Education served as a vehicle for shaping identity, virtue, and civic participation.
By Matthew A. McIntosh
Public Historian
Brewminate
Introduction
From the eighth century BCE to the end of the Hellenistic period, education in ancient Greece evolved into a complex and varied institution that reflected the political, social, and philosophical values of the city-states that practiced it. Greek education was not monolithic; rather, it adapted across regions and periods. From the martial rigor of Sparta to the intellectual liberty of Athens, and from the poetic instruction of the Archaic period to the rhetorical sophistication of the Sophists and philosophers, Greek education served as both a private pursuit and a public function. This essay explores the nature, aims, institutions, and transformations of education in ancient Greece, emphasizing the ways it prepared individuals for civic life, military duty, and philosophical contemplation.
The Foundations: Homeric and Archaic Education
Education in Homeric and Archaic Greece was deeply intertwined with the oral tradition, particularly the transmission of epic poetry such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the absence of formal schools in the early stages of Greek civilization, education was primarily an informal process centered around the household and community. The Homeric epics served not merely as entertainment but as repositories of ethical norms, heroic ideals, and social values. Boys learned these epics by rote under the guidance of elders or professional rhapsodes, absorbing lessons on bravery, loyalty, cunning, and piety. The figure of the hero—embodied in characters like Achilles and Odysseus—served as a didactic model of aretē, the Greek concept of excellence or virtue.¹ In this sense, Homer functioned as both poet and pedagogue, shaping Greek moral and cultural identity through narrative performance.
The Archaic period (roughly 750–480 BCE) marked a transitional phase in the development of Greek education, as literacy began to take root with the adoption of the Phoenician alphabet. This innovation revolutionized the nature of educational transmission by enabling the written preservation of texts. However, the persistence of oral pedagogy remained strong, particularly in the memorization and recitation of poetry. During this period, paideia—a term that would later denote the broader process of cultural education—began to emerge as a conceptual framework.² Education was largely limited to aristocratic males and was still informal, often taking place in the symposia where older men mentored youth not only in letters but also in music, athletics, and rhetoric. These communal gatherings fostered a sense of shared values and collective identity, reinforcing the ethos of the warrior elite.
Music and physical education held central places in Archaic curricula. Music, particularly the lyre and aulos, was seen as a tool for moral and emotional development. The connection between musical training and ethical cultivation was emphasized in later philosophical works but had roots in Archaic practice.³ Athletics, too, played a crucial educational role. Gymnasia and palaestrae, while not yet institutionalized in the way they would be in Classical Greece, were important venues for instilling discipline, courage, and competitiveness. The educational ideal sought to balance sōma (body) and psychē (soul), producing a well-rounded citizen capable of contributing to the polis. The physical and musical components of education were not frivolous; they were intrinsic to the cultivation of civic virtue.
The role of the poet-teacher was especially prominent in this era. Figures such as Hesiod, Tyrtaeus, and Solon, though often remembered for their contributions to literature or politics, also served didactic functions. Hesiod’s Works and Days, for instance, offered practical and moral instruction to his audience, reflecting a growing concern with justice, labor, and proper conduct.⁴ Tyrtaeus’s martial elegies were used in Sparta to inculcate loyalty and valor among young soldiers.⁵ These poets helped bridge the Homeric tradition and the emerging civic institutions by translating heroic ideals into more socially grounded virtues. Through their verses, the community negotiated the values it wished to preserve, modify, or discard in a changing social and political landscape.
By the end of the Archaic period, the groundwork for more formalized educational institutions was laid, particularly in cities like Athens and Sparta. Sparta developed a highly regimented system focused on military training and obedience, while Athens began to cultivate the foundations of liberal education. Yet even at this stage, the legacy of Homer remained foundational. Homeric verses continued to be memorized and performed, serving as the cornerstone of early literary education.⁶ The transmission of these epics preserved not just a literary heritage but a cultural worldview that emphasized honor, shame, and communal belonging. Thus, Homeric and Archaic education in ancient Greece was not merely a preparation for life in the polis; it was the cultural lifeblood that sustained and shaped it across generations.
