A Day in Old Athens

Contents - From "A Day in Old Athens," by William Stearns Davis (1910)
Professor of Ancient History at the University of Minnesota

Related Resources • The Plan of a Greek House • Preface

Elsewhere on the Web • A Day In Old Athens

[NOTE: Only hyperlinked pages are available online.]

Maps, Plans, and Illustrations . . . . xii

Chapter I. The Physical Setting of Athens.

Section
1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant . . . . . . . . 1
3. The Small Size and Sterility of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. The Physical Beauty of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. The Mountains of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. The Sunlight in Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. The Topography of the City of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8. 360 B.C.--The Year of the Visit to Athens . . . . . . . . . . . 8

   Chapter II. The First Sights in Athens.

   Section

9. The Morning Crowds bound for Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
10. The Gate and the Street Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
11. The Streets and House Fronts of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
12. The Simplicity of Athenian Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

    Chapter III. The Agora and its Denizens.

    Section

13. The Buildings around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
14. The Life in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
16. The Flower and the Fish Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
17. The Morning Visitors to the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
18. The Leisured Class in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
19. Familiar Types around the Agora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
20. The Barber Shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

    Chapter IV. The Athenian House and its Furnishings.

    Section

21. Following an Athenian Gentleman Homeward . . . . . . . . . . . 26
22. The Type and Uses of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
23. The Plan of a Greek House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
24. Modifications in the Typical Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
25. Rents and House Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
26. The Simple yet Elegant Furnishings of an Athenian House . . . . 32

    Chapter V. The Women of Athens.

    Section

27. How Athenian Marriages are Arranged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
28. Lack of Sentiment in Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
29. Athenian Marriage Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
30. The Mental Horizon of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
31. The Honor paid Womanhood in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
32. The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

    Chapter VI. Athenian Costume.

33. The General Nature of Greek Dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
34. The Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamys . . . . . . . . . . 44
35. The Dress of the Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
36. Footwear and Head Coverings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
37. The Beauty of the Greek Dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
38. Greek Toilet Frivolities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

    Chapter VII. The Slaves.

    Section

39. Slavery an Integral Part of Greek Life . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
40. The Slave Trade in Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
41. The Treatment of Slaves in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
42. Cruel and Kind Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
43. The "City Slaves" of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

    Chapter VIII. The Children.

    Section

44. The Desirability of Children in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
45. The Exposure of Infants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
46. The Celebration of a Birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
47. Life and Games of Young Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
48. Playing in the Streets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
49. The First Stories and Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
50. The Training of Athenian Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

    Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.

    Section

51. The Athenians Generally Literate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
52. Character Building the Aim of Athenian Education . . . . . . . 63
53. The Schoolboy's Pedagogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
54. An Athenian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
55. The School Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
56. The Study of the Poets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
57. The Greeks do not study Foreign Languages . . . . . . . . . . . 70
58. The Study of "Music" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
59. The Moral Character of Greek Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
60. The Teaching of Gymnastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
61. The Habits and Ambitions of Schoolboys . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
62. The "Ephebi" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

    Chapter X. The Physicians of Athens.

    Section

63. The Beginnings of Greek Medical Science . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
64. Healing Shrines and their Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
65. An Athenian Physician's Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
66. The Physician's Oath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
67. The Skill of Greek Physicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
68. Quacks and Charlatans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

    Chapter XI. The Funerals.

    Section

69. An Athenian's Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
70. The Preliminaries of a Funeral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
71. Lamenting the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
72. The Funeral Procession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
73. The Funeral Pyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
74. Honors to the Memory of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
75. The Beautiful Funeral Monuments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

    Chapter XII. Trade, Manufactures, and Banking.

    Section

76. The Commercial Importance of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
77. The Manufacturing Activities of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
78. The Commerce of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
79. The Adventurous Merchant Skippers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
80. Athenian Money-changers and Bankers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
81. A Large Banking Establishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
82. Drawbacks to the Banking Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
83. The Pottery of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
84. Athenian Pottery an Expression of the Greek Sense of Beauty . . 99

    Chapter XIII. The Armed Forces of Athens.

    Section

85. Military Life at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
86. The Organization of the Athenian Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
87. The Hoplites and the Light Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
88. The Cavalry and the Peltasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
89. The Panoply of the Hoplites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
90. The Weapons of a Hoplite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
91. Infantry Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
92. The Preliminaries of a Greek Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
93. Joining the Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
94. The Climax and End of the Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
95. The Burial Truce and the Trophy after the Battle . . . . . . . 114
96. The Siege of Fortified Towns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
97. The Introduction of New Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

    Chapter XIV. The Piraeus and the Shipping.

    Section

98. The "Long Walls" down to the Harbor Town . . . . . . . . . . . 117
99. Munychia and the Havens of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
100. The Glorious View from the Hill of Munychia . . . . . . . . . . 119
101. The Town of Peiraeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
102. The Merchant Shipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
103. The Three War Harbors and the Ship Houses . . . . . . . . . . . 124
104. The Great Naval Arsenal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
105. An Athenian Trierarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
106. The Evolution of the Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
107. The Hull of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
108. The Rowers' Benches of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
109. The Cabins, Rigging, and Ram of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . 129
110. The Officers and Crew of a Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
111. A Trireme at Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
112. The Tactics of a Naval Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
113. The Naval Strength of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

     Chapter XV. An Athenian Court Trial.

