Chapter XII.

§ 1. Study of the military profession at Sparta. Period of

service. § 2. Arrangement of the army. Numbers of the military

divisions. § 3. Arrangement of the enomoty and military

evolutions. § 4. Arrangement of the Mora. § 5. Organization of the

Spartan army. Its officers. § 6. Cavalry in the other Doric

states. The Sciritæ in the Lacedæmonian army. Light-armed

soldiers. § 7. Arms of the heavy infantry of Sparta. § 8. Spartan

tactics. § 9. Steady courage of the Spartans. § 10. War considered

as an art by the Spartans. Life of the Spartans in camp.

1. The military system of the Dorians, which we are now about to consider,

was evidently brought to the greatest perfection in Sparta. In this state

the military profession, as was hardly the case in any other part of

Greece, was followed as an art, as the study of a life;(1090) so that when

Agesilaus (as is related) separated the shoemakers, carpenters, potters,

&c., from the assembled allied army, the Spartans alone remained, as being

the warriors by profession (as τεχνῖται τῶν πολεμικῶν(1091)). But the

principles of their military tactics were evidently common to the whole

race; and, according to a conjecture advanced in a former part of this

work,(1092) it was chiefly the method of attack, in closed lines, with

extended lances, by which the Dorians conquered the Achæans of

Peloponnesus, and which was adopted from them by many other states of

Greece.

Every Spartan was, if he had sufficient strength, bound to defend his

country in expeditions without the boundaries during the years that were

designated by the name ἡλικία.(1093) This period lasted to the fortieth

year from manhood (ἀφ᾽ ἥβης), that is to say, to the sixtieth year from

birth:(1094) until that time a man was called ἔμφρουρος (from φρουρὰ), and

could not go out of the country without permission from the

authorities.(1095) Of these, the younger men were sometimes sent abroad;

but those of fifty-five and upwards, not till the state was in

difficulty.(1096) The ephors stated in the name of the public assembly the

years, until which the obligation to service in an individual case

extended.(1097) Upon the whole, the armies of Sparta must have contained

many aged triarii: while in Athens the liability to foreign service

generally terminated with the twenty-third year of manhood; which was

computed from the eighteenth year.(1098) But Sparta reckoned upon a

healthy and strong old age; the time for deliberative sagacity does not

begin till the age for fighting has ended. The allied army of the Argives,

Arcadians, and Athenians was, in 418 B.C., met by an army composed of all

the Spartans(1099) (that is, all the ἔμφρουροι(1100)); but they dismissed

from the boundaries a sixth part of the army, consisting of the younger

and the older, in order to protect the capital.(1101)

2. In marching and in battle the Spartans endeavoured to conceal their

strength from the enemy; for this reason the levies were hastily made by

the ephors, and the army sometimes marched during the night;(1102) the

depth of the ranks in the army was also very various, and the enemy could

not be certain of its strength. In the battle of Mantinea there were seven

lochi, each containing four pentecostyes, the pentecostys four enomoties,

and the front row of the enomoty containing four men: the pentecostys had

therefore 16 in front, the lochus 64, the whole army 448. According to

Thucydides the Spartans generally stood eight men deep; therefore the

whole number of the hoplitæ was 3584. To these however were added the 300

picked men about the king, about 400 cavalry in both wings,(1103) and also

the old men, posted as a body of reserve with the baggage, together with

the Lacedæmonians, appointed to cover the right wing of the allies, in

number perhaps about 500.(1104) The whole number of men was 4784. A sixth

part of the army had been sent back; which gives for the entire army 5740

men. This was at that time the number of heavy-armed soldiers, which,

after severe losses in the field, the city of Sparta was able of itself to

furnish:(1105) nor indeed is it so considerable as the report of its

strength would lead one to suppose; but it increased, in the manner of an

avalanche, into a numerous and powerful army,(1106) when there was time to

collect troops from the allies.

Although we have given the account of this battle in the first instance,

we cannot derive from it any information with regard to the original

regulation of the army, since Agis had increased the lochi to four times

their usual strength, as we shall presently see, in order to deceive the

enemy by false accounts. For, if we compare the statements of the well

informed Xenophon,(1107) we obtain the following explanation of the names:

two enomoties compose a pentecostys, two pentecostyes a lochus,(1108) four

lochi a mora; now if an enomoty, as must have been originally the case,

contained twenty-four,(1109) or, with the enomotarch, twenty-five

men,(1110) the mora would have contained 400; and, including the superior

officers, pentecosters, and lochagi, 412. In the time of Xenophon,

however, the enomoty consisted of thirty-six men(1111); and accordingly,

the mora of 600, as was the case on an occasion mentioned by the same

historian(1112); the other numbers, which vary between 500(1113) and

900,(1114) must also have resulted from the greater or less increase in

the strength of the enomoty.

3. Now the enomoty, the most simple body of this military arrangement,

was, as the word shows, a file of men closely united, and bound by a

common oath,(1115) which stood in the deep phalanx each one behind the

other,(1116) the enomotarch being in front (πρωτοστάτης) of the whole

file. Thus also the Thebans stood in files twenty-five men deep,(1117)

which they sometimes strengthened to double that number(1118); in the

Lacedæmonian army, however, the file was generally broken, and the

enomoty, according to the order given before the battle, stood three and

sometimes six men broad(1119); in the former case, if its number was not

increased, eight; in the latter, four deep: the Lacedæmonians are also

reported to have once beaten the Arcadians with a line only one shield

deep.(1120) If, however, the whole enomoty stood in one file, it was

called λόχος ὄρθιος; and in this disposition they attacked high places,

when the files were placed at some distance from each other.(1121) The

deployments (παραγωγαὶ), by which the phalanx was made more or less deep,

were ordered by the enomotarch. This person was the strongest man or the

best soldier of the whole enomoty; hence it was his continual care that on

whatever point the attack was made he should always stand at the head of

his file: the uragi, however, the last men of the file, were experienced

soldiers, especially when the army was expected to be threatened in the

rear. If then the lochi moved one behind the other (ἐπὶ κέρως), the

enomotarchs advanced before the long files. If the enemy approached in

front, the files, either whole or broken, moved forward, each placing

itself on the left side of the preceding file (παρ᾽ ἀσπίδα(1122)). If the

enomoty was broken, the enomotarch then occupied in the square formed by

his enomoty the front angle to the right hand, and the first enomotarch of

the army was always the last man of the right wing; this movement was

called παραγωγὴ εἰς μέτωπον, or ἐπὶ φάλαγγος.(1123) But if the enemy came

on in the rear, each file wheeled round, so that the leaders again came in

front.(1124) If the enemy appeared on the right, the whole number of

lochi, moving one behind the other, turned, like triremes, towards the

enemy, and the man who was last upon the march was last in the line of

battle to the right (παρὰ δόρυ). And, lastly, if they advanced from the

left, the same movement took place, only the last lochus then occupied the

left wing (παρ᾽ ἀσπίδα(1125)).

4. Lochi also occur among the Argives and Thebans, and in the Asiatic

armies; under the command of Sparta there were lochi of mercenaries and

bowmen,(1126) &c.; whereas the mora was a division peculiar to the

Spartans. The formation of this body was as follows. The whole number of

citizens (τὸ πολιτικὸν) was divided into six moras(1127); so that every

person of military age (ἔμφρουρος), even while he lived at Sparta,

belonged to one of them. The strength of the mora in the field depended on

the maximum fixed by the ephors for the age of those employed; thus, for

example, they were able to send out a mora composed of persons less than

thirty-five years from manhood (ἀφ᾽ ἥβης) and keep back those of greater

age,(1128) &c. So that in this sense the numbers of the division depended

upon circumstances. To each mora of heavy-armed infantry there belonged,

without being in close connexion with it, a body of cavalry bearing the

same name,(1129) consisting at the most of 100 men, and commanded by the

hipparmost.(1130) In the mora of the infantry, however, the men of

different ages must have been in some manner separated, so that, for

example, those between thirty and thirty-five years of age could be easily

detached for pursuit.(1131) In this division no respect was had to

kindred; soldiers of one mora had brothers, sons, fathers, in

another,(1132) although in early times it appears to have been an object

of the greatest care to bring relations and friends together. According to

Herodotus(1133) Lycurgus instituted the enomoties, triacades, and syssitia

for war; evidently as military divisions; and the Lacedæmonians ate and

fought in the same company; from which we may explain why the polemarchs

had also a superintendence over the public tables.(1134) By these the

larger divisions, and not the single banqueting companies, are intended;

when Sparta, in the reign of king Agis, again contained 4500 families,

there were fifteen of these divisions(1135); and in earlier times, when

the number of families was 9000, there were probably thirty; it is

therefore doubtless another name for oba, which rarely occurs; and the

army was arranged according to tribes, phratrias, and houses. In early

times also the single hamlets of Sparta furnished lochi of their own; as

were the Pitanatæ(1136) in the Persian war, and the Mesoatæ.(1137)

5. Of the two principles upon which the regulation of the Lacedæmonian

army was founded, one (as has been already pointed out) belonged more

peculiarly to early times, and at a late period nearly disappeared: I mean

the complete union and amalgamation of the army in all its parts. This is

expressed by the name _enomoty_; and we are led to the same result by many

other remarkable vestiges, such as the proximity of the lovers to the

loved (which in certain situations must have produced a strong effect upon

the feelings), and the sacrifices to Love, which, according both to the

Spartan and Cretan usage, the most beautiful men performed before the

battle. The second principle was of longer duration; the duty of implicit

obedience to every person in authority (πειθαρχία). Now in the artificial

organization of the army almost all Spartans were in a certain respect

commanders(1138); for not only the front men of the files, even when the

enomoties were broken (πρωτοστάται), but the first men of every line

(ζευγῖται) were officers(1139); nay, every two persons throughout the

whole enomoty were connected with each other as fore-man and rear-man

(πρωτοστάτης and ἐπιστάτης.(1140)) The commands (παραγγέλσεις) passed

rapidly through the polemarchs, lochagi, &c, to the enomotarchs, who gave

them out, like heralds, in a loud voice(1141); but that the command alone

of the immediate superior held good, is proved by the circumstance that

the disobedience of a polemarch or lochagus entailed the disobedience of

the whole lochus.(1142) The polemarchs, lochagi, pentecosters, and also

the xenagi (leaders of mercenaries(1143)), took part in the council of

war, which was preceded by solemn sacrifices(1144); the first mentioned

officers commanded independently single moras and whole armies,(1145) or

composed the immediate council of the kings; they were supported or

represented, as it appears, by the συμφορεῖς.(1146) The king, in an

instance mentioned by Herodotus, himself appointed an inferior

general,(1147) which seems to be a consequence of his extensive power in

military affairs. The escort of the king was called by the name of

_damosia_,(1148) and consisted of his tent comrades, to which the

polemarchs,(1149) the Pythians,(1150) and three Equals also

belonged(1151); of the diviners, surgeons, flute-players, and volunteers

in the army,(1152) to which must be added the two ephors, who attended the

kings on expeditions(1153); the laphyropolæ, who together with the ephors,

took possession of the booty; the hellanodicæ, who decided disputes in the

army (in this case, as well as at Olympia, the Peloponnesians were called

Hellenes by pre-eminence(1154)); the symbuli, sent out, after the time of

Agis, as assistants to the king(1155); the pyrphorus, a priest of Ares,

who took fire from the sacrifice, which the king performed at home to Zeus

Agetor,(1156) and on the boundary to Zeus and Athene, and preserved it

during the whole campaign (in battle the unarmed were protected by a

religious awe(1157)); and, lastly, those who had conquered in crowned

contests were in the king’s train(1158); a train indeed of sufficient

importance, and fit in so simple a state of society to surround the

descendant of Hercules with an appearance of dignity. The Thirty about the

king’s person are not identical with the damosia; for these were always

Spartans, which we cannot say of flute-players, &c.; they were assigned to

the king, even when the rest of the army (as was frequently the case in

expeditions in Asia) consisted exclusively of neodamodes,(1159) and were

probably at the same time the body-guard and council of the king. They may

therefore be considered as the 300 contracted into a small body, which

accompanied the king only on expeditions to a small distance from home.

These 300 were the picked regiment of Sparta, the flower of the youth, as

the gerontes were of the old men, and also chosen on aristocratic

principles. For the ephors appointed three hippagretæ, each of whom chose

one hundred young men, with a statement of the grounds of his selection;

from the number of those discharged from this body the five agathoergi

were taken, who for the space of a year served the state in

missions.(1160)

6. A similar body in the Cretan states really consisted of horsemen; the

Spartans were called horsemen, and were in fact heavy-armed

infantry(1161); the cause of which was, the low estimation of the

cavalry-service among the Lacedæmonians. The country was fitted rather for

the production of men than of horses; and although the citizens furnished

both the horse and accoutrements, they were ridden only by weak and

inferior persons.(1162) Thus the horsemen of Sparta, the number of whom in

the Peloponnesian war was at first 400, and afterwards rose to 600,(1163)

effected nothing against the better mounted and practised cavalry of

Bœotia, which as the light-armed riders sometimes mounted behind,

sometimes vaulted off rapidly, was doubly formidable to the enemy.(1164)

Among the other Doric states, Tarentum in particular had a numerous(1165)

and very excellent light cavalry.(1166) The preference for a force of this

description is a proof, according to the principles of antiquity, of an

unstable and effeminate character, exactly the reverse of that exhibited

by the heavy-armed soldiery of the Lacedæmonians.

In the Lacedæmonian army the Sciritæ formed a separate body,(1167) of whom

there were 600 in the Peloponnesian war.(1168) In marches they went in

front, in the camp they occupied the extreme place,(1169) and in the

battle they formed the left wing.(1170) Although we have no express

statement of their mode of arms, we can hardly suppose that they were

heavy-armed troops, since they were particularly employed when a rapid

change of position, or a vigorous attack, such as storming of heights,

&c., was required(1171); they were often at the post of greatest

danger.(1172) Originally, doubtless, they were, as they were called,

inhabitants of the district Sciritis, on the confines of Laconia, towards

Parrhasia(1173); their rights and duties appear to have been defined by

agreement; their mode of fighting was also perhaps Arcadian. The other

Periœci appear only to have taken part in large expeditions, and such as

were prepared for a considerable time beforehand; and they probably served

for the most part as hoplitæ(1174); the ratio of their number, as well as

that of the neodamodes and others, to the citizens of Sparta, was not

governed by any fixed rule.(1175)

It is not by any means clear in what manner the Peloponnesian armies were

accompanied by such numerous bodies of light-armed soldiers, more

particularly of Helots.(1176) It must at the same time be borne in mind

that the Persian war was the only time, that is, on a general summons of

the nation, when so many as seven attended upon every Spartan(1177); on

this occasion, when the numbers of the enemy were so excessive, they might

have served to protect the rear of the long line of battle, and to resist

the pressure; in addition to which they also annoyed the enemy from behind

with slings, javelins, and stones. A large part of them, in the capacity

of attendants (θεράποντες, ἐρυκτῆρες, ὑπασπισταὶ), were also destined

exclusively for the service of the hoplitæ, and to rescue them in

danger(1178); another portion was probably detached to convoy and cover

the baggage (στρατὸς σκευοφορικός). The Peloponnesians in early times

never attempted to form separate divisions of light-armed soldiers, such

as the peltasts were, who, in addition to the javelin, bore the small

shield of the Thracians and Illyrians.(1179) The perfection of this

species of troops, especially after the improvement of Chabrias and

Iphicrates, was the cause of severe injury to the heavy-armed tactics of

the Spartans; and the Peloponnesians dreaded them for a long time,

according to the Laconian expression, as children fear a bugbear.(1180)

7. The attention of Sparta was almost exclusively directed to the heavy

infantry; and it can scarcely be denied that this was carried by them to

the highest pitch of perfection. The arms(1181) consisted of a long

spear,(1182) a short sword only used in the closest single combat,(1183) a

brazen shield,(1184) which covered the body from the shoulders to the

knees,(1185) and was in other respects also more similar to the shield of

the heroic age than that of the other Greeks. For while the Greeks in

general had adopted the Carian handle (ὀχάνη) in order to direct the

motion of the shield, of which the size had been considerably reduced, the

Spartan buckler was probably suspended upon a thong (τελαμὼν) laid round

the neck, and was only managed by a ring (πόρπαξ) fastened to the concave

side, which in time of peace could be taken out.(1186) Cleomenes the Third

first introduced the handles of shields in Lacedæmon, and in general a

less heavy armour.(1187)

8. The principles of the Lacedæmonian tactics may be deduced from what has

been already said on the subject of the enomoty, and of its movements; the

deployment of the enomoty (the ἐξελιγμὸς) was the chief means of opposing

the best soldiers to the enemy,(1188) and it was from this movement in

particular that victory was expected. A particular kind of this manœuvre

was called the Laconian; it began from the enomotarchs, who faced about to

the right, and passed in an oblique direction between their own and the

next file; the whole file, following its leader, placed itself in front of

the uragus, who merely faced to the right about. So that the whole

phalanx, by this means, turning their faces towards the enemy who appeared

in the rear, advanced at the same time in that direction by the depth of

the order of battle. The Macedonian mode was different from this; for in

that the movement began from the uragus, and therefore the phalanx lost,

instead of gained, the same space of ground as it covered; and the Cretan

(called also _Choreus_) differed from both, as the enomotarch and uragus

both moved, until they changed places, and consequently, according to this

method, the phalanx remained on the same ground.(1189) In a charge it was

the duty of the general to take care that the army constantly inclined

somewhat further to the right than the exact line of its intended

direction, since each man naturally endeavoured to bring his unprotected

side under the shield of his neighbour, and the last man on the right wing

to turn away that side from the danger, and therefore to outflank the left

of the enemy:(1190) this was also the cause of the weakness of the right

wing, which they endeavoured to remedy by putting in it the best troops,

and by protecting it with cavalry. Before Epaminondas discovered the art

of concentrating the battle in the spot in which he was strongest, and of

keeping the rest of the enemy’s troops unengaged, the general had to

attend to two points. In the first place, that the chief charge of his own

men should be made upon that part where it appeared most easy and

advantageous to break the line; and that at the same time his own line

should withstand the charge of the enemy: and, secondly, he might

endeavour to obtain the victory by extending his front so as to outflank

the enemy; a manœuvre which the Spartans seldom indeed attempted, being

content to hinder the enemy from effecting it. The chief point was to keep

the whole body of men in compact order, both in rapid advance and in

pretended flight:(1191) no bravery could excuse a man for quitting his

post.

