Education for Greek people was vastly "democratized" in the 5th century B.C., influenced by the Sophists, Plato, and Isocrates. Later, in the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece, education in a gymn school was considered essential for participation in Greek culture. The value of physical education to the ancient Greeks and Romans has been historically unique. There were two forms of education in ancient Greece: formal and informal. Formal education was attained through attendance to a public school or was provided by a hired tutor. Informal education was provided by an unpaid teacher and occurred in a non-public setting. Education was an essential component of a person's identity.
Formal Greek education was primarily for males and non-slaves.Downey, "Ancient Education," The classical Journal52, no.8 (May 1957): 339. In some poleis, laws were passed to prohibit the education of slaves.Ed. Sienkewicz, "Daily Life and Customs," Ancient Greece (New Jersey: Salem Press, I) The Spartans also taught music and dance, but with the purpose of enhancing their maneuverability as soldiers.
Athenian systems
Classical Athens (508–322 BCE) Elementary Education
Elementary education had a long history in Athens as Aristophanes called it the arkhaia paideia (literally ancient education).Aristophanes, Clouds, 961. But it was only fully developed in the early fifth century BC and attained its recognisable form.Mark Joyal, J. Iain MacDougall, and John C. Yardley, Greek and Roman Education: A Sourcebook, Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World (London: Routledge, 2009), 31. In its developed form, the old education consists of three divisions, gymnastikē or physical education, mousikē or music, and grammata or letters.Joyal, MacDougall, and Yardley, 31. The boys would attend the classes concurrently and there were separate teachers for each of the disciplines. Although it is similar to modern day elementary level study, this traditional education of the Athenian boys was neither mandatory nor free. The education came at a price and it was up to the fathers’ decision of what and how long the education would be.David M. Pritchard, “Athens,” in A Companion to Ancient Education, 1st ed., ed. W. Martin Bloomer (Chichester, West Sussex, UK; Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2015), 113.Frederick A. G. Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C. (London: Methuen, 1964), 81. While the elementary education normally ended when the boys reached their adolescence at around 14 to 15 years old,Joyal, MacDougall, and Yardley, Greek and Roman Education, 59. children from wealthier families would start earlier and end later.Plato, Protagoras, 326c. Since education commonly ended in early adolescence, a large part of adolescent education was informal and relied on simple human experience.
Physical education
Among the three divisions, the physical education held the prestigious place.Henri-Irénée Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, trans. George Lamb (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964), 69. It was not because Athens needed her citizens to become competent warriors through physical training. Another institution, the ephebeia would deal with military training.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 64. There were two purposes of the sports education. One was to prepare the young boys for local and Panhellenic sports games.Pritchard, “Athens,” 113; Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 129.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 69. The other purpose was to cultivate a strong and beautiful body which was essential to Greek culture.Plato, Gorgias, 452b.
The teacher of the physical education was called a paidotribēs. The paidotribēs was often a professional athlete himself.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 129–130. A main part of the training was the fighting arts, wrestling, boxing and pankration.Pritchard, “Athens,” 112. Another important component of the training was the athletic sports, racing, discus and javelin throwing and long jump.Pritchard, “Athens,” 113. The paidotribēs supervised and instructed the training in a privately owned palaistra.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 131.John Patrick Lynch, Aristotles School: A Study of a Greek Education Institution (Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1972), 35. The famous Athenian public sports centre gymnasium was for the adult citizens. Little was known about how much the paidotribēs would actually charge. It could be very high as Athenaeus mentioned that a course could cost a mina.Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, 584c; cf. Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education (London; New York: MacMillan, 1907), 134. And a mina could afford the living of a four-people family in Athens for up to three months.Paul Cartledge, Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions 286 (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), xix.
Music education
A kitharistēs (literally a player of the kithara, a stringed instrument like a lyre) was responsible for the music education. He would teach the students to play the kithara, to sing and compose lyric songs and to dance.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 126–128.Plato, Protagoras, 326a-b.
