, nymphs ! " may be regarded as exclamations of encouragement uttered by Dorian girls, when en- gaged in a race.^ Playing at ball was common, and received various names. Episkyros, Phseninda, Aporraxis and Oura- nia. The first of these games was also known by the names of the Ephebike and the Epikoinos. It was played thus : a number of young men assembling to- gether in a place covered with sand or dust, drew across it a straight line, which they called Skyros, and at equal distances, on either side, another line. Then placing the ball on the Skyros, they divided into two equal parties, and retreated each to their lines, from which they immediately afterwards rushed forward to seize the ball. The person who picked it up, then cast it towards the extreme line of the opposite party, whose business it was to intercept and throw it back, and they won who by force or cunning compelled their opponents to overstep the boundary line. Daniel Souter*^ contends that this was the English game of football, into which perhaps it may, in course of time, have been converted. This rough and, it must be confessed, somewhat dangerous sport, origin- ally, in all probability, introduced into this country by the Romans, may still on Shrove Tuesday be witnessed in certain towns of South Wales. The balls consist of bulls' bladders protected by a thick covering of lea- ther, and blown tight. Six or eight are made ready for the occasion, every window in the town is shut by break of day, at which time all the youths of the ^ Poll. ix. 127. with the note 2 Palamedes, iii. 4. p. ^07. of Hemsterhuis. Alex, ab Alex. iii. 21. 15S TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. neighbourhood assemble in the streets. The ball is then thrown up in front of the town-hall, and the multitude, dividing into two parts, strive with incre- dible eagerness and enthusiasm to overcome their an- tagonists, each endeavouring to kick the foot-ball to the other extremity of the town. In the struggle severe kicks and wounds are given, and many fierce battles take place. The ball sometimes mounts thirty or forty feet above the tops of the highest houses and falls far beyond, or goes right over into the gardens, whither it is immediately followed by a crowd of young men. The sport is kept up all day, the hungry combatants recruiting their strength from time to time by copious horns of ale, and an abundant supply of the nice pancakes which the women sell in baskets at the corner of every street. To view this sport, thousands of persons assemble from all the coun- try round, so that to the secluded population of those districts it is in some sort what the battle in the Platanistas was to the Spartans, or even what the Isthmian and Nemean games were to the whole of Greece. The Phseninda^ is supposed to have received its name either from its inventor, Phsenides (called Phse- nestios in Athenseus^ and the Etymologicon Magnum), or from the verb psmyJ^siu^ "to deceive," because, making as though they would throw at one person, they immediately sent it at another, thus deluding the expectation of the former. It appears at first to have been played with the small ball called Harpaston, though the game with the large soft one may after- wards perhaps have also been called Phseninda. The variety named Aporraxis consisted in throwing the ball with some force against the ground and repelling it constantly as it rebounded ; he who did this most fre- quently, winning. In the game called Ourania, the player, bending back his body, flung up the ball with 1 Cf. Souter. Palam. ill. 3. p. ^ Cf. Schweigh, ad Athen. t. vi. 201. p. 248. seq. ~ Deipnosoph. i. 26. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 159 all his might into the air ; on which there arose a con- tention among his companions who should first catch it in its descent, as Homer appears to intimate in his description of the Phseacian sport. They likewise played at ball in the modern fashion against a wall, in which the person who kept it up longest, won, and was called king ; the one who lost, obtained the name of ass, and was constrained by the laws of the game to perform any task set him by the king.^ A game generally played in the gymnasia was the Skaperda. In this a post was set up with a hole near the top and a rope passed through it. Two young men then seized each one end of the rope, and turning their back to the post exerted their utmost strength to draw their antagonist up the beam. He who raised his opponent highest won. Sometimes they tried their strength by binding themselves together, back to back, and pulling different ways. The Himanteligmos, " pricking the garter," in Ire- land " pricking the loop," was really an ingenious amusement. It consisted in doubling a thong, and twisting it into numerous labyrinthine folds, which done, the other party put the end of a peg into the midst in search of the point of duplication. If he missed the mark the thong unwound without en- tangling the peg ; but if he dropped it into the right ring his peg was caught and the game won. Hem- sterhuis^ supposes the Gordian knot to have been nothing but a variety of the Himanteligmos. He conjectures that the boys of Abdera were fond of this game, on which account the sophisms of Demo- critus were called f[jbaPTsKizrscc}, and hence probably a sophist, as one who twists words together, to lash others, was called Himantelicteus. Another game, not entirely confined to children, was the Chalkismos, which consisted in twisting round rapidly on a board or table a piece of money, and 1 Poll. ix. 106. 2 Ad Poll. t. vi. p. 1186. sqq. Cf. Plut. Symp. i. 1, 160 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. placing the point of the finger so dexterously on its upper edge as to put a stop to its motion without per- mitting it to fall. This was a favourite amusement of Phryne the hetaira, as building houses of cards was of La Belle Stuart.^ Some of these sports were peculiar to the female sex," as the Pentalitlia, which is still played by girls in some remote provinces of our island, where it is called " Dandies." The whole apparatus of the game consisted in five astragals — knuckle bones — pebbles, or little balls, which, gathered up rapidly, were thrown into the air and attempted to be caught in falling on the back of the hand or between the slightly spread fingers. If any fell it was allowable to pick them up, provided this were done with the fingers of the same hand on which the other astragals rested."^ The girls of France, according to Bulenger, still amuse themselves with the Pentalitha, there played with five little glass balls, which are flung in the air and caught so dexterously as seldom to fall either on the table or on the ground. I have never, however, seen it played myself in that country. The Astragalismos,"* which by the Romans was de- nominated talorum or taxillorum Indus, (by Hyde through the Greek 'TrdcsGoCkog, derived from the Hebrseo- Punic Assila,) by the Arabs Ka'b or Shezn, by the Per- sians Shesh-buzhul bazi, by the Turks Depshelim, (played in their country both by girls and boys,) by the French Garignon or Osselets, in English " Cock- all.''^ In the game of astragals the Persians, as is im- 1 Poll. ix. 118. 2 The game of astragals, pro- perly so called^ was common to both sexes (Paus. vi. 24. 7), who saw in Elis one of the Graces, re- presented with an astragal in her hand, while her two companions held the one a rose, the other a branch of myrtle, symbolical of their relationship to Aphrodite. The poets sometimes transfer these sports of earth to the Olympian halls, where we find Eros and Ganymede playing with golden astragals. — Cf. Apollon. Rhod. iii. 117. seq. Cf. Odyss. a. 107. II. x- 87. seq. 3 Poll. ix. 126. * Children, according to Ly San- der, were to be deceived with as- tragals, and men with oaths. — Plut. Lysan. § 8. 5 Hyde, Hist. Talor. § 2. t. ii. p. 314. TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 161 plied in the name given above, often use six bones while the Greeks employed only four, which were thrown either on a table or on the floor. According to Lucian,^ the huckle bones were sometimes those of the African gazelle. The several sides of the astragal or huckle bone had their character expressed by numbers, and obtained separate names, which determined the value of the throw.'^ Thus, the side showing the Monas was called the Dog, the opposite side Chias, and the throw Chios. In cockall as in dice there are neither twos nor fives. The highest number, six, was called the Coan {(rvvo^izog or i^iTTig) ; the Dog or one was called the Chian or dog- chance; to which the old proverb alluded Y^ooog <7r§og X^op, six to one. To have the Dog turn up was to lose, hence, perhaps, the phrase, " going to the dogs," that is, playing a losing game. The throw of eight was denominated Stesichoros, because the poet's tomb at Himera consisted of a perfect octagon. Among the forty who succeeded to the thirty at Athens Euripides was one, and hence, if the throw of the astragals amounted to forty points, they bestowed upon it the name of Euripides. All animals in which the astragal is found have it in the hough or pastern of the hind legs. The ro 'pr^aveg, the gibbous side or blank, because it counts for nothing ; the to fcolKov, the hollow side or "put in ;" the the tortuous side, "cockall," or " take all," so called because it wins the stake ; the smooth side ra -xja, " take half," because of the money put in, it wins half. Among the Greeks and Romans the put in was called trias, the blank tetras, the half- monas, and the cockall hexas.^ By the Arabs they are denominated the thief, the lamb, the wezeer, and the sultan ; by the Turks the robber, the ploughman, the kihaya, or the dog, and the bey ; by the Persians 1 Amor. § 16. Theoph. Char. c. ^ Hyde. Hist. Talor. p. 141. 5. See Nixon. Acc. of Antiq. at sqq. Poll. ix. 100. Hercul. Phil. Trans, vol. 50. pt. i. ' Arist. Hist. Anim. ii. 2. p. 30. p. 88. Hyde. Hist. Talor. p. 137. Bekk. VOL. I, M 162 TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. the robber, tlie rustic, tbe wezeer, and the schah ; by ; the Armenians the thief, the ploughman, the steward, j and the lord. The number of casts among the | Greeks, according to Eustathius, amounted to thirty- | five.^ Pliny" speaks of a work of Polycletos represent- \ ing naked boys playing at this game, and the reader will probably remember the mutilated group in the j British Museum, in which a boy having evidently i been beaten at astragals, is biting in revenge the ' leg of his conqueror. To play at Odd or Even ^ was common ; so that we ■ find Plato describing a knot of boys engaged in this game in a corner of the undressing room of the gym- nasium. There was a kind of divination by astragals, the bones being hidden under the hand, and the one ' party guessing whether they were odd or even. The same game was occasionally played with beans, wal- nuts, or almonds, or even with money, if we may credit Aristophanes, who describes certain serving-men play- \ ing at Odd or Even with golden staters.* There was ;| a game called Eis Omillan,^ in which they drew a circle \ on the ground, and, standing at a little distance, pitch- ! ed the astragals at it ; to win consisting in making ; them remain within the ring. Another form of the ! Eis Omillan was to place a trained quail within a circle, J on a table for example, out of which the point was to | drive it by tapping it with the middle finger. If it reared at the blow, and retreated beyond the line, its master lost his wager. The play called Tropa*" was also generally performed with astragals, which were j pitched into a small hole, formed to receive such things | when skilfully thrown. The common acorn, and fruit j of the holm oak, were often substituted for astragals | 1 Meurs. Grsec. Lud. p. 7. * Plut. 817. sqq. Cf. Sch. in loc. ^ xxxiv. 19. Vid. Calcagnin, ^ Suid. et Hesych. in v. Poll. j Dissert.de Talis. J. Gammer. Com- ix. 102. Cf. Meurs. Grsec. Ludib. ' ment. de Utriusque Ling, c. 846. p. 69. j Hyde, Hist. Nerdilud. p. ^ Cf. Meurs. de Lud. Grsec. p. , 261. 61, Hesych. V. TpoVa. i TOYS, SPORTS, AND PASTIMES. 163 in this game. The Ephentinda seems to have con- sisted in pitching- an ostrakon into a circle, so as to cause it to remain there. The Skeptinda consisted in placing an ostrakon, or a piece of money, on the ground, and pitching another at it so as to make it turn.^ 1 PoU. ix. 117. 164 CHAPTER IV. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. In Greece, as everywhere else, education^ com- menced ill the nursery; and though time has very much obscured all remaining traces of the instruction which the children there received, we are not left on this point wholly without information. From the very day of his birth man begins to be acted on by those causes that furnish his mind with ideas. As his intel- ligence acquires strength, the five sluices which let in all that flood of knowledge which afterwards over- flows his mind, appear to be enlarged, and education at first, and for some time, consists in watching over the nature and quality of the ideas conveyed inward by those channels. It is difficult to say when actual instruction commenced : but among the earliest for- mal attempts at impressing traditionary knowledge on the infant mind was the repetition by mothers and nurses of fables and stories, not always, if Plato may be credited, constructed with a religious or ethical purpose.^ They, in fact, introduced into the minds of their children the legends of the mythology, under the forms of which truths of the greatest importance, such as Bacon has developed in his " Wisdom of the An- cients," lay sometimes concealed, though more fre- quently, perhaps, they inculcated no useful lesson, but were the mere sportive creations of fancy, or if they contained any moral kernel the shell in which it was 1 Among the ancient writers on de Hist. Grsec. i. Athen. xv. 54. education, of which the greater Men. in Diog. Laert. p. 4. b. number have perished, was Cle- ^ i{ep. ii. t. vi. p. 94. — Cf. archos of Soli, on whom see Voss. Adolph. Cramer, 8, 9. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 165 cased was too hard for the teeth of the vulgar. Such, for example, as the legend of Zeus in Hesiod mutilating his father Kronos, which, in Plato's opinion, was not to be delivered to the emptj-headed multi- tude or to untaught children; but, having sacrificed, not a hog, but the most precious victim, in mysterious secrecy to a few. Wholly different from these, however, were the fables ^ properly so called, which, invented apparently by Hesiod,^ (at least his Hawk and Nightingale is the oldest example extant in Hellenic literature,) were afterwards sprinkled by the greatest poets, through their writings, or spontaneously uttered in pressing emergencies to warn their countrymen against the approaches of tyranny. Archilochos' Eagle and Fox ^ was famous throughout antiquity, as was likewise the Horse and the Stag, related by Stesiclioros ^ to the people of Himera, to put them on their guard against the Machiavellian policy of Gelon. But the most complete, perhaps, of these ancient compositions is the fable of the lion, delivered by Eumenes to the Macedonian generals under his order, when they had been tampered with by Antigonos, who would have persuaded them to disband.