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exercises became associated with the worship of the gods. The steps by which this took place are thus described by Curtius, "As then the persons in the immediate service of the divinity, as the animals and the fruits of the earth which were offered up to the gods were each after its fashion, to be of blameless perfection, so too was the youth of the land when presenting itself to the gods in their honor joyously to enfold all its gifts of body and soul; while those marked out as the best were to receive the sacred wreath as a token of their worthiness to approach the gods in a pre-eminent degree." (Hist. of Greece, II, 27.)

The further back these musical and gymnastic exercises are traced the more intimate their connection seems to be. The manœuvres performed in honor of the gods were accompanied by music and poetry. Grasberger says that the dance at sacrifices in honor of the gods was an exercise from which developed the gymnastic training of youth, because an important influence upon the human heart was ascribed to just this union of poetry, music and dance. (Erz. u. Unt. III, 280). (See also Bosanquet, the Ed. of the Young in Plato, pp. 7-8.)

In conclusion it should be noted that each of the features of early Greek life which have been mentioned is related closely to some one of the schools named above. Thus the profession of the grammatist probably came into existence through a process of differentiation from that of the scribe, while the work of the music school was apparently a systematization and adaptation to the needs of the young, of instruction which was afforded in earlier times to the people as a whole by the poet and possibly by the rhaspody. And the work of the palaestra was similarly related to the military training and religious festival exercises of the more primitive Greeks.

GENERAL FEATURES OF ATHENIAN SCHOOLS.

In entering upon a more detailed description of these elementary schools of the Athenians it is important to note that they seem to have occupied neither so large nor so definite a place in the social whole as at present. Girard (L'éd. Athen. 249) says, "It is probable that the Athenians did not carry into the organization of school work that vigorous attention to detail which the customs of modern life and our extended programmes of study require us to put into it. The school, moreover, was not a prison; one entered or left as he wished. In the time of Socrates it was, notwithstanding the prohibitions of Solon, a place frequented by men of all ages (Plato, Rivals 132A). The children came and went among the visitors whose conversation disturbed neither their work nor the instruction of the master. Their lesson recited, they left or continued to

study in the company of their comrades without being required to consecrate so many hours to gymnastic, so many to music and so many to literature.-As for vacations, there were none. -Their minds not being overwhelmed by study did not feel the need of recuperating as after continued and excessive labor."

The elementary schools were invariably private enterprises, receiving no financial support and practically no supervision from the State. As regards State supervision and regulation and as regards organization the work of these schools seems to have been about on the same level as the instruction in piano playing or dancing given to-day. Buildings and equipment varied, of course, according to the amount of fees paid by the patrons. School furniture as represented by vase-paintings consists chiefly of stools for pupils and assistants and a seat with a back, 'thronos,' for the master. Schools were open from dawn to dark (Girard, 249, Eschines against Timarchus 10). Boys of slave-holding families came accompanied by their attendants, the pedagogues. Sometimes the pupils met and marched in a body to the school. (Aristophanes, Clodds, 960-965.)

There were writing schools for even the poorest classes. Protagoras, in his early days, it is said, taught boys their letters in the street. (Diog. Lærtius X, IV.) Demosthenes (Crown, p. 54, (Bohn)) speaks of one Elpias keeping a reading school in the temple of Theseus.

SOCIAL RANK OF THE TEACHER.

The teachers of these schools seem to have been regarded usually as of inferior social rank. "We ourselves," says Aristotle (Pol. 8, 5), "treat the professors of these arts (singing and playing) as mean people." Of one who was missing, the saying in Athens ran, "Either he is dead or has become schoolmaster." Lucian (Menippus 17, (Girard 242) represents kings and satraps in hell as despoiled of their riches and forced to maintain themselves by teaching reading and writing. Epicurus complains of Nausiphanes, "he abused me and called me a schoolmaster." (Diog. Lærtius X, IV.) Demosthenes in attacking Eschines repeats again and again the fact that his father was a schoolmaster and he is careful to emphasize the fact that he is only assistant and that in a school of the lowest order, a reading and writing school. (Demosthenes Orations (Bohn) pp. 54, 94, 194.)

EXTENT TO WHICH THE SCHOOLS WERE DIFFERENTIATED.

Some at least of the primary schools just referred to were evidently distinct from the music schools. This is indicated in

a passage in Plato (Charmides 160 A), "And is it not best to understand what is said whether at the writing master's or at the music master's or anywhere else. .as quickly as possible?" Yet it is probable that instruction in letters and music were frequently given in the same building and occasionally even by the same teacher. (Girard 128.) Aristophanes (Knights 1235) writes as if intellectual education, grammatical and musical, was obtained in one place and physical training in another, "To what teacher's school did you go when a child? What style of wrestling did you learn in the school of the gymnastic master?" On each side of the Douris cup is represented a teacher of letters and a teacher of music who is apparently one and the same individual.

COURSE OF STUDY AND METHODS IN THE SCHOOL OF THE

GRAMMATIST.