9. The chief characteristic of the warriors of Sparta was great composure

and a subdued strength; the violence (λύσσα) of Aristodemus(1192) and

Isadas(1193) being considered as deserving rather of blame than praise;

and these qualities in general distinguished the Greeks from the northern

Barbarians, whose boldness always consisted in noise and tumult.(1194) The

conduct of the Spartans in battle denotes a high and noble disposition,

which rejected all the extremes of brutal rage; the pursuit of the enemy

ceased when the victory was completed;(1195) and, after the signal for

retreat had been given, all hostilities ceased.(1196) The spoiling of

arms, at least during the battle, was also interdicted;(1197) and the

consecration of the spoils of slain enemies to the gods,(1198) as in

general all rejoicings for victory were considered as ill-omened;(1199)

ancient principles of Greek humanity which we cannot but admire. War was

as much as possible confined to a measure of strength; and battle, as

Mardonius in Herodotus describes that of the Greeks in general,(1200) was

a kind of duel upon the principles of honour. In Peloponnesus, as well as

in Eubœa,(1201) the use of the different species of arms had perhaps been

regulated by the appointment of general councils; Sparta also retained

with a religious veneration the ancient institutions of sacred truces; as,

for instance, the Olympic armistice: it wished not only to celebrate its

native festivals in quiet,(1202) but even respected foreign solemnities;

thus, at so late a period as 391 B.C., that state allowed itself to be

delayed and deceived by an appeal of the Argives to “the sacred

months.”(1203) If then the state, so long as it remained true to these

principles, did not slaughter its enemies without aim or object, so much

the more sparing was it of its own soldiers, every moderate loss being

severely felt; but even in the engagements of the hoplitæ few of the

victorious party were lost. Every one knows of the tearless battle between

the Spartans and Arcadians, in which the state had no dead to mourn.(1204)

Nothing therefore can be less laid to the charge of Sparta than a violent

passion for war, a foolhardy and reckless desire of conquest. The latter

was also guarded against by the maxim of Lycurgus,(1205) “not to go often

against the same enemy,” the non-observance of which was a charge brought

against Agesilaus. With what unwillingness the Lacedæmonians engaged in

great wars is generally known. And yet in every action in the open field,

up to the battle of Leuctra, Sparta had nearly a certainty of

success,(1206) since the consciousness of skill in the use of arms was

added to the national feeling of the Doric race, that victory over the

Ionians was not a matter of doubt.(1207) With what timidity did the

Athenians attack the hard-pressed and exhausted Spartans in Sphacteria!

Their feeling towards the captives was nearly the same as that of the

Achæans in Homer to the corpse of Hector.

These opinions necessarily experienced innumerable modifications when

Sparta engaged in foreign warfare, and moved out of her own orbit into an

unknown region; this was particularly the case in maritime war, which,

although followed in early times by Corinth, Ægina, and Corcyra, never

agreed with the nature of the Doric tribe. For this reason Sparta,

although after many unsuccessful attempts she gave birth to men who had

considerable talents for this service, as Callicratidas and Lysander, and

for a time her fleet was very numerous, and the commander of it a second

king,(1208) never showed any particular inclination for it. A

disinclination equally strong, and formed upon the same grounds, was shown

by the Spartans to the storming of walled places (πυργομαχεῖν(1209)) for

which reason they never in early times constructed any defences of this

kind; and despised the use of machines, by which Archidamus, the son of

Agesilaus, thought that “man’s strength was annihilated.”

10. We conclude with the assertion with which we prefaced this chapter,

though in a different point of view, that no nation ever considered war as

an art in the same sense and to the same degree as the Doric Spartans.

Indeed every nation, of a military disposition, and addicted to warlike

pursuits, considers war not merely as a means of repelling the attacks of

enemies, or of gaining plunder or territory by being itself the invader.

The mere act of fighting, the common and disciplined movement of thousands

directed to the same end, the “pomp, pride, and circumstance of glorious

war,” arouse the feelings, and inspire the mind with the noblest and most

elevated thoughts; and there is a certain affinity between the art of war

and the more regular and peaceful arts; thus a military body resembled, in

its movements and array, a large choral dance. These feelings and views

were among all nations most natural to the Greeks, and, of the Greek

races, familiar to the Dorians in particular.

The agreement which some moderns(1210) have found between the Greek chorus

and the lochus is not a mere creation of the fancy; the large chorus was a

pentecostys in number, which was divided into enomoties (hemichoria); it

advanced in certain divisions, like an army, and had corresponding

evolutions.(1211) Both the dance and the battle were the object of the

Pyrrhic, which was particularly practised in Sparta and Crete.(1212) In

early times it was a preparation for battle, an use of it which was

neglected in a later age; in the soldier heavy-armed for the battle was

also seen the practised dancer of the Pyrrhic. The same connexion is

alluded to by Homer, where Æneas hopes to overthrow Meriones of Crete,

however good a dancer he may be:(1213) thus also the Thessalians called

the soldiers of the front ranks “principal dancers;” and said of a good

fighter, that “he had danced well.”(1214) For the same reason Homer calls

hoplitæ by the name πρυλέες(1215) the war-dance having been called πρύλις

by the Cretans.(1216) Now this latter expression is used by Homer in the

passages in which both Greeks and Trojans give up the usual method of

fighting, and the heroes descend from their chariots and form themselves

into a body on foot; and therefore of that very mode of battle which

became prevalent in Greece through the influence of the Dorians. For the

same reason the Spartans sacrificed to the Muses before an action,(1217)

these goddesses being expected to produce regularity and order in battle;

as they sacrificed on the same occasion in Crete to the god of love, as

the confirmer of mutual esteem and shame.(1218)

The whole existence of the Spartans in the camp appears to have been easy

and tranquil; and therefore resembled the mode of living in Sparta, as

that city was to a certain degree always a camp.(1219) The bodily

exercises were regularly continued, and repeated twice in each day;(1220)

but with less severity than at home;(1221) and the discipline in general

was less strict. The Persian spy found the Spartans in the evening before

the battle of Thermopylæ employed, some in gymnastic exercises, and some

in arranging their hair,(1222) which they always wore long after their

entrance into manhood. Every man put on a crown(1223) when the band of

flute-players gave the signal for attack; all the shields of the line

glittered with their high polish,(1224) and mingled their splendour with

the dark red of the purple mantles,(1225) which were meant both to adorn

the combatant, and to conceal the blood of the wounded; to fall well and

decorously being an incentive the more to the most heroic valour.

BOOK IV. DOMESTIC INSTITUTIONS, ARTS, AND LITERATURE OF THE DORIANS.

Chapter I.

§ 1. Subjects of the present book. § 2. Simplicity of the

dwellings of the Dorians. § 3. Achæan style of buildings. § 4.

Character of the Doric architecture.

1. Having examined the political institutions of the Doric states, we next

proceed to consider their private life and domestic economy; which two

subjects were so intimately connected in the habits of this race, that we

shall not attempt to separate them by any exact line of distinction. Our

observations will be confined to those matters which appear most to

exhibit the peculiar character of the Dorians. For which purpose, having

first considered their domestic conveniences, such as dwellings, &c., we

will proceed to their domestic relations, their arts, and literature.

2. The dwellings of the Dorians were plain and simple. By a law of

Lycurgus the doors of every house were to be fashioned only with the saw,

and the ceiling with the axe;(1226) not that the legislator intended to

abolish altogether the science of architecture, but merely to restrain it

to its proper objects, viz., temples and public buildings, and to prevent

it from purveying to private luxury. The kings of Greece in Homer’s time

lived not only in spacious, but also richly ornamented houses, the walls

of which glittered with brass, silver, gold, amber, and ivory; but no such

splendour was seen in the dwellings of the Heraclide princes. The palace

of the two kings of Sparta was said to have been built by Aristodemus at

the taking of the town; here Agesilaus lived after the manner of his

ancestors; the doors even in his time being, according to Xenophon’s

somewhat exaggerated expression, those of the original building.(1227)

Hence Leotychidas the elder (490 B.C.) asked his host at Corinth (which

city had early risen to riches and luxury), on seeing the ceiling

ornamented with sunken panels (φατνώματα), “whether the trees in Corinth

were naturally four-cornered.”(1228) The houses at Sparta, however,

notwithstanding their rude structure, were probably spacious and

commodious; in front there was generally a court-yard, separated by a wall

from the street,(1229) and containing a large portico. The towns of

Peloponnesus were for the most part irregularly built, whereas the Ionians

had early learnt to lay out their streets in straight lines,(1230) a

custom which Hippodamus of Miletus succeeded in spreading over the rest of

Greece. It was probably this architect who in the year 445 B.C. laid out

the plan of Thurii(1231) in exact squares, with streets at right

angles;(1232) and the same who in his old age built the city of Rhodes

(407 B.C.), the plan of which was designed with such perfect symmetry,

that, according to the expression of the astonished ancients, it seemed

_like one house_.(1233)

3. The principles of Lycurgus, however, we repeat did not in the least

degree retard the progress of real architecture. Indeed we know that in

the embellishment of their sacred edifices the Dorians employed a style of

building which they themselves invented, from the strict principles of

which they never deviated, and which at the same time they took the utmost

care to bring to perfection. That they were in strictness the _original

inventors_ of this style of architecture has been first satisfactorily

proved by the remarkable discoveries of modern times, which have laid open

to us the monuments of the unknown ages of Greece in all their strange

peculiarities. The treasury of Atreus is indeed the only example now

extant of a class of buildings doubtless once very numerous;(1234) but its

paraboloidal construction distinguishes it as well from the later Grecian

as the oriental style of architecture. Near this structure some fragments

of columns have been discovered by modern travellers,(1235) remarkable

both for the variety of their forms and the richness of their ornaments;

still the spot on which they were found, as well as their singular shape,

leave no doubt that they belong to the same unknown period. They consist,

first, of the base of a fluted column, with a plinth, and also a torus of

elliptical outline, decorated with an alternation of projecting and

receding compartments, the former of which have in some cases an ornament

of spiral lines; secondly, a fragment of the shaft of a column of

bronze-coloured marble, similarly ornamented with compartments; thirdly, a

very small fragment of a capital; and, lastly, a tablet of white marble,

with a species of ornament in imitation of shells. There are in the

British Museum two tablets of light green and dark red marble, both taken

from the treasury of Atreus, which have the spiral lines above mentioned,

and are worked very elaborately, though without mathematical

precision.(1236) We have given this description of a style of

architecture, not strictly belonging to our subject, in order to direct

the reader’s attention to these most remarkable remains of Grecian

sculpture, which are quite sufficient to convince us that the building to

which they belong, thus adorned with party-coloured stones, and probably

covered in the interior with plates of bronze, may be reckoned as the

monument of a time when a semi-barbarous style of architecture prevailed

throughout Greece.

4. In direct contrast with the above is the simple unornamented character

and unobtrusive grandeur of the style unanimously called by the ancients

_the Doric_.(1237) It appears certain that the first hints of this order

were borrowed from buildings constructed of wood, a fact which I cannot

reconcile with the supposition of a foreign origin. For we should thus

lose sight altogether of the gradual and regular progress by which it

advanced to maturity, and suppose that the improvements of foreign

artificers, with their peculiar principles, and those of native

architects, looking only to the original structure of wood, were blended,

or rather violently confused together. Could anything be more natural than

that the long surface of the principal beams should be imitated in stone,

that the cross-beams with the Doric triglyph should be laid over these,

the intervals or metopes being by degrees covered with marble, whilst the

cornice, in imitation of carpenters’ work, was allowed to project in bold

relief? The roof perhaps was for some time allowed to end in a slope on

each side; Corinth was the first place where the front and hind part were

finished off with a pediment; the tympanum being adorned with statues of

ancient clay-work.(1238) Such was the origin of the Doric temple, of which

early models have been preserved in the Doric towns of Corinth and Pæstum,

in Ægina, and the Doric colonies of Sicily.

We cannot however suppose it to have been the opinion of the historian of

ancient architecture,(1239) that the _artistical_ character of the Doric

architecture may be satisfactorily derived from wooden buildings. It is

the essence of this art to connect, by the varieties of form and

proportion, a peculiar association of ideas with works intended merely for

purposes of necessity. The Doric character, in short, created the Doric

architecture. In the temples of this order the weight to be supported is

intentionally increased, and the architrave, frieze, and cornice, of

unusual depth; but the columns are proportionably strong, and placed very

close to each other; so that, in contemplating the structure, our

astonishment at the weight supported is mingled with pleasure at the

security imparted by the strength of the columns underneath. This

impression of firmness and solidity is increased by the rapid tapering of

the column, its conical shape giving it an appearance of strength; while

the diminution beginning immediately at the base, and the straight line

not being, as in other orders, softened by the interposition of the

swelling, gives a severity of character to the order.

With this rapid diminution is also connected the bold projection of the

echinus (or _quarter-round_) of the capital; which likewise creates a

striking impression, particularly if its outline is nearly rectilineal.

The alternation of long unornamented surfaces with smaller rows of

decorated work awakens a feeling of simple grandeur, without appearing

either monotonous or fatiguing. The harmony spread over the whole becomes

more conspicuous when contrasted with the dark shadows occasioned by the

projecting drip of the cornice; above, the magnificent pediment crowns the

whole. Thus in this creation of art we find expressed the peculiar bias of

the Doric race to strict rule, simple proportion, and pure harmony.

Chapter II.

§ 1. General character of the Doric dress. § 2. Different dresses

of married and unmarried women among the Dorians. § 3. Dress of

the Spartan women. § 4. Dress of the Spartan men. § 5. Simplicity

of the Doric dress. § 6. Doric and Ionic fashions of wearing the

hair. Change of costume in many Doric states. Baths.

1. The next point which we have to consider is the mode of clothing in use

among the Dorians; in which a peculiar taste was displayed; an ancient

decorum and simplicity, equally removed from the splendour of Asiatics and

the uncleanliness of barbarians. At the same time, however, they paid

considerable attention to their personal appearance, although their

manners did not require the body to be studiously and completely covered.

A Dorian was the first who in the lists of Olympia threw off the heavy

girdle, which the wrestlers of Homer had worn in common with those of

barbarous countries, and ran naked to the goal;(1240) in fact a display of

the naked form, when all covering was useless, and indeed inconvenient,

was altogether in harmony with the Doric character. This reminds us of the

nakedness of the Spartan young women, even in the time of Athenian

civilization, which custom gave rise to the joke, that “the Spartans

showed foreigners their virgins naked.”(1241) On this subject, however, it

is necessary that we should enter into greater detail.

