APPENDIX B
CRETAN SYSSITIA
The chief authorities for the attendance at these meals are the two historians, Dosiades and Purgion, quoted in Athenaeus (143). Dosiades states that an equal portion is set before each man present, but to the younger members is given a half portion of meat, and they do not touch any of the other things. Purgion says: “To the sons, who sit on lower seats by their fathers’ chairs, they give a half portion of what is supplied to the men; orphans receive a full share.” The comparison of the two passages shows that the “younger members” mentioned by Dosiades are what Purgion calls the orphans, and that they are not yet full-grown men. Thus they must be either the boys or the epheboi. It is not, however, at all likely that the epheboi, who were of military age and engaged in violent exercises, would be given only half rations, so these younger members are the boys not yet included in the ἀγέλαι. Dosiades continues: “On each table is set a drinking vessel, of weak wine. This all who sit at the common table share equally. The children have a bowl to themselves,” that is, the boys who sat beside their fathers but not at the table. “After supper first they discuss the political situation, and then recall feats in battle, and praise those who have distinguished themselves, encouraging the youngers to heroism.” The quotation shows that not merely the small children are in question, but boys of an age to understand politics and war.
[1] Herodotos, 4. 77.
[2] Plutarch, Lukourgos, 25. Kratinos (Athen. 138) ridicules these clubs and says that the attraction of them was that sausages hung there on pegs to be nibbled.
[3] Pausanias, 3. 12. A similar event happened at Argos. Plutarch, On Music, 37.
[4] Aristot. Pol. ii. 9, 10.
[5] Plutarch, Luk. 16.
[6] Say, 1½ bushels of meal, 5 gallons of wine, 5 lbs. of cheese, and 2½ lbs. of figs.
[7] Smyth, Melic Poets, “Alkman,” 26, if the emendation παίδεσσι be correct.
[8] Aristot. Pol. ii. 9.
[9] Phularchos (Athen. vi. 271).
[10] Xen. Anab. iv. 6. 14; Aristot. Pol. ii. 9. 31.
[11] Phularchos (Athen. vi. 271 e).
[12] Xen. Hellen. v. 3. 9.
[13] Plato, Rep. 520 D.
[14] Plut. Kleom. 8.
[15] Aristoph. Knights, 635, 695 (with Schol. on 697, φορτικὸν ὀρχήσεως εῖδος); Eurip. Bacch. 1060.
[16] Xen. Hellen. v. 3. 9.
[17] Xen. Constit. of Lak. iii. 3; Hellen. v. 4. 32.
[18] Xen. Constit. of Lak. iii. 3.
[19] “Agelai” of young men are mentioned by inscriptions at Miletos and Smurna [Böckh, 2892, 3326]; there may have been boarding-schools somewhat resembling those of Sparta at these towns for young men.
[20] μαστιγόφοροι. Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 2. Aristotle calls Paidonomoi an aristocratic institution. They existed in Crete, and inscriptions mention them in Karia, Teos, and many other places.
[21] Plut. Lukourgos, 16. Hesychius declares that the Bouâgor was a boy, so the word cannot mean the Eiren, who was over twenty.
[22] Plut. Lukourgos, 17; Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 11.
[23] In which case the Eiren corresponds closely to the Cretan Agelates.
[24] Lukourgos, 16; Lac. Institutions, 247.
[25] Isok. Panath. 276 D.
[26] Panath. 285 C.
[27] Plato, Hippias Maj. 285 C.
[28] Sext. Empir. Mathem. 2, § 21.
[29] Plut. Lukourgos, 19-20.
[30] Plato, Protag. 342 E.
[31] Plato, Laws, 680 D. Crete repudiated Homer altogether.
[32] Luk. against Leokrates, 107. The Polemarchos was judge in these singing competitions, and the winner received a bit of meat (Philochoros in Athen. 630 f.).
[33] Plato, Laws, 633 E.
[34] Plut. Apoph.
[35] Xen. Anab. iv. 6. 14.
