[Illustration: Guttus on Coin of L. Plancus.]
GUTTUS, a vessel with a narrow mouth or neck, from which the liquid
was poured in drops, whence its name. It was especially used in
sacrifices, and hence we find it represented on the Roman coins
struck by persons who held any of the priestly offices. The guttus
was also used for keeping the oil, with which persons were anointed
in the baths. [See p. 56.]
[Illustration: Gymnasium, after the description of Vitruvius.]
GYMNĀSIUM (γυμνάσιον). The whole education of a Greek youth was
divided into three parts,--grammar, music, and gymnastics (γράμματα,
μουσική, γυμναστική), to which Aristotle adds a fourth, the art
of drawing or painting. Gymnastics, however, were thought by the
ancients a matter of such importance, that this part of education
alone occupied as much time and attention as all the others put
together; and while the latter necessarily ceased at a certain period
of life, gymnastics continued to be cultivated by persons of all
ages, though those of an advanced age naturally took lighter and less
fatiguing exercises than boys and youths. The ancients, and more
especially the Greeks, seem to have been thoroughly convinced that
the mind could not possibly be in a healthy state, unless the body
was likewise in perfect health, and no means were thought, either
by philosophers or physicians, to be more conducive to preserve
or restore bodily health than well-regulated exercise. The word
gymnastics is derived from γυμνός (naked), because the persons who
performed their exercises in public or private gymnasia were either
entirely naked, or merely covered by the short _chiton_. Gymnastic
exercises among the Greeks seem to have been as old as the Greek
nation itself; but they were, as might be supposed, of a rude and
mostly of a warlike character. They were generally held in the open
air, and in plains near a river, which afforded an opportunity for
swimming and bathing. It was about the time of Solon that the Greek
towns began to build their regular gymnasia as places of exercise for
the young, with baths, and other conveniences for philosophers and
all persons who sought intellectual amusements. There was probably
no Greek town of any importance which did not possess its gymnasium.
Athens possessed three great gymnasia, the Lyceum (Λύκειον),
Cynosarges (Κυνόσαργες), and the Academia (Ἀκαδημία); to which,
in later times, several smaller ones were added. Respecting the
superintendence and administration of the gymnasia at Athens, we know
that Solon in his legislation thought them worthy of great attention;
and the transgression of some of his laws relating to the gymnasia
was punished with death. His laws mention a magistrate, called the
gymnasiarch (γυμνασίαρχος or γυμνασιάρχης), who was entrusted with
the whole management of the gymnasia, and with everything connected
therewith. His office was one of the regular liturgies like the
choregia and trierarchy, and was attended with considerable expense.
He had to maintain and pay the persons who were preparing themselves
for the games and contests in the public festivals, to provide them
with oil, and perhaps with the wrestlers’ dust. It also devolved upon
him to adorn the gymnasium, or the place where the agones were held.
The gymnasiarch was a real magistrate, and invested with a kind of
jurisdiction over all those who frequented or were connected with the
gymnasia. Another part of his duties was to conduct the solemn games
at certain great festivals, especially the torch-race (λαμπαδηφορία),
for which he selected the most distinguished among the ephebi of
the gymnasia. The number of gymnasiarchs was ten, one from every
tribe. An office of very great importance, in an educational point of
view, was that of the _Sophronistae_ (σωφρονίσται). Their province
was to inspire the youths with a love of σωφροσύνη, and to protect
this virtue against all injurious influences. In early times their
number at Athens was ten, one from every tribe, with a salary of one
drachma per day. Their duty not only required them to be present at
all the games of the ephebi, but to watch and correct their conduct
wherever they might meet them, both within and without the gymnasium.
The instructions in the gymnasia were given by the _Gymnastae_
(γυμνασταί) and the _Paedotribae_ (παιδοτριβαί); at a later period
_Hypopaedotribae_ were added. The Paedotribae were required to
possess a knowledge of all the various exercises which were performed
in the gymnasia; the Gymnastes was the practical teacher, and was
expected to know the physiological effects and influences on the
constitution of the youths, and therefore assigned to each of them
those exercises which he thought most suitable. The anointing of
the bodies of the youths and strewing them with dust, before they
commenced their exercises, as well as the regulation of their diet,
was the duty of the aliptae. [ALIPTAE.]--Among all the different
tribes of the Greeks the exercises which were carried on in a Greek
gymnasium were either mere games, or the more important exercises
which the gymnasia had in common with the public contests in the
great festivals. Among the former we may mention, 1. The game at ball
(σφαιριστική), which was in universal favour with the Greeks. [PILA.]
Every gymnasium contained one large room for the purpose of playing
at ball in it (σφαιριστήριον). 2. Παίζειν ἑλκυστίνδα, διελκυστίνδα,
or διὰ γραμμῆς, was a game in which one boy, holding one end of a
rope, tried to pull the boy who held its other end, across a line
marked between them on the ground. 3. The top (βεμβηξ, βέμβιξ,
ῥόμβος, στρόβιλος), which was as common an amusement with Greek boys
as it is with ours. 4. The πεντάλιθος, which was a game with five
stones, which were thrown up from the upper part of the hand and
caught in the palm. 5. Σκαπέρδα, which was a game in which a rope was
drawn through the upper part of a tree or a post. Two boys, one on
each side of the post, turning their backs towards one another, took
hold of the ends of the rope and tried to pull each other up. This
sport was also one of the amusements at the Attic Dionysia. The more
important games, such as running (δρόμος), throwing of the δίσκος
and the ἄκων, jumping and leaping (ἅλμα, with and without ἁλτῆρες),
wrestling (πάλη), boxing (πυγμή), the pancratium (παγκράτιον),
πένταθλος, λαμπαδηφορία, dancing (ὀρχήσις), &c., are described in
separate articles. A gymnasium was not a Roman institution. The
regular training of boys in the Greek gymnastics was foreign to Roman
manners, and even held in contempt. Towards the end of the republic,
many wealthy Romans who had acquired a taste for Greek manners,
used to attach to their villas small places for bodily exercise,
sometimes called gymnasia, sometimes palaestrae, and to adorn them
with beautiful works of art. The emperor Nero was the first who built
a public gymnasium at Rome.
GYMNĒSII or GYMNĒTES (γυμνήσιοι, or γυμνῆτες), a class of
bond-slaves at Argos, who may be compared with the Helots at Sparta.
Their name shows that they attended their masters on military service
in the capacity of light-armed troops.
GYMNŎPAEDĬA (γυμνοπαιδία), the festival of “naked youths,” was
celebrated at Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Pythaeus,
Artemis, and Leto. The statues of these deities stood in a part of
the agora called χορός, and it was around these statues that, at the
gymnopaedia, Spartan youths performed their choruses and dances in
honour of Apollo. The festival lasted for several, perhaps for ten,
days, and on the last day men also performed choruses and dances in
the theatre; and during these gymnastic exhibitions they sang the
songs of Thaletas and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotus. The
leader of the chorus (προστάτης or χοροποιός) wore a kind of chaplet
in commemoration of the victory of the Spartans at Thyrea. This
event seems to have been closely connected with the gymnopaedia, for
those Spartans who had fallen on that occasion were always praised
in songs at this festival. The boys in their dances performed such
rhythmical movements as resembled the exercises of the palaestra and
the pancration, and also imitated the wild gestures of the worship
of Dionysus. The whole season of the gymnopaedia, during which
Sparta was visited by great numbers of strangers, was one of great
merriment and rejoicings, and old bachelors alone seem to have been
excluded from the festivities. The introduction of the gymnopaedia is
generally assigned to the year 665 B.C.