2. In the first place these words direct our attention to the different

modes of life of the married and unmarried women among the Dorians. Modern

manners, derived from the age of chivalry, carefully withdraw young women

from all impressions calculated to inflame the passions; while married

women are more exposed to intercourse with men. But, according to the

colder notions of the Greeks, which are seen most clearly among the

Dorians, the unmarried lived more in public than the married women; who

attended more to the care of their family; and hence the former alone

practised music and athletic exercises; the latter being occupied only

with their household affairs.(1242) This explains why at Sparta unmarried

women appeared with their faces uncovered, while the married only went out

in veils;(1243) and it was common to see the former walking in the streets

with young men,(1244) which was certainly not permitted to the others; and

so also at Sparta,(1245) in Crete,(1246) and at Olympia, virgins were

permitted to be spectators of the gymnastic contests, and _married_ women

only were excluded;(1247) the reverse of which was the case in Ionia,

where the unmarried women were usually shut up in the interior of the

houses.(1248)

This different position in society was also marked by the dress, which was

lighter and less strict among the unmarried women; for it is these alone

who are charged with exposure of their persons. This charge of the

Athenians was, however, caused by a strange forgetfulness of ancient

custom; for after the mode of treatment of their women had become

precisely similar to that of the eastern nations, the ancient Greek usage

appeared to them unnatural;(1249) and the dress of the Doric women caused

in their minds the same notions as the German dress in those of the

Romans; of which Tacitus says, “the German women wear the arms naked up to

the shoulders, and even the next part of the breast is uncovered;

_notwithstanding which_ they never break the marriage vow.”

3. On the dress of the Spartans I need only, after the labours of former

writers,(1250) make the following remarks. The chief, or indeed the only

garment of the Doric virgin is by ancient writers sometimes called

_himation_,(1251) sometimes _chiton_: the former more correctly, as

appears from works of art; and the latter word was used metaphorically,

from the resemblance of the himation to the linen chiton of the Ionians.

This garment of woollen stuff was without sleeves, and fastened over both

shoulders by clasps (πόρπαι, περόναι), which were often of considerable

size;(1252) while the Ionic women wore sleeves of greater or less

length.(1253) This chiton was only joined together on one side, while on

the other it was left partly open or slit up (σχιστὸς χίτων(1254));

probably it could be fastened with clasps, or opened wider, so as to admit

a freer motion of the limbs, so that the two skirts (πτέρυγες) flew open;

whence Ibycus called the Spartan women φαινομηρίδες.(1255) This garment

was also worn without a girdle; when it hung down to the calves of the

legs.(1256)

This is generally the dress with which the goddesses Victory and Iris are

represented in works of art, the latter particularly among the statues

from the pediment of the Parthenon, in which rapid motion is indicated by

the chiton being thrown from the feet and ancles on the left side; and in

the same chiton, though with more ample folds, is the dress of Athene in

many statues of the more finished and perfect style of the art: and

Artemis, the huntress, in the Doric chiton, girt up for the purpose of

rapid motion.

In one of these different fashions, according to her object and business,

the virgin of Sparta, generally without the himation,(1257) wore a single

garment, and appeared even in the company of men without any further

covering. Thus Periander the Corinthian(1258) was seized with love for the

beautiful Melissa at Epidaurus, when he saw her dressed, after the

Peloponnesian manner, in her chiton, without any upper garment, as she was

giving out wine to the labourers.(1259) In this costume the Doric virgins

might be seen dancing at their places of exercise and in the chorus.(1260)

The married women, however, never appeared without an upper garment; which

probably was not essentially different from the himation of the men: thus,

for example, the wife of Phocion, who lived in the Doric manner, according

to the account of Plutarch, often went out in the himation of her husband.

4. This leads us to consider the costume of the men, the chief parts of

which we will describe generally, before we speak of them in detail. These

then are, first, the chiton, a woollen shirt without sleeves, worn by all

the Greeks and Italians, the only dress of boys;(1261) since it was not

till after the increase of luxury in Athens that they began to dress young

boys in the himation.(1262) Secondly, the himation, called in Homer

χλαῖνα.(1263) a square piece of cloth, sometimes rounded off at the

corners, which was commonly thrown over the left, and behind under the

right arm, and the end was again brought back over the left

shoulder.(1264) Thirdly, the chlamys (Θετταλικὰ πτέρα), of Macedonian and

Thessalian origin,(1265) an oblong piece of cloth, of which the two lower

ends came forward, and were fastened with a clasp upon the right shoulder;

so that it left that arm free. This latter dress is never mentioned in the

poems of Homer. Sappho was the first among the Greek poets who spoke of

it.(1266) It was not therefore till after her time that its use was

extended over Greece Proper, first as the dress of horsemen, and young men

in general, and then as a military cloak; under which character it was

introduced into Sparta.(1267) The earliest painted vases, however, always

represent the warriors in the himation, which is commonly without folds,

and drawn close to the body.(1268)

Thucydides(1269) says of the Lacedæmonians, that “_they were the first to

adopt a simpler mode of dress_:” a statement which is founded on a

peculiar notion of this historian, that the loose linen garments, which

were still worn by old-fashioned people at Athens in the time of

Aristophanes, were the original Greek dress; whereas we know with

tolerable certainty that this dress was brought over to Athens by the

Ionians of Asia.(1270) The Athenians again laid this aside at the time of

the Peloponnesian war, and returned to the thin clothing of the ancient

Greeks; with the exception of the women, who had formerly at Athens worn

the Doric costume, but now retained the Ionic dress with long sleeves,

wide folds, and trailing hem, which was generally of linen. Thucydides,

however, is so far right, that the Lacedæmonians were distinguished among

all the Greeks for their scanty and simple clothing: thus the Lacedæmonian

habit,(1271) the τρίβων,(1272) was of thick cloth and small size,(1273)

which the youths(1274) of Sparta were bound by custom to wear the whole

year through without any other clothes;(1275) and to which older men (for

example, those Athenians who aped the Lacedæmonian manners) sometimes

voluntarily submitted.

5. As at Athens the style of dress indicated the rank and station of the

wearer, so also the Doric manners were clearly expressed in the

arrangement of the clothes. Thus, for example, it was generally recognised

in Greece that holding the arms within the cloak was a sign of

modesty;(1276) and hence the Spartan youths, like the Roman in the first

year of their manhood, appeared always in the street with both hands under

their cloak and their eyes cast down, “resembling statues,” says

Xenophon,(1277) “in their silence, and in the immoveability of their eyes,

and more modest than virgins in the bridal chamber.” In the same manner

the youths of lower Italy, in which there were many Doric cities, are

frequently represented on vases, with the arms folded under the cloak,

which is indicated by the large fold across the breast.(1278)

In other respects equality(1279) and simplicity were the prevailing rule.

Manufacturers of ointment were excluded from Sparta, as being corrupters

of oil: dyers, because they deprived the wool of its beautiful white

colour.(1280) “Deceitful are ointments, and deceitful are dyes,” is the

Spartan expression for this idea.(1281) Even in the cities which had early

departed from the Doric customs, there were frequent and strict

prohibitions against expensiveness of female attire, prostitutes alone

being wisely excepted.(1282) As in Sparta the beard was considered as the

ornament of a man,(1283) and as a sign of freedom (to which the symbolical

edict of the ephors to shave the beard refers),(1284) so also at Byzantium

and Rhodes shaving was prohibited by ancient, but constantly neglected,

laws.(1285) The custom of carrying sticks (in Doric σκυτάλαι) was common

to the Spartans,(1286) with the Dorians of lower Italy.(1287)

6. The Doric customs were not, however, hostile to the beauty of personal

appearance; but the beauty at which they aimed was of a severe kind, and

remote from all feminine tenderness. The Spartan from his youth

upwards(1288) preserved, in order to distinguish him from slaves and

mechanics,(1289) according to ancient usage,(1290) the hair of his head

uncut,(1291) which indeed, if not properly arranged, might frequently give

him a squalid appearance. It seems that both men and women tied the hair

in a knot over the crown of the head;(1292) while, according to the Ionic

custom, which in this respect resembled that of the barbarians, it was

divided into locks, and connected over the forehead with golden clasps in

the shape of grasshoppers.(1293) On their heads the Lacedæmonians wore

hats with broad brims, which were sometimes also used in war, though

probably only by the light-armed soldiers.(1294) The manner in which they

arranged and adorned their hair for battle was remarked above.(1295)

That most of the Doric states, and particularly the colonies, degenerated

from this noble and beautiful simplicity, does not require to be proved.

The splendour of Rhodes was proverbial, nor was any dress more effeminate

than the transparent and loose robe of Tarentum;(1296) and the Sicilian

garments, which Lysander or Archidamus received as a present from

Dionysius, he rejected as unfit for his daughters.(1297)

Among the accompaniments of the toilette may be mentioned the baths; with

respect to which it may be remarked, that the Lacedæmonian custom only

admitted of two kinds; viz., the cold daily baths in the Eurotas (which

also formed a part of the regimen of king Agesilaus(1298)), and from time

to time a dry sudorific bath.(1299) But the weakening of the body by warm

or tepid baths was strictly prohibited.(1300)

Chapter III.

§ 1. Syssitia of the Dorians and other Greek races. § 2. Simple

fare of Sparta. § 3. Public tables of Sparta and Crete. § 4.

Abandonment of the simple fare in some Doric colonies.

1. With respect to the food and meals of the Dorians, we will only mention

those points which are connected with some historical or moral fact, since

we have already considered this subject in connexion with the economy of

the state.

In the first place, the adherence of the Dorians to ancient Greek usages

is visible in their custom of eating together, or of the _syssitia_. For

these public tables were not only in use among the Dorians (with whom,

besides in Crete and Sparta, they also existed at Megara in the time of

Theognis,(1301) and at Corinth in the time of Periander),(1302) but they

had also once been a national custom among the Œnotrians(1303) and their

kinsmen the Arcadians, particularly at Phigalia;(1304) and among the

Greeks of Homer the princes at least eat together, and at the cost of the

community; a custom which was retained by the Prytanes at Athens, Rhodes,

and elsewhere. In particular, the public tables of Sparta have in many

points a great resemblance to the Homeric banquets (δαῖτες)(1305); only

that _all_ the Spartans were in a certain manner considered as princes.

The Spartans, however, so far departed from the ancient custom, that at

the time of Alcman they _lay_(1306) at table; while the Dorians of Crete

always _sat_,(1307) like the heroes of Homer and the early Romans,

according to the ancient European usage, which was entirely supplanted

among the early Greeks by the oriental custom introduced by the Ionians.

2. With regard to the food, it is probable that in Sparta much had been

retained from ancient usage, and that the rest had been from its first

origin peculiar to the nation. The profession of cook at Sparta was, as we

have already remarked, hereditary,(1308) and consequently they had no

inducement to vie with one another in the delicacy and luxury of their

dishes: they cooked the black broth, as their ancestors had done before

them. It was likewise more difficult to make dishes of various

ingredients, on account of the division of the different departments of

cookery; for instance, some cooks were only allowed to dress flesh, others

to make broth,(1309) &c. The bakers, whose trade also was hereditary,

generally baked nothing but barley-bread (ἄλφιτα);(1310) wheaten bread was

only eaten at the dessert of the public tables, when presented by liberal

individuals.(1311) The latter kind of bread was originally scarce in

Greece, whither it was introduced chiefly from Sicily;(1312) in which

country they had also a particular kind of Doric wheaten bread, of coarser

meal than was common elsewhere.(1313) The chief dish of meat at the public

tables was the black broth (μέλας ζωμὸς);(1314) also pork,(1315) the meat

being subjected to stricter regulations than any other kind of food.(1316)

Poultry and game were generally eaten after dinner: beef, pork, and kid,

were chiefly supplied by the sacrifices, which upon the whole were an

exception to the Phiditia.(1317) Their mode of drinking was also that of

the ancient Greeks; which, as far as I am aware, is only mentioned in

Homer. Before each person was placed a cup, which was filled by the

cup-bearer with mixed wine, when it had been emptied; the wine was however

never passed round, and no person drank to another; which were Lydian

customs introduced by the Ionians.(1318) Both in Sparta and Crete it was

forbidden by law to drink to intoxication;(1319) and no persons were

lighted home except old men of sixty.(1320)

3. But a still more beautiful feature in the Doric character is the

friendly community of their public tables, founded upon the close union of

the company of the tables (ἑταιρία in Crete);(1321) into which fresh

members were admitted by unanimous election (by ballot).(1322) Whether a

preference was shown to kinsmen is uncertain; the syssitia indeed, as

divisions of the state, were founded upon a supposed relationship, that

is, the connexion of houses;(1323) but here we are speaking of smaller

societies, consisting of about fifteen men. A company of this kind was a

small state in itself,(1324) arranged upon aristocratical

principles,(1325) although the equality was not interrupted by the

privileges of any individuals. The ties of this friendly union were

however drawn still closer by the constant intercourse of giving and

taking, which enriched the scanty meal with the more palatable

_after-meal_ (ἐπάϊκλον) or dessert, which no one was permitted to

purchase:(1326) from which the κοπὶς should be distinguished, a

sacrificial feast, which individuals furnished on stated occasions, and

invited to it any friends whom they wished, and particularly the

kings.(1327) The phiditia were not, however, considered a scanty and

disagreeable meal, until thrown in the shade by the refinements of modern

luxury; for they had originally been intended to increase the comforts of

the partakers. The conversation, indeed, turned chiefly upon public

affairs:(1328) but laughter and jocularity were not prohibited.(1329)

Every person was encouraged to speak by the general confidence, and there

were frequent songs, as Alcman says that “at the banquets and drinking

entertainments of the men, it was fit for the guests to sing the

pæan.”(1330) Nor was the appellation φειδίτια, that is, the _spare_, or

_scanty meals_, of any antiquity, and the Spartans received it from

abroad:(1331) by whom, as well as in Crete, they were once called ἀνδρεῖα,

or the meals of men.(1332) For the men alone were admitted to them: the

youths and boys ate in their own divisions, whilst the small children were

allowed to eat at the public tables, and both in Crete and Sparta they sat

on low stools near their fathers’ chairs, and received a half share

without any vegetables (ἀβαμβάκευστα).(1333) The women were never admitted

to the syssitia of the men: both at Sparta and in Crete the rule was, that

they ate at home;(1334) in the latter state, however, a woman had the care

of the tables of the men.(1335) The Cretans were distinguished by their

great hospitality: for every two tables of the citizens there was always

one for foreigners; and when two cities were in close alliance with one

another, their citizens mutually enjoyed the right of frequenting the

public tables of the other state.(1336)

4. This temperance and simplicity, which was longest preserved in Crete

and Sparta, were considered by the ancients as characterizing generally

the whole Doric race, and a simple mode of cookery was called Doric;(1337)

although many cities of that race, such as Tarentum, Syracuse,(1338) and

Agrigentum,(1339) entirely abandoned the severe and sober habits of their

race; and having once broken through the bonds of ancient custom, gave

themselves up with the less restraint to every kind of luxury and

indulgence.(1340)

Chapter IV.

§ 1. Freedom of intercourse between unmarried persons at Sparta. §

2. Marriage ceremonies. § 3. Age of marriage. § 4. Relations of

husband and wife. § 5. Different treatment of women among the

Ionians. § 6. Παιδεραστία of Sparta. § 7. And of Crete. § 8.

Origin of this custom.

