Dictionary
EPHEBI	100.00%
The Athenian name for youths over the age of sixteen. The completion of a boy's sixteenth year was the occasion of a festival, at which the ephebus made a drink offering to Heracles, and entertained his friends with wine. His hair, hitherto worn long, was cut, and the locks dedicated to Apollo. For the two following years the ephebi were mainly employed in gymnastic exercises, and after that time the proper civic ephebia commenced. After an examination intended to test the genuineness of their civic descent and their physical capacity, the ephebi were entered on the list of their tribe, presented to the people assembled in the theatre, armed with spear and shield, and taken to the sanctuary of Agraulos at the foot of the citadel, where they bound themselves by a solemn oath to the service and defence of their country. For the two following years they served as guards on the frontier. After the completion of their twentieth year they were admitted to the meetings of the assembly and employed in foreign service. Their dress was the chlamys and the petasus.
TRIBON	89.55%
A garment worn in Doric states by men and ephebi, generally in a double fold over the chiton. It was considerably shorter than the himation (q.v.). At Athens also there was a tendency to imitate Spartan simplicity, especially amongst the philosophers, among whom this garment was worn chiefly by the Cynics.
CHLAMYS	78.66%
An outer garment introduced at Athens from Thessaly and Macedonia. It consisted of an oblong piece of woollen cloth thrown over the left shoulder, the open ends being fastened with clasps on the right shoulder. The chlamys was worn by ephebi; it was also the uniform of general officers, like the paludamentum, as it was called in later times among the Romans. It commonly served as an overcoat for travelling, hunting, and military service. (See cut.)
DOKIMASIA	69.92%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The name used at Athens to denote the process of ascertaining the capacity of the citizens for the exercise of public rights and duties. If, for instance a young citizen was to be admitted among the Ephebi (see EPHEBI), he was examined in an assembly of his district, to find out whether he was descended on both sides from Athenian citizens, and whether he possessed the physical capacity for military service. All officials too, even the members of the senate, had to submit to an examination before entering upon their office. The purpose of this was to ascertain, not their actual capacity for the post, which was pre-supposed in all candidates, but their descent from Athenian citizens, their life and character, and (in the case of some offices which involved the administration of large sums) even the amount of their property. The examination was carried on in public by the archons in the presence of the senate, and any one present had the right to raise objections. If such objections were held to be valid, the candidate was rejected; but he had the right of appeal to the decision of a court, which would take cognizance of the matter in judicial form. On the other hand, if be were accepted, any one who thought his claims insufficient had the right of instituting judicial proceedings against him. If the decision was adverse, he would lose his office, and was further liable to punishment varying according to the offence charged against him, which might be, for instance, that of unlawfully assuming the rights of a citizen. A speaker in a public assembly might thus be brought before a court by any citizen, for no one not possessed of the full right of citizenship could legally address the people. The question might thus be raised whether the orator were not actually atimos, or guilty of an offence which involved atimia.
PETASUS	67.85%
A flat felt hat, with a broad and round brim, usually worn among the Thessalians. The brim is often parted into four bow-shaped indentations (fig. 2). It is said to have been introduced into Greece along with the chlamys as a distinguishing mark of the ephebi. Hermes is usually represented with the winged petasus. The Romans wore a similar hat in the country, and when travelling; in the city it was generally used only in the theatre, as a protection from the sun.
EPONYMOS	55.93%
Properly the person after whom anything is named. This was in various Greek states the unofficial title of the magistrates after whom (in default of a generally received standard of chronology) the year was designated. In Athens this would be the first Archon, in Sparta the first Ephor, in Argos the priestess of Hera. When the ephebi, at Athens, were enrolled in the list of the citizens who could be called out for military service, the name of the first archon of the year was attached. And when the citizens of various ages were summoned to military service, a reference was made to the archon eponymos, under whom they had been originally enrolled. The ancient heroes who gave their name to the ten tribes of Clisthenes, and the heroes worshipped by the demes, were also called eponymoi. The statues of the former were in the market place, and it was near them that official notices were put up [Aristotle, Const. of Athens, 53].