^ " It is said," observed the Prince, " that once upon " a time a lion falling in love with a young maiden " came to make proposals of marriage to her father. " The old man replied that he was quite ready to " bestow on him his daughter upon one condition, " namely, that he should pluck out his teeth and his " claws, for that he feared his majesty might upon the " wedding night forget himself and unwittingly destroy " the bride. To these terms the lion consented, and 1 Cf. Suid. V. Kal TO tov Xvkov. * Phot. Bib. 139. b. 8. Hor. i. 1427. Epist. i. 10. Gyraldi, de Poet, 0pp. et. Dies, 202 — 212. Histor. p. 462. a. sqq. Aristot. Quintil. V. 2. Rliet. ii. 20. ^ Plat. Rep. 1. ii. cap. 8. c. p. 117. SchoL Aristoph. Av. 652. ^ Diod. Sic. I. xix. c. 25. Philostrat. Imag. i. 3. 166 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. " allowed his teeth and claws to be pulled out, upon " which the father seeing he had lost the only things " which rendered him terrible fell upon him with a club " and beat him to death." The jEsopic fables ^ which Socrates a few days before his death amused himself by turning into verse,*^ are known to us solely by comparatively modern imitations, and of those which were denominated Sybaritic we know nothing^ be- yond the name; for though one scholiast informs us that the Sybaritic fables brought men upon the scene, as the jEsopic did animals, another states the direct contrary. In the earlier and ruder ages of Greece, however, these compositions were in great repute, as they are still among the people of the East. To the infancy of nations as of individuals the wisdom they contain is, in fact, always palatable ; for which reason they were highly esteemed by Martin Luther as particularly adapted to the spirit of his times. Doubtless we know too little of how the foundation of the republican character was laid in the ancient commonwealths ; but it was laid by woman, and for centuries cannot have been laid amiss, as the glorious superstructure of virtue and patriotism erected upon it fully demonstrates. On this point we must reject the testimony of Plato's academic dream. The his- toric fields of Marathon, Platsea, Thermopylae, and a thousand others confute his fanciful theorising, prov- ing incontestably that the love of glory and independ- ance could, in the very polities which he least esteem- ed, achieve triumphs unknown to the subjects of other governments. At seven years ^ old boys were removed from the harem and sent under the care of a governor to a public school, which, from the story of Bedreddin Hassan, we find to have been formerly the practice among the Arabs, even for the sons of distinguished 1 Aristoph. Pac. 128. Vesp, ^ Sch. Aristoph. Av. 471. Sch. 1392, sqq. et Scholia. Vesp. 1251. " Diog. Laert. ii. p. 22. * Aristot. Polit. vii. 15. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 167 men and Wezeers. " When seven years had passed " over him his grandfather, (Shemseddeen, Wezeer of " the Sultan of Egypt,) committed him to a school- " master, whom he charged to educate him with great " care."^ Mischievous no doubt the boys of Hellas were, as boys will everywhere be, and many pranks would they play in spite of the crabbed old slaves set over them by their parents ; on which account, probably, it is that Plato considers boys, of all wild beasts the most audacious, plotting, fierce and intractable.^ But the urchins now found that it was one thing to nestle under mamma's wing at home, and another to delve under the direction of a didaskalos, and at school- hours, after the bitter roots of knowledge. For the school-boys of Greece tasted very little of the sweets of bed after dawn. " They rose with the light," says Lucian, " and with pure water washed away the re- " mains of sleep, which still lingered on their eyelids."^ Having breakfasted on bread and fruit, to which through the allurements of their psedagogues they sometimes added wine,* they sallied forth to the didas- kaleion, or schoolmaster's lair as the comic poets jocu- larly termed it,^ summer and winter, whether the morning smelt of balm, or was deformed by sleet or snow, drifting like meal from a sieve down the rocks of the Acropolis. Aristophanes has left us a picture, dashed off with his usual grotesque vigour, of a troop of Attic lads marching on a winter's morning to school.^ " Now will I sketch the ancient plan of training, When justice was in vogue and wisdom flourished. First, modesty restrained the youthful voice So that no brawl was heard. In order ranged, The boys from all the neighbourhood appeared, 1 Arabian Nights, i. 286. * Athen. xiii. 6 1 . sqq. Lane's Translation. son- ' De Legg. vi. t. viii. p. 41. Creuzer. de Civ. Athen. p. 55C. ^ Cf. Plato, de Legg. vii. t, 3 Amor. § 44. viii. p. 41. seq. 168 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. Marching to school, naked, though down the sky Tumbled the flaky snow like flour from sieve. Arrived, and seated wide apart, the master First taught them how to chaunt Athena's praise, * Pallas unconquered, stormer of cities ! ' or * Shout far resounding ' in the self-same notes Their fathers learned. And if through mere conceit Some innovation-hunter strained his throat With scurril lays mincing and quavering, Like any Siphnian or Chian fop — As is too much the fashion since that Phrynis i Brought o'er Ionian airs — quickly the scourge Rained on his shoulders blows like hail as one Plotting the Muses' downfal. In the Palaestra Custom required them decently to sit. Decent to rise, smoothing the sandy floor Lest any traces of their form should linger Unsightly on the dust. When in the bath ' Grave was their manner, their behaviour chaste. At table, too, no stimulating dishes, Snatched from their elders, such as fish or anis. Parsley or radishes or thrushes, roused The slumbering passions."^ The object of sending boys to school was twofokl : first to cultivate and harmonise their minds by arts and literature ; secondly, so to occupy them that no time could be allowed for evil thoughts and habits. On this account, Aristotle enumerating Archytas' rattle among the principal toys of children, denomi- nates education the rattle of boys.*^ In order, too, that its effect might be the more sure and permanent, no holidays* or vacations appear to have been allowed, while irregularity or lateness of attendance was se- verely punished.^ The theories broached by Mon- tague, Locke, and others, that boys are to be kept in order by reason and persuasion were not anticipated by the Athenians.^ They believed that to reduce the 1 For an account of this musi- cian, see Pollux iv. 66. with the notes of Kiihn and lungermann, t. iv. p. 709. sqq. 2 Aristoph. Nub. 961. sqq. Cf. Plaut. Bacchid. iii. 3. Polit. viii. 6. 268. GcettL * Casaub. ap. Theoph. Char. p. 273. 5 Plaut. Bacchid. iii. 3. 22. ^ Plato, indeed, at one time entertained a similar fancy. — De Rep. t. vi. p. 385. (Cf. Muret. in Aristot. Ethic. 71.) But, after- ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 169 stubborn will to obedience, and enforce the whole- some laws of discipline, masters must be armed with the power of correction, and accordingly their teachers and gymnasiarchs checked with stripes^ the slightest exhibition of stubbornness or indocility.^ Nor did their psedagogues^ or governors behave towards them with less strictness. These were per- sons, — slaves for the most part, — who at Athens as in the rest of Greece, Sparta not excepted, were from the earliest ages intrusted with the care of boys, and whose ministry could on no account be dispensed with. By Plato'* even these precautions were deemed insufficient. In his ideal state he would have the pse- dagogues themselves, as at Sparta, under the strictest inspection, making it the duty of every citizen to have an eye upon them, and arming him with the power to correct their delinquencies as well as those of the boys under their charge. There was to be, moreover, a general inspector intrusted with authority to punish neglect, by whichsoever of the parties committed. Upon these points the views of the Athenians were unquestionably judicious, for since boys did not amongst them pass at once from the hands of their mothers and domestic guardianship into those of the state as at Sparta, such governors were necessary to wards, in his old age, adopted the general conviction of mankind, that he who spares the rod spoils the child. — De Legg. t. viii. p. 12. seq. Varro, however, who wrote much on education, observes, that " remotissimum ad discendum formido, ac nimius timor, et omnis perturbatio animi. Contra delec- tatio pro telo ad discendum." Vic- tor. Var. Lect. 1. xv. c. 2. Theodo- ric, the Gothic king of Italy, had another reason for sparing the rod in education. The child, he said, who had trembled at a rod would never dare to look upon a sword.— Gibbon vii. 19. This Gothic prince was not, therefore, acquainted with the Spartan sys- tem of education. 1 Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 959. 2 Cf. Cressoll. Theat. Rhet. v. 6. p. 471. seq. 3 On these and the other per- sons engaged in the education of youth, see Bergmann, ad Isoc. Areop. § 14. De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 42. See p. 11 of Cramer's excellent little pamphlet, which I have frequently found extremely useful. 170 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. preserve their manners from defilement and contami- nation.^ Tlieir principal duty consisted in leading the lad to and from school, in attending him to the theatre, to the public games, to the forum, and where- ever else it was thought fit he should go." It has been by some conjectured that while the boys continued under the care of the schoolmaster the governors re- mained in the house, or in a building adjoining deno- minated the psedagogeion, to await their return ; but the inference, drawn chiefly from the name of the edi- fice, is erroneous ; psedagogeion was employed to signify tlie school itself,^ and we have the testimony of Plato to prove that the psedagogue having delivered the boy to the didaskalos, usually returned to his master's house. On the character of these governors* antiquity ap- pears to have transmitted us more satire than infor- mation. If we may credit some writers, it was not merely slaves who were intrusted with the care of boys, but often the meanest and vilest of slaves, — base in mind, depraved in manners, — whose guardianship, when they chanced to be crabbed and morose, could be no other than disgusting to their charges ; and, when inclined to indulgence, most pernicious. Nay, were they themselves corrupt, what could be of more evil tendency than their own example ? They who take this view of the matter appear to me illogical and inconsistent.^ Though aware that these men were chosen by the parents to preserve their children from bad example, from the infection of corrupt manners, from the allurements of vicious companions, these writers persuade themselves that they volun- 1 Xenoph. de Rep. Laced, ii. 1. 2. ^ Plat. Lysis, t. i. p. 118. De Legg. iv. t. viii. p. 325. De Rep. iii. t. vi. p. 128. 3 Poll. iv. 11). Ulp. ad Demosth. de Cor. § 78. Orat. Att. t. x. p. 113. Plat. Lysis, t. i. p. 145. 4 Plut. de Lib. Educ. § 7. The Athenians sought to create a high idea of this class of persons by an- nually offering sacrifice to Con- nidas, the reputed pssdagogue of Theseus.— -Plut. Thes. § 4. 5 Cram, de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. p. 12. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 171 tarily gave them as companions and guardians men worse than whom could not be found. It is more reasonable to conclude that when these psedagogues proved unworthy of the trust reposed in them they were sufficient masters of hypocrisy to conceal their vices at home, and only revealed themselves to their young masters gradually as their lessons produced their evil fruits. Thus, it is clear, that the father whom the comic writer Plato, in his Fellow Deceiver,^ introduced reproaching the psedagogue who had cor- rupted his son, knew nothing of his evil ways when he delivered the lad to his keeping. " The youth, 0 wretch^ whom I intrusted to thee Thou hast perverted^ teaching him vile habits Once stranger to his mind ; for now he drinks Even in the morning, which was not his wont." With the greatest reason we may suppose, that of all the domestics in the family the most staid and sober, the most attached, the most faithful, were chosen to fulfil this important duty, such as Piautus describes an honest psedagogue, — Eademque erat hsec discipHna ohm, cum tu adolescens eras ? Nego tibi hoc annis viginti fuisse primis copise^, Digitum longe a psedagogo pedem ut efferres sedibus^ Ante solem exorientem nisi in palsestram veneras^ Gymnasii prsefecto haud mediocres pcenas penderes. Idque ubi obtigerat^ hoc etiam ad malum arcessabatur malum Et discipulus et magister perhibebantur improbi. Ubi cursuj luctando^ hasta, disco, pugillatu, pila, Saliendo sese exercebant magis, quam, scorto aut saviis ; Ibi suam setatem extendebant, non in latebrosis locis. Inde de hippodromo et palaestra ubi revenisses domum, Cincticulo praecinctus in sella apud magistrum assideres : Cum librum legeres. Si unam peccavisses syllabarn, Fieret corium tarn macules um quam est nutricis pallium * * * * Id equidem ego certo scio. Nam olim populi prius honorem capiebat suffragio, Quam magistri desinebat esse dicto obediens.^ Lucian, too, speaking of the attendants of youths in the better times of the republic, describes them Athen. xiii. Gl. G3. " Plaut. Bacchid. Act iii. Sc. '6. 172 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. as an honourable company who followed their young- masters to the schools, not with combs and looking-- glasses like the attendants of ladies, but with the venerable instruments of wisdom in their hands, many-leaved tablets or books recording the glorious deeds of their ancestors, or if proceeding to the music master bearing, instead of these, the melodious lyre.^ In fact the fortunes of war often in those days reduced men of virtue and ability to the condition of slaves, when they would naturally be chosen as the governors of youth. Thus we find Diogenes the Cynic purchased by a rich Corinthian, who intrusted to him the education of his sons. The account which anti- quity has left us of his sale, reception by his master, and manner of teaching, being extremely brief, we shall here give it entire. Hermippos^ who wrote a small treatise called the Sale of Diogenes, observes that when the philosopher was exposed in the slave-market and interrogated respecting his qualifications, he re- plied that " He could command men ; " and then ad- dressing himself to the herald, bade him inquire whether there was any one present who wanted a master. Being forbidden to sit down, he said " This matters nothing, for fish are bought in whatever way they may lie." He remarked also, that he won- dered that when people were buying a pot or a dish they examined it on all sides, whereas when they purchased a man they were contented with simply looking at him. Afterwards, when he had become the slave of Xeniades, he informed his owner that he expected the same obedience to be paid to him as men yield to a pilot or a physician. It is further related by Eubulos, who likewise wrote a treatise on this incident, that Diogenes conducted with the utmost care the education of the children under his charge. In addition to the ordinary studies, 1 Amor. §. 