No More Learning

Document: Plutarch on Life in Sparta
They learned to read and write for purely practical reasons. But all other forms of education they banned from the country . . . All their education was directed toward prompt obedience to authority, stout endurance of hardship, and victory or death in battle.
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Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
They always went without a shirt, receiving one garment for the entire year, and with unwashed bodies, refraining almost completely from bathing and rubbing down. . .
It was the custom that the younger men should be questioned by the elder as to where they were going and for what, and also that the elder should rebuke the one who did not answer or tried to contrive plausible reasons. And the elder who did not rebuke a younger who did wrong in his presence was liable to the same reprimand as the wrongdoer. And anyone who showed resentment, if he was reprimanded, [found himself in serious trouble] . . .
Moreover, the young men were required not only to respect their own fathers and to be obedient to them, but to have regard for all the older men, to make room for them on the streets, to give up their seats to them, and to keep quiet in their presence. As the result of this custom each man had authority, not as in other states over his own chil- dren, slaves, and property, but also over his neighbor's in like manner as over his own, to the end that the people should, as much as possible, have all things in common, and should take thought for them as for their own . . .
The boys steal whatever they can of their food, learn- ing to make their raids adroitly upon people who are asleep or are careless in watching. The penalty for getting caught is a beating and no food. For the dinner allowed them is meager, so that, through coping with want by their own initiative, they may be compelled to be daring and unscrupulous . . .
The selling of anything was not permitted, but it was their custom to use the neighbors' servants as their own if they needed them and also their dogs and horses, unless the owners required them for their own use. And in the country, if anyone found himself lacking anything and had need of it, he would open an owner's storehouse and take away enough to meet his need, and then replace the seals and leave it . . .
They used to make the Helots [state-owned slaves] drunk and exhibit them to the young as a deterrent from excessive drinking.
It was their custom not to knock on the outer doors, but to call from outside . . .
They did not attend either comedy or tragedy [i. e. , theatrical productions], so that they might not hear anyone speak either in earnest or in jest against the laws.
They reprimanded [a] young man from the gymnasium because he knew well about the road to Pylaea.
One of the noble and blessed privileges that Lycurgus appears to have secured for his fellow citizens was
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? a beating: Young thieves caught in the act were beaten not because stealing was considered wrong or immoral, but because they were insufficiently stealthy to avoid capture.
give up their seats: Most likely at pub- lic events such as religious festivals or athletic competitions.
gymnasium: A large, open-air public building found in most Greek towns, primarily for the use of athletes. However, philosophical discussions and lectures could also take place in gymnasia. The sacred groves near Athens, where Plato famously taught, was called the Academia (hence our word "aca- demic"), and a gymnasium was eventually constructed on the site. But even in Plato's day, the area was apparently frequented by athletes in training.
Pylaea: This word has an interesting history. It is related to the word for "gate," and it originally referred to meeting places, near gated areas of a city's walls, for the represen- tatives of various leagues and coun- cils. Not surprisingly, whenever large numbers of people congre- gated, the informal topics of con- versation often drifted into the realm of the mundane and even the gossipy. Hence, the word came to be associated with trivial conver- sation, which is what it seems to imply in this context: the young man on "the road to Pylaea" appa- rently referred to his propensity for unfocused conversation, when he should have been concentrating on gymnastic drills and exercises.
without a shirt: Plutarch does not mean they went about unclothed from the waist up, but that they wore no shirt underneath their cloak, the himation, here translated as "garment. "
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abundance of leisure. In fact it was not permitted them to take up any menial trade at all, and there was no need whatever of making money, which involves a toilsome accumulation, nor of busy activity, because of his having made wealth wholly unenvied and unhonored. The Helots tilled the soil for them, paying a return that was regularly settled in advance. There was a ban against letting for a higher price, so that the Helots might make some profit, and thus be glad to do the work for their masters . . . [Tr. Frank Cole Babbitt. Plutarch's Moralia (237-239). Volume III. LCL, 1931. Page numbers: 429, 431, 439, 441, 443, 445. ]
AFTERMATH
Plutarch was writing in a time (first/second centuries CE) when the Romans had long since subjugated Greece and most of the rest of the Mediterranean world. In his last chapter in "Ancient Customs of the Spartans," he argues that the Spartans remained strong and in- dependent as long as they followed the precepts and laws of Lycurgus, but once they began to neglect those ordinances, "they became much like the rest [of those under Roman rule], and put from them their former glory and freedom of speech, and were reduced to a state of subjection. And now they, like the rest of the Greeks, have come under Roman sway. "
ASK YOURSELF
1. What do you think of the Spartan attitude toward education? Why do you suppose the Spartans "banned from the country" all forms of education except for purely practical forms of reading and writing?