1. We now proceed to describe the different relations in the domestic life

of the Dorians; and first, that between man and wife. Here it will be

necessary to contradict the idea, that the duties of private life were but

little esteemed by the Doric race, particularly at Sparta, and were

sacrificed to the duty owed to the community. The Lacedæmonian maxim was

in direct opposition to this doctrine; viz., that the door of his

court(1341) was the boundary of every man’s freedom:(1342) without, all

owned the authority of the state; within, the master of the house ruled as

lord on his own ground;(1343) and the rights of domestic life,

notwithstanding their frequent collision with the public institutions,

were more respected than at Athens. At the same time, however, a peculiar

national custom, which pervaded the whole system of legislation, prevailed

throughout these relations with a force and energy, which we, taking the

accounts of the ancients as our guide, will endeavour now to examine. It

has been above remarked how, in accordance with the manners of the east,

but in direct opposition to the later habits of the Greeks,(1344) a free

intercourse in public was permitted by the Dorians to the youth of both

sexes, who were brought into contact particularly at festivals and

choruses.(1345) Hence Homer represents the Cretan chorus as composed of

young men and women, who dance hand in hand.(1346) At Sparta in particular

the young men lived in the presence of the unmarried women, and as their

derision was an object of dread, so to be the theme of their praise was

the highest reward for noble actions.(1347) Hence it was very possible at

Sparta, that affection and love, although not of a romantic nature, should

take possession of the heart: but at Athens, as far as my recollection

goes, we have not a single instance of a man having loved a free-born

woman, and marrying her from any strong affection, whilst a single

narrative of Herodotus(1348) contains two love stories at Sparta. How many

opportunities may have been given by the festivals, as for instance the

Hyacinthia, at which the Spartan damsels were seen going about in κάναθρα

(ornamented cars peculiar to the country, which were also used in the

procession to the temple of Helen at Therapne), and racing in chariots in

the midst of assembled multitudes.(1349) Accordingly, the beauty of her

women, the most beautiful in all Greece,(1350) was at Sparta more than any

other town, an object of general admiration, in a nation where beauty of

form was particularly felt and esteemed.(1351)

2. Two things were, however, requisite as an introduction and preparation

to marriage at Sparta, first, betrothing on the part of the father;(1352)

secondly, the seizure of the bride. The latter was clearly an ancient

national custom, founded on the idea that the young woman could not

surrender her freedom and virgin purity unless compelled by the violence

of the stronger sex. They married, says Plutarch, by ravishing. The

bridegroom brought the young virgin, having carried her off from the

chorus of maidens or elsewhere, to the bride’s maid, who cut short her

hair, and left her lying in a man’s dress and shoes, without a light, on a

bed of rushes, until the bridegroom returned from the public banquet,

carried the bride to the nuptial couch, and loosened her girdle.(1353) And

this intercourse was for some time carried on clandestinely, till the man

brought his wife, and frequently her mother, into his house. That this

usage was retained to the last days of Sparta may be inferred from the

fact, that the young wife of Panteus was still in the house of her

parents, and remained there, when he went with Cleomenes to Egypt.(1354) A

similar custom must have prevailed in Crete, where we find, that the young

persons who were dismissed at the same time from the agele, were

immediately married, but did not till some time after introduce their

wives into their own house.(1355) The children born before this took place

were probably called παρθενίαι;(1356) they were in general considered in

all respects equal to those born at home; but in the first Messenian war

particular circumstances seem to have made it impossible to provide them

with lots of land;(1357) and hence they became the founders of

Tarentum.(1358)

3. The age of marriage was fixed by the ancient Greeks and western nations

much later than at a subsequent period by those of the east. Following the

former, the laws of Sparta did not allow women of too tender an age to be

disposed of in marriage. The women were generally those at the highest

pitch of youthful vigour(1359) (called in Rhodes ἀνθεστηριάδες),(1360) and

for the men, about the age of thirty was esteemed the most proper, as we

find in Hesiod,(1361) Plato,(1362) and even Aristotle. Public actions

might however be brought against those who married too late (γραφὴ

ὀψιγαμίου), to which those also were liable who had entered into

unsuitable marriages (γραφὴ κακογαμίου), and those who remained unmarried

(γραφὴ ἀγαμίου).(1363) It is well known that these laws have been blamed

as a violation of the rights of individuals, and even a profanation of the

rite of marriage: but these censors should have remembered that they were

judging those institutions by principles which the founders of them would

not have recognised. For the Spartans considered marriage, not as a

_private relation_, about which the state had little or no interest, but

as a _public institution_, in order to rear up a strong and healthy

progeny to the nation. In Solon’s legislation, marriage was also placed

under the inspection of the state, and an action for not marrying (γραφὴ

ἀγαμίου(1364)), though merely as a relic of antiquity, existed at Athens.

It is nevertheless true that marriage, especially in Sparta, was, to a

certain degree, viewed with a primitive simplicity, which shocks the

feelings of more refined ages, as the peculiar object of matrimony was

never kept out of sight. Leonidas, when despatched to Thermopylæ, is said

to have left as a legacy to his wife Gorgo the maxim, _Marry nobly, and

produce a noble offspring_;(1365) and when Acrotatus had fought bravely in

the war against Pyrrhus, the women followed him through the town, and some

of the older ones shouted after him, “Go, Acrotatus, enjoy yourself with

Chelidonis, and beget valiant sons for Sparta.”(1366) Hence we may

perceive the reason why in various cases(1367) (such as are known to us

have been mentioned above(1368)) Lycurgus not only allowed, but enjoined

the marriage duties to be transferred to another; always, however,

providing that the sanctity of the marriage union should be for a certain

time sacrificed to that which the Doric race considered as of higher

importance, viz., the maintenance of the family. That these cases were so

defined by custom, as to leave but little room for the effects of caprice

or passion, is evident from the infrequency of adultery at Sparta:(1369)

but the above aim justified even king Anaxandridas, when, contrary to all

national customs, he cohabited with two wives,(1370) who lived without

doubt in separate houses. To marry foreign women was certainly forbidden

to all Spartans, and to the Heraclidæ by a separate rhetra;(1371) contrary

to the custom in other Grecian towns, especially Athens, whose princes in

early times, as Megacles, Miltiades, &c., frequently contracted marriages

with foreigners.

4. The domestic relation of the wife to her husband among the Dorians was

in general the same as that of the ancient western nations, described by

Homer as universal among the Greeks, and which existed at Rome till a late

period; the only difference being, that the peculiarities of the custom

were preserved by the Dorians more strictly than elsewhere. It formed a

striking contrast with the habits of the Ionic Athenians, with whom the

ancient custom of Greece was almost entirely supplanted by that of the

east.(1372) Amongst the Ionians of Asia, the wife (as we are informed by

Herodotus(1373)) shared indeed the bed, but not the table of her husband;

she dared not call him by his name, but addressed him with the title of

lord, and lived secluded in the interior of the house: on this model the

most important relations between man and wife were regulated at Athens.

But amongst the Dorians of Sparta, the wife(1374) was honoured by her

husband with the title of mistress (δέσποινα),(1375) (a gallantry

belonging to the north of Greece, and also practised by the

Thessalians(1376)), which was used neither ironically nor unmeaningly.

Nay, so strange did the importance which the Lacedæmonian women enjoyed,

and the influence which they exercised as the managers of their household,

and mothers of families, appear to the Greeks, at a time when the

prevalence of Athenian manners prevented a due consideration for national

customs, that Aristotle(1377) supposed Lycurgus to have attempted, but

without success, to regulate the life of women as he had that of the men;

and the Spartans were frequently censured for submitting to the yoke of

their wives.(1378) Nevertheless Alcman, generally a great admirer of the

beauty of Lacedæmonian women, could say, “It becomes a man to say much,

and a woman to rejoice at all she hears.”(1379) In accusing the women of

Sparta, however, for not essentially assisting their country in times of

necessity, Aristotle has in the first place required of them a duty which

even in Sparta lay out of their sphere, and in the second place, his

assertion has been sufficiently contradicted by the events of a subsequent

period, in the last days of Sparta, which acquired a surprising lustre

from female valour.(1380) On the whole, however, little as the Athenians

esteemed their own women, they involuntarily revered the heroines of

Sparta, such as Gorgo the wife of Leonidas, Lampito the daughter of

Leotychidas, the wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis;(1381) and this

feeling is sometimes apparent even in the coarse jests of Aristophanes.

5. How this indulgent treatment of the women among the Dorians produced a

state of opinion entirely different from that prevalent at Athens, has

been intimated above, and will be further explained hereafter. In general

it may be remarked, that while among the Ionians women were merely

considered in an inferior and sensual light, and though the Æolians

allowed their feelings a more exalted tone, as is proved by the amatory

poetesses of Lesbos;(1382) the Dorians, as well at Sparta as in the south

of Italy, were almost the only nation who esteemed the higher attributes

of the female mind as capable of cultivation.

It is hardly necessary to remark, that in considering the rights and

duties of the wife, as represented in the above pages, to apply to the

whole Doric race, allowance must be made for the alterations introduced

into different towns, particularly by foreign intercourse and luxury. At

Corinth, for instance, the institution of the sacred slaves (ἱερόδουλοι)

in the temple of Aphrodite, probably introduced from Asia Minor, produced

a most prejudicial effect on the morals of that city, and made it the

ancient and great resort of courtesans.(1383)

6. Having now considered the personal relations between the sexes, we next

come to those depending on difference of age; which from the Doric

principle of the elders instructing the younger, are intimately connected

with education.(1384) But before we enter on that subject, it will be

necessary to speak of a connexion (termed by the Greeks παιδεραστία),

which, so long as it was regulated by the ancient Doric principles, to be

recognised both in the Cretan laws and those of Lycurgus, had great

influence on the instruction of youth. We will first state the exact

circumstances of this relation, and then make some general remarks on it;

but without examining it in a moral point of view, which does not fall

within the scope of this work.

At Sparta the party loving was called εἰσπνήλας,(1385) and his affection

was termed a _breathing in_, or _inspiring_ (εἰσπνεῖν(1386)); which

expresses the pure and mental connexion between the two persons, and

corresponds with the name of the other, viz., ἀΐτας,(1387) _i.e._,

_listener_ or _hearer_. Now it appears to have been the practice for every

youth of good character to have his lover;(1388) and, on the other hand,

every well-educated man was bound by custom to be the lover of some

youth.(1389) Instances of this connexion are furnished by several of the

royal family of Sparta; thus Agesilaus, while he still belonged to the

herd of youths, was the _hearer_ of Lysander,(1390) and himself had in his

turn also a _hearer_;(1391) his son Archidamus was the lover of the son of

Sphodrias, the noble Cleonymus;(1392) Cleomenes the Third was, when a

young man, the hearer of Xenares,(1393) and later in life the lover of the

brave Panteus.(1394) The connexion usually originated from the proposal of

the lover; yet it was necessary that the listener should accept him from

real affection, as a regard to the riches of the proposer was considered

very disgraceful:(1395) sometimes however it happened that the proposal

originated from the other party.(1396) The connexion appears to have been

very intimate and faithful, and was recognised by the state. If his

kinsmen were absent, the youth might be represented in the public assembly

by his lover:(1397) in battle too they stood near one another, where their

fidelity and affection were often shown till death;(1398) while at home

the youth was constantly under the eyes of his lover, who was to him as it

were a model and pattern of life;(1399) which explains why, for many

faults, particularly for want of ambition, the lover could be punished

instead of the listener.(1400)

7. This ancient national custom prevailed with still greater force in

Crete; which island was hence by many persons considered as the original

seat of the connexion in question.(1401) Here too it was disgraceful for a

well-educated youth to be without a lover;(1402) and hence the party loved

was termed κλεινὸς,(1403) the _praised_; the lover being simply called

φιλήτωρ. It appears that the youth was always carried away by force,(1404)

the intention of the ravisher being previously communicated to the

relations, who however took no measures of precaution, and only made a

feigned resistance; except when the ravisher appeared, either in family or

talent, unworthy of the youth. The lover then led him away to his

apartment (ἀνδρεῖον), and afterwards, with any chance companions, either

to the mountains or to his estate. Here they remained two months (the

period prescribed by custom), which were passed chiefly in hunting

together. After this time had expired, the lover dismissed the youth, and

at his departure gave him, according to custom, an ox, a military dress,

and brazen cup, with other things; and frequently these gifts were

increased by the friends of the ravisher.(1405) The youth then sacrificed

the ox to Zeus, with which he gave a feast to his companions: at this he

stated how he had been pleased with his lover; and he had complete liberty

by law to punish any insult or disgraceful treatment. It depended now on

the choice of the youth whether the connexion should be broken off or not.

If it was kept up, the companion in arms (παραστάτης), as the youth was

then called, wore the military dress which had been given him; and fought

in battle next his lover, inspired with double valour by the gods of war

and love, according to the notion of the Cretans;(1406) and even in man’s

age he was distinguished by the first place and rank in the course, and

certain insignia worn about the body.

Institutions, so systematic and regular as these, did not indeed exist in

any Doric state except Crete and Sparta; but the feelings on which they

were founded seem to have been common to all the Dorians. The love of

Philolaus, a Corinthian of the family of the Bacchiadæ, and the lawgiver

of Thebes, and of Diocles the Olympic conqueror, lasted until death; and

even their graves were turned towards one another, in token of their

affection:(1407) and another person of the same name was honoured in

Megara, as a noble instance of self-devotion for the object of his

love.(1408)

8. It is indeed clear that a custom of such general prevalence cannot have

originated from any accidental impression or train of reasoning; but must

have been founded on feelings natural to the whole Doric race. Now that

the affection of the lover was not entirely mental, and that a pleasure in

beholding the beauty and vigour, the manly activity and exercises(1409) of

the youth was also present, is certain. But it is a very different

question, whether this custom, universally prevalent both in Crete and

Sparta, followed by the noblest men, by the legislators encouraged with

all care, and having so powerful an influence on education, was identical

with the vice to which in its name and outward form it is so nearly

allied.

The subject should be carefully considered, before, with Aristotle, we

answer this question in the affirmative, who not only takes the fact as

certain, but even accounts for it by supposing that the custom was

instituted by the legislator of Crete as a check to population.(1410) Is

it, I ask, likely that so disgraceful a vice, not practised in secret, but

publicly acknowledged and countenanced by the state, not confined to a few

individuals, but common for centuries to the whole people, should really

have existed, and this in the race of all the Greeks, the most

distinguished for its healthy, temperate, and even ascetic habits? These

difficulties must be solved before the testimony of Aristotle can be

received.

I will now offer what appears to me the most probable view of this

question. The Dorians seem in early times to have considered an intimate

friendship and connexion between males as necessary for their proper

education. But the objection which would have presented itself in a later

age, viz. the liability to abuse of such a habit, had then no existence,

as has been already remarked by a learned writer.(1411) And hence they saw

no disadvantage to counterbalance the advantages which they promised

themselves in the unrestrained intercourse which would be the natural

consequence of the new institution. It is also true that the manners of

simple and primitive nations generally have and need less restraint than

those whom a more general intercourse and the greater facility of

concealment have forced to enact prohibitory laws. This view is in fact

confirmed by the declaration of Cicero, that the Lacedæmonians brought the

lover into the closest relation with the object of his love, and that

every sign of affection was permitted _præter stuprum_;(1412) for although

in the times of the corruption of manners this proximity would have been

attended with the most dangerous consequences, in early times it never

would have been permitted, if any pollution had been apprehended from it.

And we know from another source that this _stuprum_ was punished by the

Lacedæmonians most severely, viz. with banishment or death.(1413) It may

be moreover added, that this pure connexion was encouraged by the Doric

principle of taking the education from the hands of parents, and

introducing boys in early youth to a wider society than their home could

afford.(1414)

Chapter V.

§ 1. Education of the youth at Sparta. Its early stages. § 2. Its

continuation after the twelfth year. § 3. Education of the youth

in Crete. § 4. Nature of the education: gymnastic and music. § 5.

Influence of the Dorians upon the national games. § 6. The Spartan

youth trained to hardships. § 7. Military games at Crete and

Sparta. § 8. Athletic exercises of the women.

1. The education of the youth (νεολαία)(1415) in the ancient Doric states

of Sparta and Crete, was conducted, as might be supposed, on a very

artificial system: indeed, the great number of classes into which the boys

and youths were distributed, would itself lead us to this conclusion. For

since this separation could not have been made without some aim, each

class, we may conjecture, was treated in some way different from the rest,

the whole forming a complete scale of mental or bodily acquirements.

Whether a new-born infant should be preserved or not, was decided in

Lacedæmon by the state, _i.e._ a council composed of the elders of the

house.(1416) This custom was not by any means more barbarous than that of

the ancient world in general, which, in earlier times at least, gave the

father full power over the lives of his children. Here we may perceive the

great influence of the community over the education of its members, which

should not, however, lead us to suppose that all connexion between parents

and children was dissolved, or the dearest ties of nature torn asunder.