44. 4. sqq. with the observation of " Diog. Laert. Vit. Diog. vi. ii. Menage, t. ii. p. 138. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 173 he taught them to ride, to draw the bow, to use the sling, and to throw the javelin. In the palaestra, moreover, where, contrary to the Athenian practice he remained to watch over the boys, Diogenes would not permit the master of the Gymnasium to exercise them after the manner of the athletse ; but in those parts only of gymnastics, which had a tendency to animate them and strengthen their constitutions. They learned also by heart,^ under his direction, nume- rous sentences from the poets and historians, as well as from his own writings. It was his practice likewise very greatly to abridge his explanations in order that they might the more easily be committed to memory. At home he habituated them to wait on themselves, to be content with frugal fare, and drink water, from which it may be inferred that others drank wine. He accustomed them to cut their hair close, not to be fastidious in dress, and to walk abroad with him bare- foot and without a chiton, silent and with downcast eyes.^ He also went out with them to hunt. On their part they took great care of him, and pleaded his cause with their parents. He therefore grew old in the family, and they performed for him the rites of sepulture. Now w^hat Diogenes was in the house of Xeniades numerous psedagogues were doubtless found to be in other parts of Greece. But the majority it is thought were open to blame ; and so they are everywhere, and so they would be, though taken from the best classes of mankind. That is, they were men with 1 I may say with Herault de Sechelle " Apprendre pdr cmur ; ce mot me plait. II n'y a guere en effet que le coeur, qui retienne bien, et qui retienne vite." — Voy- age a Montbar, &c. p. 77. 2 Cf. Luc. Amor. § 44. Kai y\avi}ia ratg e7ro)fxiaig Trepovnig av(jpcl\pag aVo rfjg Trarpwas ear lag e^ep-^erai Kario jce/cv^wc> kvavTiov TrpocrtXeTrojv. In his ex- hortation to Demonicos, Isocrates has thrown together numerous precepts which almost constitute a code of morals and politeness. They are far superior to Lord Chesterfield's even where the Graces only are recommended ; and have the advantage of almost always subjoining the reason to the rule. 174 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. many failings, far from what could be wished ; but that their character upon the whole was respectable seems to me demonstrated by the powers delegated to them by the parents. For not only could they use upon occasion, as we have said, menace and harsh language, — they were even permitted to have recourse to blows, in order to preserve their pupils from vices which none would have sooner taught than they, had their characters been such as is commonly believed. For example, would they have made a drunkard the guardian of a boy's sobriety ? a thief the guardian of his honesty ? a libertine of his chastity ? a coarse and ribald jester the inculcator of modesty and purity of language ? ^ At home, of course, the influence and example of the parents surpassed all other influences, of the mother more especially, who up to their manhood retained over her sons the greatest authority. Of this a playful illustration occurs in the Lysis of Plato.^ Socrates, interrogating the youth respecting the course of his studies, inquires archly whether when in the harem he was not as a matter of course permitted to play with his mother's wool basket, and loom, and spathe, and shuttle ? " If I touched them," replied Lysis, laughing, " I " should soon feel the weight of the shuttle upon my " fingers." " But," proceeds the philosopher, "if your mother " or father require anything to be read or written for " them, they, probabl}^ prefer your services to those " of any other person ? " " No doubt. " " And in this case, as you have been instructed in " reading and spelling, they allow you to proceed " according to your own knowledge. So likewise, " when you play to them on the lyre, they suffer 1 Cf. Dion. Chysost. ii. p. 261 ; ture, voice, and thoughts of youth i.29.9. is forcibly pointed out in the 2 0pp. t. i. p, 118. The in- Republic.~t. vi. p. 124. fluence of imitation over the ges- ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 175 " you, as you please, to relax or tighten the chords, " to touch them with the fingers, or strike them " with the plectron, — do they not ? " " Certainly." From this it would appear that the authority of the parents was equal ; though generally at Athens, as Plato^ elsewhere complains, greater reverence was paid to the commands of the mother even than to those of the father. Indeed to be wanting in respect to her was there deemed the ne plim ultra of depravity.^ The father, however, of necessity took a considerable share in the instruction and moral training of his son,*^ who at home profited by his conversation, and, arrived at the proper age, accompanied him abroad.^ When re- duced to the state of orphanhood the republic took children under its own protection, not considering it safe to intrust them to the sole guidance of masters or psedagogues. Care, too, was taken lest those public schools, estab- lished for the advancement of virtue and morals, should themselves be converted into nurseries of vice. They were by law^ forbidden to be opened before sunrise, and were closed at sunset ; nor during the day could any other men be introduced besides the teachers,^ though it appears from some of Plato's dialogues that this enactment was not very strictly observed.^ To prevent habits of brawling, boys were forbidden to assemble in crowds in the streets on their way to school. Nor were these laws deemed sufficient ; but still further to iRepub. viii. 5. t. ii. p. 182. Stallb. 2 Aristoph. Nub. 1443. — ^voiv ovofxdroiv aetafffxioiy icaaai ti- fiai fxivovcriVy i^laov rrarpi fxi^Tepa TTQoaKvvovvTMv. — Luc. Amoi. § 19. ^ On the force of example and imitation see Plato, de Rep. t. vi. p. 124. 4 Plat. Lach. t. i. p. 269.— Among the public places to which a father might take his sons the courts of law were not included, though we find Demosthenes, when a boy, contriving to introduce him- self, where unseen of the judges he might listen to the eloquence of Calhstratos. — Victor. Var. Lect. 1. XXX. c. 20. 5 ^sch. cont. Timarch. § 5, 6. 6 See Theoph. Char. c. 5. Sch, Aristoph. Nub. 180. ' Lysis, t. i. p. 145. Theretet. t. iii. p. 179. 176 ELEMENTxVRY INSTRUCTION. protect their morals ten annual magistrates called So- phronistoe, one from each tribe, were elected by show of hands/ whose sole business it was to watch over the manners of youth. This magistracy, dated as far back as the age of Solon," and continued in force to the latest times, The Gymnasiarch, another magistrate,^ was intrusted with the superintendence of the Gym- nasia, which, like the public games and festivals, appeared to require peculiar care ; and, if we can re- ceive the testimony of Plautus * for the classical ages of the commonwealth, transgressors received severe chastisement. It has sometimes been imagined that in Greece se- parate edifices were not erected as with us expressly for school-houses, but that both the didaskalos and the philosopher taught their pupils in fields, gardens or shady groves.^ But this was not the common practice, though many schoolmasters aj^pear to have had no other place wherein to assemble their pupils than the portico of a temple^ or some sheltered corner in the street, where in spite of the din of business and the throng of passengers the worship of learning was pub- licly performed. Here, too, the music-masters fre- quently gave their lessons, whether in singing or on the lyre, which practice explains the anecdote of the musician, who, hearing the crowd applaud one of his scholars, gave him a box on the ear, observing, " Had " you played well these blockheads would not have " praised you." A custom very similar prevails in the 1 Etym. Mag. 742. 38. 2 Cramer de Educ. Puer. ap. Athen. p. 1 3. , 3 VandaleDissert.pp.5 84— 727. 4 Bacchid. ill. 3. 5 See Coray, Disc. Prelim, sur Hippoc. de Aer. et Loc. § 41. t. i. p. 46. seq. 6 In the Antichita di Ercolano (t. iii. p 213.) we find a repre- sentation of one of these schools during the infliction of corporal chastisement. Numerous boys are seated on forms reading, while a delinquent is horsed on the back of another in the true Etonian style. One of the carnifices holds his legs, while another applies the birch to his naked back. Occa- sionally in Greece we find that free boys were flogged with a leek in lieu of a birch. Sch. Aristoph. Ran. 622. Schneid. ad Theoph. Hist. Plant, vii. 4. 10. p. 574. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 177 East, where, in recesses open to tlie street, we of- ten see the turbaned schoolmaster with a crowd of little Moslems about him, tracing* letters on their large wooden tablets or engaged in recitations of the Koran. But these were the schools of the humbler classes. For the children of the noble and the opulent spaci- ous structures were raised, and furnished with tables, desks, — for that peculiar species of grammateion'^ which resembled the plate cupboard, can have been nothing but a desk, — forms, and whatsoever else their studies required. Mention is made of a school at Chios^ which contained one hundred and twenty boys, all of whom save one were killed by the falling in of the roof. From another tragical story we learn that in Astypalsea,^ one of the Cyclades, there was a school which contained sixty boys. The incidents connected with their death are narrated in the romantic style of the ancients. Cleomedes, a native of this island, having in boxing slain Iccos the Epidaurian, was accused of unfairness and refused the prize, upon which he became mad and returned to his own country. There, entering into the public school, he approached the pillar that supported the roof, and like another Sampson seized it in an access of frenzy, and wresting it from its basis brought down the whole building upon the children. He himself however escaped, but, being pursued with stones by the inhabitants, took sanctuary in the temple of Athena, where he con- cealed himself in the sacred chest. The people pay- ing no respect to the holy place still pursued him and attempted to force open the lid, which he held down with gigantic strength. At length when the coffer was broken in pieces Cleomedes was nowhere to be found, dead or alive. Terrified at this prodigy they sent to consult the oracle of Delphi, by which they 1 Poll.iv. 18, 19. X. 57.seq. 2 Herod, vi. 27. 3 Called the Table of the Gods, VOL. I. from its beauty and amenity. — Steph. de Urb. in v. p. 189. b. N 178 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. were commanded to pay divine honours to the athlete as the last of the heroes/ In the interior of the school there was commonly an oratory - adorned with statues of the Muses, where, probably in a kind of font, was kept a supply of pure water for the boys. Pretending often, when they were not, to be thirsty, they would steal in knots to this oratory, and there amuse themselves by splash- ing the water over each other ; on which account the legislator ordained that strict watch should be kept over it. Every morning the forms were spunged,^ the schoolroom was cleanly swept, the ink ground ready for use, and all things were put in order for the business of the day. The apparatus^ of an ancient school was somewhat complicated : there were mathematical instruments, globes, maps, and charts of the heavens, together with boards whereon to trace geometrical figures, tablets, large and small, of box-wood, fir, or ivory^ triangular in form, some folding with two, and others with many leaves; books too and paper, skins of parch- ment, wax for covering the tablets, which, if we may believe Aristophanes,^ people sometimes ate when they were hungry .'^ To the above were added rulers, reed-pens,^ pen- 1 Paus. vi. 9. 6. seq. Plut. Rom. § 28. 2 Sch. JEsch. cont. Tim. in Ora- tor. Att. t. xii. p. 376 a. 3 Dem. de Cor. § 78. seq. 4 Pollux, iv. 1 9. Cf. Herod, vii. 239. ii. 21. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 529. 5 Poll. i. 234. Lucian. Ner. § 9. Amor. § 44. Antich. di Ercol. t. ii. p, 55. t. iii. p. 237. 6 Poll. X. 58, 59. 7 On this subject Isidorus Hispal. vi. 9. has a curious pas- sage : Cerse literarum materies, parvulorum nutrices. Ipsae dant ingenium pueris primordia sensus, quarum studium primi Grseci tra- didisse produntur. Grseci enim et Thusci primum ferro in ceris scrip- serunt. Postea Romani jusserunt, ne graphium ferreum quis haberet. Unde et apud scribas dicebatur, Ceram ferro ne Isedito. Postea in- stitutum est, ut in cera ossibus scriberent, sicut indicat Alsa in Satyra dicens : Vertamus vome- rem in ceram, mucroneque are- mus osseo. Cf. Pfeififer, Antiq. Graec. p. 413. ^ It was as the instrument of literature that the reed subdued half the world, though Pliny only celebrates its conquest as an arrow. " Ac si quis iEthiopas, yEgyptum, Arabas, Indos, Scy- ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 179 cases, pen-knives, pencils, and last, though not least, the rod which kept them to the steady use of all these things. At Athens these schools were not provided by the state. They were private speculations, and each master was regulated in his charges by the reputation he had acquired and the fortunes of his pupils. Some appear to have been extremely moderate in their demands.^ There was for example a school-master named Hip- pomachos, upon entering whose establishment boys were required to pay down a mina, after which they might remain as long and benefit by his instructions as much as they pleased. Didaskaloi were not how- ever held in sufficient respect, though as their scholars were sometimes very numerous,^ as many for example as a hundred and twenty, it must often have happened that they became wealthy. From the life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus,^ we glean some few particu- lars respecting the condition of a schoolmaster in re- moter ages. Phemios it is there related kept a school at Smyrna, where he taught boys their letters and all those other parts of education then comprehended under the term music. His slave Chritheis, the mother of the poet, spun and wove the wool which Phemios received in payment from his scholars. She likewise introduced into his house great elegance and frugality, which so pleased the school-master that it induced him to marry thas, Bactros, Sarmatarum tot gentes et Orientis, omniaque Par- thorum regna diligentius compu- tet, sequa ferme pars hominum in toto mundo calamis superata degit. — Hist. Nat. xvi. 65. 