Archaeology Magazine - April 1966 - 7

Thamyris, blind and clinging to a broken lyre, Arion
on his dolphin, and Hesiod himself holding a harp
upon his knees. Orpheus was also portrayed surrounded by wild animals in stone and bronze listening
to his singing. One could also see there the tripod
which Hesiod won at Chalcis. This mouseion seems
to have been a veritable museum of the Muses and
Hesiod in the modern sense of the word.
The attention paid to the reading of poetry in the
formal education of ancient Greece is well known. In
fact, it can be said that it was the most important part
of a young man's education. The reading was accompanied by feats of memory which seem to us today to
have been prodigious, if not humanly impossible. Let
us recall Niceratus, a guest at Xenophon's symposium,
who tells us quite candidly that since his father wanted
him to become "a good man" he compelled him to
learn all of the Homeric epics by heart. And on the
day of the symposiumhe could still recite all the litad
and all the Odyssey. Poor Niceratus! He was very
proud of his achievement. Socrates, of course, throws
cold water on it by pointing out that any rhapsode
could do the same and that rhapsodes are the stupidest
men on earth. The reason is clear : they do not understand the deeper sense of the poetry. Socrates then
lets Niceratus off with an ironic twist. Since he has
paid good money to the professional critics of Homer,
presumably for elucidation of the text, he cannot have
missed anything very important.
The purpose of this concentration on reading and
memorizing was basically moral. The student was to
imitate the virtues of the heroes of the past and pattern his character after theirs. Memorizing the poems
in which they appeared would assure the ability to recall them exactly at any time. But often the memorizing must have been a grinding exercise that improved
the student's mnemonic ability and very little else.
There is an interesting passage in Plato's Laws which
reflects serious doubts about the value of memorizing
entire poetical works.
It was the study of poetry, the province of the
Muses, that brought about the use of the word museum to designate a school. It first occurs in this sense
clearly and definitely in Plato, but we see earlier
stages in the development of this sense in Aristophanes and Euripides. By the middle of the fourth
century, as we know from Aeschines, school festivals
were called musea and it is certain that this usage had
already been well established, since Aeschines mentions it in connection with regulations which he attributes to Draco and Solon. The famous inscription
recording the gift of funds for public education made
by Eudemus of Miletus to his native town shows us
how closely the Muses were connected with schooling

around 200 b.c. The people decided on the proposal
of a committee that the income from the capital (ten
silver talents) should be spent to engage the services of four athletic instructors and four elementary
teachers.
Every year candidates for the positions would announce their candidacy to the school authorities, who
would post their names in the Stoa of Antiochus.
Then on a given day the candidates would appear before the popular assembly in the company of the
priests of Hermes Enagonius and the Muses. Here the
herald would lead people in a prayer that he who
voted for a candidate solely on the basis of his being
the best qualified person for the position should prosper, whereas he who had been unduly influenced by
other considerations should suffer for his dishonesty.
Then the candidates would step up one by one and
swear an oath that they had not directly or indirectly
urged any citizen to vote for them. The oath of the
athletic instructors was administered by the priest of
Hermes and they swore by this god; the oath of the
elementary teachers was administered by the priest of
the Muses and they swore by Apollo and the Muses.
Fines for the maladministration of the funds given by
Eudemus were to be paid to the treasuries of the temple of Hermes and that of the Muses.
The concepts of a museum as a place sacred to the
Muses and as an institution of learning were brilliantly
fused in Plato's Academy. There an altar was erected
to the Muses, at which sacrifices and festivals were
celebrated. Members of the Academy were organized
as a thiasos, or sacred band, dedicated to the service of
the Muses. This band had its own regulations and
leader and, in its external aspects, did not differ to
any considerable degree from other bands of the same
sort. But the intense intellectual activity of the members in collaboration with each other was hardly the
principal characteristic of the average thiasos. Speculation and research, particularly in mathematics, were
the principal pursuits of the Academy and we can see
in it the seeds of the organized institute of higher
learning.
It has been said that when Aristotle came to Athens
he brought with him the equipment of a university.
Certainly in the Lyceum he expanded the scope of the
Platonic Academy to include almost every subject that
was of interest to mankind, from the arts of poetry
and rhetoric to political constitutions and the nature
of animals. Here we must not forget that the philosopher had been called to Macedón by King Philip to
be the tutor of his son, Alexander, later called the
Greàt.
The resources of Alexander permitted Aristotle to
undertake scientific studies on a scale that was un79

Archaeology Magazine - April 1966

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - April 1966