Even Spartan mothers preserved a power over their sons when arrived at

manhood, of which we find no trace in the rest of Greece. Agesilaus riding

before his children on a stick(1417) presents a true picture of the

education,(1418) which was entrusted entirely to the parents(1419) till

the age of seven; at which period the public and regular education

(ἀγωγὴ)(1420) commenced. This was in strictness enjoyed only by the sons

of Spartans (πολιτικοὶ παῖδες),(1421) and the mothaces (slaves brought up

in the family) selected to share their education: sometimes also Spartans

of half-blood were admitted.(1422) This education was one chief requisite

for a free citizen;(1423) whoever refused to submit to it,(1424) suffered

a partial loss of his rights; the immediate heir to the throne was the

only person excepted,(1425) whilst the younger sons of the kings were

brought up in the herd (ἀγέλη). Leonidas and Agesilaus, two of the noblest

princes of Sparta, submitted when boys to the correction of their masters.

2. From the twelfth year(1426) upwards, the education of boys was much

more strict. About the age of sixteen or seventeen they were called

σιδεῦναι.(1427) At the expiration of his eighteenth year, the youth

emerged from childhood, the first years of this new rank being

distinguished by separate terms.(1428) During the progress from the

condition of an ephebus to manhood, the young Spartans were called

_Sphæreis_,(1429) probably because their chief exercise was foot-ball,

which game was carried on with great emulation, and indeed resembled a

battle rather than a diversion.(1430) In their nineteenth year they were

sent out on the crypteia,(1431) at twenty they served in the ranks, their

duties resembling those of the περίπολοι at Athens. Still the youths,

although they were now admitted to the public banquets,(1432) remained in

the divisions, which were called ἀγέλαι, or in the Spartan dialect

βοῦαι,(1433) and distributed into smaller troops (called ἴλαι).(1434) The

last name was also applied to a troop of horse,(1435) and is one amongst

several other proofs,(1436) that, in early times at least, the exercise of

riding was one of the principal occupations of the youths of Sparta. In

these divisions all distinction of age was lost, the leaders of them were

taken from among the Irenes,(1437) and exercised great powers over the

younger members; for the use of which they were in their turn responsible

to every citizen of a more advanced age,(1438) and particularly to the

paidonomus, a magistrate of very extensive authority.(1439) His assistants

were the floggers, or mastigophori, who were selected from the young

men,(1440) the buagi or managers of the buæ;(1441) besides which, there

were certain officers appointed to manage the boys, called ampaides.(1442)

A similar arrangement was adopted in the societies of the girls and young

women.(1443) Theocritus, in his Epithalamium of Helen, represents 240

young women of the same age, as joining in the daily exercises and

games.(1444) And whilst Doric customs prevailed at Croton, the daughter of

Pythagoras (according to Timæus)(1445) was several times appointed leader

of the young women and matrons.

3. In Crete the boys, as long as they remained in the house of their

father, were said to dwell in darkness.(1446) At this period they were

admitted into the syssitia of their respective fathers, where they sat

together on the ground; after the syssitia they formed themselves into

societies under separate paidonomi.(1447) It was not till their

seventeenth year that they were enrolled in the agelæ,(1448) so that the

education was here entrusted to the family for a longer period than at

Sparta. They remained in the agelæ till married, and consequently even

after they had attained the age of manhood; hence in the extant treaty

between the Latians and Olontians, it is required that the agelæ also

should take the oath.(1449) From the circumstance, however, that these

troops of young men were brought together by one of the most wealthy and

illustrious in their body, whose father held the office of commander

(ἀγελάτης), led them to the chase and the games, and exercised the right

of punishment over them;(1450) we perceive that a far greater influence,

as well over the government(1451) as the education, was permitted to

particular families in Crete than at Sparta, whilst the system itself was

less strict and impartial. The age of manhood was in Crete dated from the

time of admittance into the male gymnasia (there called δρόμοι;)(1452)

hence a person who had exercised ten years among the men was called

δεκάδρομος;(1453) the youth who had not as yet wrestled or run in them

ἀπόδρομος.(1454) We have no account respecting other Doric towns, and

merely know that the classes of the ephebi at Cyrene were called from the

number of each, the “three hundred.”(1455)

4. Thus far respecting the arrangements for training the youths. The

education itself was partly bodily, partly mental; although the division

must not be drawn too strictly, since each exercise of the body includes

at the same time that of the mind, at least of its hardihood, patience,

and vigour. The Greeks, however, used the general terms of _gymnastic_ for

the former, and _music_ for the latter of these branches. It is well known

that the Dorians paid more attention than any other Greeks to gymnastic

exercises;(1456) and it has been above remarked, that these exercises in

their proper sense first originated among the Cretans and Spartans; the

latter in particular have often been censured for practising them in an

immoderate degree.(1457) This want of moderation, however, though it

occurred in later times, is never perceivable in the maxims and ideas of

the Dorians, who in this, as in several other cases, knew how to set

bounds to youthful ardour, and check its pernicious effects. Aristotle

himself(1458) remarks concerning the Spartan education, that it did not

tend to form athletes, who considered gymnastic exercises as the chief

business of life; and that the exercises tending to the beauty and

elasticity of the frame were accurately separated from those of an

opposite character, is shown by the absolute prohibition of the rougher

exercises of boxing and the pancration;(1459) the latter being a mixture

of wrestling and boxing, in which the fall of either party did not decide

the victory, but the most violent contest often took place when the

combatants were struggling on the ground. The reason of this is said to

be, that in these alone an express confession of the defeated party by the

raising of the hand, served to put an end to the contest; and that

Lycurgus would not permit such an avowal to his Spartans. But the real

reason is probably that stated above. On the other hand, gladiators

(ὁπλόμαχοι) who publicly exhibited their skill in the use of arms, were

not tolerated in Laconia,(1460) probably because the use of arms was

thought too serious for mere sport and display. Nevertheless the colony of

Cyrene adopted this custom from Mantinea in Arcadia,(1461) under their

legislator Demonax.(1462)

5. The Doric race, to whom the elevation of gymnastic contests into great

national festivals was principally owing, were probably likewise the first

who introduced crowns in lieu of other prizes of victory. The gymnastic

combatants in Homer are excited by real rewards; but from the advanced

state of civilization on which the Dorians stood in other respects, it is

probable that they also purified the exhibition of bodily activity from

all other motives than the love of honour. The first crown was bestowed at

Olympia, and was gained in the seventh Olympiad by Daicles a Dorian of

Messenia.(1463) How much gymnastic exercises were practised in the

different Doric states, may be collected from the extant catalogues of the

conquerors at the Olympian, and Pythian games: some conclusions may even

be drawn from an examination of Corsini’s Catalogue. This shows that the

Spartans never practised either boxing or the pancration,(1464) and their

principles were so generally recognized at the Olympian games, over which

they possessed great influence, that boys were not till a very late period

permitted to contend in the pancration.(1465) On the other hand, many

conquerors in the race came from Sparta, particularly between the 20th and

50th Olympiads: besides numerous pentathli and wrestlers: amongst the

former Philombrotus (Olymp. 26-28.), amongst the latter Hipposthenes

(Olymp. 37-43.) and his son Hetœmocles are distinguished by the number of

crowns gained at Olympia; the first victors in both contests were also

Lacedæmonians. Before the 9th Olympiad, the Elean catalogues mention

Messenians in particular as victors in the race: from the 49th Olympiad,

the natives of Croton are conspicuous as victors in the stadium; of these,

Tisicrates and Astylus occupy the whole period between the 71st and 75th

Olympiads. At the same time the swift-footed Phallys was thrice victorious

at the Pythian games: this champion was likewise the wonder of his age in

the pentathlon (a contest requiring extraordinary activity), but

particularly in the exercise of leaping,(1466) being also a warrior and

athlete. The gymnastic training of the young Crotoniats at that time

attained the height of the development of the body in equal beauty and

strength; Croton was celebrated for its beautiful boys and youths.(1467)

During this period there existed at Croton a school of wrestlers, the

chief of whom was Milo, who from the 62nd Olympiad was victorious in

almost every one of the four principal games, more frequently than any

other Greek. It was however whilst the philosophy of Pythagoras directed

the public institutions of Croton, and influenced its manners, that this

city outshone the rest of Greece by its warriors and athletes.(1468) Milo

himself, the fabulous champion of posterity, was at the same time a sage

and hero. But the conquest of Sybaris, the destruction of the Pythagorean

league, and the adoption of the Achæan constitution, soon put an end to

this system, and Croton, without suffering any external change, lost at

the end of the 75th Olympiad the whole of her internal vigour. As the

athletes of this town followed in their choice of exercises the

fundamental principles of Spartan discipline, the case was reversed

amongst the Rhodians, particularly whilst the family of Diagoras

flourished, which produced more than six boxers, the first of their day,

and men of gigantic bodily strength.(1469) The Æginetans were famed for

their dexterity in the contests, and from the 45th Olympiad till the

dissolution of their state, bore off numerous victories in the race,

wrestling, and pancration, and were particularly distinguished as

boys.(1470) The distant colonies in Sicily and Libya took little interest

in gymnastic contests: the latter expected more glory from their renowned

horses and chariots,(1471) the former from their breed of mules.(1472) The

Cretans, although particularly distinguished in running, fought (according

to Pindar, whose statement is confirmed by these catalogues) “_like

gamecocks in the arena of their own court_.”(1473) It is not possible to

detail the peculiarities of the Doric states in their management of the

various exercises, till the customs observed at their contests,

particularly in wrestling, have been more accurately examined.(1474)

6. But all the exercises in the gymnasium of Sparta were esteemed of

perhaps less importance to the education of the body, than another class,

the object of which was to harden the frame by labour and fatigue. The

body was obliged to undergo heat and cold (the extremes of which were felt

in an immoderate degree throughout the narrow valley of Sparta),(1475)

likewise hunger, thirst and privations of every description. To this they

were trained by frequent hunting on the mountains, in which manner the

youths of Crete were also exercised,(1476) as also in the agelæ, under the

agelates.(1477) Next came the laborious service in the most distant parts

of the Laconian territory, amidst which the young men of Sparta grew up

from youth to manhood, obliged to administer to their own wants without

the assistance of a servant.(1478) The boys were also inured to hardships,

by being forced to obtain their daily nourishment by stealing; for this

custom was also limited to a particular period in the education of the

sons of the Equals.(1479) We should certainly afford at the best but a

very partial representation of these peculiar customs, if we were to

single out some striking peculiarity from a connected system, and attempt

to examine in detail a subject which should be criticised generally, or

not at all. According to the scattered fragments of our information, the

state of the case was as follows:(1480) the boys at a certain period were

generally banished from the town, and all communion with men, and were

obliged to lead a wandering life in the fields and forests. When thus

excluded, they were forced to obtain, by force or cunning the means of

subsistence from the houses and court-yards, all access to which was at

this time forbidden them; frequently obliged to keep watch for whole

nights, and always exposed to the danger of being beaten, if detected. To

judge this custom with fairness, it should only be regarded in the

connexion which we have explained above. The possession of property was

made to furnish a means of sharpening the intellect, and strengthening the

courage of the citizens, by forcing the one party to hold and the other to

obtain it by a sort of war. The loss of property which was thus

occasioned, appeared of little importance to a state where personal rights

were so little regarded; and the mischievous consequences were in some

measure avoided by an exact definition of the goods permitted to be

stolen,(1481) which were in fact those, that any Spartan who required them

for the chase, might take from the stock of another. Such was the idea

upon which this usage was kept up; it might possibly however have

originated in the ancient mountain-life of the Dorians, when they

inhabited mounts Œta and Olympus, cooped up within narrow boundaries, and

engaged in perpetual contests with the more fortunate inhabitants of the

plains: as a relic and memorial of those habits, it remained, contrasted

with the independent and secure mode of life of the Spartans at a later

period. Respecting the triumph of Spartan hardihood, viz. the scourging at

the altar of Artemis Orthia, it has been above remarked in what manner, by

a change made in the genuine Grecian spirit, the gloomy rites of a

sanguinary religion had been turned to a different and useful

purpose.(1482)

7. The gymnastic war-games, which were peculiar to the Cretans and

Spartans, still remained to be noticed as a characteristic feature of the

Doric education. At the celebration of these, the ephebi, after a

sacrifice to Ares in a temple at Therapne, went through a regular battle

unarmed, in an island formed by ditches, near the garden called

Platanistas, and exerted every means in their power to obtain the

victory.(1483) In Crete the boys belonging to one syssition frequently

engaged in battle against those of another, the youths of one agele

against those of another, and these contests bore a still nearer

resemblance to a real engagement. They marched to the sound of flutes and

lyres, and besides fists, weapons of wood and iron were employed.(1484)

Yet although at Sparta gymnastic exercises were certainly brought to a

nearer resemblance with war than in the rest of Greece, it would be

erroneous on that account to conclude, that the aim of all bodily

education among the Dorians was to obtain superiority in war. Enough has

been alleged to prove satisfactorily to any unprejudiced reader, that the

chief object of Spartan discipline was to invigorate the bodies of the

youth, without rendering their minds at the same time either brutal or

ferocious. And that this endeavour to attain, as it were, an ideal beauty

and strength of limb, was not altogether unsuccessful, may be seen from

the fact, that the Spartans, as well as the Crotoniats, were about the

60th Olympiad (540 B.C.) the most healthy of the Greeks,(1485) and that

the most beautiful men as well as women were found amongst them.(1486)

8. The female sex underwent in this respect the same education as the

male, though (as has been above remarked) only the virgins. They had their

own gymnasia,(1487) and exercised themselves, either naked or lightly

clad, in running, wrestling, or throwing the quoit and spear.(1488) It is

highly improbable that youths or men were allowed to look on, since in the

gymnasia of Lacedæmon no idle bystanders were permitted; every person was

obliged either to join the rest, or withdraw.(1489) Like the Elean girls

in the temples of Here, so at Sparta the eleven Bacchanalian virgins

exhibited their skill in the race at a contest in honour of their god.

The whole system of gymnastic exercise was placed at Sparta under the

superintendence of magistrates of the highest dignity, the bidiæi; and the

ephors every ten days inspected the condition of the boys, to ascertain

whether they were of a good habit of body, if so general a meaning can be

attached to the testimony of Agatharchides.(1490)

The whole of this book from the first chapter has been employed in

considering the manners and physical existence of the Dorians (the δίαιτα

Δωρικὴ). We now come to the second great division of education, viz.

_music_; in which term the whole mental education of the Doric race was

included, if we except writing, which was never generally taught at

Sparta.(1491) Nor indeed was it essential in a nation, where, as in Crete,

laws, hymns, and the praises of illustrious men, that is the jurisprudence

and history of such a people, were taught in the schools of music.(1492)

Chapter VI.

§ 1. Origin of the Doric musical mode. § 2. Character of the Doric

mode. § 3. Progress of music in Sparta. § 4. Public musical

performances. § 5. Progress of music in other Doric states. § 6.

Connexion of dancing and music. Military music of Sparta. § 7.

Military dances. § 8. Connexion of gymnastic exercises and

dancing. § 9. Imitative dances. § 10. Dances of the Helots. Origin

of bucolic poetry among the subject classes. § 11. Comedy

connected with the county festivals of Bacchus.

1. We are now about to speak of the history of music in the different

Doric states; and before we notice particular facts and circumstances, we

must direct our attention to the more general one, namely, that one of the

musical _modes_ or ἁρμονίαι (by which term the ancient Greeks denoted the

arrangement of intervals, the length of which was fixed by the different

kinds of harmony, γένη, according to the strings of the tetrachord,

together with the higher or lower scale of the whole system), was

anciently called the Doric,(1493) and that this measure, together with the

Phrygian and Lydian, was long the only one in use among the musicians of

Greece, and consequently the only one which in these early times derived

its name from a Greek nation; a sufficient warrant for us to consider it

as the genuine Greek mode, in contradistinction to any other introduced at

a later period.(1494) A question next arises, wherefore this ancient and

genuine Greek strain was called the _Doric_.(1495) The only explanation

that can be given is, that it was brought to perfection in Doric

countries, viz. in the ancient nurseries of music, Crete, Sparta, Sicyon,

and Delphi. There cannot therefore have been any school or succession of

musicians among the other Greek nations, of greater celebrity than the

Doric, before the time we allude to. Had this been the fact, they must

either have adopted the same mode, or had an original one of their own; in

the first case, it would have been named rather after them, in preference

to the Dorians; in the second, there would have been _two_ Greek musical

modes, not merely the Doric. It follows then, that the establishment of

the Doric music must have been of greater antiquity than the renowned

musicians of Lesbos, who themselves were prior to Archilochus,(1496) and

should not be considered as commencing with Terpander(1497) (who

flourished from Olymp. 26. till 33. 676-646 B.C.), since at his time they

had already arrived at a high degree of eminence. In fact, the Lesbian

musicians were at that time the most distinguished in Greece: they far

surpassed the native musicians of Peloponnesus, nay, even of Lacedæmon

itself; so that if the above style had not at that time been common in the

Peninsula, it would not have been called _the Doric_. Notwithstanding

which, the opposition of the Doric to the Phrygian and Lydian modes on the

one side, and the definite and systematic relation between the three on

the other, can neither have been the result of mere popular and

unscientific attempts, nor have originated in the mother-country of

Greece, where there was no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the

styles of music peculiar to those Asiatic nations,(1498) or of comparing

them with their own, so as to mould them into one. The _Doric_ mode,

however, could only have been so named originally, from the contrast which

it exhibited with these other kinds of music, and this must have been

first observed in foreign countries, and not among the Dorians or

Peloponnesians themselves, who were only acquainted with one style. The

natural supposition then is, that the Lesbian musicians, being in constant

communication both with Peloponnesus and Asia Minor, first established the

distinction and names of the three _modes_, by adapting to the particular

species of tetrachord in use throughout Peloponnesus, the accompaniments

of singing and dancing practised in Asia Minor, and moulding the whole

into a regular system.

