SCHOOL DAYS--THE PHYSICAL SIDE.
§ 13. The most striking difference between early Greek education and
ours was undoubtedly this, that the physical development of boys was
attended to in a special place and by a special master. It was not
thought sufficient for them to play the chance games of childhood; they
underwent careful bodily training under a very fixed system, which
was determined by the athletic contests of after-life. This feature,
which excites the admiration of the modern Germans, and has given rise
to an immense literature, is doubtless all the more essential now
that the mental training of our boys has become so much more trying;
and we can quite feel, when we look at the physical development of
ordinary foreigners, how keenly they must envy the freedom of limb
and ease of motion, not only as we see it suggested by Greek statues,
but as we have it before us in the ordinary sporting Englishman. But
it is quite in accordance with their want of practical development,
that while they write immense books about the physical training of the
Greeks, and the possibility of imitating it in modern education, they
seem quite ignorant of that side of English education at our public
schools; and yet there they might see in practice a physical education
in no way inferior to that described in classical authors. I say it
quite deliberately--the public-school boy, who is trained in cricket,
football, and rowing, and who in his holidays can obtain riding,
salmon-fishing, hunting, and shooting, enjoys a physical training
which no classical days ever equalled. The athletic part of this
training is enjoyed by all boys at our public schools, though the field
sports at home only fall to the lot of the richer or more fortunate.
§ 14. When we compare what the Greeks afforded to their boys, we find
it divided into two contrasted kinds of exercise: hunting, which
was practised by the Spartans very keenly, and no doubt also by the
Eleans and Arcadians, as may be seen from Xenophon’s “Tract on [Hare]
Hunting;” and gymnastics, which in the case of boys were carried on in
the so-called palæstra, a sort of open-air gymnasium (in our sense)
kept by private individuals as a speculation, and to which the boys
were sent, as they were to their ordinary schoolmaster.[11] We find
that the Spartans, who had ample scope for hunting with dogs in the
glens and coverts of Mount Taygetus, rather despised mere exercises
of dexterity in the palæstra, just as our sportsmen would think
very little of spending hours in a gymnasium. But those Greeks who
lived in towns like Athens, and in the midst of a thickly populated
and well-cultivated country, could not possibly obtain hunting, and
therefore found the most efficient substitute.
Still, we find them very far behind the English in their knowledge or
taste for out-of-door games, such as cricket, football, hockey, golf,
etc.--games which combine chance and skill, which combine strength
with dexterity, and which intensely interest the players while keeping
them in the open air. Yachting, though there were regattas, was not in
fashion in ancient Greece. Rowing, which they could have practised to
their heart’s content, and which was of the last importance in their
naval warfare, was never thought gentlemanly, and always consigned to
slaves or hirelings. There are, indeed, as above quoted from Pollux,
descriptions of something like football and lacrosse, but the obscurity
and rarity of any allusions to them show that they are in no sense
national games. Running races round a short course was one of their
chief exercises, but this is no proper out-of-door game.
§ 15. Accordingly, the Germans, in seeking to base their physical
education on Greek lines, seem to make the capital mistake of ignoring
that kind of exercise for boys which vastly exceeds in value any
training in gymnasia. The Eton and Harrow match at Lord’s is a far more
beautiful sight, and far better for the performers, than the boys’
wrestling or running at Olympia. And besides the variety of exercise at
a game like cricket, and the various intelligence and decision which it
stimulates, a great part of the game lies not in the winning, but in
the proper _form_ of the play, in what the Greeks so highly prized as
_eurythmy_--a graceful action not merely in dancing and ball-playing,
but in the most violent physical exertion.
But the Greeks had no playgrounds beyond the palæstra or gymnasium;
they had no playgrounds in our sense; and though a few proverbs
speak of swimming as a universal accomplishment which boys learned,
the silence of Greek literature on the subject[12] makes one very
suspicious as to the generality of such training.
With this introduction, we may turn to some details as to the education
of Greek boys in their palæstra.
§ 16. In one point, certainly, the Greeks agreed more with the modern
English than with any other civilized nation. They regarded sport as a
really serious thing. And unless it is so regarded, it will never be
brought to the national perfection to which the English have brought
it, or to which the Greeks are supposed to have brought it. And yet
even in this point the Greeks regarded their sports differently from
us, and from all nations who have adopted Semitic ideas in religion.