Classical Athens: A Democratic Pedagogy
In Classical Athens, education evolved into a more structured and philosophically grounded institution that reflected the values and needs of the burgeoning democracy. While access to education remained largely restricted to freeborn males, the pedagogical goals shifted from mere aristocratic training to cultivating citizens capable of participating in public life. Boys typically began their formal education around the age of seven, studying reading, writing, arithmetic, music, and physical education under the supervision of a paidagōgos—a household slave who accompanied them to school.⁷ Unlike the more militaristic and collective model found in Sparta, Athenian education emphasized the formation of the autonomous individual within a civic framework.⁸ Education prepared boys not only for private excellence but for public engagement in the assembly, courts, and military service, a key reflection of the democratic ethos permeating Athenian life.
The curriculum of Classical Athens was divided among several instructors: the grammatistēs taught literacy and literature, the kitharistēs trained students in music and lyric poetry, and the paidotribēs focused on gymnastics. The literary component heavily relied on Homeric and Hesiodic texts, still revered for their moral and cultural authority.⁹ Students memorized passages from these epics and later studied lyric poetry and the works of tragedians such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Through these texts, pupils absorbed civic ideals, heroic models, and ethical frameworks that were foundational to Athenian identity. Music and gymnastics were not considered secondary pursuits but integral to the full development of the psychē and sōma—a well-rounded citizen needed emotional and physical discipline to serve the polis.¹⁰ Thus, education in Athens pursued a holistic model aligning personal cultivation with civic responsibility.
As boys matured into adolescence, those from wealthier families might engage in higher education with Sophists or philosophers, who charged fees for advanced instruction in rhetoric, dialectic, and ethics. Sophists such as Protagoras, Gorgias, and Hippias provided training that was often pragmatic, aimed at producing effective orators and statesmen.¹¹ While controversial among traditionalists like Plato, who accused them of moral relativism and mercenary motives, the Sophists were instrumental in democratizing knowledge, offering their services to anyone who could pay, regardless of lineage. Their emphasis on persuasive speech reflected the realities of Athenian democracy, where success in the ekklesia and the dikasteria hinged on rhetorical skill. In this context, the city itself became a pedagogical space—public discourse, debate, and performance constituted extensions of formal education, reinforcing the notion that learning was a lifelong and civic enterprise.
Philosophical education, particularly through the academies of Plato and later Aristotle, added a more critical and systematic dimension to Athenian pedagogy. Plato’s Academy, founded around 387 BCE, sought to counter the Sophists’ rhetorical pragmatism with a rigorous exploration of ethical and metaphysical truth. In works like Republic and Laws, Plato outlined an ideal education system oriented toward the cultivation of reason and justice, proposing a stratified curriculum based on dialectic, mathematics, and philosophical contemplation.¹² His vision, while not realized in the democratic polis, had lasting influence on educational theory. Aristotle, Plato’s student, emphasized empirical observation and ethical habituation in his Lyceum, combining philosophical inquiry with the study of nature, politics, and logic.¹³ Though limited to elite males, these institutions modeled a vision of intellectual excellence as a public good—a notion that would resonate through Western educational history.
Despite its class and gender limitations, Athenian education was radical in its linkage of learning and democratic citizenship. The notion that education should produce not just warriors or aristocrats but articulate, rational, and morally conscious participants in governance was a hallmark of Classical Athens. This democratic pedagogy embedded civic virtues in the daily experience of Athenian boys, fostering an identity rooted in logos (reasoned discourse) and nomos (law). While women and slaves were excluded, and while economic barriers remained, the Athenian experiment represented a profound moment in the history of educational thought—a belief that public life and personal cultivation were inseparable.¹⁴ Education in Classical Athens thus did more than transmit knowledge; it shaped the very character of democratic life.
The Sophists and the Rise of Rhetoric
The emergence of the Sophists in the fifth century BCE marked a transformative moment in the history of Greek education, as pedagogical focus shifted toward rhetoric, persuasion, and civic competence. In the context of Athenian democracy, where success in the assembly and law courts hinged on one’s ability to speak well, rhetorical training became a critical educational priority. The Sophists were itinerant teachers who charged fees for instruction in a wide array of subjects, including grammar, logic, ethics, and especially persuasive speech.¹⁵ Their pedagogical method challenged traditional education, which had emphasized the memorization of poetry and physical training, by introducing a systematic approach to argumentation and debate. This new educational model empowered individuals, particularly young aristocrats, to ascend socially and politically through mastery of logos—reasoned speech—which became a core civic virtue in the Athenian polis.