2. Allowing then the truth of these premises, it follows that the Dorians

of Peloponnesus, the genuine Greeks, cultivated music to a greater degree

than any other of the Grecian tribes, before the time when this far-famed

school of Asia flourished. We are warranted in assuming that it was not

merely the external influence of the Doric race which gave their name to

this mode, from the close affinity it bears to the character of the

nation. The ancients, who were infinitely quicker in discovering the moral

character of music than can be the case in modern times, attributed to it

something solemn, firm, and manly, calculated to inspire fortitude in

supporting misfortunes and hardships, and to strengthen the mind against

the attacks of passion. They discovered in it a calm sublimity, and a

simple grandeur which bordered upon severity, equally opposed to

inconstancy and enthusiasm;(1499) and this is precisely the character we

find so strongly impressed on the religion, arts, and manners of the

Dorians. The severity and rudeness of this music (which appeared gloomy

and harsh to the later ages, and would be still more so to our ears,

accustomed to a softer style) was strikingly contrasted with the mild and

pleasing character which had then long pervaded the Epic poetry. It

teaches us undoubtedly to distinguish between the Asiatic Greeks, and

those sprung from the mountains in the north of Greece, who, proud of

their natural loftiness of character and vigour of mind, had acquired but

little refinement from any contact with strangers.

3. In the study of music, as well as every thing else, the Dorians were

uniformly the friends of antiquity; and in this also Sparta was considered

the model of Doric customs.(1500) Not that Sparta opposed herself

altogether to every attempt at improvement; her object was, that every

novelty should be first acknowledged to be an improvement, before it

passed into common use, and formed a part of the national education. Hence

it unavoidably followed, that the music publicly practised in Sparta

proceeded by rapid and single advances to a state of perfection; which

opinion is perfectly consistent with the account given by an ancient

author of the different regulations respecting the exercise of this

art.(1501) When Terpander, the son of Derdenes, an inhabitant of Antissa

in Lesbos, four times carried off the prize in the Pythian games, and also

in the Carnean festival at Sparta (where the musicians of his school were

long distinguished),(1502) and had tranquillized the tumults and disorders

of the city by the solemn and healing tones of his songs,(1503) the

acknowledged admiration of this master became so general in Sparta, that

he procured the sanction of the law to his new inventions, particularly

the seven-stringed cithara. It appears that by these means(1504) the music

of earlier times became entirely antiquated, so that with the exception of

the ancient Pythian minstrels, Chrysothemis and Philammon, not one name of

the Doric musicians, before the time of Terpander, has come down to us.

For those who, like Thaletas, have been sometimes considered more ancient,

belong, according to undoubted testimony, to a later period.(1505)

Plutarch dates the second epoch of Spartan music from Thaletas the Elyrian

(whose skill was undoubtedly derived from the ancient sacred minstrels of

the neighbouring town of Tarrha),(1506) and from Xenodamus of Cythera, and

Xenocritus the Locrian,(1507) (whose chief compositions were pæans and

hyporchemes), from Polymnestus of Colophon, and Sacadas the Argive, the

latter of whom distinguished himself in elegies and other compositions

adapted to the flute, the former in the orthian and dithyrambic styles,

and also as an epic and elegiac poet. Sacadas flourished and conquered at

the Pythian games in Olymp. 48. 3. 586 B.C.; the other musicians,

according to Plutarch, must also have lived about the same period.

Thaletas was however earlier than Polymnestus(1508) and Xenocritus,(1509)

although later than Terpander and Archilochus, and therefore lived before

the 40th Olympiad, or 620 B.C. To these musicians Plutarch entirely

ascribes the introduction of songs at the gymnopædia of Lacedæmon,(1510)

the endymatia at Argos, and some public spectacles in Arcadia. The

regulations established at this period appear to have continued in force

as long as the Spartan customs were kept up, and were the chief means by

which the changes attempted to be introduced during the several epochs of

Melanippides, Cinesias, Phrynis, and Timotheus the Milesian were prevented

from being carried into effect. Thus Ecprepes the ephor, on observing that

the cithara of Phrynis had two strings more than the allowed number,

immediately cut them out; and the(1511) same thing is said to have

happened to Timotheus at the Carnean festival.(1512) The account is,

however, contradicted by an improbable story, that the accused minstrel

justified himself by referring to a statue of Apollo at Sparta, which had

a lyre containing the same number of strings.(1513) At least

Pausanias(1514) saw in the hall of music at Sparta(1515) (σκιὰς), the

eleven-stringed cithara which was taken from Timotheus, and there hung up.

It is well known that a Spartan decree is supposed to exist,(1516) on this

real or fabulous transaction respecting the eleven-stringed cithara of

Timotheus. It recites, that “whereas Timotheus of Miletus, despising the

harmony of the seven-stringed cithara, poisoned the ears of the young men

by increasing the number of strings, and introducing a new and effeminate

species of melody; and that having been invited to perform at the festival

of the Eleusian Ceres, he exhibited an indecent representation of the holy

rites, and most improperly instructed the young men in the mystery of the

labour-pains of Semele; it is decreed that the kings and ephors should

reprimand Timotheus, and compel him to reduce the number of strings on his

cithara to seven; in order that every person in future, being conscious of

the dignity of the state, might beware of introducing improper customs

into Sparta, and the fame of the contests be preserved unsullied.”(1517)

But the authenticity of the inscription is so doubtful, to say no more,

that we dare not deduce any historical inferences from it. For in the

first place, the style of the document appears to have been formed upon

the model of a common Athenian honorary decree, only that censure is

inserted instead of praise with a sort of mock gravity. There is nothing

in it characteristic of Spartan manners, but much that is foreign and

almost strange; for example, it is not even stated who proposed and

approved the decree. Secondly, a decree upon such a subject is not

consistent with the general spirit of the government of Sparta, which was

distinguished by its summary method of proceeding. Every ephor, as

inspector of the games, had the same powers individually as are here

attributed to the whole college, and the kings; who had (it is true) a

place of honour at the public games, but no share in the direction of

them. The Eleusinia, in the form of a theatrical festival, were at least

celebrated in Sparta at a late date.(1518) That Timotheus should have

ventured to produce his “Birth of Bacchus” at those games is very

surprising; but still more so is the account of his having taught it to

the Spartan youths, which can only mean that he contrived to have it

represented by the young men of the town. Now the Ὠδὶν of Timotheus was a

dithyrambic ode of the mimic species, which was a late invention performed

by regular actors, not by a public chorus. How then is it possible that

the latter should have been the case at Sparta? The learned distinction

between different styles of music in the decree, clearly savours less of

Laconian brevity than of the self-complacency of some grammarian.(1519)

Most of the expressions used may be traced to the comic poets of Athens,

and contain no Spartan peculiarities, and yet an accurate explanation of

them might lead us into many difficulties. Lastly, the dialect appears to

me to be the composition of some one who had accidentally become

acquainted with peculiar Spartan inflections. The letter Ρ is most

suspiciously used throughout; the author had evidently an erroneous notion

that Θ is not Laconian, and should be changed into Τ, instead of Σ.(1520)

The editors have endeavoured to make considerable alterations in the

orthography;(1521) but by this means all possibility of criticism is made

hopeless. It is therefore probable that some grammarian has taken the

trouble to draw up a Laconian decree from one of the stories respecting

Timotheus, the interest of which should consist in the austerity of the

sentiments, and the roughness of the dialect. That the inventor really

intended it for a public monument, is evident from the ancient style of

writing, which was abolished at Athens at the archonship of Euclid, and in

Sparta perhaps later.(1522)

In Crete the national music was once formed on the same principles as in

Lacedæmon,(1523) but became relaxed in course of time. In a Cnosian(1524)

decree made at the beginning of the second century before Christ, an

ambassador is commended for having often played on the cithara the

melodies of Timotheus, Polyidus,(1525) and the ancient Cretan poets. In

Argos, too, the first person who used a cithara with more than seven

strings was punished;(1526) and in Sicyon, also, there were laws appointed

to regulate musical contests.(1527)

4. The chief reason why the state constantly interfered in the regulation

of music was, that it was considered much more as expressing the general

tone of the feeling and morals of the people, than as an art which might

be left to its own capabilities of improvement. Historical examples

confirm the truth of this close connexion, and in particular, it is

alleged respecting the Dorians of Sicily, that by introducing a soft

effeminate music, they destroyed the purity of their morals;(1528) while

the strict domestic discipline at Sparta would hardly have been preserved

without the assistance of the ancient style of music which was there

cultivated. In order to explain this, it is necessary to observe, that in

those times music formed a much more universal branch of education, and

was practised to a far greater extent by the people at large, than it has

ever been since.(1529) We may trace the progress of music, as it from time

to time fell more into the hands of individual artists, whilst the

populace, which in the infancy of the art took a part in the exhibition,

gradually became mere spectators. The command of an ancient Delphic

oracle,(1530) that public thanksgivings should be offered to Bromius by

the whole people for a fruitful year, by singing choruses in the streets,

was also followed at Sparta, at least in the Gymnopædia. At this festival

large choruses of men and boys appeared,(1531) in which many of the

inhabitants of the city doubtless took part. From this circumstance either

the whole or part of the market was called _chorus_;(1532) and it is

probable that the spacious (εὐρύχοροι) cities of Homer were merely

furnished with open squares large enough to contain such numerous

choruses. It was at these great city choruses that those of blemished

reputation always occupied the hindermost rows:(1533) sometimes,

nevertheless, men of consideration, when placed there by the arranger of

the chorus, boasted that they did honour to the places, the places did not

dishonour them.(1534)

Those placed at the back of the chorus were called (like the soldiers

arrayed behind the line of battle) ψιλεῖς;(1535) the choregus, however,

did not merely defray the expenses of the chorus, but he also led it in

person; and indeed a choregos once performed the duties of flute-player at

Lacedæmon.(1536) If then every citizen took some part in these choruses,

it follows that they must have been trained to them, and have practised

them from childhood; as we know on the other hand that the whole musical

instruction of Crete and Sparta was intended as a preparation for

them.(1537) Accordingly, the musical school was called _chorus_ among the

Dorians;(1538) in musical training there was a constant reference to the

public choral dances. Hence we perceive that, at least in early times, a

certain cultivation of music within the limits prescribed by the national

manners was common to all Spartans; and the saying of the poet

Socrates,(1539) “that the bravest of the Greeks also made the finest

choruses,” was peculiarly applicable to them; also Pratinas the scenic

poet speaks of “the Lacedæmonian cicada,(1540) as ready for the

chorus.”(1541) In later times, indeed, the numbers of the citizens in

Sparta so greatly diminished, and war occupied so much of the public

attention, that the favourable side of Spartan discipline was cast into

the shade, and Aristotle ascribes with truth to the Spartans of his time a

just discrimination and taste for music, but no scientific knowledge of

it.(1542)

The cultivation of music, however, was the more general among the Dorians

and kindred race of Arcadians, from the circumstance that women took a

part in it, and sang and danced in public both with men and by

themselves.(1543) On the nature of the _parthenia_, or the choruses

performed by girls, the character and education of Doric virgins enable us

to decide with confidence, when we are told, that the parthenia were

accompanied by Dorian music, and there was something in them exceedingly

grave and solemn.(1544) It appears likewise, that aged persons, who at

Athens would have been ridiculed for dancing at religious ceremonies, at

Sparta often took a part in the great choruses, as is proved by the

accounts of the three great choirs of boys, men, and _old men_, which seem

to have danced at several great festivals.(1545)

5. Having now in the foregoing remarks considered the peculiarities of the

Doric race, as well in general as with respect to Sparta in particular, we

shall next give some account of the progress of music among the several

states of that race.

That the religious music and poetry of the Dorians originated in Crete,

has been shown above:(1546) and perhaps the loud and irregular music of

the early Phrygian inhabitants first awakened a taste for that art among

the Dorians. The nome, the pæan, and the hyporcheme,(1547) had been known

in Crete from an early period, though the more polished form of the two

last was introduced by Thaletas. The dances in a ring were often connected

with the nome and hyporcheme, according to an ancient custom in Crete and

the neighbouring regions; and they were danced by both men and

women.(1548) At Sparta there were the same dancers, known by the name of

ῥμοι, or _ornaments_.(1549) The youth danced first some movements suited

to his age, and of a military nature; the maiden followed in measured

steps, and with feminine gestures. The Spartan music was in general

derived from the Cretan, nor did it attempt to disown its origin; indeed

many favourite dances, with their tunes, and certain pæans, ordered by law

to be sung at appointed times, together with many other kinds of music,

were called Cretan.(1550) But it cannot be denied that, although their

origin may have been similar, their progress and development were very

different. The Cretan music appears to have been almost entirely warlike

and religious, while the Spartan, from the time of Alcman, was adapted to

more various purposes. Peculiar kinds of Lacedæmonian dances were in

existence at the time of Cleisthenes of Sicyon;(1551) they consisted both

of motions of the hands and feet, as Aristoxenus states of several ancient

national dances.(1552) The early zeal for music in these regions is shown

by the contests in the temple of Zeus at Ithome in Messenia, in which

Eumelus engaged before the first war with Lacedæmon:(1553) the contests of

the Muses connected with the Carnean festival began in the 26th Olympiad

(676 B.C.). In the time of Polycrates, Argos possessed the most celebrated

musicians in Greece,(1554) particularly flute-players; about the 48th

Olympiad (588 B.C.) Sacadas wrote poetry, composed music, and played lyric

songs and elegies to the flute:(1555) a particular kind of flute was

called the Argive.(1556) Sicyon also appears to have had a share in these

improvements: for after Sacadas had thrice gained the prize, Pythocritus

of Sicyon was victorious in six following contests;(1557) and the

dithyrambic chorus to the flute was performed there with great skill and

effect.(1558) That at Sicyon, Corinth, and Phlius, the worship of Bacchus

gave a peculiar turn to music and poetry, has been remarked above,(1559)

and will be explained at greater length hereafter. In Sicily the worship

of Demeter prevailed, which was always attended with a degree of

licentiousness; the Syracusan choruses of iambists(1560) were, without

doubt, connected with this worship.(1561) The circumstance that the

effeminate dances of the Ionians were celebrated there in honour of

Artemis,(1562) was probably occasioned by music having degenerated in that

island.(1563)

