Meantime her brother has been started upon a course of education
which, both in what it contains and in what it omits, is one of
the most interesting and significant features of Athenian life.





Chapter IX. The Schoolboys of Athens.




51. Athenians Generally Literate.--Education is not compulsory by
law in Athens, but the father who fails to give his son at least a
modicum of education falls under a public contempt, which involves no
slight penalty. Practically all Athenians are at least literate.
In Aristophanes's famous comedy, "The Knights," a boorish
"sausage-seller" is introduced, who, for the purposes of the play,
must be one of the very scum of society, and he is made to cry,
"Only consider now my education! I can but barely read, just in
a kind of way."[*] Evidently if illiterates are not very rare in
Athens, the fellow should have been made out utterly ignorant. "He
can neither swim[+] nor say his letters," is a common phrase for
describing an absolute idiot. When a boy has reached the age of
seven, the time for feminine rule is over; henceforth his floggings,
and they will be many, are to come from firm male hands.

[*]Aristophanes, "Knights", II. 188-189.