crisis of wisdom[1] is here laid before them; about which my friends have a very great contest. But do you, who adorned our elders with many virtuous manners, utter the voice in which you rejoice, and declare your nature.
Just. I will, therefore, describe the ancient system of education, how it was ordered, when I flourished in the advocacy of justice, and temperance was the fashion. In the first place it was incumbent that no one should hear the voice of a boy uttering a syllable; and next, that those from the same quarter of the town should march in good order through the streets to the school of the Harp-master, naked, and in a body, even if it were to snow as thick as meal. Then again, their master[2] would teach them, not sitting cross-legged, to learn by rote a song, either "Παλλάδα[3] περσέπολιν δεινὰν," or "τηλέπορόν τι βόαμα," raising to a higher pitch[4] the harmony which our fathers transmitted to us. But if any of them were to play the buffoon, or turn any quavers, like these difficult turns the present artists make after the manner of Phrynis,[5] he used to be thrashed, being beaten with many blows,[6] as banishing the Muses. And it behoved the boys, while sitting in the school of the Gymnastic-master, to cover[7] the thigh, so that they might exhibit no-
- ↑ "Alle Gefahr stürmet ja jetzt
Wider dich an, Philosophie,
Hier wo um dich den grössten" Kampf
Unsere Freunde wagen." Droysen. - ↑ "Arrived, and seated wide apart, the master
First taught them how to chaunt Athena's praise." St. John's Ancient Greece.See Dr. Franz's German-Greek Lexicon in voc. Schlagen, p. 445.
- ↑ This verse contains the commencement of two old songs. The first was composed by Lamprocles, son of Midon, an ancient Athenian poet. The second was composed by Cydides, a harper of Hermione.
- ↑ "Im gehaltenen Ton, im gemessenen Takt, wie die Väter vor
Zeiten gesungen." Droysen. - ↑ "Phrynis of Mitylene, the scholar of Aristoclydes, is frequently alluded to by the comic poets for having introduced a new species of modulation in music, deviating from the simplicity of the ancient harmony. When Callias was archon, Phrynis bore away the prize for minstrelsy at the Panathenæa." Cumb.
"Wie man jetzt beliebt nach Phrynis Manier, Solfeggienschnörkelgeziere." Droysen.
- ↑ See Kruger's Gr. Gr. § 43, 3, obs. 3.
- ↑ See Dr. Franz's German-Greek Lexicon in voc. Schlagen, p. 445.