1 Which was the case even among the sophists, as we find Proclos granting a perpetual ad- mission to his lectures for a hun- dred drachmae. — Philost. Vit. Soph, ii, 21. § 3. This he was the better enabled to do from his carrying on the business of a mer- chant. — § 2. Professors' charges appear to have been often dis- puted, as we find mention, in many authors, of law- suits be- tween them and their pupils. — Lucian. Icaromenip. § 1 6. " The wages of industry are just and honourable, yet Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a stipend." — Gibbon, vii. 146. 2 Athen. xiii. 47. 3 Vit. Hom. §§ 5. seq. 25. seq. N 2 180 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. her. Under this man, according to the tradition re- ceived in Greece, Homer studied, and made so great a proficiency in knowledge that he was soon enabled to commence instructor himself. He therefore proceed- ed to Chios,^ and opened a school where he initiated the youth in the beauties of epic poetry, and, perform- ing his duties with great wisdom, obtained many ad- mirers among the Chians, became wealthy, and took a wife, by whom he had two sons. The earliest task to be performed at school was to gain a knowledge of the Greek characters, large and small, to spell next, next to read. Herodes the Sophist experienced much vexation from the stupidity exhibited in achieving this enterprise by his son Atti- cus, whose memory was so sluggish that he could not even recollect the Christ-cross-row. To overcome this extraordinary dulness he educated along with him twenty-four little slaves of his own age, upon whom he bestowed the names of the letters, so that young Atticus might be compelled to learn his alphabet as he played with his companions, now calling out for Omicron now for Psi." In teaching the art of writing their practice nearly resembled our own ; the master traced with what we must call a pencil (y§(z(pig), a number of characters on a tablet, and the pupil fol- lowing with the pen the guidance of the faint lines ^ before him, accustomed his fingers to perform the re- quisite movements with adroitness.* These things 1 Speaking of the antiquities of this island Chandler remarks : " The most curious remain is that which has been named, without reason. The School of Homer. It is on the coast at some distance from the city, northward, and ap- pears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity." i. Gl. 2 Philost. Vit. Soph. ii. 1 0. 3 Quint, i. I. Poll vii. 128. Aristoph. Thesm. 778. 4 Plat. Protag. t. i. p. 181. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 181 were necessarily the first step in the first class of studies, which were denominated music^ and compre- hended everything" connected with the developement of the mind ; and they were carried to a certain extent before the second division called gymnastics was com- menced. They reversed the plan commonly adopted among ourselves, for with them poetry" preceded prose, a practice which cooperating with their suscep- tible temperament, impressed upon the national mind that imaginative character for which it was preemi- nently distinguished. And the poets in whose works they were first initiated were of all the most poeti- cal, the authors of lyrical and dithyrambic pieces, selections from whose verses they committed to me- mory, thus acquiring early a rich store of sentences and imagery ready to be adduced in argument or illustration, to furnish familiar allusions or to be woven into the texture of their style.^ Considerable difference however existed in the prac- tice of different teachers. Some imagining that by the variety of their acquirements they would be ren- dered eloquent, recommended the indiscriminate study of the poets,"^ whether they wrote in hexameter, in tri- meter, or any other kind of verse, on ludicrous or on serious subjects. Certain poets there were who like Fenelon and the pretended Ossian, wrote their works in prose,^ respecting the use of whose compositions Plato was in some doubt. By other philosophers wandering unrestrained over the vast fields of literature was condemned. They desired to separate the gold from the dross, contend- 1 See Plat, de Rep. ii. t. vi. p. 93. se(i. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 188. seq. 2 In the Homeric age men, we are told, received their mental in- struction from the bards, and their physical at the gymnasium.-— Athen. i. 16. 3 Cf. Plat, de Rep. t. i. p. 149. Stallb. 4 Cf. Plato de Legg. t. viii. p. 44. sqq. On the style of declam- ation used in the Greek and Ro- man schools, see Schbmann de Comit. p. 187. ^ There were likewise poems written in the language of the common people. — Athen. xiv. 43. 182 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. ing that persons accustomed from their infancy to the loftier and purer inspirations of the muse will regard with contempt every thing mean or illiberal, whereas they who have learned to delight in low and vulgar compositions will consider all other literature tame and insipid. For so great is the force of imitation, that habits commenced from the earliest years pass into the manners and character of a man, affecting even his voice and corporeal developement, nay, modi- fying the very nature of the thoughts themselves. Among the other branches of knowledge^ most necessary to be studied, and to which they applied themselves nearly from the outset, was arithmetic, without some inkling of which, a man, in Plato's opinion, could scarcely be a citizen at all. For, as he observes, there is no art or science which does not stand in some need of it, especially the art of war, where many combinations depend entirely on num- bers. And yet Agamemnon in some of the old tragic poets w\as represented by Palamedes as wholly ignorant of calculation, so that possibly, as Socrates jocularly observes, he could not reckon his own feet.^ The im- portance attached to this branch of education, nowhere more apparent than in the dialogues of Plato, furnishes 1 Cf. Plat, de Legg. t. viii. p. 62. where he describes the Egyptian method of teaching arithmetic by rewards and allm'ements. Locke, however, condemned the practice. *' He that will give to his son apples or sugar-plums^ or what else of this kind he is most de- lighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorise his love of pleasure, and cocker up that dangerous propensity, which he ought by all means to subdue and stifle in him." Education § 52. Vid. Plat, de Rep. t. vi. p. 340. seq. Muret. Orat. iv. 43. Sir Josiah Child has some good remarks on the value of arithmetic as a branch of education ; " It hath been observed in the nature of arithmetic, that, like other parts of the mathematics, it doth not only improve the natural fa- culties, but it inclines those that are expert Jn it to thriftiness and good husbandry, and prevents both husbands and wives in some measure from running out of their estates, when they have it always ready in their heads what their expenses do amount to, and how soon by that course their ruin must overtake them." — Discourse of Trade, p. 5. ~ Plat, de Rej). vii. t. vi. p. 340. sqcj. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 183 one proof that the Athenians were preeminently men of business, who in all their admiration for the good and beautiful never lost sight of those things which promote the comfort of life, and enable a man effec- tually to perform his ordinary duties. With the same views were geometry and astronomy pursued. For, in the Republic, Glaucon,^ who may be supposed to repre- sent the popular opinion, confesses at once, upon the mention of geometry, that as it is applicable to the business of war it would be most useful. He could discover the superiority of the geometrician^ over the ignorant man in pitching a camp, in the taking of places, in contracting or expanding the ranks of an army, and all those other military movements prac- tised in battles, marches or sieges. To Plato however this was its least recommendation. He conceived that in the search after goodness and truth the study of this science was especially beneficial to the mind, both because it deals in positive verities, and thus begets a love of them, and likewise superinduces the habit of seeking them through lengthened investigation and of being satisfied with nothing less. In the study of astronomy^ itself a coarse and obvious utility was almost of necessity the first thing aimed at, and even in the age of Socrates, when phi- losophical wants were keenly felt in addition to those of the animal and civil life, there were evidently teachers who considered it necessary to justify such pursuits, by showing their bearing on the system of loss and profit. For when Socrates comes in his ideal scheme of education to touch on this science, Glaucon, the practical man, at once recognises its usefulness, not only in husbandry and navigation, but in affairs military. Nor are such fruits of it to be despised. 1 Plat, de Rep. t. vi. p. 349. an anecdote of Thales cutting a seq. De Legg. t. viii. p. 371. Sch. new channel for the river Halys. Aristoph. Nub. 180. Cf. Cicero ^ p}at. de Rep. t. vi. p. 357. de Orat. iii. 32. t. ii. 319. ed. seq. ; de Legg. t. viii. p. 370. Sch. Lallemand. Aristoph. Nub. 860. 208. 2 See in Sch. Aristoph. Nub.l 8 1 . 184 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. But philosophy proposes a higher aim, insisting, in opposition to popular belief, that by means of such pursuits the soul may be purified, and its powers of discovering truth, overlaid and nearly extinguished by other studies, rekindled and fanned into activity like a flame. The importance of music,^ in the education of the Greeks, is generally understood. It was employed to effect several purposes. First, to soothe and mollify the fierceness of the national character, and prepare the way for the lessons of the poets, which, delivered amid the sounding of melodious strings, when the soul was rapt and elevated by harmony, by the excite- ment of numbers, by the magic of the sweetest asso- ciations, took a firm hold upon the mind, and gene- rally retained it during life. Secondly, it enabled the citizens gracefully to perform their part in the amuse- ments of social life, every person being in his turn called upon at entertainments to sing or play upon the lyre. Thirdly, it was necessary to enable them to join in the sacred choruses, rendered frequent by the piety of the state, and for the due performance in old age of many offices of religion, the sacerdotal cha- racter belonging more or less to all the citizens of Athens. Fourthly, as much of the learning of a Greek was martial and designed to fit him for de- fending his country, he required some knowledge of music that on the field of battle his voice might harmoniously mingle with those of his countrymen, in chaunting those stirring, impetuous, and terrible melodies, called pseans, which preceded the first shock of fight. For some, or all of these reasons, the science of music began to be cultivated among the Hellenes, at a period almost beyond the reach even of tradition. 1 Vid. Ilgen, de Scol. Poes. pueris adolescentibusque, qui xiv. — " Post Persica demum lyrica carmina Solonis aliorumque bella musicse assidue operates optime cecinissent. " — Creuzer. Graecos dicit. Et prsemia diebus de Civ. Athen. Onin. Hum. festis nonnullis constituta lis Par. p. 55. seq. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 185 The Bards, wliom we behold wandering on the re- motest edge of the fabulous horizon, have inyariably harps or lyres in their hands ; and the greatest of the heroes of poetry, the very acme of Epic excellence, is represented delighting in the performance of m^iisic, and chaunting on the shores of the Hellespont the deeds of former warriors. In those ages the music of the whole nation possessed evidently a grave and loftv character : but as that of the lonians became afterwards modified by the influence of a softer cli- mate and imitation of the Asiatic, while the Dorian measure remained nearly unchanged, the latter is sup- posed to have possessed originally the superiority over the former, which in reality it did not. In process of time, however, the existence of three distinct mea- sures was recognised, the Dorian, the iEolian, and the Ionian : the first was grave, masculine, full of energy, and though somewhat monotonous peculiarly adapted to inspire martial ardour; the last distin- guished by a totally different character, rich, varied, flexible, breathing softness and pleasure, adorning the hour of peace and murmuring plaintively through the groves and temples of Aphrodite, Apollo, and the Muses ; while the second, which was fiery, with a mixture of gaiety, formed the intermediate step between the two measures, partaking something of the character of each. The Hypermixolydian and Hyperphrygian, at one time cultivated among the lonians, were comparatively recent inventions.^ The Phrygian measure distinguished for its ex- citing and enthusiastic character," was much em- ployed upon the stage, on which account Agias the poet used to say that the styrax burned on the altar in the orchestra had a Phrygian smell, because its odours recalled the wild Phrygian measures there heard. The national instrument of the Phrygians was the flute, and it is worthy of remark that up 1 Athen. xiv. 20. sqq. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 984. Clem. Alex» i. 3, 5. 2 Luc. Nigrin. § 37, 186 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. to a very late period flute-players at Athens were usually distinguished by Phrygian names. Olympos the greatest musician known to the Greeks, was prob- ably himself a native of Phrygia, since he is said to have been a pupil of Marsyas. In fact the barbarians of antiquity appear, though in a somewhat different way, to have made as much use of music as the Greeks themselves. They chaunted the songs of their bards in going to battle, sang funeral dirges at tombs, and even caused their ambassadors when proceeding on a mission to foreign states to be ac- companied by music.^ No people, however, appear to have carried their love for music to so preposter- ous a length as the Tyrrhenians, who caused their slaves to be flogged to the sound of the flute. The music of the flute- was supposed to be pecu- liarly delightful to the gods, so that those who died while its sounds were on their ears were permitted to taste of the gifts of Aphrodite in Hades, as Phile- tseros expresses it in his Flute-lover : " 0 Zeus ! how glorious 'tis to die while piercing flutes are near Pouring their stirring melodies into the faltering ear ; On these alone doth Eros smile within those realms of night, Where vulgar ghosts in shivering bands, all strangers to delight, In leaky tub from Styx's flood the icy waters bear, Condemned, for woman's lovely voice, its moaning sounds to hear. The teachers of music were divided into two classes : the Citharistse, vv^ho simply played on the instrument, and the Citharoedi who accompanied themselves on the cithara with a song.