[*]This fact did not prevent the Greeks from having a considerable respect for the traditions and lore of, e.g., the Egyptians, and from borrowing a good many non-Greek usages and inventions; but all this could take place without feeling the least necessity for studying foreign languages.

58.  The Study of “Music.”—­But the Athenian has a substitute for this omission of foreign language study:  Music.  This is something more comprehensive than “the art of combining tones in a manner to please the ear” [Webster].  It is practically the study of whatever will develop the noble powers of the emotions, as contrasted to the mere intellect.[*] Indeed everything which comes within the ample provinces of the nine Muses, even sober history, might be included in the term.  However, for special purposes, the study of “Music” may be considered as centering around playing instruments and singing.  The teacher very likely resides in a house apart from the master of the school of letters.  Aristophanes gives this picture of the good old customs for the teaching of music.  “The boys from the same section of the town have to march thinly clad and draw up in good order—­though the snow be thick as meal—­to the house of the harp master.  There he will teach them [some famous tune] raising a mighty melody.  If any one acts silly or turns any quavers, he gets a good hard thrashing for ‘banishing the Muses!’"[+]

[*]Aristotle ["Politics,” V. (or VIII.) 1] says that the literary education is to train the mind; while music, though of no practical use, “provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure.”

[+]Aristophanes’s “The Clouds”.  The whole passage is cited in Davis’s “Readings in Ancient History,” vol.  I, pp. 252-255.

Learning to sing is probably the most important item, for every boy and man ought to be able to bear his part in the great chorals which are a notable element in most religious festivals; besides, a knowledge of singing is a great aid to appreciating lyric poetry, or the choruses in tragedy, and in learning to declaim.  To learn to sing elaborate solo pieces is seldom necessary,—­it is not quite genteel in grown-up persons, for it savors a little too much of the professional.  So it is also with instrumental music.  The Greeks lack the piano, the organ, the elaborate brass instruments of a later day.  Their flutes and harps, although very sweet, might seem thin to a twentieth-century critic.  But one can gain considerable volume by the great number of instruments, and nearly everybody in Athens can pick at the lyre after a fashion.  The common type of harp is the lyre, and it has enough possibilities for the average boy.  The more elaborate CITHERA is usually reserved for professionals.[*] An Athenian lad is expected to be able to accompany his song upon his own lyre and to play in concert with his fellows.

[*]For the details of these harp types of instruments see Dictionary of Antiquities.