[36] Isok. Panath. 277.
[37] κρυπτεία, κρυπτή.
[38] Plato, Laws, 633 C.
[39] Plut. Lukourgos, 28. Isokrates merely mentions that the Ephors could kill as many Helots as they liked (Panath. 271 B).
[40] Plut. Kleom. 28.
[41] Thuc. iv. 80.
[42] Plato, Laws, 763 B. Some have supposed that κρυπτοί is an interpolation. If so, the resemblance must have been close enough to strike a commentator who knew Lakedaimon, in spite of the fact that the ages in the two systems are different.
[43] Polukrates (in Athen. 139 e).
[44] Aristot. Pol. viii. 4; Plut. Luk. 19.
[45] Plut. Apoph. 233 E. Plato adopts the Spartan views about wrestling in the Laws.
[46] Plato, Laches, 183 D, E.
[47] Plato, Theait. 162 B and 169 B.
[48] Xen. Constit. of Lak. v. 8.
[49] Athen. xii. 550 d. Their dress and bedding was inspected at the same time.
[50] Pausan. 11 2. βίδεος, Böckh, 1241, 1242; βίδυος, 1254.
[51] Aristot. Pol. viii. 4. 1.
[52] Xen. Constit. of Lak. v. 9.
[53] Herod. ix. 72.
[54] Xen. Constit. of Lak. ii. 4.
[55] Paus.iii. 14. 2.
[56] Xen. Constit. of Lak. iv.
[57] Hesychius, Φούαξιρ.
[58] Paus. iii. 16. 11.
[59] Plut. Lukourgos, 18; Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 27.
[60] Böckh, 1364.
[61] Pindar, Frag. Hyporch. 8 Λάκαινα παρθένων ἀγέλα.
[62] Xen. Constit. of Lak. i. 4.
[63] Cicero, Tusc. Disp. ii. 15.
[64] Plut. Lukourgos, 14.
[65] Whence they were called φαινομήριδες. This chiton may be seen in the conventional statues of Artemis.
[66] Theok. Idyll 18. 23.
[67] Laws, 806 A.
[68] Lusistrata, l. 80 onwards. In the play Lampito is married. Aristophanes has either made a mistake or the gymnastics are meant to be in the past only.
[69] The ὄρμος dance. Compare the dance at the end of the Lusistrata, where “man stands by woman, and woman by man.”
[70] Lucian, Dancing, 274.
[71] Xen. Hellen. vi. 4. 16.
[72] Xen. Ag. ii. 17.
[73] Athen. 630 a.
[74] Athen. 678 b.
[75] Plato, Laws, 666 D.
[76] Laws, 634-635.
[77] Xen. Constit. of Lak. ix. 5.
[78] Aristot. Pol. ii. 10. 8.
[79] Additional revenues for the same objects were derived from the taxes paid by Perioikoi and serfs (Athen. 143 a, b).
[80] Plato, Laws, 781 A.
[81] Historians quoted by Athen. 143 e.
[82] Ibid.
[83] Strabo, x. 4. 483 (on authority of Ephoros), and Herakleides Pont. iii. (who provide most of the details about Crete).
[84] Aelian, True History, ii. 39.
[85] Strabo, x. 4. 480.
[86] Sosikrates (in Athen. 261 e), speaking of Phaistos.
[87] Hesychius, ἀπάγελος.
[88] ἐκδύσια, Antoninus Liberalis, 18.
[89] Mahaffy, p. 81; Grasberger, iii. 61.
[90] Eustathius on Il. ix. 518.
[91] Herakl. Pont. iii. 3.
[92] Persaeus ap. Athen. 140 f.
[93] Dicaearchus ap. Athen. 141 a.
[94] Sphaerus ap. Athen. 141 c, d.; and Molpis, ibid.
[95] Polemon ap. Athen. 56 a, and 138-139.
[96] Cp. the crèche temples in Plato’s Laws, 794 A.
[97] Demetrius of Scepsis (ap. Athen. 141 e).