Sophists such as Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, and Hippias offered instruction that was both practical and philosophical. Protagoras famously claimed that “man is the measure of all things,” highlighting a relativist epistemology that contrasted sharply with earlier notions of absolute truth.¹⁶ His teachings emphasized the ability to argue both sides of a case, a skill essential in a democratic system where public policy was debated in open forums. Gorgias, on the other hand, advanced a more radical view of rhetoric, emphasizing its psychological power to shape belief irrespective of truth.¹⁷ His oratorical style—ornate, rhythmic, and persuasive—exemplified the art of speaking not merely as a tool of communication but as an instrument of control. In this sense, the Sophists elevated rhetoric from a subordinate element of philosophy to an autonomous discipline, one capable of molding civic life.
The Sophists also expanded the content of education to include topics such as anthropology, linguistics, and cultural relativism. Hippias of Elis, for example, boasted knowledge in numerous fields, embodying the ideal of the polymath.¹⁸ His emphasis on nomos (law or custom) as a human convention rather than a divine or natural order reinforced the Sophistic view that education should be adaptive and socially responsive. Their teaching methods were often dialogical and exploratory, encouraging students to question inherited traditions and develop their own rational capacities. This intellectual autonomy, while empowering, also drew criticism from conservative thinkers who viewed the Sophists as undermining moral and civic foundations. Nevertheless, their work laid the groundwork for subsequent educational practices, particularly in how knowledge was transmitted and evaluated within a democratic context.
The Sophists were met with strong opposition from philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and later Aristotle, who viewed their relativism and profit-driven instruction as corrupting influences. Plato’s dialogues, particularly Gorgias and Protagoras, depict the Sophists as skilled in the manipulation of words but lacking genuine concern for truth or virtue.¹⁹ One of the few speeches that have survived from ancient Greece is Isocrates’ Against the Sophists. The speech offers scathing criticisms against sophist teachers and their failures. In contrast to Sophistic rhetoric, Plato advocated for dialectic—a form of philosophical inquiry aimed at uncovering objective truths through reasoned dialogue. Aristotle, while less hostile, sought to distinguish true rhetoric from mere sophistry in his Rhetoric, framing it as the art of discovering the available means of persuasion in any given case.²⁰ These critiques highlight the central tension in Classical Greek education: whether the aim of learning should be personal success and social mobility, or the pursuit of objective knowledge and ethical living.
Despite their controversial status, the Sophists profoundly influenced the trajectory of Western educational theory. Their emphasis on critical thinking, linguistic precision, and civic engagement introduced a more democratic and secular model of education. In many ways, they were the first educators to articulate a curriculum that directly addressed the needs of a participatory political system.²¹ The legacy of the Sophists endures in liberal education, where rhetorical training, critical discourse, and pluralistic inquiry remain foundational. By teaching that effective speech could shape not only individual careers but the destiny of the city-state, the Sophists redefined the purpose of education in the ancient world—not merely to preserve cultural traditions but to equip individuals with the tools to challenge, reinterpret, and remake them.
Sparta: Education in Discipline and Obedience
Spartan education, or agōgē, was one of the most distinctive systems in the ancient Greek world, forged in the crucible of militarism and collective discipline. Unlike the more individualistic and liberal pedagogy of Athens, Spartan education was entirely state-controlled and aimed at producing obedient, physically robust, and loyal soldiers of the polis.⁽²²⁾ From the age of seven, boys were removed from their households and enrolled in the agōgē, where they lived in communal barracks, undergoing rigorous training in endurance, obedience, and martial skill. The goal was not intellectual development but the cultivation of absolute loyalty to the state and the suppression of individual identity in favor of collective strength.⁽²³⁾ Every aspect of life was subordinated to this ideal, reflecting the broader Spartan commitment to maintaining their martial superiority and the domination of the Helot population that underpinned their economy.