^ Of these the humble and poorer taught, as we have already observed, in the corners of the streets, while the abler and more fortunate opened schools of music or gave their lessons in the private dwellings of the great. The Cithara, however, was not anciently in 1 Athen. xiv. 24. 3 Kiihn ad Poll. iv. p. 711. 2 On the effect of music on the Cf. Plat, de Legg. t. viii. p. 49. mind, see Magius, Var. Lect. p. .204 b. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 187 use at Athens, if we may credit the tradition which attributes to Phrynis its introduction from lonia.^ Damon the great Athenian musician^ used to ob- serve, that wherever the mind is susceptible of pow- erful emotions there will be the song and the dance, and that wherever men are free and honourable their amusements will be liberal and decorous, where men are otherwise the contrary. A very judicious remark was likewise made by Caphesias the flute-player. Observing one of his pupils striving to produce loud sounds, he stamped on the ground and said, — "Boy, " that is not always good which is great ; but that is *' great which is good."^ The power of music in assuaging passion and anger is well illustrated by an anecdote of Cleinias the Py- thagorean philosopher, a man distinguished for his virtue and gentleness. If at any time he felt himself moved to wrath, taking up his lyre he would touch the chords and chaunt thereto some ode, and if any questioned why he did so, he would reply, " I am in " search of serenity."'* Like the Plebrews, also, the people of Hellas at- tributed to music still more marvellous virtues,^ con- ceiving it to be able to cure diseases both of the mind and body. Thus the sounds of the flute were sup- posed to remove epilepsy, and sciatica, and faintness, and fear, and paroxysms of long-established madness,^ which will probably remind the reader of David playing before Saul, when his mind was troubled. In the later ages of the commonwealth drawing likewise, and the elements of art entered into the 1 Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 958 ; Vesp. 574. 2 Cf. Plat. Repub. t. vi. p. 133. 3 A then. xiv. 26. UpavvojjLoi. Cham. Pont. ap. Athen. xiv. 1 8. 5 Thus demons were expelled by the sound of brass bells. — MagiuSj Var. Lect. p. 205. b. 6 Athen. xiv. 1 8. Apollon. ap. Schweigh. Animad. xii. p. 399. on the story^ and bronze votive offerings on the Tsenarian promontory of the musician Arion. — Herod, i. 23. seq. Dion. Chrysost. Orat. xxxvii. p. 455. Pausan. i, 24. iElian. de Nat. Animal, xii. 45. 188 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. list of studies pursued by youths, partly with the view of diffusing a correct taste, and the ability to appre- ciate and enjoy the noble productions of the pencil and chisel, and partly, perhaps, from the mere love of novelty, and the desire which man always feels to enlarge the circle of his acquirements. Aristotle,^ indeed, suggests a much humbler motive, observing that a knowledge of drawing would enable men to a^Dpreciate more accurately the productions of the useful arts ; but this perhaps was said more in de- ference to that spirit of utilitarianism then begin- ning to show itself than from any conviction of its soundness. 1 Polit. viii. S. 189 CHAPTER V. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. Simultaneously with the above studies/ that high- ly intricate and artificial system of exercises deno- minated gymnastics occupied a considerable portion of the time of youth. Among northern nations the influence of education is requisite to soften the man- ners and check ferocity ; but in the south hardihood must in general be the fruit of discipline, and flourish- es only while assiduously cultivated. Thus we find that the Persians,- by acting on the advice of Croesos, and teaching the Lydians to become musicians and shopkeepers, uprooted entirely their martial spirit. In Greece, however, during the flourishing period of her history there was more danger that the passion for war should drown all others, than that its influence should be too feeble. Among the Athenians jDarticu- larly, that restless energy of character, so marvellous and so distasteful to the Dorians, sought vent in dan- gerous and distant wars and stupendous schemes of ambition. This characteristic trait is adduced by Plato for the purpose of suggesting a contrast with the rival race. He had been dwelling, to his Cretan and Spartan companions, on the exercises necessary for pregnant women,'^ and observing their astonish- ment, he could understand, he said, how it might appear extraordinary to them, but at Athens his recommendation would be perfectly intelligible ; for there, people were rather too active than otherwise. The difldculty always was to find becoming employ- 1 Cf. Plato, de Rep. t. vi. p. ^ De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 3. cf. 139, seq. p. 11. 2 Herod, i. 155. Cf. Poly^n. vii. 6. 4. Justin, i. 6. 190 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. ment. Accordingly, for lack of something better, not merely boys but grown-up men, comprehending nothing of the dolce far niente, employed themselves in breeding cocks, quails, and other birds for fighting, and the care of these imposed on them the necessity of much exercise. To be sure, these cock-fighters, during their professional perambulations, presented a spectacle infinitely ludicrous. All regard to appear- ances was abandoned. With a couple of small cocks ^ in their hands, and an old one under either arm, they sallied forth, like vagabonds who had been robbing a henroost, to give their favourite animals air and gentle exercise, and thus laden often strolled several miles into the country. To such a people the gymnasium opened up a source of peculiar delight, and in the end became a passion prejudicial to the cultivation of the under- standing. But within the bounds of moderation it was prescribed by philosophers in lieu of physic, and as an antidote against those pale faces and ema- ciated frames, too common where intellectual studies are ardently pursued.^ It was a law of Solon, that every Athenian^ should be able to read and to swim ; 1 Plato, de Legg, vii. t. viii. p. 3. seq. — On the practice of quail-fighting, see Poll. vii. 16. Comm. p. 237. Biid. Com. Ling, Greec. p. 615. Paris. lun- germann ad Poll. vii. 136. p. 427, observes that it was cus- tomary to exhibit public quail- fights at Athens. But Lucian w^ho states this (Anach. § 37);, confounds the quail with the cock- fighting. — iEllian. V. H. ii. 28. Cf. Ludovic. Nonn. de Re Cib. ii. 22. p. 228. Poliarchos, an Athenian, buried his dogs and cocks magnificently. — viii. 4. In the same spirit, a French lady erected a mausoleum to her cat with this epitaph : Ci-git une chatte jolie, Sa maitresse qui n'aima rien L'aima jusques a la folie. Pourquoi le dire? On le voit bien." The dog who detected the robber of Asclepios's temple, received while he lived the marks of pub- lic gratitude, and was maintained like a hero at the people's ex- pense. — ^lian. V. H. vii. 14. 2 Aristoph. Nub. 185. Plat. Repub. t. vi. p. 146. 3 Petit, de Legg. Att. 1. ii. tit. iv. p. 1 62. iEsch. cont. Tim. § 2-4. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 191 and the whole spirit of Attic legislation, leaving the poor to the exercise of industrious and hardy occu- pations, tended to create among the opulent and the noble a taste for field-sports, horsemanship, and every martial and manly exercise/ The difficulty, of course, was to render them subordinate to mental cultiva- tion, and to blend both so cunningly together as to produce a beautiful and harmonious system of discipline, well fitted to ripen and bring to great- est perfection every power and faculty of body and mind. The practises of the gymnasium may be traced backward to the remotest antiquity, and probably commenced among the warriors of the heroic ages,^ in the peaceful intervals occurring between expedi- tions, from the desire to amuse their leisure by mimic representations of more serious contests. At first, no doubt, the exercises, frequently performed in honour of the gods/ were few and rude; but by the age of Homer they had assumed an artificial and regular form, and comprehended nearly all such divisions of the art as prevailed in later times. Other views than those with which they were instituted, caused them to be kept up. When reflection awoke, it was perceived that in these amicable contests men ac- quired not only force and agility, a martial bearing, the confidence of strength, beauty, and lightness of form ; but, along with them, that easy cheerfulness into which robust health naturally blossoms.* In fact, so far were the legislators of Greece from designing by gymnastics to create, as Montesquieu^ supposes, a nation of mere athletes and combatants, that they expressly repudiate the idea, affirming that lightness, agility, a compactly knit frame, health, but chiefly a well-poised and vigorous mind, were the object of this part of education. In order the better to attain 1 Plat, de Legg, vii. t. viii. ^ Horn. Hymn. Apoll. 14.9. 17. seq. 4 Plat. Gorg. t« iii. p. 14. 2 Cf. Athen. i. 16. ^ Esprit des Loix, 1. iv. c. 8. 192 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. this point, Plato in his republic ordains that boys be completed in their intellectual studies, which in his ideal state they were to be at the age of sixteen, before they entered the gymnasium, the exercises of which were to be the companions of simple music. From converting their citizens into athletes they were prevented by experience ; for it was quickly discovered that those men who made a profession of gymnastics acquired, indeed, by their diet and pecu- liar discipline a huge stature and enormous strength, but were altogether useless in war, being sleepy, le- thargic, prodigious eaters, incapable of enduring thirst or hunger, and liable to the attacks of sudden and fatal diseases if they departed in the least degree from their usual habits and regimen/ Already in the Homeric age, gymnastics, though not as yet so named, constituted the principal object of education, and many branches of the art had even then been carried to a high degree of perfection." The passion for it descended unimpaired to the Spartans, whose polity, framed solely for the pre- servation of national independence and the acqui- sition of glory in war, inspired little fondness for mental pursuits, but left the youth chiefly to the influence of the gymnasia, which gradually created in them a temper of mind compounded of insensi- bility and ferocity,"^ not unlike that of the North American Indians. This, however, they above all things prized, though as has been justly observed their exercises could in no sense be considered among the aids to intellectual cultivation.* At Athens they came later into vogue, though common in the age of Solon. When, however, this 1 Cf. Plat, de liep. t. vi. p. 151 . legs ; wrestlers small. — Xenoph. — To express the sweat gained Con v. ii. 17. by exercise or labour, the Greeks ~ Feith, Antiq. Homer, iv. 6. used to say ^vpuQ i()pu)c, or 'dry 304. Cramer, p. 35. sweat.' — Phaed. t. i. p. 26. Run- ^ Plat, de Rep. t. vi. 154. ners, it was observed, had large Hermann. Polit. Antiq. § 26. n. 2. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 193 ardent and enthusiastic people commenced the study of gymnastics, admiring as they did strength and vigour of frame, when united with manly beauty, their plastic genius soon converted it into an art worthy to be enumerated among the studies of youth. In very early ages they imitated the Spartan custom of admitting even boys into the gymnasia. But this was soon abandoned, it being found more profitable first to instruct them in several of the branches of study above described, and a class of men^ called psedotribse or gymnasts arose, who taught the gym- nastic art privately, in subordination to their other stu- dies, and were regarded as indispensable in the pro- gress of education.^ These masters gave their in- structions in the palsestrse,^ which generally formed a part of the gymnasia, though not always joined with those edifices, and to be carefully distinguished from them. It is not known with certainty at what age boys commenced their gymnastic exercises, though it appears probable that it was not until their grammatical and musical studies were completed, that is some- where perhaps, as Plato counsels, about the age of six- teen. For it was not judged advisable to engage them in too many studies at once, since in bodies not yet endowed with all their strength over-exertion was considered injurious. Before we enumerate and explain the several exer- cises it may be proper to introduce a description of the gymnasia themselves. Of these establishments there were many at Athens;* though three only, those of the Academy, Lyceum, and Cynosarges have ac- quired celebrity. The site of the first of these gym- nasia being low and marshy was in ancient times infested with malaria, but having been drained by Cimon and planted with trees it became a favourite 1 Cf. JEsch. cont. Tim, § 37. * There was a gymnasium Casaub ad Theophr. Char. p. sacred to Hermes, near the Peiraic 200. gate. — Leake, Topog. of Attica, 2 Cramer, p, 36. p. 124. 3 Poll. ill. 149. VOL. I. O 194 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. promenade and place of exercise.^ Here, in walks shaded by the sacred olive, might be seen young men,- with crowns of rushes in flower upon their heads, enjoying the sweet odour of the smilax and the white poplar, while the platanos and the elm mingled their murmurs in the breeze of spring. The meadows of the Academy, according to Aristophanes the gram- marian, were planted with the Apragmosune,^ a sort of flower so called as though it smelt of all kind of fragrance and safety like our Heart's-ease or flower of the Trinity. This place is supposed to have derived its name from Ecadamos, a public-spirited man who bequeathed his property for the purpose of keeping it in order. Around it were groves of the morise sacred to Athena, whence the olive crowns used in the Panathenaia were taken. The reason why the olive trees as well as those in the Acropolis were denominated morise must be sought for among the legends of the mythology, where it is related that Ha- lirrothios son of Poseidon formed the design of felling them because the patronship of the city had been adjudged to Athena, for the discovery of this tree. Raising his axe, however, and aiming a blow at the trunk the implement glanced, and he thus inflicted upon himself a wound whereof he died.* The name of the Lyceum^ sometimes derived from Lycus, son of Pandion^ probably owed its origin to the temenos of Lycian Apollo there situated. It lay near the banks of the Ilissos, and was adorned with stately edifices, fountains and groves. Here stood a celebrated statue of Apollo, in a graceful attitude, as if reposing after toil, with his bow in the left hand, and the right bent negligently over his 1 Cf. Xenoph. de Off. Mag. ^ Here Aristotle taught (Cie. Equit. iii. 14. Acad. Qutest. i. 4.) as he had ~ Aristoph. Nub. 1001. previously done at Stagira, where ^ Sch. ad Aristoph. Nub. 1003. the stone seats and covered walls * Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 992. of his school remained in the age 5 Pausan. i. 19. 