GYMNASIUM	43.47%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 The Greek name for the place where the youths who had alreadyreat variety of gymnastic exercises, and the increasing inclination of grown men to look on at them and take part in them, the gymnasia often adorned with beautiful sculptures, grow in extent and splendour of equipment. (Seecut.) The great court comprised a number of spaces serving a variety of purposes: for instance, the ephebeion, or hall where the ephebi practised, rooms for dressing and anointing, sanding or dusting the body, cold-water baths and dry sudatoria, spaces for playing at ball, open and covered passages for running, wrestling, or walking. Attached to the colonnades on the outside were semicircular niches, furnished with stone seats, called exedra,. In these philosophers and rhetoricians would sit and talk with their disciples. A stadion, with a space for spectators to look on, and walksplanted with trees, were often attached to the gymnasium. The whole was under the superintendence of a gymnasiarchos. The conduct of the youths was under the supervision of sophronistoe. At Athens these officers were ten in number, and elected annually. The exercises were directed by the gymnastoe. For similar arrangements under the Roman empire see THERMAe.
HAIR	12.25%
mode of wearing. The Greeks of the oldest times regarded long hair in a man as an ornament, and only out it as a sign of mourning. Among the Spartans it was usual for boys to wear their hair short, and to let it grow when they attained the age of ephibi. At Athens, down to the Persian Wars, the hair was worn long, and fastened up into a knot (krobylos) by a needle in the form of a grasshopper. In later times, however, the Athenian boys had their hair cut when they became ephebi, and dedicated it to some deity, generally to Apollo, or the gods of their rivers, or the Nymphs, who were regarded as the protectresses of youth. But a free Athenian citizen did not wear his hair very short, or he would have been mistaken for a slave, who would be obliged to do so. Down to the time of Alexander the Great a full beard was regarded as a mark of manly dignity. After this it became fashionable to shave the face quite smooth, and only philosophers wore beards, to mark their antagonism to the general custom. The Romans too, in ancient times, wore long hair and beards. It was not till 300 B.C., when the first hair-cutter (tonsor) came to Rome from Sicily, that they began to cut both. The younger Scipio is said to have been the first Roman who shaved every day. In course of time it became the fashion to make a festival of the day when the beard was first shaved. Young men, however, would sometimes wear a neatly cut beard, and only men over forty would shave. To let the beard grow was a sign of mourning. In the first half of the 2nd century A.D. the emperor Hadrian brought full beards into fashion again; and if we may trust the coins, it continued among his successors, with few exceptions, until Constantine. From his time, however, the emperors appear almost without exception without a beard. The beard was removed not only with razors and scissors, but with tweezers and hair-destroying compositions. The hair of the head was artificially treated with oils and hot irons. From the middle of the 2nd century A.D. to the time of Constantine it was the established custom to cut the hair quite short, after the fashion of athletes and Stoic philosophers. As Greeks and Romans usually went bareheaded, good manners required particular attention to be paid to the hair and beard. Hence a great demand arose for barbers, part of whose business it was to trim the nails, remove warts, and so on. The barbers' shops were much frequented, and became the favourite resort for people in quest of news and gossip. The Greek women, to judge by existing monuments, followed an extraordinary variety of fashions (fig. 1, a-h). The point seems generally to have been to cover the forehead as much as possible. One of the commonest modes of wearing the hair was to draw it back over the head and ears, and let it simply bang down, or fasten it in a knot with a band and a needle. The bands of cloth or leather, wound round the front of the head to fasten the front and back hair, were often made to support a pointed metal plate called stephane. This was a broad strip of metal resembling a diadem. and richly ornamented. It sometimes appears as an independent ornament, especially on the images of goddesses (fig. 1, c, d, f, g). There were several kinds of fastenings, by which the hair was artistically arranged; for instance, the sphendone, so called from its likeness to a sling, being broad in the middle and narrow at the end. The hair was often worn in nets (kekryphalos), bags (sakkos), and handkerchiefs wrapped round it in the shape of a cap. Greek ladies were early acquainted with the use of artificial appliances, such as fragrant oils, curling irons, and the like. The Roman matrons, in ancient times, tied up their hair with a fillet ( vitta) in a tower-shaped top-knot (tutulus); but