6. We do not intend to consider the subject of dancing independently of

music; as this combination appears to be most convenient for our purpose

of ascertaining its importance as connected with manners and public

education. Dancing, when it did not merely accompany the time of the

music, inclined either to gymnastic display or to mimicry; that is, it

either represented bodily activity, or it was meant to express certain

ideas and feelings. The gymnastic dancing was no where so much practised

as at Sparta, where the ancient connexion between the musical school and

the palæstra, and of both with the military exercises,(1564) was more

strictly maintained than in any other state. Indeed the march of the

Spartans and Cretans had, on account of its musical accompaniment, some

resemblance to a dance. For, whereas the other Greeks either marched to

battle without any music, in the manner of the ancient Achæans, or, like

the Argives, made use of Tyrrhenian trumpets,(1565) the Cretans advanced

to battle to the sound of the lyre,(1566) the Spartans to that of the

flute.(1567) This last seems, however, to have been an innovation; for

Alcman the Laconian mentions the cithara;(1568) and the Cretans also

introduced the flute in their army.(1569) However, be this as it may, the

flute had become the common instrument at Sparta; probably because the

cithara was not fitted for uniting large bodies of men, its sound being

too low to produce any effect, even during a complete stillness. The sound

of flutes was doubtless more piercing, and particularly when a great

number of pipers (who in Sparta formed several native families)(1570)

played the tune for attack. Thucydides remarks that this was not for any

religious purpose, but that the troops might march in time, and not as

large armies are apt to do, fall into disorder.(1571) The general term for

a tune of this kind was _embaterion_.(1572) One kind of nome was called

_castoreum_, which, like the others, was played on the flute, when the

army marched in line to meet the enemy.(1573) This had the same

rhythm(1574) as the other embateria,(1575) viz. an anapæstic; both in its

measure and melody there was something very enlivening and animated,(1576)

so that Alexander of Macedon always felt himself inspired with fresh

bravery when Timotheus the Theban played the castoreum to him. There can

be no doubt that it was originally set in the Doric mode, and bore the

character of Spartan simplicity, notwithstanding the many variations which

were afterwards added.(1577) Pindar is reminded by its name of Castor the

horseman and charioteer;(1578) but I do not perceive what relation the

most ancient use of this nome, as a march for the Spartans, could have to

this point: but it clearly took its name from the Tyndaridæ, who were

considered as the leaders of the Spartan army.(1579) That of the poems of

Tyrtæus the anapæstic verses only were sung as marches, and that they were

embateria, is now generally admitted.(1580) The elegies were sung in

campaigns, at meals, and after the pæan, not in chorus, but singly, and

for a prize. The polemarch decided,(1581) and the victor was rewarded with

a chosen piece of meat.(1582) The Cretans had also embateria, named after

Ibycus, a musician.(1583)

7. That war among these ancient nations had something of an imitative

nature, and that it was by imperceptible transitions connected with the

pure imitations of art, I have already attempted to show;(1584) and the

same may be inferred from what has been just said. A transition of this

kind was formed by the Pyrrhic dance, the dancers of which bore the same

name as the practised, armed and expert combatant (πρύλις).(1585) The

Pyrrhic dance was undoubtedly a production of the Doric nation in Crete

and Sparta,(1586) although in the former state it was fabulously connected

with the Curetes and the rites of the ancient Idæan Zeus,(1587) and at

Sparta with the Dioscuri. It was danced to the flute,(1588) and its time

was very quick and light, as is shown by the name of the Pyrrhic foot.

Hence in Crete Thaletas was able to add hyporchematic or mimic variations

to it,(1589) which had likewise quick measures. From this account it may

be also inferred that the war-dance of Crete was of an imitative kind; and

indeed Plato says of the Pyrrhic dance in general that it imitated all the

attitudes of defence, by avoiding a thrust or a cast, retreating,

springing up, and crouching, as also the opposite movements of attack with

arrows and lances, and also of every kind of thrust.(1590) So strong was

the attachment to this dance at Sparta, that, long after it had in the

other Greek states degenerated into a Bacchanalian revel, it was still

danced by the Spartans as a warlike exercise, and boys of fifteen were

instructed in it.(1591)

8. But we must return to the subject whence we digressed, the connexion

between gymnastic exercises and dancing. These two arts were connected by

the pentathlon, a pattern of adroitness, activity, strength and measured

motions, which was accompanied by the music of the flute.(1592) In later

times any tunes were used for this exhibition; but earlier certain fixed

measures were played, one of which had been composed by Hierax, a disciple

of Olympus:(1593) nor at that time did distinguished artists disdain to

appear as actors in these sports, as, for example, Pythocritus of Sicyon.

At Argos, at the Sthenia, the combatants wrestled to the sound of the

flute;(1594) and a melody of this same Hierax was played(1595) when the

women carried flowers (at a festival) to the temple of Here. At Sparta the

chief object of the Gymnopædia was to represent gymnastic exercises and

dancing in intimate union, and indeed the latter only as the

accomplishment and end of the former. One of the principal games at this

festival resembled the _anapale_, or wrestling-dance; the boys danced in

regular time with graceful motions of the hands, in which the methods of

the wrestling-school and the pancration were shown; at the same time,

however, this dance had some mixture of the Bacchanalian kind.(1596) Thus

also the youths (ephebi) of Sparta, when they were skilled in their

exercises, danced in rows behind each other, to the music of the flute,

first military, then choral dances, and at the same time repeated two

verses, of which one was an invitation to Aphrodite and Eros to join them,

the other an exhortation to one another.(1597) There was also a dance with

a ball at Sparta and Sicyon.(1598) The _Bibasis_, a dance of men and

women, was of the gymnastic kind;(1599) all the dancers struck their feet

behind, a feat, of which a Spartan woman in Aristophanes prides

herself.(1600) Prizes were given to the most skilful; and we are told by a

verse which has been preserved that a Laconian girl had danced the Bibasis

a thousand times more than any other had done.(1601) Besides the Bibasis

the _Dipodia_ is mentioned;(1602) but so little is known about it, that

the origin of its name even is not clear.(1603) In a comedy of

Aristophanes a chorus of Lacedæmonians danced a Dipodia to the flute, and

sing, chiefly in trochaic metre, of the battles of Thermopylæ and

Artemisium, and the friendship of Sparta and Athens; after which follows

another song, which was probably danced in the same manner. In this the

chorus implores the Laconian Muse to come from mount Taygetus, and to

celebrate the tutelar deities of Sparta; and urges itself to the dance in

words which give a very good idea of its character: “Come hither with a

light motion to sing of Sparta. Where there are choruses in honour of the

gods, and the noise of dancing, when, like young horses, the maidens on

the banks of the Eurotas rapidly move their feet; while their hair floats,

like revelling Bacchanals; and the daughter of Leda directs them, the

sacred leader of the chorus. Now bind up the hair, and leap like fawns;

now strike the measured tune which gladdens the chorus.”(1604) Many points

in this description remind us of the dances of the Laconian maidens at the

worship of Artemis of Caryæ, which were animated and vehement.(1605)

9. We now come to the dances whose object was to express and represent

some peculiar meaning. This was either some feeling (to which class almost

all the religious as well as the theatrical dances belong) or some outward

object; to which we may refer the mimic dances. To the latter, the Pyrrhic

and the Gymnopædian dances belong, and to the religious, the Hyporcheme,

which we treated of in connexion with the worship of Apollo.(1606) Of this

description was perhaps the Bryallicha,(1607) a dance in honour of Artemis

and Apollo, danced by women, or, as some assert, by men in hideous women’s

masks, who at the same time sang hymns to the two deities.(1608) The name

signifies a violent leap; and from what we can gather elsewhere respecting

the character of this dance, it appears to have been irregular and

licentious. How it agrees with the worship of Apollo, one does not exactly

perceive, unless it is supposed that some fable in the history of that god

was represented in a mimic style, which admitted of such irregularity. The

worship of Artemis, however, had other forms which produced these

licentious dances, as in Laconia itself the Calabis.(1609)

A few particulars respecting several Laconian dances have been preserved

by a grammarian,(1610) whose account we will insert at full, adding only

some remarks of our own. “_The Deimalea was danced by Sileni and Satyrs

waltzing in a circle_,” its name being perhaps derived from the cowardice

(δεῖμα) of these “useless and worthless fellows,” as Hesiod calls

them.(1611) “_The Ithymbi was danced to Bacchus, the dance of the

Caryatides to Artemis; the Bryallicha was so called after its inventor

Bryallichus; it was danced by women to Apollo and Artemis._” The following

dances also, as appears from the conclusion, were Laconian. The

Hypogypones imitated old men with sticks. The Gypones danced on wooden

stilts, and wearing transparent Tarentine dresses. The Menes was danced by

Charini,(1612) and took its name from the flute-player who invented it.

There was a Bacchanalian dance called “_Tyrbasia_,” probably resembling

the Argive Tyrbè, and deriving its name from its intricate mazes. “_A

dance in which they mimicked those who were caught stealing the remains of

meals was called Mimelic. But the Gymnopœdia, danced with jests and

merriment, was more splendid._” The merry spirit, and the love for comic

exhibition, which produced all these mimic dances, is shown in these

imperfect notices, the deficiencies of which we can only supply in one

instance, viz. in the account of the Deicelictæ (or Mimeli). There was at

Sparta an ancient play, but it was probably acted only by the common

people, and quite extempore, nor ever by regular players.(1613) From the

account of Nepos it may be also conjectured that it was performed by

unmarried women. The name Deicelictæ (or Mimeli) merely means

“imitators;”(1614) but it came to signify only _comic_ imitators.(1615) In

this play there was not (according to Sosibius)(1616) any great art; for

Sparta in all things loved simplicity. It represented in plain and common

language either a foreign physician or stealers of fruit (probably boys),

who were caught with their stolen goods;(1617) that is, it was an

imitation of common life, probably alternating with comic dances.

10. In Laconia it was chiefly the lower orders who had any decided love

for comedy and buffoonery; for with the Dorians we only now and then

discover a ray of levity or mirth piercing the gravity of their nature. I

have already mentioned,(1618) that from the Helots, who dwelt in the

houses of the Spartans, and were called Mothones, or Mothaces, a kind of

riotous dance took its name, in which drunken persons were probably

represented; whence perhaps was derived the story that the Spartans

intoxicated their slaves as a warning to their children. Other dances may

perhaps have been common among the peasants, and particularly among the

shepherds of remote regions.

It is an interesting question, and one allied to the present inquiry, to

ascertain the origin of the _bucolic_ poetry of the ancients. No one can

doubt that its mingled character of simplicity, nature, and buffoonery,

was copied from real life. Now the manners which it represented could

neither have been those of slaves, for the condition of slavery does not

admit of any regular society; nor yet of free citizens, for the rustic

scenes of this poetry wholly disagree with a city life. It remains

therefore that it imitated the life of subjects, of bondmen, such as

existed as a separate class in the Doric states, and accordingly bucolic

poems are commonly in the Doric dialect. It is related, that when Xerxes

had overrun Greece, and the Spartan women could not perform the customary

rites of Artemis Caryatis, the shepherds came from the mountains, and sang

pastoral hymns to the goddess.(1619) From this confused account we may

collect that in the north of Laconia there had been some rude essays of

pastoral poetry. In this respect, however, the shepherds of Italy and

Sicily have become far more celebrated; Epicharmus mentions their bucolics

(βουκολιασμοὶ), as a kind of dance and song;(1620) and even before his

time Stesichorus had formed them into a species of lyric poetry.(1621)

Nevertheless their origin appears not to have been independent of one

another, for both in Laconia and Sicily the name of Tityrus was used for

the leading goat or ram of the flock.(1622) That the same name should

equally distinguish the human and animal leader of the flock, is a trait

of the simplicity of those men, who passed their days among valleys and

pastures, harmlessly tending their flocks, and taking no more notice of

other modes of life than sending from time to time the produce of their

industry to the city. Now in Sicily these shepherds were not of Greek

extraction, but were undoubtedly of the aboriginal Siculian population,

the ancient worshippers of the goddess Pales;(1623) and it is not

improbable that the bucolic poetry owed its origin to native talent. Even

the ancient legend of Daphnis, who lost his eyes through his love for a

nymph,(1624) appears to me rather of a Siculian than Grecian cast;

although how far the character of the Greeks and of the native inhabitants

were opposed, is a very obscure subject of inquiry.(1625)

11. To conclude; as in Attica, so among the Dorians, comedy connected

itself with the _country festivals_ of Bacchus; and, as Aristotle

says,(1626) originated from the extemporaneous songs of those who led the

Phallic processions, which were still customary in many Greek cities at

the time of that philosopher. Of this, Sicyon furnishes an example. There

was there a dance called Ἀλητὴρ,(1627) which was probably of a Phallic

nature; and also a comic entertainment, called the Phallophori,(1628) in

which the actors, with their heads and faces adorned with flowers, but

unmasked, came into the theatre, in stately garments, some at the common

entrance, some at the scene-doors; the Phallophorus, his face smeared with

soot, walked first from among them, and, after giving notice that they

came with a new song in honour of Bacchus, they began to ridicule any

person they chose to select. Thus too the Phlyaces of Tarentum were

probably connected with the worship of Bacchus, whose festivals were

accompanied with similar rejoicings in Sicily.(1629)

Yet the rites of Demeter sometimes gave rise among the Dorians to

lascivious entertainments of this kind, as we learn from the description

in Herodotus of the Æginetan choruses of women at the festival of Artemis

and Auxesia, which provoked others of their sex by riotous and insulting

language.(1630) These mockeries were, however, only the humour of the

moment, and were merely accessaries to certain dances and songs; but among

the Megarians, comedy, we know not by what means, obtained a more

artificial character, and a more independent form.

Chapter VII.

§ 1. Origin of comedy at Megara. § 2. Life and drama of

Epicharmus. § 3. Traces of theatrical representations on painted

vases. § 4. Political and philosophical tendency of the drama of

Epicharmus. § 5. Mimes of Sophron. § 6. Plays of Rhinthon. § 7.

Origin of tragedy at the city festivals of Bacchus. § 8. Early

history of the Doric tragedy. § 9. Character of the Doric lyric

poetry. § 10. Doric lyric poets. § 11. Origin of the Doric lyric

poetry. § 12. Character of the Doric style of sculpture.

1. At Athens, a coarse and ill-mannered jest was termed a Megarian

joke;(1631) which may be considered as a certain proof of the decided

propensity of that people to humour. This is confirmed by the claims of

the Megarians, who disputed the invention of comedy with the

Athenians,(1632) and perhaps not without justice, if indeed the term

invention be at all applicable to the rise of the several branches of

poetry, which sprung so gradually, and at such different times, from the

particular feelings excited by the ancient festival rites, that it is

difficult, and perhaps impossible, to fix upon the period at which the

species of composition to which each gave rise was sufficiently advanced

to be called a particular kind of poetry. Yet it is in the highest degree

probable that the Athenians were indebted for the earliest form of their

comic poetry to the Megarians. The Megarian comedy is ridiculed by

Ecphantides, one of the early comic poets of Athens, as rude and

unpolished, which circumstance alone makes its higher antiquity

probable.(1633) Ecphantides, whom Aristophanes, Cratinus, and others,

ridicule as rough and unpolished,(1634) looks down in his turn on those

who had introduced comedy from Megara, and claims the merit of first

seasoning the uncouth Megarian productions with Attic salt. But one of the

earliest introducers of comedy was, according to the most credible and

authentic accounts, Susarion, a native of Tripodiscus, an ancient village

in the Megarian territory;(1635) in Attica he made his first appearance in

the village of Icaria,(1636) situated on the borders of Megaris and

Bœotia;(1637) where it is known from mythological fables, that the rural

festival of Bacchus had been celebrated from an early period. The argument

for its Doric origin, derived from the name κωμῳδία, “the village-song”

(the Peloponnesians calling their villages κῶμαι, and the Athenians

δῆμοι), is by no means conclusive, as the derivation of that name from the

word κῶμος, _a tumultuous festival procession_, is far more probable. The

early time at which comedy must have flourished may be seen from the fact,

that it passed over to Athens in the 50th Olympiad;(1638) but of its

character we should form a very partial judgment, if we trusted implicitly

to the accounts of the Athenian neighbours; and yet we have no other means

of information.

The ancient comedy of Susarion, and of the Megarians, was (as is clear

from the passage of Ecphantides) founded on a dramatic principle; although

a species of lyric poetry, also called comedy, had existed from an early

period among the Dorians and Æolians;(1639) nor can I admit the opinion of

Aristotle, that Epicharmus and Phormis were the first who wrote a comedy

with a plot or story; previously to those poets, only some extempore and

abusive speeches (ἰαμβίζειν) were, according to his view of the subject,

introduced between the songs of the chorus; but if this had been the case,

the Megarian comedy would not have differed materially from the Sicyonian

sports of the Phallophori, nor have attracted so much attention as it

actually did. A Megarian actor, named Mæson, is often mentioned by the

ancients as the inventor of masks of certain characters of low comedy, as

cooks, scullions, sailors, and the like.(1640) Hence it may be inferred

that these Megarian farces, with their established or frequently recurring

characters, had some resemblance to the Oscan Atellane plays.

