Education in schools in ancient Athens was at first
limited to aristocratic (very rich and well born) boys. By the 4th
century b.c. all 18-year-old males spent two years in a
gymnasion, a state school set up to develop the overall
physical and intellectual development of a young man. More advanced
education in philosophy (thinking), mathematics, logic and rhetoric
(public speaking), was available to the aristocracy in very exclusive
gymnasia like the Academy of Plato and the Lycaeum of Aristotle.
Although girls in ancient Greece received no
formal education in the literary arts, many of them were taught to
read and write informally, in the home.
Attic Red Figure Kylix ca. 480 b.c.
By the Eucharides Painter
Orvieto, Etruria
MS 4842
A seated boy inscribing with a stylus on a five&endash;part
folding wax tablet. The tablet is typical of the sort used
by schoolboys learning to write. The chest at the boy´s
right may have been used for storing scrolls.
H. 7.4; L. 27.5; Dia. 21.2 cm. Photo courtesy Mediterranean
Section, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum (larger
version)