2. What are some of the Spartan customs regarding children and adults, and their interactions and relationships? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these customs?
Growing Up in Sparta Was No Picnic
? ? ? ? ARISTOTLE'S COMMENT ON COMMUNITY PROPERTY
One of the many works of the famous fourth-century BCE philosopher Aristotle is entitled Politics. In this lengthy treatise, he covers a number of important topics, including the nature of the state; the family; slavery; the origin of money; the various kinds of governments and constitutions, including those of Sparta, Crete, and Carthage; citizenship; revolutions; the best kind of state; and the nature and importance of education. On the matter of property held in common, he writes: "Even now there are some states in which the outlines of such a scheme [of commonly-held property] are so far apparent, as to suggest that it is not impossible; in well-ordered states . . . there are some elements of it already existing . . . In these states, each citizen has his own property, but when it comes to the use of this property, each makes a part of it available to his friends, and each devotes still another part to the common enjoyment of all fellow citizens. In Sparta, for example, men use one another's slaves, and one another's horses and dogs, as if they were their own. And they take provisions on a journey, if they happen to be in need, from the farms in the countryside belonging to other citizens. " Aristotle. Politics 2. 5; tr. Barker.
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Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
3. What is your opinion of the custom that "boys steal whatever they can of their food"? What do you think of the stated rationale for this behavior, namely, that it teaches them to be "daring and unscrupulous"?
4. Why do you suppose the Spartans were not allowed to sell anything? How would this prohibition fit in with other Spartan customs mentioned in the document? And what about the idea that "there was no need whatever of making money"? Is this practical?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e A good deal of the information that Plutarch incorporates into this docu- ment is also recorded in his biography of Lycurgus. Read over that biogra- phy, and then compare it to "Ancient Customs of the Spartans. " What similarities or differences do you notice?
e Can you think of any contemporary societies or countries that have cus- toms similar to those of the Spartans? Explain the similarities. Some histor- ians argue that Spartan society, and especially its share-the-wealth ethic, is similar to modern socialist societies or countries. Do you think that this is an accurate comparison?
e Plutarch has very little to say in this essay about Spartan girls or women. Why not, do you suppose? Access one of the many websites on the topic for additional information. (Interestingly, Plutarch did write an essay enti- tled Bravery of Women, and another one called Sayings of Spartan Women, so he certainly was not averse to including information about women in his writings. )
e WhatisyouropinionofthedescriptionsinbothPlutarchandAristotleof the Spartan custom of commonly held property? Do you think that this system worked in actual practice? Would such a system be viable today?
Further Information
Cartledge, Paul. Spartan Reflections. London, 2001.
Forrest, W. G. A History of Sparta, 950-192 B. C. New York, 1968.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Spartan Women. Oxford, 2002.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. , Stanley M. Burstein, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Ancient Greece: A
Political, Social, and Cultural History (Chapter 4: Sparta). New York, 1999. Bibliography for Document
Babbitt, Frank Cole (tr. ). Plutarch's Moralia. Volume III. [LCL. ] London and New York, 1931.
Barker, Ernest (tr. ). The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford, 1958.
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2. A FAILURE TO LAUNCH, IN AN ATHENIAN FAMILY
INTRODUCTION
Aristophanes, author of the document that follows, enjoyed a long and successful career as an Athenian comic playwright, in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE. His play Clouds, one of his earlier efforts, was staged around 423.
KEEP IN MIND AS YOU READ
1. Aristophanes, like all the comic playwrights of his time, injected heavy doses of sat- ire into his plays, so that fact must always be kept in mind when reading or inter- preting his works. Nevertheless, even satire must be based on a foundation of truth, so there is clearly historical value in satirical writings.