The educational system was deeply rooted in the legendary reforms attributed to the semi-mythical lawgiver Lycurgus, who allegedly established the agōgē to ensure that all male citizens were molded into ideal warriors. Discipline was paramount. Boys were subjected to harsh physical conditions—forced to go barefoot, wear minimal clothing, and survive on meager rations—thereby fostering resilience and resourcefulness.⁽²⁴⁾ They were even encouraged to steal food to supplement their diet, not for personal gain but as a test of cunning; if caught, they were punished not for the theft but for being careless.⁽²⁵⁾ Obedience to superiors, group loyalty, and endurance of pain without complaint were drilled into them from an early age, shaping a citizen-soldier ideal that was wholly different from the Athenian notion of a well-rounded, rhetorically capable civic participant.
Girls in Sparta also underwent formal education, a unique feature among Greek city-states. While they did not participate in the agōgē per se, Spartan girls were trained in physical exercise, music, and poetry with the aim of producing strong future mothers of warriors.⁽²⁶⁾ Their public visibility, athletic participation, and greater autonomy compared to other Greek women reflect the Spartan belief that the strength of the state depended on the health and vigor of both sexes. This education emphasized communal values, chastity, and the importance of motherhood, but it also granted Spartan women a degree of agency unmatched elsewhere in Greece.⁽²⁷⁾ The state’s involvement in female education illustrates how Spartan society viewed the entire citizen body as an instrument of state power, each sex serving complementary roles in the perpetuation of the military order.
The ultimate culmination of Spartan education was full citizenship in the warrior elite, granted after completing the agōgē and passing the tests of strength, loyalty, and leadership. Young men at around age 20 entered into syssitia—common mess halls where they dined with their military comrades, reinforcing their communal bonds.⁽²⁸⁾ Until the age of 30, Spartan men were expected to live in these barracks and remain in active service to the state. Even after reaching full citizenship, their lives remained tightly bound to military duty. Education did not end in youth but continued through this martial communal life, emphasizing continual refinement of discipline and readiness for war. Intellectual pursuits were minimal and often discouraged; Spartans valued laconic speech and simplicity over philosophical contemplation or artistic expression.⁽²⁹⁾ The state’s rigorous control over its citizens’ upbringing ensured stability, cohesion, and an unparalleled military reputation—but at the cost of cultural dynamism and individual freedom.
The Spartan educational model left a powerful legacy in the Greek imagination and beyond. Admired by some for its discipline and austerity, criticized by others for its rigidity and anti-intellectualism, it remains one of antiquity’s most extreme forms of civic pedagogy.⁽³⁰⁾ Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus and Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians preserve much of what we know about the agōgē, though both must be read critically as idealized portrayals rather than empirical descriptions. Still, their accounts reveal a system meticulously crafted to serve a singular vision of statecraft: one in which every citizen’s body and mind were tools of the state. The Spartan model illustrates an enduring historical tension between individual liberty and collective security, between intellectual flourishing and social order. Its focus on obedience, physical excellence, and discipline stands as both a cautionary tale and a testament to the power of education as a means of shaping an entire society’s character.
Philosophical Education: Plato and Aristotle
The philosophical schools founded by Plato and Aristotle were the most enduring and influential educational institutions of the ancient Greek world, shaping intellectual traditions for centuries. Plato, a student of Socrates, established the Academy in Athens around 387 BCE, with the purpose of cultivating the philosophical life through dialectical inquiry and contemplation.³¹ The Academy was not merely a school in the modern sense but a community dedicated to the pursuit of truth, justice, and the knowledge of the forms—immutable, perfect archetypes that Plato posited as the foundation of all reality.³² For Plato, education was the gradual ascent of the soul from the world of appearances to the intelligible realm, culminating in the knowledge of the Good, which he identified as the highest form and the ultimate object of philosophical contemplation.³³ His model of education, laid out most famously in the Republic, emphasized a rigorous curriculum that began with physical training and mathematics and culminated in dialectics and philosophy, reserved for the most gifted guardians of the ideal city-state.