2. It is indeed very probable that the Megarian furnished the first germ

and elements of the Sicilian comedy, as perfected by Epicharmus. For the

Megarians in Sicily, as well as those near Athens, laid claim, according

to Aristotle,(1641) to the invention of comedy, and there is no doubt that

a communication was kept up between those two states. Now it is possible

that comedy was brought from Megara to Syracuse, when Gelon (484 or 483

B.C.)(1642) transplanted the inhabitants from the former to the latter

city; and thus the elements of comedy which existed in the choruses and

iambic speeches, were, by their subsequent combination with a more

improved species of poetry, brought to maturity. This supposition,

however, rests upon mere conjecture. Epicharmus, the son of

Helothales,(1643) must have gone to Syracuse at this emigration, having

formerly resided at Megara; but he cannot be considered as the person who

really introduced comedy at Syracuse, as he had lived only a short time at

Megara; he was, as we are credibly informed, a native of Cos,(1644) and

went to Sicily with Cadmus, that is, about, or soon after, 480 B.C.,(1645)

and he must at this time have been at least a youth, in order to have

acquired a name and influence in the reign of Hieron (between 478 and 467

B.C.)(1646) In confirmation of the statement that he was a native of Cos,

it may be remarked, that he was likewise a physician, which was the

regular profession of his brother, his family being probably connected

with that of the Asclepiadæ. Phormis, or Phormus, who by Aristotle and

others is often mentioned with Epicharmus, appears to have been earlier

than that poet by some Olympiads, having been the friend of Gelon, and

tutor to his children;(1647) but his fame was so completely eclipsed by

that of his successor, that there is scarcely anything remaining of his

plays, except a few titles,(1648) which however show that he parodied

mythological subjects.

But Epicharmus is much less known and esteemed than his peculiar style of

writing and dramatic skill deserve; and those authors greatly err, who fix

upon the period when his peculiar kind of poetry had arrived at

perfection, as the commencement of the Athenian comedy, and attribute the

clumsy and rustic simplicity from which the latter emerged, to the

Sicilian style, which had enjoyed all the advantages which the life of a

city and court could afford.(1649) Before, therefore, we enter into

details respecting the dramas, of Epicharmus, we will say a few words on

the nature of his subjects, and his mode of handling them.

The subjects of the plays of Epicharmus were chiefly mythological, that

is, parodies or travesties of mythology, nearly in the style of the

satyric drama of Athens. Thus in the comedy of Busiris, Hercules was

represented in the most ludicrous light, as a voracious glutton, and he

was again exhibited in the same character (with a mixture perhaps of

satirical remarks on the luxury of the times) in “the Marriage of Hebe,”

in which an astonishing number of dishes was mentioned.(1650) We can

however form a better notion of the drama called “Hephæstus, or the

Revellers,” chiefly by the help of some ancient works of art, which have

come down to us. The play began we are told, with Hephæstus chaining his

mother Here by magical charms to a seat, from which he only released her

after long entreaties.(1651) Now on a vase discovered at Bari in the

kingdom of Naples, and now preserved in the British Museum,(1652) Here,

with the superscription ᾽ΗΡΑ,(1653) is seen seated on a throne; on her

right is a clown fantastically dressed, whom his pointed cap marks as a

servant of Hephæstus, and his name, Dædalus, is written over his

head;(1654) on her left is Mars, dressed, with the exception of his

helmet, in the same fashion (with the superscription ΕΝΕΥΑΛΙΟΣ); both

these figures are armed, and endeavouring, the one to dissolve, the other

to strengthen the charm by which Here is held. The whole scene is

evidently supposed to take place on a stage, leading to which there are

some steps; and as there were no other Sicilian or Italian comedies on the

same subject, it may without hesitation be considered as a representation

of the first part of the Hephæstus of Epicharmus.

The legend went on to say, that Hephæstus, having in consequence of this

act been ill-treated by his parents, entirely deserted Olympus, until

Bacchus, having contrived to make him drunk, placed him on an ass, and

thus brought him in jolly merriment back to Olympus; to which transaction

the other title of the piece, “the Revellers,” evidently alludes. Now this

scene also has been transmitted to us in some ancient paintings, which

although they do not exhibit the theatrical dress and the place of

performance so clearly as that just mentioned, are evidently taken from

comedies. There is on a Coghill vase(1655) a procession in which the names

of the several individuals composing it are superscribed; first Marsyas as

a flute-player; then Comedy, in a state of violent motion; next Bacchus,

in the ancient festival costume; and lastly, Hephæstus, who in other

compositions of the same subject is drawn riding on an ass.

3. From these data, I will leave it to the judgment and taste of the

reader to draw his own conclusions on the character of the drama of

Epicharmus. But I may take this opportunity of remarking, that the painted

vases of lower Italy often enable us to gain a complete and vivid idea of

the theatrical representations of that country. From this source I have

above traced a farce, in which Hercules delivers the Cercopes to

Eurystheus, or some other king,(1656) and perhaps also the picture of

Hercules in the form of a pigmy, and fighting with the cranes, was derived

from a similar source.(1657) We may likewise mention the picture of Zeus

and Hermes, the latter with a lantern, and the former with a ladder, both

dressed in the most ridiculous and fantastical costume, in the act of

ascending to a fair female, who is expecting them at her window.(1658) It

seems also probable, that the buffoon represented on a vase, as sitting on

a fish, and making ridiculous grimaces,(1659) is a caricature of the

Tarentine fable of Taras on the dolphin. The costume, which reminds us of

the Italian Policinello and Arlecchino,(1660) proves that it was taken

from a dramatic representation, which however is still more conspicuous on

the painted vase of Asteas,(1661) on which, among a number of clowns, one

is seen stretched on a couch, evidently the bed of Procrustes. But it is

remarkable, that in this case the performers do not bear the names of the

heroes whom they travesty, but those of their masks. The one on the bed is

called ΧΑΡΙΝΟΣ, or _Gracioso_ (which name was likewise in use at

Sparta);(1662) the others are named ΔΙΑΣΥΡΟΣ “the jester:” ΚΑΓΧΑΣ “the

laugher;”(1663) and ΓΥΜΝΑΣΟΣ, if the letters are read correctly: these are

evidently names of standing characters of a dramatic fable, resembling the

Attelane farces of Campania. The vase was moreover discovered in

Campania.(1664)

4. But to return to Epicharmus; the comedy of this poet was by no means

confined to parodies of mythological stories, as he also, like

Aristophanes, handled political subjects, and invented comic characters

like the later Athenian poets; and indeed the extent of his subjects was

very wide. The piece called Ἁρπαγαὶ, or “the Plunderings,” which described

the devastation of Sicily in his time, had, according to

Hemsterhuis,(1665) a political meaning; and this was perhaps also the case

with the Νᾶσοι, or “the Islands:” at least it was mentioned in this play,

that Hieron had prevented Anaxilas from destroying Locri (477 B.C.);(1666)

in his “Persians” also there were allusions to the history of the times.

The play called the “Countryman” (Ἀγρωστῖνος, _i.e._ ἀγροῖκος), was an

instance of the drama, which illustrated the character of a certain class

of society. Epicharmus also introduced, and almost perfected characters,

which were very common in the drama of later times;(1667) and if the plot

of the Menæchmi of Plautus was, as the poet seems to state in the

prologue, taken from a comedy of Epicharmus, it must be granted that the

ingenious construction of plots was not beyond the powers of that

poet.(1668) The style of his plays was not less various than his subjects,

as he passed from the extreme of rude and comic buffoonery to a more

serious and instructive vein, introducing maxims and moral sentences(1669)

with precepts of the Pythagorean philosophy, in which he is said to have

been initiated with Archytas and Philolaus the son of Arcesas, the

successor of Pythagoras;(1670) and we know from Diogenes Laertius that he

introduced long discourses of a speculative and philosophical nature,

though it is not easy to see how they were connected with the rest of the

piece. In the Ulysses (as I conjecture from the speech to Eumæus) he made

incidentally some philosophical remarks on the instinct of animals;(1671)

other pieces, such as “the Pyrrha and Prometheus,” and “the Land and Sea,”

were by their subjects still more closely connected with philosophy; he

also wrote some poems on questions of natural and moral philosophy, which,

if we may judge from the imitation of Ennius, were composed in a

theatrical and very lively metre, the trochaic tetrameter.(1672) That the

dramatic style of Epicharmus was perfect in its kind, is proved by the

great admiration it was held in by the ancients, particularly by Plato;

and if the Attic comedy excelled in cutting satire and ridicule, the

Sicilian poet had a higher and more general aim. The Athenian poets, if we

may judge from Aristophanes, confined themselves wholly to the affairs of

their own state, and it was their object to point out what they considered

beneficial to the people. But Epicharmus had a different and higher

object; for if the elements of his drama, which we have discovered singly,

were in his plays combined, he must have set out with an elevated and

philosophical view, which enabled him to satirize mankind, without

disturbing the calmness and tranquillity of his thoughts; while at the

same time his scenes of common life were marked with the acute and

penetrating genius which characterized the Sicilians.(1673)

5. Notwithstanding this excellence, the comedy of Epicharmus was only an

insulated and passing phenomenon, as we are not informed of any successors

of that great poet, except Deinolochus(1674) his son, or rather his

disciple. But about half a century after Epicharmus,(1675) Sophron, the

mimographer, made his appearance, who was the author of a new species of

comedy, though in many respects resembling that of his predecessor. Still

this variety of the drama differed so much, not only from that of Sicily,

but from any other which existed in Greece, that its origin must, after

all our attempts at explanation, remain involved in great obscurity. The

mimes of Sophron had no accompaniment of music or dancing, and they were

written, not in verse, but in prose, though perhaps in certain _rhythmical

divisions_.(1676) This latter circumstance seems quite singular, and

without example in the Greek literature which has been transmitted to us.

But that it was in reality so, seems improbable, when we remember that

there would naturally be an intermediate rhythm, formed at the transition

from the metrical to the prosaic style;(1677) and with the Dorians this

would have taken the form of concise and disjointed sentences, a

periodical style being more suited to the Athenians. We are led to this

notion by the consideration of some remains of Lacedæmonian composition,

in which no one can fail to see the rhythmical form and symmetry of the

sentences. Thus in the famous letter of Hippocrates,(1678)

ἔρρει τὰ καλά. Μίνδαρος γ᾽ ἀπεσσούα;

πεινῶντι τὤνδρες; ἀπορέομες τι χρὴ δρᾶν.

and also in that of the Lacedæmonian women, preserved by Plutarch,(1679)

κακὰ τεῦ φάμα κακκέχυται;

ταύταν ἀπωθεῦ, ἢ μὴ ἔσο,

where the rhythm passes insensibly into verse; which is less strikingly

the case in other instances.(1680)

Whether the mimes of Sophron were publicly represented or not, is a

question not easily answered. It would however be singular, if a poetical

work had been intended only for reading, in an age when everything was

written, not for the public eye, but for the public ear. It is certainly

more probable that these mimes were originally part of the amusements of

certain festivals, as was the case with the Spartan deicelictæ, which they

resembled more than any other variety of the drama.(1681) Indeed it can be

easily conceived, that farces of this description, acted by persons who

had a quick perception of the eccentricities and peculiarities of mankind,

and a talent for mimicry, should have existed among the Dorians of Sicily,

as well as of Laconia, particularly as the former were celebrated for

their imitative skill.(1682) Even Agathocles the tyrant excited the

laughter, not merely of his guests and companions, but of whole assemblies

of the people, by ridiculing certain known characters, in the manner of an

_ethologus_, or merry andrew.(1683) Accordingly the mimes of Sophron, by

which these rude attempts were improved, and raised to a regular species

of the drama, were distinguished by their faithful imitation of manners,

even of the vulgar, and the solecisms and rude dialect of the common

people were copied with great exactness;(1684) whence the numerous sayings

and proverbs which were introduced.(1685) On the other hand, he was most

skilful in seizing the more delicate shades and turns of feeling, and in

preserving the unity and consistency of his characters, without which he

would never have been so much admired by Plato, or the study of his works

have been so serviceable in the composition of the Socratic dialogues, as

we know on good authority to have been the case;(1686) and hence we should

compare the scenery of Plato’s dialogues with the poems of Theocritus,

which we know to be imitated from the female mimes of Sophron, in order to

obtain a proper idea of those master-pieces. His talent for description

must however have been supported and directed by moral considerations;

which probably preponderated rather in the serious (μῖμοι σπουδαῖοι), and

were less prominent in the common mimes (μῖμοι γέλοιοι). The tribe of

Aretalogi and Ethologi, who originally spoke much of virtue and morality,

but gradually sank into mere buffoons, appears to have come from Sicily,

and was, perhaps through several intermediate links, connected with

Sophron.(1687)

In considering these philosophical sports, which mingled in the same

breath the grave and solemn lessons of philosophy and the most ludicrous

mimicry and buffoonery, we may perhaps find a reason why Persius, a youth

educated in the Stoic sect, should have thought of making Sophron the

model of his Satires. This statement is given by a late, but in this

instance a credible writer,(1688) and is confirmed by the dramatic

character of the Satires of Persius, and the constant use of mimicry in

them, particularly the first four; so much so indeed, that a study of

Persius is the best method of forming an accurate and lively idea of the

mimes of Sophron.

6. The Dorians in general had evidently less poetical skill and feeling

than the Athenians, and did not cultivate those rude attempts of wit and

mirth which the festivals called forth, and of which the Athenians knew so

well how to take advantage. This incapacity or negligence of the early

times enables us to explain why several kinds of Doric poetry were not

received into the literature of civilized Greece until the Alexandrian

age, of which we may particularly specify the bucolic poetry, and the

phlyaces of Tarentum. These carnival sports had doubtless been represented

for ages, before they acquired, in the time of Ptolemy the First,

notoriety in other places by the poems of Rhinthon, which were named after

them. These plays are also called Ἱλαροτραγῳδία,(1689) or tragi-comedy;

and both these and the titles of some pieces(1690) and fragments handed

down to us show that they were burlesques of tragical subjects.(1691) It

may, however, be easily supposed that Rhinthon did not lose sight of the

Athenian tragedy, and it is possible that his two Iphigenias in

particular, at Aulis and Tauris, contained many parodies of the two plays

of Euripides. I should conceive, however, that he adhered generally to the

form of the ancient phlyaces; thus for example, he faithfully imitated the

dialect of Tarentum;(1692) we may also be assured that he polished the

native farces, so as to fit them for theatrical representation. These

pieces were generally written in trimeter iambics, which Rhinthon,

however, framed somewhat carelessly, as may be seen from a fragment of his

transmitted to us, where addressing himself to his verses, he declares

“that he did not give himself much trouble about them;”(1693) it is also

possible that he mixed the iambic with other metres, as parodies, for the

sake of contrast; thus, for instance, he appears to have employed the

solemn hexameter in some very ludicrous passages.(1694) Rhinthon was

succeeded in this species of parody by Sopatrus, Sciras,(1695) and Blæsus;

the last-named poet, a native of Capreæ in Campania, wrote (as may be

inferred from the title of his “Saturn”) after the Roman manners and

religion had gained the ascendency; but he used only the ancient dialect,

and he too, being called a serio-comic poet (σπουδογελοίων ποιητὴς), seems

to have adopted the same mixture of tragedy and comedy.(1696)

7. We have now dwelt at some length on the comic poetry of the Dorians, on

account of the interesting nature of the subject, and the light which it

throws on the general character of a people, among whom the strictest

gravity was found closely united with the most unrestrained jocularity and

mirth; for as every real jest requires for a foundation a firm, solid, and

grave disposition of mind, so moral indifference, and a frivolous

temperament, not only destroy the contrast between gravity and jest, but

annihilate the spirit of both. Our inquiries on the early state of the

tragic drama among the Dorians will be more concise. And we may first

observe, that the great difference between tragedy and comedy did not

exist originally but was only formed gradually in their development. Their

only distinction at first was, that while comedy was more a sport and a

merriment of the _country_ festivals, tragedy was from its commencement

connected with the public rejoicings and ceremonies of Bacchus in

_cities_, and was performed by the great cyclic or dithyrambic choruses.

Thence it came that the former expressed the boisterous mirth and

joviality of clowns and peasants; whereas the latter was formed upon the

particular ideas and feelings suggested by the worship of Bacchus, and by

the part which he bore in mythology. It principally turned on the

sufferings of Bacchus (Διονύσου πάθη), a point alluded to in some verses

in the Iliad, though there is no doubt that it had been attempted at a

much earlier period.(1697)