2. The document is excerpted from the opening scenes of Aristophanes's play, in which an old Athenian man by the name of Strepsiades is lying in bed, tossing and turning and unable to sleep, because his spendthrift son, Phidippides, has wasted large sums of the family's money on chariot racing. The resulting indebtedness is becoming Strepsiades's problem, and he does not see how he will possibly be able to satisfy the family's growing list of creditors. The scene is thus set for a generational confron- tation between father and son: the father extols the virtues of thrift and hard work, whereas the son finds nothing wrong with having a good time--an expensively good time--down at the racetrack.
3. As in many Aristophanic comedies, the names of the principal characters are con- coctions of the playwright's imagination, and as such, they can often be translated. The name "Strepsiades" is related to the Greek word strepho, meaning "twist," or "turn," a word that is aptly descriptive of the old man's nocturnal woes. The son's name, Phidippides, is formed from a combination of the words pheido, "thrift," and hippos, "horse. " The hippos suffix also conveys a connotation of wealth, since only well-to-do individuals could afford to own and maintain horses. And the name is only one letter away from the word "Philippides," which would mean "lover of horses," also a fitting moniker for the son.
4. The "city life versus country life" theme is raised in one of Strepsiades's early speeches, where he laments having married a city woman who knew nothing of the simple pleasures of country living that Strepsiades had enjoyed before their union.
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Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Amynias: Apparently a kind of a low- life character, who appeared in Aristophanes's play Wasps, as well as in plays by other contemporary writers.
bailiff: The Greek word demarchos, or demarch, here translated as "bail- iff," was literally the chief officer of an Athenian deme, or adminis- trative district. According to K. J. Dover, the demarch "had the custody of the official list of members of the deme. . . he was responsible for exacting the rents on land leased by the deme to indi- viduals . . .
and it is a fair inference from this passage that he had the authority to enforce the surrender of securities by a debtor to a private creditor. "
Coesyrized: A reference to the mother of Megacles, Coisyra, who was apparently a typically arrogant member of the upper classes of sophisticated Athenian society.
Colias and Genetyllis: According to Jeffrey Henderson, "Colias was the name of an Attic promontory where women held festivals for Aphrodite and the Genetyllides, goddesses of procreation. "
hack: Koppatian, a kind of horse branded with the Greek letter koppa.
the moon in her twenties: More than 20 days into the month, with bills due and payable at the end of the month.
oil: Lamps were fueled by olive oil. Pasias: Otherwise unknown. This might be one of Aristophanes's invented names. There was a remarkably successful Athenian banker named Pasio (d. 370 BCE), but it seems unlikely that there is any connection between him and
the Pasias mentioned in the play.
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Document: A Father-Son
Heart-to-Heart
(Strepsiades and Phidippides lie sleeping. Strepsiades sits up restlessly. )
STREPSIADES:
Oh dear, oh dear! Lord Zeus, what a stretch of nighttime! Interminable. Will it never be day? I did hear a rooster crow quite a while back, but the slaves are snoring. They wouldn't in the old days. Damn you, War, for my many worries, when I can't even punish my slaves! And this fine young man here won't rouse himself before daybreak either, but farts away wrapped up in five woolen coverlets. All right, then, let's all get under the covers and snore! No use, I can't get to sleep, poor soul. I'm being eaten alive by my bills and stable fees and debts, on account of this son of mine. He wears his hair long and rides horses and races chariots, and he even dreams about horses, while I go to pieces as I watch the moon in her twenties, because my interest payment looms just ahead. [Addressing a slave:] Boy! Light a lamp, and bring me my ledger book, so
I can count my creditors and reckon the interest. Let's see, what do I owe? Twelve minas to Pasias? What were the twelve minas to Pasias for? What did I use it for? When I bought that branded hack. Oh me, oh my! I wish I'd had my eye knocked out with a stone . . . But what arrears overtook me after Pasias? Three minas to Amynias for a small seat and a pair of wheels. . .
Really, father, why do you grouse and toss all night long?