Plato’s educational vision was deeply moral and political. He believed that only a properly educated philosopher could rule justly, as such a person would not be swayed by appetite or ambition but guided solely by reason and the common good.³⁴ His curriculum was structured to weed out those unfit for philosophical rule, with progressively difficult stages of learning acting as a sieve for the intellect and character of the student. Mathematics, especially geometry, served as a crucial preparatory tool, training the mind in abstraction and logical reasoning. The highest stage, the study of dialectic, demanded years of disciplined dialogue and reflection.³⁵ Importantly, Plato’s education was elitist in nature, meant to cultivate philosopher-kings rather than democratic citizens. This sharply contrasted with the Sophistic tradition, which he viewed with deep suspicion, believing it fostered rhetorical manipulation over truth-seeking.
Aristotle, Plato’s most famous student, founded his own school, the Lyceum, in 335 BCE, taking a more empirical and systematic approach to education and philosophy. Unlike the transcendental idealism of his teacher, Aristotle grounded his educational theory in observation and categorization of the natural world.³⁶ He regarded humans as “rational animals,” whose full potential could be realized only through cultivation of their rational faculties in accordance with their natural ends. His works on logic, ethics, politics, biology, and metaphysics became foundational texts not only for ancient education but also for the medieval and early modern curricula in both the Islamic and Christian worlds.³⁷ At the Lyceum, students engaged in wide-ranging inquiry, including empirical studies, logical analysis, and ethical deliberation. The peripatetic method, named after Aristotle’s habit of walking while teaching, encouraged dialogue, empirical investigation, and the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines.
Aristotle’s philosophy of education was closely tied to his political theory. He believed that education must serve the polis by cultivating virtuous citizens who could deliberate and act for the common good.³⁸ In his Politics, he argued that education should be public and standardized by the state to ensure moral and civic unity. Virtue, for Aristotle, was a matter of habit and rational moderation, achieved through the proper balance between extremes—a concept central to his ethical theory of the Golden Mean.³⁹ Education, therefore, was not only intellectual but also moral and practical, instilling habits of reason, temperance, and civic responsibility. While he valued the contemplative life as the highest good, Aristotle also recognized the importance of political participation and practical wisdom (phronēsis), making his educational model more adaptable to real-world governance than Plato’s idealist schema.
The legacies of Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation for nearly every subsequent theory of education in the Western intellectual tradition. While Plato emphasized the metaphysical and moral purification of the soul through dialectical ascent, Aristotle provided a comprehensive, systematic framework that integrated ethics, politics, and the natural sciences.⁴⁰ Their differing views on knowledge—Plato’s rationalist idealism versus Aristotle’s empirical realism—created a dialectic that would dominate philosophical discourse for centuries. The Academy and the Lyceum thus became archetypes of educational institutions: one oriented toward transcendent truths, the other toward systematic knowledge of the material world. Their curricula, pedagogical methods, and educational philosophies continue to influence modern debates on liberal education, civic responsibility, and the role of reason in human life.
Hellenistic Period: Cosmopolitan Learning
The Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE), initiated by the death of Alexander the Great, marked a significant transformation in Greek education. The rise of large, multicultural kingdoms—such as the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Antigonid realms—fostered a new cosmopolitanism that broadened educational horizons far beyond the polis-centered models of Classical Greece.⁴¹ Greek language and culture became lingua franca across the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, serving as the vehicle of elite education. In this context, learning was no longer narrowly civic or philosophical but became more encyclopedic, international, and utilitarian.⁴² The diffusion of Hellenic knowledge merged with indigenous traditions in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and even India, creating a cross-cultural intellectual environment. Greek paideia remained central, but it adapted to meet the needs of royal courts, bureaucracies, and scholars in multicultural cities like Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamon.