unmarried women wore their hair in as simple a style as possible. It was, in general, merely parted, or fastened up in a knot on the neck, or woven in tresses arranged round the front of the head. Brides wore their hair in a peculiar fashion, arranged in six braids, and wrapped in a red handkerchief. To attract attention by an unusual coiffure was thought to be in bad taste. But, towards the end of the republican age, the old-fashioned simplicity in dressing the hair disappeared, as it did in other matters of dress. Foreign arts, especially those of Greece and Asia, found more and more acceptance. During the imperiiael period, when the arrangement of the hair formed a most important part of a lady's toilet, no rule was observed but what individual caprice and varying fashion dictated, and the wildest and most tasteless fashions were introduced. False hair came into use, as well as ointment and curling irons. False hair was used sometimes in making up the high coiffures at one time in fashion, and sometimes for perruques. Light colours were the favourite ones for perruques, and hence a regular trade was set up in the hair of German women. Sometimes, following a Greek fashion, Roman ladies tried, by artificial means, to give their own dark hair a fair or a ruddy complexion. A corrosive soap, imported from Gaul, was specially used for this purpose. Besides ribbons and fillets, needles, often richly ornamented, of ivory, bone, bronze, silver, and gold, were used to fasten the hair. To protect the hair, Roman ladies wore nets (reticulum), often of gold thread, kerchiefs (mitra), and caps (calantica), made of various materials, sometimes of bladders. In wealthy houses male and female slaves, trained by special masters, were kept for dressing the hair. (See the engravings.)
EDUCATION	12.06%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Greek. The Dorians of Crete and Sparta followed a peculiar line in the matter of education. Throughout Greece generally the state left it to private effort; but in Sparta and Crete it came under the direct supervision of the community. At Sparta, as soon as a child was born, a commission of the elders of its tribe had to decide whether it should be reared or exposed. If it was weakly or deformed, it was exposed in a defile of Mount Taygetus. Till his seventh year, a boy was left to the care of his parents. After this the Paidonomos, or officer presiding over the whole department of education, assigned him to a division of children of the same age called a bua. Several of such buas together formed a troop or ila. Each bua was superintended by a Buagoros, each ila by an Ilarchos. Both these officers were elected from among the most promising of the grown up youths, and were bound to instruct the children in their exercises. The exercises were calculated to suit the various ages of the children, and consisted in running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the spear and discus, as well as in a number of dances, particularly the war dance or Pyrrhiche (see PYRRHIC DANCE). The dancing was under the constant superintendence of the Paidonomos, and five Bidyoe, under him. The discipline was generally directed to strengthening or hardening the body. The boys went barefoot and bareheaded, with hair cut short, and in light clothing. From their twelfth year they wore nothing but an upper garment, which had to last the whole year. They slept in a common room without a roof, on a litter of hay or straw, and from their fifteenth year on rushes or reeds. Their food was extremely simple, and not sufficient to satisfy bunger. A boy who did not want to be hungry had to steal; if he did this cleverly, he was praised, and punished if detected. Every year the boys had to undergo a flogging at the altar of Artemis Orthia, as a test of their power to endure bodily pain. They were whipped till the blood flowed, and deemed it a disgrace to show any sign of suffering. Reading and writing were left to private instructors; but music, and choral singing in particular, formed a part of the regular discipline. The understanding was assumed to be formed by daily life in public, and the conversation of the men, to which the boys were admitted. Every Spartan boy looked up to his seniors as his instructors and superiors; the consequence being that in Sparta the young behaved to their elders with more modesty and respect than in any other Greek city. Besides this, every man chose a boy or youth as his favourite. He was bound to set the boy an example of all manly excellence, and was regarded as responsible and punishable for his delinquencies. This public education and the performance of the regular exercises, under the superintendence of the Bidyoe, lasted till the thirtieth year. In the eighteenth year the boy passed into the class of youths. From the twentieth year, when military service proper began, to the thirtieth, the youth was called an eiren. He was not regarded as a man, or allowed to attend the public assembly till his thirtieth year. The girls had an education in music and gymnastic education similar