     Section

114. The Frequency of Litigation in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
115. Prosecutions in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
116. The Preliminaries to a Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
117. The Athenian Jury Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
118. The Juryman's Oath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
119. Opening The Trial. The Plaintiff's Speech . . . . . . . . . . 140
120. The Defendant's Speech. Demonstrations by the Jury . . . . . . 141
121. The First Verdict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
122. The Second and Final Verdict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
123. The Merits and Defects of the Athenian Courts . . . . . . . . . 144
124. The Usual Punishments in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
125. The Heavy Penalty of Exile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
126. The Death Penalty of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

     Chapter XVI. The Ecclesia of Athens.

     Section

127. The Rule of Democracy in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
128. Aristocracy and Wealth. Their Status and Burdens . . . . . . . 147
129. Athenian Society truly Democratic up to a Certain Point . . . . 148
130. The Voting Population of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
131. Meeting Times of the Ecclesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
132. The Pnyx (Assembly Place) at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
133. The Preliminaries of the Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
134. Debating a Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
135. Voting at the Pnyx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
136. The Ecclesia as an Educational Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . 156

     Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia

     Section

137. The Gymnasia. Places of General Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
138. The Road to the Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
139. The Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
140. The Social Atmosphere and Human Types at the Academy . . . . . 160
141. Philosophers and Cultivated Men at the Gymnasia . . . . . . . . 161
142. The Beautiful Youths at the Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
143. The Greek Worship of Manly Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
144. The Detestation of Old Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
145. The Greeks unite Moral and Physical Beauty . . . . . . . . . . 165
146. The Usual Gymnastic Sports and their Objects . . . . . . . . . 166
147. Professional Athletes: the Pancration . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
148. Leaping Contests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
149. Quoit Hurling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
150. Casting the Javelin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
151. Wrestling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
152. Foot Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
153. The Pentathlon: the Honors paid to Great Athletes . . . . . . 172

     Chapter XVIII.Athenian Cookery and the Symposium

     Section

154. Greek Meal Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
155. Society desired at Meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
156. The Staple Articles of Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
157. Greek Vintages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
158. Vegetable Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
159. Meat and Fish Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
160. Inviting Guests to a Dinner Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
161. Preparing for the Dinner: the Sicilian Cook . . . . . . . . . 182
162. The Coming of the Guests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
163. The Dinner Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
164. Beginning the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
165. The Symposiarch and his Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
166. Conversation at the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
167. Games and Entertainments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
168. Going Home from the Feast: Midnight Revelers . . . . . . . . . 189

     Chapter XIX.Country Life around Athens.

     Section

169. The Importance of his Farm to an Athenian . . . . . . . . . . . 191
170. The Country by the Ilissus: the Greeks and Natural Beauty . . 191
171. Plato's Description of the Walk by the Ilissus . . . . . . . . 193
172. The Athenian Love of Country Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
173. Some Features of the Attic Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
174. An Attic Farmstead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
175. Plowing, Reaping, and Threshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
176. Grinding at the Mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
177. The Olive Orchards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
178. The Vineyards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
179. Cattle, Sheep, and Goats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
180. The Gardens and the Shrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

     Chapter XX.The Temples and Gods of Athens.

     Section

181. Certain Factors in Athenian Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
182. What constitutes "Piety" in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
183. The Average Athenians Idea of the Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
184. Most Greeks without Belief in Immortality . . . . . . . . . . . 207
185. The Multitude of Images of the Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
186. Greek Superstition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
187. Consulting Omens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
188. The Great Oracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
189. Greek Sacrifices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
190. The Route to the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
191. The Acropolis of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
192. The Use of Color Upon Athenian Architecture and Sculptures . . 216
193. The Chief Buildings on the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
194. The Parthenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
195. A Sacrifice on the Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
196. The Interior of the Parthenon and the Great Image of Athena . . 222
197. Greek Prayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

     Chapter XXI.The Great Festival of Athens.

     Section

198. The Frequent Festivals in Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
199. The Eleusinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
200. The Holy Procession to Eleusis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
201. The Mysteries of Eleusis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
202. The Greater Dionysia and the Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
203. The Theater of Dionysus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
204. The Production of a Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
205. The Great Panathenaic Procession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
206. The View from the Temple of Wingless Victory . . . . . . . . . 237

• Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

1. Athenian Acropolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece Page
2. Sketch Map of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Sketch Map of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Peasant going to Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. At the Street Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6. A Wayside Herm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. A Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8. Conjectural Plan for the house of a Wealthy Athenian . . . . . . 29
9. Spinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
10. The Maternal Slipper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
11. Athenian Funeral Monument . . . . . . . . . . . . . FACING PAGE 88
12. At the Smithy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
13. Hoplite in Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
14. The Town of Peiraus and the Harbors of Athens . . . . . . . . . 118
15. Fishermen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
16. An Athenian Trireme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
17. The Race in Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
18. Itinerant Piper with his Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
19. Women pounding Meal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
20. Gathering the Olive Harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
21. Rural Sacrifice to a Wooden Statue of Dionysus . . . . . . . . . 202
22. Sketch Map of the Acropolis of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
23. Sacrificing a Pig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
24. Athena Parthenos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
25. Comic Actors dressed as Ostriches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
26. Actor in Costume as a Fury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

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