One of the most iconic institutions of Hellenistic education was the Library and Museum of Alexandria, founded in the early 3rd century BCE under the Ptolemies.⁴³ Far more than a repository of books, the Alexandrian Museum functioned as a major research center where scholars engaged in textual criticism, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and geography. Figures such as Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Herophilos exemplified the new fusion of empirical investigation with classical learning.⁴⁴ Education in this era often centered on the mastery of texts, particularly Homer, who remained the foundation of literary pedagogy. Yet Alexandrian scholars also preserved, edited, and commented on a wide array of works, laying the groundwork for systematic philology and lexicography. The standardization of texts, such as the Homeric epics, was a hallmark of this scholastic activity, reflecting a new concern for accuracy and transmission of knowledge across the Hellenistic world.⁴⁵
Grammar and rhetoric remained central to formal education, but the curriculum now extended into broader fields of study. The educational model increasingly emphasized the techne—the applied arts and sciences—alongside the traditional liberal arts.⁴⁶ This reflected a shift from the civic humanism of Athens to a professional and often state-sponsored model of education designed to produce administrators, physicians, engineers, and scholars for imperial bureaucracies. Stoic and Epicurean schools offered competing moral philosophies for navigating life in a vast and often impersonal world empire.⁴⁷ These philosophies emphasized personal autonomy and inner tranquility rather than civic participation, mirroring the more individualistic tone of Hellenistic education. Philosophical schools now flourished not just in Athens but also in Rhodes, Tarsus, and Alexandria, reaching a geographically and culturally diverse student body.
Hellenistic education was also marked by increased participation of non-Greeks and, to a limited extent, women. Although literacy and advanced education remained largely male privileges, elite women—especially in royal courts—could receive instruction in music, literature, and philosophy.⁴⁸ Queens like Cleopatra VII were known for their multilingual fluency and learning, reflecting the educational values of the Ptolemaic court. At the same time, the broader availability of texts and teachers, including grammarians and rhetoricians, allowed for a more democratized spread of paideia across the Hellenistic world. Education became a marker of cultural identity and social mobility, as mastery of Greek learning granted access to civic and bureaucratic prestige.⁴⁹ In this sense, the Hellenistic model differed sharply from the narrowly defined citizen-focused education of the classical city-state.
By the end of the Hellenistic period, the foundations of what would become the Greco-Roman educational tradition were firmly in place. Institutions like the Library of Alexandria, the philosophical schools, and rhetorical academies had institutionalized forms of learning that emphasized both preservation and innovation.⁵⁰ The eclecticism and syncretism of Hellenistic education reflected a world that had outgrown the bounded ideals of the polis. As Rome absorbed the Hellenistic kingdoms, it also inherited this expansive intellectual infrastructure, fusing Greek educational ideals with Roman pragmatism. The Hellenistic period thus represents a transitional phase in ancient education—a cosmopolitan experiment in learning that sought to navigate and make sense of a rapidly expanding and diversifying world.
Conclusion
Education in ancient Greece was a dynamic, regionally diverse system that evolved in response to political, philosophical, and social changes. Whether in the democratic spaces of Athens, the martial rigor of Sparta, or the scholarly centers of the Hellenistic kingdoms, education served as a vehicle for shaping identity, virtue, and civic participation. Its legacy endures in the very foundations of Western educational thought.
Appendix
Endnotes
- Eric A. Havelock, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 121–135.
- Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. 1, Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens, trans. Gilbert Highet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1945), 71–92.
- Henri-Irénée Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, trans. George Lamb (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1956), 35–49.
- M. L. West, Hesiod: Works and Days (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 10–18.
- Ewen Bowie, “Early Greek Elegy, Symposium and Public Festival,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986): 15–20.
- Gregory Nagy, Homeric Questions (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 23–40.
- W. K. C. Guthrie, The Sophists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), 4–6.
- Jaeger, 33–45.
- Marrou, 87–101.
- J. P. Lynch, Aristotle’s School: A Study of a Greek Educational Institution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 12–20.
- George Grote, History of Greece, vol. 8 (London: John Murray, 1850), 462–478.
- Plato, Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1992), 502–521.
- Aristotle, Politics, trans. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1998), 1252a–1260b.
- Josiah Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 89–110.
- Guthrie, 1–18.
- Protagoras, fragment B1, in G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 418.
- Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, trans. George A. Kennedy, in The Older Sophists, ed. Rosamond Kent Sprague (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972), 50–55.
- Jacqueline de Romilly, The Great Sophists in Periclean Athens (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 68–79.
- Plato, Gorgias, trans. James H. Nichols (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 447c–466a.