3. Harpocrat. of Plutarch. — Alexand. § 7. V. \viCEiOV, p. 1 90. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 195 head. The walls, too, were decorated with paintings. In this place anciently the Polemarch held his court^ and the forces of the republic were exercised before they went forth to war.^ Appended to the name of the Cynosarges, or third gymnasium surrounded with groves^ was a legend which related that when Diomos was sacrificing to Hestia, a white dog snatched away a part of the victim from the altar, and running straightway out of the city deposited it on the spot where this gym- nasium was afterwards erected.* Here were several magnificent and celebrated temples to Alcmena, to Hebe, to Heracles, and to his companion lolaos. Its principal patron, however, was Heracles,^ who, lying himself under the suspicion of illegitimacy, came very naturally to be regarded as the protector of bastards, half citizens, and in general all persons of spurious birth, who accordingly in remoter ages re- sorted thither to perform their exercises. Themistocles afterwards, by prevailing upon several of the young nobility to accompany him to the Cyno- sarges, obliterated its reproach, and placed it on the same level with the other gymnasia.'^ Here anciently stood a court in which causes resjDecting illegitimacy, false registry, &c. were tried. But to proceed to the general description. " The gymnasia were spacious " edifices, surrounded by gardens and a sacred grove. " The first entrance was by a square court, two stadia " in circumference, encompassed with porticoes and " buildings. On three of its sides were large halls, pro- " vided with seats, in which philosophers, rhetoricians, " and sophists assembled their disciples. On the fourth " were rooms for bathing and other practices of the 1 Suid. v."AjOxwi'. t. i. p. 452. c. * Suid. v. Kvvoffapy. t. i. p. 2 Aristoph. Pac. 355. seq. Suid. V. AvKEiov, t. ii. p. 66. b. Xenoph. de Off. Magist. Equit. iii. 6. 1550. e. ^ In the gymnasia, the statue of Eros was generally placed be- side those of this divinity and Hermes. — A then. xiii. 1 2. ^ Liv. xxxi. 24. <^ Plut. Them. § 1. 0 2 196 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. " gymnasium. The portico facing tlie south was double, " to prevent the winter rains, driven by the wind, from " penetrating into the interior. From this court you " passed into an enclosure, likewise square, shaded in " the middle by plane-trees. A range of colonnades " extended round three of the sides. That which front- " ed the north had a double row of columns, to shelter " those who walked there in summer from the sun. " The opposite piazza was called Xystos, in the middle " of which, and through its whole length, they contrived " a sort of pathway, about twelve feet wide and nearly " two deep, where, sheltered from the weather, and " separated from the spectators ranged along the sides, " the young scholars exercised themselves in wrestling. " Beyond the Xystos was a stadium for foot-races."^ The principal parts of the gymnasium were, — first, the porticoes, furnished with seats and side-buildings where the youths met to converse. 2. The Ephe- beion,^ that part of the edifice where the youth alone exercised. 3. The Apodyterion, or undressing-room.^ 4. The Konisterion, or small court in which was kept the haphe, or yellow kind of sand sprinkled by the wrestlers over their bodies^ after being anointed with the ceroma, or oil tempered with wax. An important part of the baggage of Alexander in his Indian expe- dition consisted of this fine sand for the gymnasium. 5. The Palaestra, when considered as part of the gym- nasium,^ was simply the place set apart for wrestling : the whole of its area was covered with a deep stratum of mud. 6. The Sphseristerion,^ — that part of the gym- nasium in which they played at ball. 7. Aleipterion or Elaiothesion,^ that part of the palaestra where the 1 Barthel. Trav. of Anach. ii. p. 133. sqq. - Vitruv. V. 11. 3 Plin. XXV. 1 3 . — Even old men performed their exercises naked. —Plat, de Rep. t. vi. p. 221. * Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 172. 5 Poll. iii. 149. 6 Suet. Vesp. c. 20. with the note of Torrentius, p. 375. 7 In the Gymnasium of Ascle- pios at Smyrna, Heracleides the sophist erected an anointing-room, containing a fountain or well of oil, and adorned with a gilded roof. — Philostr. de Vit. Sophist, ii. 26. p. 613. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 197 wrestlers anointed themselves with oil. 8. The area : the great court, and certain spaces in the porticoes, were used for running, leaping, or pitching the quoit. 9. The Xystoi have been described above. 10. The Xysta^ were open walks in which, during fine weather, the youths exercised themselves in running or any other suitable recreation. 11. The Balaneia or baths, where in numerous basins was water of various de- grees of temperature, in which the young men bathed before anointing themselves, or after their exercises. 12. Behind the Xystos, and running parallel with it, lay the stadium,^ which, as its name implies, was usually the eighth part of a mile in length. It resem- bled the section of a cylinder, rounded at the ends. From the area below, where the runners performed their exercises, the sides, whether of green turf or marble, sloped upwards to a considerable height, and were covered with seats, rising behind each other to the top for the accommodation of spectators. Such were the buildings which Athens appropriated to the exercises of its youth ; and if we consider the conveniences which they contained, the large spaces they enclosed, and the taste and magnificence which they exhibited, we shall probably conclude that no country in the world ever bestowed on the physical training of its citizens so much enlightened care. The first step in gymnastics was to accustom the youth to endure, naked, the fiercest rays of the sun and the cold of winter, to which they were exposed during their initiatory exercises.^ This is illustrated in a very lively manner by Lucian, where he intro- duces the Scythian Anacharsis anxious to escape from the scorching rays of noon to the shade of the plane- trees ; while Solon, who had been educated according 1 Vitruv. V. 11. Cf. on the Xystoi, Xenoph. CEconom. xi. 15. — Cicero, Acad. iv. 3 ; ad Att. 1. 8. Of this covered walk Aris- teas makes mention in a fragment of his Orpheus : -— 'lip fiol TToXaicTTpa Kal ^po/wog iyVGTOQ TreXag. PolL ix. 43. 2 Potter, Book i. chap. 8. Lucian, Amor. § 45. seq. 198 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. to the Hellenic system, stands without inconvenience bareheaded in the sun. The step next in order was wrestling, always regarded as the principal among gymnastic contests, both from its superior utility and the great art and skill which the proper practice of it required. To the acquisition of excellence in this exercise the palsestra and the instructions of the psedo- tribse were almost entirely devoted ; while nearly every other branch of gymnastics was performed in the gym- nasium. These, according to Lucian, were divided into two classes, one of which required for their per- formance a soft or muddy area, the other one of sand, or an arena properly so called.^ In all these exercises the youth were naked, and had their bodies anointed with oil. To render, however our account of the exercises more complete, it may be proper to give a separate though brief description of each. The first or most simple was the Dromos or Course,^ performed, as has been above observed, in the area of the stadium, which, in order to present the greater difficulty to the racers, was deeply covered with soft and yielding sand. Still further to enhance the labour, the youth sometimes ran in armour, which admirably prepared them for the vicissitudes of war, for pursuit after victory, or the rapid movements of retreat. The high value which the Greeks set upon swiftness may be learned from the poems of Homer, where likewise are found the most graphic and brilliant descriptions of the several exercises. Some of these we shall here introduce from Pope's version, which in this part is peculiarly 1 Lucian, Anach. § § 1 — 3. 28. 2 Accumenes, the friend of So- crates, advised persons to walk on the high-road in preference to the places of exercise, as being less fatiguing and more beneficial. — Plat. Ph£ed. t. i. p. 3. On the rapidity of public runners see He- rod, vi. 106. Cf. on the Pentath- lon West, Dissert, on the Olympic Games, p. 77. They appear to have acquired so equable and steady a pace that time was mea- sured by their movements, as dis- tance is by that of caravans in the East. Thus Dioscorides, ii. 96. gives direction that gall should be boiled while a person could run three stadia. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 199 sustained and nervous. Speaking of the race between Oilean Ajax, Odysseus, and Antilochos, he says : — ^ Ranged in a line the ready racers stand, Pelides points the barrier with his hand. All start at once, Oileus led the race ; The next Ulysses, measuring pace with pace, Behind him diligently close he sped, As closely following as the mazy thread The spindle follows, and displays the charms Of the fair spinster's breast and moving ai-ms. Graceful in motion, thus his foe he plies. And treads each footstep ere the dust can rise ; The glowing breath upon his shoulder plays, Th' admiring Greeks loud acclamations raise. To him they give their wishes, heart, and eyes, And send their souls before him as he flies. Now three times turned, in prospect of the goal, The panting chief to Pallas lifts his soul ; Assist, 0 Goddess, (thus in thought he prayed,) And present at his thought descends the maid ; Buoyed by her heavenly force he seems to swim, And feels a pinion lifting every limb." Next in the natural order, proceeding from the simplest to the most artificial exercises, was leaping, in which the youth among the Greeks delighted to excel. In the performance of this exercise they usu- ally sprang from an artificial elevation {^arn^), and de- scended upon the soft mould, which, when ploughed up with their heels, was termed yza(Jb(jjsm.^ The better to poise their bodies and enable them to bound to a greater distance, they carried in their hands metallic weights, denominated halteres,^ in the form of a semi disk, having on their inner faces handles like the thong of a shield, through which the fingers were passed. Extraordinary feats are related of these an- cient leapers. Chionis the Spartan and Phayllos the Crotonian, being related to have cleared at one bound ^ II. i/;. 754. sqq. Cf. Odyss. r]. 1 1 9. — As an illustration of the ne- cessity there was of going through all the various exercises, it is mentioned by Xenophon that run- ners had large legs, wrestlers small ones. — Conviv. ii. 17. Poll. iii. 151. Paus. V. 26. '6; 27. VZ. 200 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. the space of fifty-two, or according to others, of fifty- five feet. With the latter account agrees the inscription on the Crotonian's statue : Phayllos leaped full five and fifty feet. The discus flung one hundred wanting five."' Homer briefly describes leaping among the sports of the Phaeacians : " Amphialos sprang forward with a bound, Superior in the leap a length of ground." ^ To this succeeded pitching the quoit, which in the Homeric age would appear to have been practised with large stones or rude masses of iron. On or- dinary occasions it has been conjectured that one discus only was used. But Odysseus, desirous of ex- hibiting his strength to the Phseacians, converts into a quoit the first block of stone within his reach.^ " Then striding forward with a furious bound He wrenched a rocky fragment from the ground. By far more ponderous and more large by far Than what Phseacia's sons discharged in air ; Fierce from his arm the enormous load he flings. Sonorous through the shaded air it sings ; Couched to the earth, tempestuous as it flies. The crowd gaze upwards while it cleaves the skies. Beyond all marks, with many a giddy round, Down rushing it upturns a hill of ground." The disk"^ in later times varied greatly both in shape, size, and materials. Generally it would seem to have been a cycloid, swelling in the middle and growing thin towards the edges. Sometimes it was perforated in the centre and hurled forward by a thong, and on other occasions would appear to have 1 Eustath. ad Odyss. ^. 128. ^ Odyss. ^. 186. sqq. Cf. II. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 210. ^. 836. seq. 2 Odyss. ^. 128. * gchol. Horn. II. fl 774. EXERCISES OF YOUTH* 201 approaclied the spherical form, when it was denomi- nated solos.^ Other of these exercises were shooting with the bow at wisps of straw stuck upon a pole,^ and darting the javelin, sometimes with the naked hand and some- times with a thong wound about the centre of the weapon. In the stadium at Olympia, the area within which the pentathli leaped, pitched the quoit, and hurled the javelin, appears to have been marked out by two parallel trenches: but if these existed likewise in the gymnasia, they must have been extremely shallow, as we find in Antiphon"^ a boy meeting with his death by inconsiderately running across the area while the youths were engaged in this exercise. Instead of throwing for the furthest, they would seem, from the expressions of the orator, to have aimed at a mark. Wrestling* consisted of two kinds, the first, called Orthopale, was that style, still commonly in use, in which the antagonists, throwing their arms about each other's body, endeavoured to bring him to the ground. In the other, called Anaclinopale, the wrestler who distrusted his own strength but had confidence in his courage and powers of endurance, voluntarily flung himself upon the ground, bringing his adversary along with him, and then by pinching, scratching, biting, and every other species of annoyance, sought to com- pel him to yield. An example of wrestling in both its forms occurs in Homer, where Ajax Telamon and Odysseus contend in the funeral games for the prize.^ " Amid the ring each nervous rival stands. Embracing rigid, with implicit hands ; Close locked above, their heads and arms are mixt ; Below their planted feet at distance fixt. 1 Schol. Hom. II. p. 774. * cf. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 569. 2 Lucian. Hermot. § 33. 3 Tetral. ii. 1. Cf. Plat, de Legg. 5 n ^. 