Seriousness of the religious kind is with us quite distinct from the
seriousness of sport. With the Greeks it was not, or rather seriousness
was not with them an attribute of religion in any sense more than it
was of ordinary life. They harmonized religion and sports, not by the
seriousness of their sports so much as by the cheerfulness--a Semite,
ancient or modern, would say by the levity--of their deities; _for the
gods, too, love sport_ (φιλοπαίγμονες γὰρ καὶ οἱ θεοί), says Plato
in his “Cratylus,” a remarkable and thoroughly Greek utterance. The
greatest feasts of the gods were celebrated by intensifying human
pleasures--not merely those of the palate, according to the grosser
notion of the Christian Middle Ages, but æsthetical pleasures, and that
of excitement--pleasures, not of idleness, but of keen enjoyment.
§ 17. The names applied to the exercising-places indicate their
principal uses. _Palæstra_ means a wrestling-place; _gymnasium_
originally a place for naked exercise, but the verb early lost this
connotation and came to mean mere physical training. We hear that a
short race-course (δρόμος) was often attached to the palæstra, and
short it must have been, for it was sometimes covered in (called
ξυστός), probably with a shed roof along the wall of the main enclosure.
There is no evidence to decide the point whether the boys went to
this establishment at the same age that they went to school, and at a
different hour of the day, or at a different age, taking their physical
and mental education separately. And even in this latter case we are
left in doubt which side obtained the priority. The best authorities
among the Germans decide on separate ages for palæstra and school, and
put the palæstra first. But in the face of many uncertainties, and some
evidence the other way, the common-sense view is preferable that both
kinds of instruction were given together, though we know nothing about
the distribution of the day, save that both are asserted to have begun
very early. Even the theoretical schemes of Plato and Aristotle do not
help us here, and it is one of those many points which are now lost on
account of their being once so perfectly obvious and familiar.
We here discuss the physical side first, because it is naturally
consequent upon the home games, which have been described, and because
the mental side will naturally connect itself with the higher education
of more advanced years. And here, too, of the great divisions of
exercises in the palæstra--_wrestling_ and _dancing_, more properly
exercises of strength and of grace--we will place athletics first, as
the other naturally leads us on to the mental side.
§ 18. In order to leave home and reach the palæstra safely as well as
to return, Greek boys were put under the charge of a _pædagogue_, in
no way to be identified (as it now is) with a schoolmaster. The text
“The law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ” has suffered
from this mistake. The Greek _pædagogue_ means merely the slave who had
the charge of bringing his master’s sons safely to and from school, and
guarding them from mischief by the way. He was often old and trusty,
often old and useless, always ignorant, and never respected. He was
evidently regarded by young and gay boys as a great interference to
enjoyment, insisting upon punctual hours of return, and limiting that
intercourse with elder boys which was so fascinating, but also so
dangerous, to Greek children.
The keeper of the palæstra and trainer (παιδοτρίβης) was not appointed
by the State, but (as already mentioned) took up the work as a private
enterprise, not directed by, but under the supervision of, the State,
in the way of police regulation. We have, indeed, in the speech of
Æschines “Against Timarchus,” very stringent laws quoted to the effect
that no palæstra or school might be open before or after daylight; that
no one above boys’ age might enter or remain in the building; and the
severest penalties, even death, were imposed on the violation of these
regulations. But we know that, even if true, which is very doubtful,
the text of the laws here cited became a dead letter, for it was a
favorite resort of elder men to see the boys exercising. Restrictions
there were, of course; a fashionable lounge could in no way serve as
a strict training-school, and we know that at Sparta, even in the
gymnasia, the regulation _strip or go_ was enforced to prevent an idle
crowd.