- Aristotle, Rhetoric, trans. W. Rhys Roberts (New York: Modern Library, 1954), Book I, 1–2.
- Edward Schiappa, Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), 155–173.
- Paul Cartledge, Spartan Reflections (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 69–72.
- Sarah B. Pomeroy, Spartan Women (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 13–15.
- Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, in Plutarch’s Lives, trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914), 16–18.
- Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, trans. E. C. Marchant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925), 2.6–2.8.
- Pomeroy, Spartan Women, 20–25.
- Jean Ducat, Women and Ancient Greek Warfare, in Sparta in Laconia: Ancient and Modern, ed. Michael Whitby (London: Routledge, 2002), 112–117.
- Cartledge, Spartan Reflections, 85–90.
- Nigel M. Kennell, The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 57–64.
- Stephen Hodkinson, “Sparta and the Crisis of the Polis,” in Sparta: Comparative Approaches, ed. Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2009), 241–258.
- Debra Nails, The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002), 286–289.
- Plato, Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1992), 509d–511e.
- Ibid., 519c–521b.
- Ibid., 473c–480a.
- Ibid., 525b–531d.
- Jonathan Barnes, Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 18–23.
- Jaeger, 304–316.
- Aristotle, Politics, trans. C. D. C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1998), 1337a–1340b.
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999), 1106b–1109a.
- Guthrie, 36–51.
- Peter Green, Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 24–26.
- R. W. Sharples, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1996), 5–7.
- Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 31–37.
- James Evans, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 118–123.
- Rudolf Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 101–108.
- Marrou, 168–175.
- A. A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 10–14.
- Pomeroy, 43–49.
- Jon D. Mikalson, Education in Antiquity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021), 157–160.
- Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, 178–182.
Bibliography
- Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999.
- Aristotle. Politics. Translated by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1998.
- Aristotle. Rhetoric. Translated by W. Rhys Roberts. New York: Modern Library, 1954.
- Barnes, Jonathan. Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Bowie, Ewen. “Early Greek Elegy, Symposium and Public Festival.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986): 13–35.
- Cartledge, Paul. Spartan Reflections. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
- Casson, Lionel. Libraries in the Ancient World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
- de Romilly, Jacqueline. The Great Sophists in Periclean Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
- Ducat, Jean. Women and Ancient Greek Warfare. In Sparta in Laconia: Ancient and Modern, edited by Michael Whitby, 109–122. London: Routledge, 2002.
- Evans, James. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
- Gorgias. Encomium of Helen. Translated by George A. Kennedy. In The Older Sophists, edited by Rosamond Kent Sprague, 50–55. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972.
- Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
- Grote, George. History of Greece. Vol. 8. London: John Murray, 1850.
- Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. Vol. 6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
- Guthrie, W. K. C. The Sophists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
- Havelock, Eric A. The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.
- Hodkinson, Stephen. “Sparta and the Crisis of the Polis.” In Sparta: Comparative Approaches, edited by Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell, 241–258. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2009.
- Jaeger, Werner. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. Vol. I, Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens. Translated by Gilbert Highet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1945.
- Kennell, Nigel M. The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
- Kirk, G. S., J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield. The Presocratic Philosophers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
- Long, A. A. Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
- Marrou, Henri-Irénée. A History of Education in Antiquity. Translated by George Lamb. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1956.
- Mikalson, Jon D. Education in Antiquity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021.
- Nagy, Gregory. Homeric Questions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
- Nails, Debra. The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002.
- Ober, Josiah. Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
- Pfeiffer, Rudolf. History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
- Plato. Gorgias. Translated by James H. Nichols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.
- Plato. Republic. Translated by G. M. A. Grube, revised by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1992.
- Plutarch. Life of Lycurgus. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. In Plutarch’s Lives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914.
- Pomeroy, Sarah B. Spartan Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Pomeroy, Sarah B. Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra. New York: Schocken Books, 1984.
- Schiappa, Edward. Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003.
- Sharples, R. W. Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy. London: Routledge, 1996.
- West, M. L. Hesiod: Works and Days. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. Xenophon. Constitution of the Lacedaemonians. Translated by E. C. Marchant. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
Originally published by Brewminate, 05.23.2025, under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.