Pupils on first entering school took up the study of letters under the grammatist. The alphabetic method was followed. Fragments of a tile have been found in Attica on which are stamped the syllables, ar, bar, gar-; er, ber, ger, etc. (Girard 131 Philistor IV, 327.) The comic poet Callias wrote a letter play in which the dramatis persona were the letters of the alphabet. (Athenæus, VII, 276.) It contained a spelling chorus which seems to have been a reminiscence of school experiences; beta, alpha, ba; gamma, alpha, ga; delta, alpha, da, etc. Similarly on the body of a bottle-shaped vase, around the foot of which was printed the alphabet, were the following letter combinations bibabube, gigaguge, zizazuze, mimamume, pipapupe, etc. Some authorities consider this a charm, others believe it to be one of the school exercises in pronunciation. (Grasberger, II, 267.)

The pupil learned to write by tracing and later copying the exercise set up for him by the master. Both wax tablets and papyrus were used as writing material. The art of calculation, hindered by their cumbersome system of notation, never attained among the Greeks a high degree of development. Yet the strong commercial bent of the Athenians necessitated some arithmetical training. "Boy-bring forth my tablets," says Strepsiades in Aristophanes' Clouds, "that I may read to how many I am indebted and calculate the interest." We have no direct evidence that arithmetic was taught in the Athenian elementary schools, but the emphasis laid upon it by such theorists as Plato make it probable that such was the case. (Grasberger, II, 322-323); Plato, Rep. 525 A; Laws, 819 B.)

As soon as the pupil had acquired some ability in understanding written words the teacher gave him verses to read selected from the best poets. The art of letters was apparently

The

so great an aid in the study of the national poetry that after the establishment of schools for reading, the teaching, at least of some of the non-lyrical poetry passed from the hands of the music teacher or citharist into those of the grammatist. Girard (p. 128) says, "The oldest, no doubt, was musical instruction which, in time, became complicated and to which was added reading and writing, then the intensive study of the poets in such a manner that literature was only an extension of music." Under these conditions it was natural that they should not be separated and that the same school should offer to both a common asylum." "When the boy has learned his letters," writes Plato (Protagoras 325-326), "and is beginning to understand what is written, as before he only understood what was spoken, they put into his hands the works of the great poets.' large place which poetry filled in the higher life of the Greeks has already been noted. On the Douris cup it is the teacher of poetry, who occupies the high-backed seat of honor, the 'thronos.' The scarcity and the high price of books, all of which, of course, were manuscript, necessitated methods different from those of the modern school. The pupils frequently made their own texts, copying from the dictation of the teacher. Much time and effort were devoted to the memorizing of poems and selections. Xenophon speaks of one who at school had memorized the whole of the Homeric poems. Those learned under the grammatist were often of a monitory character. "In these," continues Plato, "are contained many admonitions, many tales and praises and encomia of famous men which he is required to learn by heart.”

In the selection of reading matter great freedom was exercised. Not only the great epic and didactic poems were used, but later also comedy, tragedy and prose. But of all, the poems of Homer were by far the most extensively used. The simplicity of the social and political life which they depicted, the rich variety of character, of incident and of emotional situations, the rarity of comment, the abundant references to the history, the geographical environment, the theology and folklore of the Greeks, and the poetic beauty of the whole gave these poems the first place in the curricula of the schools. Various passages show that their value was fully recognized by the Athenians. Plato in his Republic (606 E) speaks of "Eulogists of Homer declaring that he has been the educator of Hellas, and that he is profitable for education and for the ordering of human things and that you should take him up again and again and get to know him."

Among Greek as among modern teachers opinions differed as to the relative advantages of teaching a few entire poems or numerous selections. Collections similar to those in our mod

ern readers were widely used. One of the most popular of these purported to be a selection made by Chiron for Achilles. Hesiod was believed to have put it into verse. A curious proof of its popularity is afforded by a painted Greek vase in the museum at Berlin which represents a boy reading from a half opened volume to two others who seem much interested. On a cubical coffer before the leader is another roll on which is written Chironeia and on the coffer beneath is the word ‘kalē.’

Plato's Protagoras (326 A) tells us that the pupil read the books placed in his hands by the teacher sitting on a bench in school. The vase paintings, practically our only source of information on the subject, represent the pupils as reciting singly, standing erect before the teacher.

THE WORK OF THE MUSIC SCHOOL.

When the pupil had acquired some ability to read and write he took up, in addition to the study of literature under the grammatist, also the study of music with the citharist. The work of the primitive music school, as already noted, seems gradually to have differentiated into vocal and instrumental music on the one hand (the latter almost exclusively for purposes of accompaniment) and into the intensive study of poetry on the other. Thus where the duties of the grammatist and the citharist were performed by two different persons each seems to have taught literature. This is clearly what is stated in Plato (Prot. 325-326). “And when the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what is written. . . . they put into his hands the work of the great poets, which he reads sitting on a bench at school. . . . Then again the teachers of the lyre take similar care that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no mischief; and when they have taught him the use of the lyre, they introduce him to the poems of other excellent poets, who are lyric poets; and these they set to music, and make their harmonies and rhythms quite familiar to the children's souls." The grammatist, apparently, taught literature in so far as it was read while the citharist taught the poetry which was usually sung.

Recalling what has already been said as to the importance attached by the Greeks to the content of their poetry it will be seen that its study under either teacher would involve that of other subjects of the modern school curriculum. The study of the second book of the Iliad would constitute, for instance, something of a course in geography. The whole poem was held by the Greeks to be a compendium of their history. Spartans and Athenians, for example, quoted precedents from Homer in their dispute with the Syracusans as to who should lead in the expedition against the Persians (Jebb, Homer, p.

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