to that of the boys, and at the public games and contests each sex was witness of the performances of the other. The girls' dress was extremely simple, consisting of a sleeveless tunic reaching not quite down to the knees, and open at the sides. In this, however, there was nothing which interfered with modesty and propriety of behaviour. In Crete the system of education was generally similar to that of Sparta. But the public training did not begin till the seventeenth year, when the boys of the same age joined themselves freely into divisions called agelai, each led by some noble youth, whose father was called agelatas, and undertook the supervision of the games and exercises. It is probable that the young men remained in this organization till their twenty-seventh year, when the law compelled them to marry. At Athens, as in Greece generally, the father decided whether the child should be reared or exposed. The latter alternative seems to have been not seldom adopted, especially when the child was a girl. If the education of a child was once fairly commenced, the parents had no power to put it out of the way. At the birth of a boy, the door of the house was adorned with a branch of olive; at the birth of a girl, with wool. On the fifth or seventh day after birth the child underwent a religious dedication at the festival of the Amphidromia ("running round"). It was touched with instruments of purification, and carried several times round the burning hearth. On the tenth day came the festival of naming the child, with sacrifice and entertainment, when the father acknowledged it as legitimate. To the end of the sixth year the boys and girls were brought up together under female supervision; but after this the sexes were educated apart. The girls' life was almost entirely confined to her home: she was brought up under the superintendence of women, and with hardly anything which can be called profitable instruction. The boy was handed over to a slave older than himself called Poedagogos. It was the slave's duty to watch the boy's outward behaviour, and to attend him, until his boyhood was over, whenever he went out, especially to the school and the gymnasium. The laws made some provision for the proper education of boys. They obliged every citizen to have his son instructed in music, gymnastics, and the elements of letters (grammata), i.e. writing, reading, and arithmetic. They further obliged the parents to teach their boys some profitable trade, in case they were unable to leave them a property sufficient to maintain them independent. If they failed in this, they forfeited all claim to support from the children in old age. But with schools and their arrangements the state did not concern itself. The schools were entirely in private hands, though they were under the eye of the police. The elementary instruction was given by the grammatistoe, or teachers of letters, the teacher writing and the scholars copying. The text-books for reading were mostly poems, especially such as were calculated to have an influence on the formation of character. The Homeric poems were the favourite reading book, but Hesiod, Theognis, and others were also admitted. Collections of suitable passages from the poets were early made for the boys to copy, learn by heart, and repeat aloud. The higher instruction given by the grammatikos was also of this literary character. Mathematics were introduced into the school curriculum as early as the 5th century, drawing not till the middle of the 4th century B.C. Instruction in music proper began about the thirteenth year. The profound moral influence attributed to music in Greek antiquity made this art an essential part of education. It brought with it, naturally, an acquaintance with the masterpieces of Greek poetry. The instrument most practised was the lyre, from its suitableness as an accompaniment to song. The flute was held in less esteem. The aim of education was supposed to be the harmonious development of mind and body alike. Instruction in gymnastics was consequently regarded as no less essential than in music, and began at about the same age. It was carried on in the paloestroe (see PALAeSTRA) under the paidotribai, who were, like the grammatikoi, private, not public instructors. The boys began their gymnastics in the paloestra, and completed them in the gymnasia under the superintendence of the gymnastoe. The ephebi, in particular, or boys between sixteen and nineteen, practised their exercises in the gymnasia, till, in their twentieth year, they were considered capable of bearing arms, and employed on frontier service. At this point they became liable to enlistment for foreign service, and obtained the right of attending the meeting of the public assembly. Towards the end of the 5th century B.C. the class of sophistoe, or professors of practical education, arose. This gave the young men an opportunity of extending their education by attending lectures in rhetoric and philosophy; but the high fees charged by the sophistoe, had the effect of restricting this instruction to the sons of the wealthy.