There's a bailiff in the bedclothes biting me. For heaven's sake, let me catch a little sleep. All right then, sleep! But bear in mind, all these debts will end up on your head. Ah, I wish she'd died a terrible death, that matchmaker who talked me into marrying your mother! Mine was a very pleasant country life, moldy, unswept, aimlessly leisured, abounding in honey
PHIDIPPIDES (awakening): STREPSIADES: PHIDIPPIDES: STREPSIADES:
bees, sheep, and olive cakes. Then
I married the niece of Megacles, son of Megacles, I a rustic, she from town, haughty, spoiled, thoroughly Coesyrized. When I married her
I climbed into bed smelling of new wine, figs, fleeces, and abundance; and she of perfume, saffron, tongue kisses, extravagance, gluttony, Colias and Genetyllis. But still, I won't say she was lazy; she used plenty of thread when she wove. I used to show her this cloak of mine as proof and say, "Woman, you go too heavy on the thread! "
SLAVE: We've got no oil in the lamp. STREPSIADES: Damn it, why did you light me the thirsty
lamp? Come here and take your beating. SLAVE: Why should I get a beating, then?
STREPSIADES: Because you put in one of the thick wicks! The slave runs inside. After that,
when this son was born to us, I mean to me and my high-class wife, we started to bicker over his name. She was for adding hippos ["horse," connoting elevated social status] to the name, Xanthippus or Chaerrippus or Callippides, while I was for calling him Phidonides after his grandfather. So for a while we argued, until finally we compromised and called him Phidippides. She used to pick up this boy and coo at him, "When you're grown you'll drive a chariot to the Acropolis, like Megacles, and don a saf- fron robe. " And I would say, "No, you'll drive the goats from the Rocky Bottom, like your father, and wear a leather jacket. " But he wouldn't listen to any- thing I said; instead, he's infected my estate with the galloping trots. So now I've spent the whole night thinking of a way out, and I've found a singular short- cut, devilishly marvelous [i. e. , his idea of enrolling Phidippides in Socrates's school]. If I can talk this boy into it, I'll be saved. " [Tr. Jeffrey Henderson. Aristophanes: Clouds; Wasps; Peace. (Lines 1-24; 30-31; 35-78. ) LCL, 1998. Page numbers: 11, 13, 15, 17. ]
A Failure to Launch, in an Athenian Family
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? punish my slaves: He fears that they might flee from him, and possibly wind up in Sparta.
Rocky Bottom: Phelleus in Greek; an area around Athens featuring stony ground covered with porous rocks, like lava. According to Plato, it was not always that way, but in bygone days it was a fertile area, rich with arable soil and heavily forested hills and mountains sur- rounding it.
thirsty lamp: The Greek word potes, "thirsty," is sometimes used to describe a person who drinks to excess, a hard drinker. When Strepsiades uses the word in con- nection with a lamp, it conjures up modern images of cars that get poor mileage: "gas guzzlers. " So Strepsiades's lamp is apparently an "oil guzzler. "
to the Acropolis: The reference is appa- rently to the annual Panathenaic fes- tival and the great procession "to the Acropolis"; the procession featured chariots, women carrying sacred relics, young people leading sacrifi- cial animals, and soldiers mounted on horseback. The Acropolis was the citadel of Athens, on which stood the Parthenon and many other famous buildings.
unswept: From the Greek word akore- tos, which literally means "unsated," but here translated as "unswept. " In this context, however, it seems to mean something like "unboth- ered," a reference to Strepsiades's carefree country lifestyle--before he met his city-bred wife!
War: A reference to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), principally between the city-states of Athens and Sparta. Aristophanes stingingly satirized this war in his plays Acharnians, Lysistrata, and Peace.
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Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome
? ? ? ? "MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER"
Strepsiades's wish for the matchmaker who saddled him with his wife is not too harsh; he only wants her to suf- fer a "terrible death"! Although the role of matchmakers (promnestriai) in arranging marriages was apparently quite well established in Athenian society, matchmakers are surprisingly not well attested in Greek literature. Xenophon's brief discussion of the topic is also one of the most detailed. He puts these words into the mouth of Socrates, in a dialogue in his Memorabilia [2. 36]: "good matchmakers are successful in making marriages only when the good reports they carry to and fro are true; false reports [are not recommended], for the victims of deception hate one another and the matchmaker too. " [Xenophon. Memorabilia 2. 6; tr. Marchant. ]
It seems clear that Strepsiades considered himself a "victim of deception," because he hated both his wife, and the matchmaker who paired them up.