§ 19. There is figured on many vases, often in brilliant colors, the
interior of the palæstra. It is denoted by the bearded Hermes--a rude
bust of the patron god. A middle-aged man in a short mantle, or
_chlamys_, with a rod or wand in his hand, is watching and directing
the exercises of the boys, generally a wrestling-match. We know
also, from the _pentathlon_ being once introduced at Olympia for
boys, that its five exercises were those in which they were usually
trained--leaping, running, throwing the discus, the spear, and
wrestling. For elder boys, boxing and the _pancratium_ were doubtless
added, if they meant to train for public competitions, but ordinary
gentlemen’s sons would never undergo this special training and its
hardships. Indeed, the Spartans strictly discountenanced such sports,
both as likely to disfigure, and as sure to produce quarrels and
ill-will. The lighter exercises were intended to make the frame hardy
and the movements graceful, and were introduced by a thorough rubbing
of the skin with olive oil, which, after the training, was scraped
off with a special instrument, the στλεγγίς, as may be seen in the
splendid Vatican statue of the athlete scraping his arm, the so-called
_Apoxyomenos_, referred to as an original of Lysippus. In luxurious
days they also took a bath, but this was hardly the case with ordinary
boys--indeed, the water supply of Greek towns was probably scanty
enough, and the nation not given to much washing.
§ 20. There remain little or no details as to the exact rules of
training practised in the ordinary palæstras, but we may fairly assume
them to have been the same in kind (though milder in degree) as those
approved for formal athletes. If we judge from these, we will not
form a high idea of Greek training. Pausanias informs us that they
trained on dry cheese, which is not surprising, as they were (like most
southerns) not a very carnivorous people. But when a known athlete
(Dromeus[13]) discovered that meat diet was the best, they seem to
have followed up the discovery by inferring that the more of a good
thing the better; and so athletes were required to eat very large
quantities of meat, owing to which they were lazy and sleepy when
not engaged in active work.[14] We need not suppose that the diet of
ordinary boys was in any way interfered with, but this particular case
shows the crude notions which prevailed, and the trainer came more and
more to assume the part of a dietetic doctor, as is stated by Plato.
§ 21. So much as to the conditions of good training; as to the
performance, there are points of no less significance. All the learned
Germans who write on these subjects notice that the Olympic races were
carried out on soft sand, not on hard and springy ground, so that
really good pace cannot have been a real object to Greek runners.[15]
But, what is worse, they praise their zeal and energy in starting (as
we see on vases) with wild swinging of their arms, in spread-eagle
fashion, and _encouraging themselves with loud shouts_.[16] This
style of running may seem very fine to a professor in his study, but
will only excite ridicule among those who have ever made the least
practical essay, or seen any competitions. But possibly the Greeks
were not so uniformly silly in this respect as they are now represented
by commentators, for there is preserved on the Acropolis at Athens one
little-known vase on which a running figure has the elbows held tightly
back in the proper way. We may also have grave suspicions about Greek
boxing, from the facts that they weighted the hand heavily with loaded
gloves, and that boxers are described as men with their _ears_, and not
with their _noses_, crushed. We cannot but suspect them of swinging
round, and not striking straight from the shoulder. This is further
proved by the use of protecting ear-caps (ἀμφωτίδες) in boxing, a thing
which no modern boxer would dream of doing.
§ 22. All these hints taken together make us reasonably suspect that,
_as athletics_, the training of the _pædotribes_ was not what we should
admire. But, on the other hand, the picturesque and enthusiastic
descriptions of beautiful and well-trained Greek boys, coupled with the
ideal figures which remain to us in Greek sculpture, prove beyond any
doubt that they knew perfectly what a beautiful manly form was, and by
what training it could be produced. Let us, however, not exaggerate the
matter. Very few boys really equalled the ideal types of the sculptor;
and if we make allowance for this, we may conclude that the finest
English public-school boy is not inferior to the best Greek types in
real life.[17] Perhaps some advantage may have resulted from the
greater freedom of limb obtained by naked training and rubbing with
oil; but the advantage of this over a modern flannel suit or tight
athlete’s dress is very small. Nevertheless, the English schoolboy is
physically so superior to the schoolboys of other European nations that
we may count him, with the Greek boy, as almost a distinct animal.
What surprises us is that by regular training in the simplest
exercises, such as running, leaping, wrestling, and throwing the
discus or dart, such splendid results were ever attained. Or shall we
say that it was not the _wrestling_ but the _dancing_ side of Greek
training which was of chief importance? We may dismiss with a word
the fabulous stories of athletic feats at Olympia, where a certain
Chionis, a Spartan of early date (Ol. 28-31, _cir._ 660 B.C.), was
said to have leaped fifty-two feet, and afterwards Phayllus of Croton
fifty-five feet. We may infer, too, from the use of weights (ἁλτῆρες),
that the jump was a standing one. Happily these assertions are only
made by late grammarians, and though some German critics are inclined
to extend their adoration of Greek training to this point, it will
rather, with practical readers, tend to discredit other statements made
by the same authority. As we do not hear of a running jump, so we do
not hear of a high jump either, at least in public games. Both may have
been practised in the palæstra. The distance for a sprint-race for men
was two hundred yards, and somewhat shorter for boys. Their longest
race at Olympia was twenty-four stadia (4800 yards, 2⅔ miles), which
the professors, without any knowledge of the time in which it was
done, think more wonderful than the fifty-five-feet jump, but which is
equalled in many English sports of the present day.