703^ gqq. et Heyne ad t. viii. p. 51. sqq. 142. loc. 202 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. Like two strong rafters which the builder forms Proof to the wintry winds and howhng storms ; Their tops connected, but at wider space Fixed on the centre stands their soHd base. Now to the grasp each manly body bends. The humid sweat from every pore descends, Their bones resound with blows, sides, shoulders, thighs Swell to each gripe, and bloody tumours rise. Nor could Ulysses, for his art renowned, O'erturn the strength of Ajax on the ground ; Nor could the strength of Ajax overthrow The watchful caution of his artful foe. While the long strife even tires the lookers-on. Thus to Ulysses spoke great Telamon : Or let me lift thee. Chief, or hft thou me. Prove we our strength and Jove the rest decree. He said ; and straining heaved him off the ground With matchless strength ; that time Ulysses found The strength t' evade, and where the nerves combine His ankle struck : the giant fell supine. Ulysses following on his bosom lies. Shouts of applause run rattling through the skies. Ajax to lift Ulysses next essays ; He barely stirred him but he could not raise. His knee locked fast the foe's attempt defied. And grappling close they tumbled side by side. Defiled with honourable dust they roll. Still breathing strife and unsubdued of soul. " Boxing, wliich has very properly been called a rough exercise, though condemned by physicians and philoso- phers, was still practised in the gymnasium, sometimes with the naked fist but more frequently with the ces- tus, which consisted of a series of thongs, bound round the hand and arm up to the elbow, or even higher.^ This exercise, however, seems to have been little prac- tised, except by those who designed to become athletsa by profession. Homer has described the combat with the cestus in its most terrible form.^ " Amid the circle now each champion stands. And poises high in air his iron hands : With clashing gauntlets now they firmly close, Their crackling jaws re-echo to the blows. 1 Theoc. Eidyll. xxii. 3. et 80. viii. 40. 3. Poll. ii. 150. Scalig. Mercurial, de Art. Gymnast, ii. Poet. i. 22. p. 92. y. Virg. JEn. v. 401. sqq. Paus. " II. \p. 684. sqq. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 203 And painful sweat from all their members flows. At length Epeus dealt a weighty blow Full on the cheek of his unw^ary foe. Beneath that ponderous arm's resistless sway Down dropped he powerless, and extended lay. As a large fish, when winds and waters roar. By some huge billow dashed against the shore, Lies panting, not less battered with his wound. The bleeding hero pants upon the ground. To rear his fallen foe the victor lends Scornful his hand, and gives him to his friends. Whose arms support him reeling through the throng. And dragging his disabled legs along. Nodding, his head hangs down his shoulders o'er. His mouth and nostrils pour the clotted gore. Wrapped round in mist he lies, and lost to thought, His friends receive the bowl too dearly bought. " Among tlie exercises of the gymnasium wliieli Hip- pocrates advises to be practised during winter^ and bad weather, when it is necessary to remain under cover, is walking on the tight rope. This feat seems to have been so great a favourite among the youths of antiquity, that they applied themselves to it with con- stant assiduity, and arrived at length at a degree of skill little inferior to that of our mountebanks. It seems, in fact, to have been a common practice in the gymnasium to run upon the tight rope. The Romans, seeking in something to outdo the Greeks, taught an elephant to perform a similar exploit. Another branch of gymnastics consisted in the vari- ous forms of the dance, to be ignorant of which was at Athens esteemed a mark of an illiberal education. To excel in this accomplishment was nearly by all the Greeks" considered absolutely necessary, either as a 1 But Galen cautions youth against useless acquisitions, which he says are not arts at all : such as irETTevpiTTTf^iv, throwing the ta- li, — walking over a small tight rope, — whirling round without being giddy, like Myrmecides the Athenian and Callicrates the Spar- tan.— Protrept. § 9. p. 20. KUhn. - — He then speaks very slighting- ly gymnastic exercises. The studies he recommends are: medi- cine, rhetoric, music, geometry, arithmetic, dialectics, astronomy, grammar, and jurisprudence, to which may be added, modelling and painting. — § 14. Cf. Foes. Oicon. Hip. p. 366. " Vid. Aristot. de Poet. i. 6. Herm, 204 EXERCISES OF YOUTH. preparation for the due performance of the movements and evolutions of war, sustaining a proper part in the religious choruses, or regulating the carriage with the requisite grace and decorum in the various relations of private life. Thus the Cretans, the Spartans, the Thessalians, and the Boeotians, held this division of gymnastics in especial honour, chiefly with a view to war, while the Athenians, and lonians generally, con- templated it more as a means of developing the beauty of the form, and conferring ease and elegance on the gait and gesture. But because in treating of the the- atre I design fully to describe the several varieties of scenic dances, I think it proper to throw together in that place whatever I may have to say on this subject.^ To all these branches of gymnastics the Grecian youth applied themselves with peculiar eagerness, and on quitting the schools devoted to them a consider- able portion of their time, since they were regarded both as a preparation for victory in the Olympic and other games, and as the best possible means for pro- moting health and ripening the physical powers. Nor could anything be easily conceived better suited to the genius of their republics. In the first place, as I have already observed, the wild and headstrong period of youth was withdrawn by these agreeable exercises from the desire and thoughts of evil, while a whole- some feeling of equality was cultivated, and something like brotherhood engendered in men destined to live and act together. Besides what could more admirably prepare them for fulfilling their duties as citizens and more especially for defending their country, than a system of physical training, which at the same time brought to perfection their strength, their vigour, and their manly beauty, and fitted them for the acquisi- tion of that peculiar species of glory Avhich success in the sacred games conferred ? The acquisition, more- 1 See Book iv. Chapter. 8. ages of Greece were so little fre- ~ Cf. Plat, de Legg. t. viii. p. quented, that their area was sown 97. — The gymnasia in the later with corn. Dion. Chrysos, i. 9^3. EXERCISES OF YOUTH. 205 over, of robust health and that vigour of mind which accompanies it, was a consideration second to none. And it will readily be conceived that a judicious sys- tem of exercises, such as we have described, would ne- cessarily render men patient of labour, inaccessible to fear, and be productive at once of graceful habits and lofty and honourable sentiments. 20G CHAPTER VI. HUNTING AND FOWLING. Among the sports and pastimes of the Greeks, which may be considered as a kind of supplement to gymnastics, we must class first the chase, which Xenophon vainly hoped might be made to operate as a check on the luxurious and effeminate habits of his contemporaries.^ But each age having its own distinctive characteristic, it profits very little to aim at engrafting the customs of one period of civilisation upon another. The world will go its own gait. Chuckfarthing and Pricking the Loop might as well be recommended to young gentlemen and ladies dying for love, as hunting to the population of a vain and foppish city, to whom wild boars and wolves must seem certain death. However, the country gentle- men, and the agricultural population generally, long in their own defence continued the practice of the chase, though in Attica the absence of wild animals, consequent upon a high and careful cultivation, had reduced it at a very early period to a matter of mere amusement. But in remoter times, and in those parts of the country where game always continued to abound, there were never wanting persons who delighted in the excitement of the chase. Herdsmen, particularly, and shepherds, considered it part of their occupation.^ Thus we find Anchises a young Trojan chief, who 1 In the early ages of the to pay implicit obedience to their world, hunting we are assured leaders in the chase. — Bochart, led to the establishment of mon- Geog. Sac. t. i. p. 258. archy by accustoming youth whose brains were in their sinews ~ Iliad, .\. 547. HUNTING AND FOWLING. 207 inhabited the hill country, making his lair of bears and lion-skins, the spoils of his own lance.^ Sport, of course, it would furnish to bold and reckless young men, as lion and tiger hunting still does to our coun- trymen in Northern India; but from this recreation proceeded in some measure their safety, since where wild beasts are numerous they not only devastate the country,^ trampling down the corn-fields and devouring herds and flocks, but occasionally, if they chance to find them unarmed, dine also upon their hunters. Thus the chase of the Calydonian boar, the tally-ho's and view-halloes of which still sound fresh in song, was undertaken by the ^Etolians and Curetes, for the purpose of delivering the rustic poj^ulation from a pest f and precisely the same motive urged Alcmena's boy into the famous conflict with the Nemean lion,* which he brought down with his invincible bow and finished with his wild olive club. In like manner Theseus, his rival in glory, slew the Marathonian bull ; and delivered the Cretans from another monster of the same kind.^ He engaged, too, with a sow of great size at Crommyon on the confines of Corinthia, and slaughtered the pig, an achievement of much utility and no little glory. The arms and accoutrements of these primitive sportsmen corresponded with the rough service in which they were engaged. Sometimes, to the attack of the wild bull or the boar, they went forth with formidable battle-axes.^ But when their game was fleet and innocuous a handful of light javelins and the bow suflSced, as when Odysseus and his companions beat the country in search of wild goats.''^ In the i^^neid, too, we find the hero doing great execution among a herd of deer with his bow. Boar- spears also were in use ere the period of the Trojan war, as 1 Horn. Hymn in Vener. 160. ^ Paus. i. 27. 9. sqq. p.,,. ; 97 q ^ Iliad, p. 520. seq. Feith. s IV A Antiq. Horn. iv. c. 2. S 2. Iliad, t. 547. sqq. ^ * Theocrit, xxv. 211. sqq. 7 Odyss. t. 155. seq. 208 HUNTING AND FOWLING. Odysseus, who appears to have been excessively ad- dicted to the chase, is represented going thus armed to the field with the sons of Autolycos when he was wounded by the hog/ With the same weapon we find Adrastos engaged in the same sport, killing the son of Croesos." The chase of the lion, which in Xenophon's time could no longer be enjoyed in Greece Proper, required the most daring courage and the most formidable weapons, spears, javelins, clubs, and burning torches, with which at last they repelled him at night from the cattle stalls. Homer, as usual, represents the contest to the life :^ " He turned to go, as slow retreats the lion from the stalls. Whom men and dogs assault while round a shower of javelins falls. They all night watch about their herds, lest he intent on prey Should bear the flower of all their fields, the fattest bull away. Onward impetuously he bounds — the hissing javelins fly From daring hands, while torches send their blaze far up the sky. He dreads, though fierce, the dazzling flames thick flashing on his sight. And hungry still and breathing rage, retires with morning's light." The existence of wild beasts in a country has by some been enumerated among the causes of civilisation, and it may, under certain circumstances, deserve to be so considered, though generally such modes of accounting for things, are exceedingly unpliilosophical. Mitford, who advances it,* needed but to cast a glance across the Mediterranean to dissipate his whole theory, since no- where are there more wild beasts or men less civilised than in Africa. Egypt, Chaldsea, Assyria, the earliest peopled countries, enjoyed few of these helps to refine- ment. The reasons of Greek civilisation lay neither in their country or in the accidents of it, but in the race itself, which, as one family in a nation is distin- guished from its neighbours by superior genius, was thus distinguished from other races of men. However, the lion, as we have seen, formerly existed among 1 Odyss. I. 465. seq. Anim. ix. 31. Oppian Cyneget. 2 Herod, i. 43. iv. 131. sqq. 3 H. p. 657. Cf. Aristot. Hist. * Hist, of Greece, i. 16. HUNTING AND FOWLING. 209 tliem, though never probably in great numbers, and | even in the age of Herodotus was still found in a wild | tract of country extending from the Acheloos in Acar- \ nania to the Nestos in Thrace,^ where in febulous 1 times Olynthos, son of Strymon/ is said to have been \ slain in a lion hunt. In the age of Dion Chrysostom, however, this fierce animal was no longer known in Europe.^ Dogs, all the world over and from the remotest ] times, have been man's companions in the chase, and Homer, the noblest painter of the ancient world, has I bequeathed us many sketches of the antique hunting \ breed. It has above been seen that in company with ^ man they feared not to attack even the lion. Odys- I sens' famous dog Argos was a hound that \ I ** Never missed in deepest woods the swift game to pursue 1 If once it glanced before his sight, for every track he knew.* " And again when the same sagacious Nimrod makes his rounds in quest of " belly timber," a brace of dogs runs before him " examining the traces," while with ' i boar-spear in hand he follows close at their heels.^ \ But already, even in those days, the habit of keeping l more cats than catch mice had got into fashion — that i is among the great — since we find grandees with their I pcvpsg r^ocTTsZ^^sg or "table dogs,"^ valued simply for their beauty. Patroclus maintained nine of these handsome animals, and Achilles understanding his ^ tastes, cast two of them into the flames of his fu- | neral pile, that their shades might sit at his board in the realms below.^ ] Fowling too, if we may depend upon Athenseus,^ entered into the list of heroic amusements. It is j clear, however, that the sportsmen of those days were i arrant poachers, for, not content with attacking their I * Odyss. p 316. seq. ; 5 Id. r. 436, seq. ] 6 Id. p. 310. ] 7 Iliad x//. 173. seq. j ^ Deipnosoph. i. 22. et 24. \ P ' 1 Herod, vii. 125, seq. 2 Conon, Dieg. iv. ap. Phot. 131. Riidig. Prolegg. ad Dem. Olynth. p. 3. 3 Orat. 21. t. i. p. 501. Reiske. VOL. I. 210 HUNTING AND FOWLING. prey in open fight, they condescended to spread nets for them and set gins for their feet. But being ac- complished bowmen, however, they could occasionally, when pressed for provisions, fetch down a thrush, a pigeon, or a dove with an arrow, dexterously as that Jew in Eusebius^ who exhibited his marksmanship to demonstrate the fallacy of augury. For in the funeral games of Patroclus, we find one of the heroes hit- ting from a considerable distance a dove which had been tied by a small cord to the summit of a mast.' They were given moreover not only to fishing with nets — a practice in nowise unbecoming a hero when in want of a dinner — but even to angling with "crooked O'Shaughnessies," ^ as Homer ex- presses it; though the passage in the Iliad, indeed, w^here a net is mentioned, cannot well be adduced in corroboration, since it may refer to fowling as well as to fishing.* Certain verses in the Odyssey, however, prove beyond a doubt that the Greeks had already begun to derive a great part of their sustenance from the sea ; ^ and the Homeric heroes even understood the value of oysters, which, as ap- pears from the Iliad, were procured by diving.