? ? ? AFTERMATH
Strepsiades has an inspiration, a way to get out of debt and get his son under control at the same time: enroll the boy in Socrates's new school, the "Thinkery," which reportedly teaches its clients how to win arguments by devious reasoning. Strepsiades hopes that his son will learn how to initiate legal actions that will enable him to extricate himself from his mounting debts. Phidippides at first refuses to attend the school--he would rather work on his suntan! --but eventually, he agrees. The lessons backfire, however, when father and son quarrel over whether it is proper for a son to beat his father and mother. Phidippides argues that a son does have that right; he has learned sophistic reasoning all too well. Strepsiades thus comes to the conclusion that it would be wrong to cheat one's creditors by using the convoluted reasoning and decep- tive argumentation techniques taught in the Thinkery. The play ends with Strepsiades and his slaves setting the Thinkery on fire.
ASK YOURSELF
1. What is it that keeps Strepsiades tossing and turning all night long, and unable to sleep? What does he seem to think would be the best way to solve this problem?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? THE OTHER PHIDIPPIDES
There was a famous Athenian long distance runner by the name of Phidippides, whose two days of fame came during the first Persian invasion of Greece, in 490 BCE. The Athenians, not wishing to face the full force of the Persian army alone, sent an appeal to Sparta for help. Their desperate message was delivered by Phidippides-- on foot! According to the historian Herodotus, he arrived in Sparta the day after he left Athens, thus covering the distance between the two famous polises, 150 miles, in two days. Although the Spartans refused the Athenian request, Athens nonetheless prevailed against the Persians, at the Battle of Marathon. Legend has it that a messenger ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory. For reasons which are not entirely clear, Phidippides has been popularly associated with this first "Marathon run," but it was not he; the runner's name is given in Plutarch as Eucles.
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2. How would you describe Strepsiades's relationship with his wife? With his son? Do you think that he was a good father and husband?
3. Strepsiades is obviously concerned about his cash flow. What are some of the actions that he thinks could be taken to reduce household expenses?
TOPICS TO CONSIDER
e Strepsiades is portrayed as wrestling with some serious debt and family problems. Do you think his situation was typical of that which confronted many fifth-century Athenians of his socioeconomic group?
e Strepsiades seems to be making a point about differences in social status when he remarks that his wife had expectations that Phidippides would one day drive a chariot in the prestigious Panathenaic festival, whereas Strepsiades thinks it more likely that the boy would be herding goats in the Rocky Bottom. How do you suppose an Athenian audience would react to the comparison between the Panathenaic festival and Rocky Bottom? Of the two possible futures in store for Phidippides (chariot driv- ing or goat herding), which one do you think would be more likely to occur? Why?
e Satire, whether ancient or modern, almost always contains elements of exaggeration. What portrayals (of people or events) in the document seem exaggerated to you? Can you think of any modern satirists to whom Aristophanes might be compared?
Further Information
Dover, Kenneth J. Aristophanic Comedy. Berkeley, CA, 1972.
Ehrenberg, Victor. The People of Aristophanes: A Sociology of Old Attic Comedy. Oxford,
1943.
Harriott, Rosemary. Aristophanes, Poet and Dramatist. Baltimore, 1986. Murray, Gilbert. Aristophanes: A Study. Oxford, 1933.
Strauss, Leo. Socrates and Aristophanes. Chicago, 1996.
Websites
The Clouds: An Analysis of the Play by Aristophanes. http://www. theatrehistory. com/ ancient/bates025. html
On Satire in Aristophanes's The Clouds [especially section "J"]. http://records. viu. ca/~johnstoi/ introser/clouds. htm
Bibliography for Document
Dover, Kenneth J. Aristophanes. Clouds. Oxford, 1968.
Feder, Lillian. Apollo Handbook of Classical Literature. New York, 1964.
Henderson, Jeffrey (tr. ). Aristophanes: Clouds; Wasps; Peace. [LCL. ] Cambridge and London,
1998.
Marchant, E. C. (tr. ). Xenophon: Memorabilia and Oeconomicus. [LCL. ] Cambridge and
London, 1923.