5. Plato's Gymnasium

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Notes

1. The story of the investigation is told in Miller 2009; on Plato's link to athletics see, especially, 37–55.

2. See Scanlon 2002, 256, where he quotes Schol. [Hermias] Pl. Phaedr. 231e.

3. Percy 1996, x; Scanlon (2002, 83–6) also makes a case for athletics and pederasty in Archaic Thera.

4. Both Forbes (1929, 8) and Marrou (1956, xiv) attribute a military origin to Greek physical education. Jean Delorme (1960, 9) links the development of gymnasia with the emergence of the hoplite phalanx. More recently Spivey (2004, 3) has argued that all Greek athletic activities were a substitute for war.

5. See Dover (1989, 191–2), who cites Xenophon, Symposium 8.32 on the posting of homosexual couples beside one another in battle, especially in Elis and Boeotia. Indeed the ‘Sacred Band of Thebes’ formed around 378 bce, said to composed entirely of such couples, was considered the formidable core of that army.

6. Homer, Iliad 23.741–52. See also Golden 1998, 27: ‘The usual sports of the gymnasium and the competitive festivals were just not very well designed as preparation for hoplite warfare.’

7. See Kyle 2007, 85–7, who cites Bonfante and Miller.

8. The Roman writer Lucian connects Greek nudity with courage in Anarcharsis 36–7.

9. See for example, Simonides, Anthologia Greca 16.2.

10. Even the athletic hero Heracles is depicted in art with a disproportionately small penis. For an in-depth analysis of the portrayal of the penis in ancient Greek art, see Dover 1989, 124–35.

11. See Phaedrus 245e, Laws 895cd: cleinias: ‘Of course, what you're really asking me is this: when an object moves itself, are we to say that it is “alive”?’athenian: ‘That's right.’cleinias: ‘It emphatically is alive.’athenian: ‘Well then, when we see that a thing has a soul, the situation is exactly the same, isn't it? We have to admit that it is alive.’ See also Laws 896bc: athenian: ‘I do. And if this is true, are we still dissatisfied? Haven't we got ourselves a satisfactory proof that soul is identical with the original source of the generation and motion of all past, present and future things and their contraries? After all, it has been shown to be the cause of all change and motion in everything.’cleinias: ‘Dissatisfied? No! On the contrary, it has been proved up to the hilt that soul, being the source of motion, is the most ancient thing there is.’

12. For an overview, see Scanlon 2002, 211–19.

13. Socrates makes it clear that truth is the goal when he says: ‘The reason there is so much eagerness to see the plain where truth stands is that this pasture has the grass that is the right food for the best part of the soul, and it is the nature of the wings that lift up the soul to be nourished by it’ (Phaedrus 248bc).

14. Agōgē literally means ‘leading’; it is the source of our word ‘pedagogy’ which literally means leading the youth.

15. For a detailed examination of this see Reid 2007, 164–6.

16. For a summary, see Kyle 2007, 217–28. For a detailed account see Scanlon 2002, chapters 4–7.

17. See Xenophon, Constitution of the Lakedaimonians 1.4, quoted. in Miller 1991, 101.

18. Laws 804d prescribes the same education for males and females, at 833d it is prescribed that girls before puberty enter athletic contests nude, but wear some suitable clothing after that time and up to 20 years of age. In Republic, guardian women receive the same education as the men and are expected to strip for physical training (475a).

19. It is interesting that modern feminists, in their push for equal rights, have not insisted on equal treatment on the issue of military service. In ancient Greece, military service was expected of all male citizens as part of their democratic duty. Exclusion of women from the military was part and parcel of exclusion of women from citizenship. For more on women and democracy in ancient Greece see Jameson 2004 and Katz 2004.

20. At Republic 454cd it is pointed out that male and female doctor have ‘souls of the same nature’ and the conclusion is made that males and females differ only in their reproductive roles.

21. For an excellent analysis of the Atalanta myth and its implications, see ‘Atalanta and Athletic Myths of Gender’ in Scanlon 2002, 175–98.

22. It is worth noting here that Plato seems critical of her choice because it is motivated by the honours received by male athletes, rather than an authentic good like virtue. The implication is that her next life as a famous athlete will not be so happy as the life that just ended.

23. Plato does not seem to have considered the idea that gymnastic training may make a female body more beautiful.

24. The story of Plato's efforts to convert a Sicilian Tyrant is told in the Seventh Letter.

25. Scanlon translation.