Education in Ancient Greece

Education In Ancient Greece

Education played a significant role in ancient Greek life since the founding of the poleis till the Hellenistic and Roman period. From its origins in the Homeric and the aristocratic tradition, Greek education was vastly "democratized" in the 5th century BC, influenced by the Sophists, Plato and Isocrates. In the Hellenistic period, education in a gymnasium was considered an inextricable prerequisite for participation in the Greek culture.

There were two forms of education in ancient Greece: formal and informal. Formal education was attained through attendance to a public school or was provided by a hired tutor. Informal education was provided by an unpaid teacher, and occurred in a non-public setting. Education was an essential component of a person’s identity in ancient Greece, and the type of education a person received was based strongly in one’s social class, the culture of one’s polis, and the opinion of one’s culture on what education should include.

Formal Greek education was primarily for men, and was, in general, not offered to slaves, manual laborers, or women. In some poleis, laws were passed to prohibit the education of slaves. A young girl would receive an informal education from her mother and would be taught how to maintain a household to serve her father and, later in life, her husband. Women’s roles included managing the household, raising children, preparing food, and making textiles. One exception to this was in Sparta, where women were expected to run the polis while the men were away at war. Women in Sparta also received a formal physical education.

Greek education focused heavily on training the entire person, which included education of the mind, body, and imagination. The specific purposes of Greek education differed from polis to polis. The Spartans placed a high emphasis on military training, while the Athenians traditionally gave more attention to music, literature, dance, and later also to the natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry, as well as philosophy, rhetoric, and sophistry-the art of presenting an argument using deception and reason to persuade the public to agree with a certain point of view. The Spartans also taught music and dance, but with the purpose of enhancing their manoeuvrability as soldiers.