^ Nevertheless these ancient heroes, though by no means averse as we have seen to pigeons or oysters, delighted chiefly in the chase of the larger animals, in which article of taste they agreed with Plato, who considered all other kinds as unworthy of men. He appears to have entertained an especial aversion for the Isaac Waltons of the ancient world, and in 1 Praep. Evang. 1. ix. c, 4. p. 408. d. 2 Iliad, \p, 853. sqq. ^ VyafXTTTolQ dyKiffrpoiaiy. 0- dyss. ju. 331. seq. Ludovic. Nonn. de Re Cibar. iii. 4. p. 294. Plut. de Solert. Anim. § 24. Cf. Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 36. p. 191. From an expression of Au- gustus, if we can regard it as an}^- thing more than a figure of speech, it may be inferred that to increase the luxury of the sport by con- verting it into a species of gam- bling, people sometimes fished with golden hooks. — . Poly ten. Strat. viii. 24. 6. * Iliad, y. 487. seq. Eustath. ad Odyss. x- 386. 5 Odyss. x- 386. Iliad, TT, 747. sqq. HUNTING AND FOWLING. 211 his advice to youth earnestly exhorts them to eschew hooks and fish-traps, which he slily classes with piracy and house-breaking: and so he does fowling. Nor would his generous philosophy countenance poaching with nets and gins and snares. His sportsmen, modelled after the old Homeric type, were to mount their chargers,^ and accompanied by their dogs come to close quarters with their wild foes in open daylight, and subdue them by dint of personal courage.^ Pre- cisely similar views prevailed in the heroic age, when the chiefs and principal men were exercised from boy- hood in the chase, as appears from the examples of Achilles and Odysseus;^ of whom the former, accord- ing to Pindar, tried his hand at a lion at the age of six years, l^iTng tott^utov. Being swift of foot as those Arabs of Northern Africa, who, as Leo* says, are a match for any horse, he used without the aid of dogs to overtake and bring down deer with his javelin, and whatever prey he took he carried to his old master Cheiron. This passage Mr. Gary has translated in the following vigorous and elegant manner : — " In Philyra's house a flaxen boy Achilles oft in rapturous joy His feats of strength essayed. Aloof like wind his little javelin flew, The lion and the brinded boar he slew ; Then homeward to old Cheiron drew Their panting carcases. This when six years had fled ; And all the after time Of his rejoicing prime It was to Dian and the blue-eyed Maid A wonder how he brought to ground The stag without or toils or hound. So fleet of foot was he." 1 Cf. Poll. Onom. v. 17. 2 De Legg. vii. t. viii. p. 71. seq — In his Republic boys were to be permitted when they could do so with safety to proceed to the field of battle, and there to approach sufficiently near the scene as to be able like young hounds to taste, so to speak, of blood.— t. vi. p. 367. 3 Find. Nem. iii. 43. seq. Diss. Odyss. r. 4^29. seq. 4 Descrip. Afric. p 2 212 HUNTING AND FOWLING. Similar manners, if we may confide in Virgil,^ pre- vailed among the old inhabitants of Latium, and Xe- nophon" in his monarchical Utopia trains the youth in the same habits. On hunting,^ as practised in the civilised ages of Greece, we possess more ample details, and it is chiefly by the minuter touches that a picture of this kind can be invested with interest and utility. Xe- nophon, an aristocratic country gentleman, who living in a corrupt age was, as I have said, wisely partial to the nobler manners of the past, considers the chase as a branch of education.* He does not, however, entertain upon this subject the heroic views of Plato, but, looking solely to utility, not only describes the physical conditions and mental qualities of the hunter, but the nets, poles, arms, and every implement made use of by the ancients in the chase. Not to interfere with the discipline of the schools and the gymnasia, the youths were exhorted to betake themselves to field-sports about the age of twenty. Their notions of a sportsman's costume differed mate- rially from our own, for instead of decking themselves like our fox-hunters in scarlet, they selected the soberest and least brilliant colours both for their cloaks and chitons. The latter were in general ex- tremely short, reaching merely to the hams, as Ar- temis is usually represented in works of art. But the chlamys was long and ample, that it might be twisted round the left arm in close contest with the larger animals. Their hunting boots reached to the knee, and were bound tight round the leg with thongs. Probably also, as in travelling, they covered their heads with a broad- brimmed hat. The apparatus of a Greek sportsman would appear somewhat cumbersome, and perhaps a little ludicrous 1 ^neid, ix. 605. 2 Cyneg. ii. 1. 3 To form a proper idea of the the reader should consult Julius Pollux, Onomasticon, v. 9. — 94. * Cyneg. ii. 1. sporting vocabulary of the Greeks, HUNTING AND FOWLING. 213 to a modern Nimrod. But understanding their own object they went their own way to work ; their arms and implements, varying with the chase in which they were engaged, consisted of short swords, hunting knives^ for the purpose of cutting down brushwood to stop up openings in the forest, axes for felling trees, darts furnished with thongs for drawing them back when they had missed their aim, bows, boar- spears, weapons peculiarly formidable, nets small and large, some for setting up in the plains, some for tra- versing glades or narrow alleys in the woods, and others shaped like a female head-net, to be placed in small dusky openings, where being unperceived the game sprang into them as into a sack, which closed about it by means of a running cord, net-poles, forked stakes, snares, gins, nooses, and leashes for the dogs.^ The darts used on these occasions had ashen or beech- en handles, and the nets were usually manufactured with flax imported from Colchis on the Phasis, Egypt, Carthage, and Sardinia.^ Generally, too, they took along with them the Lagobalon, a short, crooked stick with a knob at one end, with which they sometimes brought down the hare in its flight."^ This practice, common enough among poachers in our country, is by them denominated sguailing. Without the aid of dogs, however, hunting is a poor sport. The ancients, therefore, much addicted to this branch of education, paid great attention to the breed of these animals, of which some were sought to be rendered celebrated by heroic and fabulous associa- ations. Thus the Castorides, it was said, sprang^ from a breed to which the twin god of Sparta was partial ; 1 Poll. V. 19. in Dian. ii. p. 122. Poll. v. 20.~ - ^ Cf. Grat. Falisc. Cyneg. p. Hares are hunted with sticks in 14. Wase. South Guinea by the blacks. — ■ 3 Xen. Cyneg. ii. S. Grat. Barbot. iii. 14, Falisc. Cyneg, p. 6. Wase. Pollux, 5 PoU. y. 39. Xen. Cyneg. V. 26. iii. 1. * Spanh. Obs. in Callim. Hymn. 214 HUNTING AND FOWLING. the Alopecidse were a cross between a dog and a she-fox ; and a third kind^ arose from the mingling of these two races. Among modern sportsmen, there are also good authorities who prefer harriers with a quarter of the fox-strain.^ Other kinds of hounds, as the Menelaides and Harmodian derived their appel- lation from the persons who reared them.^ But the whole breeds of certain countries'* were famous, as the Argive, the Locrian, the Arcadian, the Spanish, the Carian, the Eretrian ; the Celtic or greyhound (not known ^ in more ancient times) ; the Psyllian, so called from a city of Achaia ; the dog of Elymaea, a country lying between Bactria and Hyrcania ; the Hyrcanian, which was a cross with the lion ; the Laconian, of which the bitch was more generous,^ sometimes crossed with the Cretan, which was itself renowned for its nose, strength and cou- rage,^ those which kept watch in the temple of Ar- temis Dictynna having been reckoned a match even for bears ; the Molossian, less valued for the chase than as a shepherd's dog, on account of its great fierce- ness and power to contend with wild beasts f the Cyrenaic, a cross with the wolf, and lastly the In- dian, on which the chief reliance was placed in the chase of the wild boar. This breed, according to Aristotle, was produced by crossing with the tiger, probably the Cheeta.^ The first and second removes were considered too fierce and unmanageable, and 1 Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 28, Poll. V. 39. 2 Letters on Hunting, p. 60. 3 Poll. V. 40. 4 Arist. de Gen. Anim. v. 2. p. 344. Virg. Georg. iii. 405. See the enumeration by Gratius, Cyneg. p. 20. seq. 5 Arrian, de Venat. c. 2. 6 Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. 1. Soph. Ajax, 8. Virg. Georg. iii. 405. ^ciKaivai (TKvXuKec, Plat. Parmen. t. ii. p. 7. had long noses. Arist. de Gen. Anim. v. 2. 344. 7 ^1. De Nat. Anim. iii. 2. Pashley, Travels in Crete, i. 33. Hughes, Travels, &c. i. 489, 501. s Arist. Hist. Anim. ix. i. 9 Arist. Hist. Anim. viii. 28, with the observations of Camus, t. ii. p. 2 1 5 . Cf. Scahg. de Subtili- tat. X. p. 383. ML de Nat. Anim. viii. i. HUNTING AND FOWLING. 215 it was not until tlie third generation that these tiger- mules could be broken in to the use of the sports- man. Some sought in mythology the origin of this noble animal ; for, according to Nicander, the hounds of Actseon, recovering their senses after the destruc- tion of their master, fled across the Euphrates and wandered as far as India. Strange stories are re- lated of this breed, of which some it is said would contend with no animal but the lion. Alexander's dog, which he purchased in India for a hundred minse, had twice overcome and slain the monarch of the forest.^ Let us, therefore, now imagine the hounds exactly what they ought to be, and observe under what cir- cumstances they were led afield. As in England, their principal sport was the hare. In winter,^ it was observed that puss, from the length of the nights, took a wider circuit, and therefore afforded the dogs a better chance of detecting her traces.^^ But when in the morning the ground was covered with ice or white with hoar-frost, the dogs lost their scent, as also amidst abundant dews or after heavy rains. The sportsman accordingly waited till the sun was some way up the sky, and had begun to quicken the subtile odours communicated to the earth.^ The west wind,^ which covers the heavens with vast clouds and fills the air with moisture, and the south blowing warm and humid, weaken the scent ; but the north wind fixes and preserves 1 JEl De Nat. Anim. viii. 1. Poll. Onom. V. 42. seq. 2 See on the subject of scent, Sport. Mag. Jan. 1840, and com- pare Essay on Hunting, p. 1. et seq. 3 Cf. Poll. V. 11. IvfitoXa kv The phrase in Pollux is a7ro- (ptperai air avruy {rwy l^vCjy) to TcvEvfxa. V. 12. The author of the Essay on Hunting (p. 1 5.) enume- rating the several kinds of scent, speaks of them as stronger, sweeter, or more distinguishable at one time than another ; and Pollux makes use of much the same language : ayoarfia, ^vaoa- fxa, evoxTfxa, k. t, X. 1. c. 5 Arist. Prob. xxvi. 23. — Fall- ing stars were regarded as a pro- gnostic of high winds, 24. Let- ters on Hunting, p. 106. 216 HUNTING AND FOWLING. it/ By moonlight, too, as the old sportsmen re- mark, and the warmth it emits, the scent is affected ; besides that when the moon shines brightly, in their frolicsome and sportive mood the hares, in the se- cluded glades of the forest, take long leaps and bounds over the green sward, leaving wide intervals between their traces.^ From a remark of Xenophon it appears that at least on one point the sportsmen of antiquity were less humane than the modern, since they pursued the chase even in breeding time.^ They, however, spared the young in honour of Artemis the spirit even of false religion, on this, as on many other oc- casions, strengthening the impulses of humanity. Several causes cooperated to render hares unplen- tiful on the Hellenic continent, — the number of sports- men, of foxes which devoured both them and their young, and of eagles that delighted in its lofty and almost inaccessible mountains, and shared its game with the huntsman and the fox. Homer, in a few picturesque words, describes the war carried on against puss by this destructive bird.^ On the islands, whether inhabited or not, few of these ob- stacles to their increase existed. Sportsmen rarely passed over to them, and in such as were sacred to any of the gods the introduction of dogs was not permitted, so that, like the pigeons and turtle-doves of Mekka, they multiplied in those holy haunts pro- digiously. It was prohibited by the laws of Attica^ to commit the slightest trespass during the chase. The sports- man was not allowed to traverse any ground under cultivation, to disturb the course of running water, or 1 Cf. Xen. Cyneg. viii. 1. properly Xayi^ta, were often in 2 Xen. Cyneg. v. 4. Poll. common with the young of all V. 67. other wild animals denominated 3 See also Spanh. Obs. in Cal- o/x^ptat and oixtpiKia by the lim. t. ii. p. 123. poets.— Poll. v. 15. Xen. Cyneg. v. 14. Klaus. ^ n. ^. ,^308. sqq. Com. in Agam.p. 1 14, — Leverets, ^ Xen. Cyneg. v. 34. HUNTING AND FOWLING. 217 to invade the sanctity of fountains. The scene of action accordingly lay among the woods and moun- tains, the common property of the republic, or, if not, abandoned by general consent to the use of the sports- man. Such were, for example, the woodland districts of Parnes and Cithseron on the borders of Boeotia. To- wards these the huntsman, well shod, plainly and lightly dressed,^ and with a stick in his hand, set out about sunrise in winter, in summer before day.^ On the road strict silence was observed^ lest the hare should take the alarm and to her heels. Having reached the cover, the dogs were tied separately that they might be let slip the more easily, the nets were spread in the proper places, the net-guards set, and the huntsman with his dogs proceeded to start the game, first piously making a votive offering of the primitise to Apollo and Artemis,^ divinities of the chase.^ And now, exclaims the leader of the Ten Thousand, I behold the hounds, joyous and full of fire, spring forward in the track of their game. Eagerly and ardently do they pursue it — they traverse — they run 1 Poll. V. 17. 2 The pleasure experienced on these occasions is thus enthusias- tically described by Christopher Wase : — What innocent and natural delights are they, when he seeth the day breaking forth, those blushes and roses which poets and writers of romances only paint, but the huntsman truly courts ! When he heareth the chirping of small birds perch- ed upon their dewy boughs, when he draws in that fragrancy of the pastures and coolness of the air ! How jolly is his spirit when he suffers it to be imported with the noise of bugle-horns and the bay- ing of hounds which leap up and play around him ! " — Pref. to Tr. of Gratius, p. "d. 3 See, in the Cyropsedia, i. 6, 40, an extremely interesting pas- sage on the chase of the hare. — - Cf. Oppian. de Venat. iv. 422. 4 Hence the goddess obtained many of the epithets bestowed on her by the poets, as ; dyporepa, Kal KvvrjyETiQ, koX