§ 23. Apart from the doubts here raised as to the perfection of Greek
training, let us revert, in conclusion, to the absence among elder
boys of those out-of-door games, like cricket, which are so valuable
for developing mental, together with physical, qualities. There is one
feature in these games which the Greeks seem to have missed altogether,
and which appears to be ignored in most German books on the reform of
physical education in schools. It is that forming of clubs and teams
of boys, in which they choose their own leaders, and get accustomed
to self-government and a submission to the superior will of equals,
or the decision of public opinion among themselves. Plato saw long
ago that the proper and peculiar intention of boys’ sports was more
mental than bodily improvement. But he confined himself to that part
of the question which advocates the cultivation of spirit in boys as
better than that which cultivates strength only. This is perfectly
true, and no game is worthy the name in which spirit and intelligence
cannot defeat brute strength. But there is little trace, save at
Sparta, of any free constitution in boys’ education, in which they
manage their own affairs, fight out their own quarrels, and praise or
censure according to a public opinion of their own. No Greek educator
seems to have had an inkling of this, and the foreign theorists who
have discussed educational reforms on the Greek models seem equally
unaware of its importance. Yet here, if anywhere, is the secret of
that independence of character and self-reliance which is the backbone
of the English constitution and the national liberty. The Greeks
were like the French and the Germans, who always imagine that the
games and sports will not prosper or be properly conducted without
the supervision of a _Turnlehrer_, or overseer; and they give great
exhortations to this man to sympathize with the boys and stimulate
them. In England the main duty of such people is to keep out of the way
and let the boys manage their own affairs. The results of the opposed
systems will strike any one who compares, on the one hand, the neat and
well-regulated French boys of a boarding-school, walking two-and-two,
with gloves on and toes turned out, along a road, followed by a master;
on the other, the playgrounds of any good English school during
recreation time. If the zealous and learned reformers who write books
on the subject in modern Europe would take the trouble to come and
see this for themselves, it might modify both their encomia on Greek
training and their suggestions for their own countries.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] The exact relation of the ancient _palæstra_ and the _gymnasium_
has much exercised the critics. It seems plain that the former was a
private establishment, and intended for boys; the latter more general,
and resorted to by young men, not only amateurs and beginners, but also
more accomplished athletes. Hence the terms are often confused. In the
“Tract on the Athenian State,” however, the author mentions palæstras
as built by the demos for its public use; and this tract, whoever may
be its author, does not date later than 415 B.C.
[12] Herodotus, indeed (viii. 89), speaks of the generality of Greek
sailors as able to swim.
[13] Paus. vi. 7, 9.
[14] It was a curious rule at the Olympic games that the competitors
were even compelled to swear that they had spent a month in training
at Elis, as if it mattered whether the victory was won by natural
endowments only or by careful study. One would have thought that the
importance of the contest would insure ample training in those who
desired to win.
[15] I myself saw at the Olympic games now held at Athens, in the
re-excavated stadion of Herodes, a sprint-race of two hundred yards
over vine ground, cut into furrows, with dogs and people obstructing
the course. Cf. _Macmillan’s Magazine_ for September, 1876.
[16] Cf., for example, Grasberger, “Erziehung,” etc., iii. 212, quoting
Cicero, “Tusc. Disp.,” ii. 23, 26.
[17] It is a perpetual and perhaps now ineradicable mistake, because
we cannot see the real Athenians or Spartans of classical days, to
imagine them _in general_ like the ideal statues of the Greek artists.
We find it even generally stated that beauty was the rule and ugliness
the exception among them, in spite of Cicero’s complaint, when he was
disillusioned by a visit to Athens: “Quotusquisque enim formosus est?
Quum Athenis essem e gregibus epheborum vix singuli reperiebantur.”