The education of music was an essential part of the old education. Plato asserted its parity with the sports. He stated that “gymnastics for the body and music for the soul.”Plato, Republic, II 376e. By this, Plato meant the moral function of music and poetry. Aristophanes also emphasised the importance of musical education, stating that the boys would go to the music class “even if the snow is falling as thick as flour.”Clouds, 964; cf. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 69. Given this importance, if one cannot play the lyre and sing in a choir, he was indeed uneducated at all.Plato, Laws, II, 654b; Aristophanes, Wasps, 957-959. Accordingly, since the education was heavily charged, ignorance in music was also a symbol of lower socio-economical status.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 129.
Letter education
In order to take part in trade and politics, the demand of skills in reading and writing arose to become the third discipline of the old education.Beck, 80; Pritchard, “Athens,” 118.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 71–72. Hence, through the practical perspective, education in literacy was the most important among the three disciplines. If the father is not wealthy enough to send his son to attend all three classes, he will send him to a grammatistēs, a letter teacher.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 128.
The Athenian boys would study the following subjects at a grammatistēs, reading and writing, literature, and arithmetic.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 114-126. The boys would firstly engage in memorising the Greek letters. In the initial stages, they were required to recognize letters in short syllables.Plato, Statesman, 277e. While they were familiarising with the alphabets, they started to write as well.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 115. Under the assistance of the grammatistēs, students would write with a stylus on a wax tablet as shown in the paintings on the Douris’ Cup. There is also a detailed written description of the process in Plato’s Protagoras:...just as writing-masters first draw letters in faint outline with the pen for their less ad- vanced pupils, and then give them the copy-book and make them write according to the guidance of their lines,...Plato, Potagoras, 326d.After the boys got some progress in the letters, they would proceed to the reading of the poets. Reciting poetry was very important to the adulthood life of the Athenians, especially those of Homer and Hesiod, whose works were highly regarded by the Athenians. Familiarity of Homer’s epic was the permit to the banquets for an educated Athenian man.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 70. Furthermore, this component of the syllabus served as another motivation for a poverished father sending his son to the grammatistēs.Pritchard, “Athens,” 121. To learn the stories of the legendary heros by heart was critical to the Athenian identity.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 71.
Higher education The emergence of higher education in ancient Athens was the result of the so-called Sophists Reform happened in the latter half of the Fifth Century BC.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 78–81. It was a higher form of education compared to the old education. Although Freeman and Marrou proposed a classification within this Higher Education, secondary education and tertiary education,Freeman, Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education, 157, 210.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 148. Beck refused the proposal.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 141. Nevertheless, there was a huge expansion in the subjects a student could learn, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, history and grammar.Beck, Greek Education, 450–350 B.C., 142–143.
The sophists were professional teachers and most of them were foreigners, i.e. non-Athenians. They emerged because of the continuously growing need of higher knowledge than basic literacy and numeracy in the democratised Athens. The study normally took three to four years and the tuition fee was reasonable. For example, Protagoras charged a thousand drachma, which would be 10 mina.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 80. Despite all the branches of studies mentioned above, rhetoric, sometimes referred to as the “art of persuasion” ,was considered the most critical and fundamental part of the curriculum. This was primarily because mature skills of rhetoric bought the student a ticket to politics.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 81–82.
Education of Athenian Women Women and girls in Athens did not participate in formal education. Most women remained at home throughout the majority of their lives, and any schooling that young girls did receive was the responsibility of their mothers and other female elders. While formal education taught boys physical education, letters, music and mathematics, it was a priority that girls learned to manage and take care of the home and family. Girls learned skills such as textile work, cleaning, maintaining the household, and taking care of the younger children in the family. They were also taught to manage a household staff.
There were certain conditions in which girls were expected to spend time away from the home. This included being sent on errands and attending religious events and ceremonies. Participating in religion was a way for women and girls to immerse themselves in their community and to learn about their culture. Religious Indoctrination rituals were said to have been important in teaching girls about their purpose, about what was expected of them, and about societal virtues and values that they should represent. Another significant part of girls' education, both inside and outside of religion, was education on bearing and raising children.
Classical Athenian educators
Isocrates (436–338 BC)