Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

260 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
oases with well-shaded walks. By the end of the sixth century b.c.e. ,
Athens had acquired three principal gymnasia—the Academy, the
Lyceum, and the Kynosarges—all situated outside the city. These
were used by Athens’s ephebes and hoplites as a fitness center,
probably on a daily basis.
Socializing also went on in the gymnasium. Not only aspiring
athletes but also older men would gather there to converse, gossip,
and argue while sitting in the shade beside running water. Here,
too, Sophists, would talk and give lectures. In the fourth century
b.c.e. , the gymnasia of Athens came to acquire a new identity as
centers for philosophical discussion. Plato established his school in
the vicinity of the Academy. The name, which derives from a local
hero named Akademos, is the origin of our word academic. Half a
century later, his pupil Aristotle established a rival philosophical
school in the Lyceum. Aristotle’s followers were dubbed peripatetics
(from the verb peripateô, to walk up and down) because of their
habit of pacing up and down as they pursued their philosophical
inquiries. The topographical coincidence between intellectual and
athletic excellence testifies to the Greek conviction that the two
aspirations are complementary.
The Olympic Spirit
Competitive athletics was one of the principal means by which
the Greeks promoted a sense of cultural unity. Although there were
probably hundreds of local athletic festivals, four Panhellenic, or
all-Greek, games attracted athletes from all over the Greek world.
These were the Olympic and Nemean Games, both held in honor
Strigil or scraper used by athletes. (It has
been pierced by an iron nail to “cancel” it, or
reserve it for use by the dead.) From D. Kurtz
and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1971). Courtesy of
University of Oxford.