The other instrument in common use is the flute.  At its simplest, this is a mere shepherd’s pipe.  Anybody can make one with a knife and some rushes.  Then come elaborations; two pipes are fitted together into one wooden mouthpiece.  Now, we really have an instrument with possibilities.  But it is not in such favor in the schools as the lyre.  You cannot blow day after day upon the flute and not distort your cheeks permanently.  Again the gentleman’s son will avoid “professionalism.”  There are amateur flute players moving in the best society, but the more fastidious frown upon the instrument, save for hired performers.

59.  The Moral Character of Greek Music.—­Whether it is singing, harp playing, or flute playing, a most careful watch is kept upon the character of the music taught the lads.  The master who lets his pupils learn many soft, dulcet, languishing airs will find his charges’ parents extremely angry, even to depriving him of their patronage.  Very soft music, in “Lydian modes,” is counted effeminate, fit only for the women’s quarters and likely to do boys no good.  The riotous type also, of the “Ionic mode,” is fit only for drinking songs and is even more under the ban.[*] What is especially in favor is the stern, strenuous Dorian mode.  This will make boys hardy, manly, and brave.  Very elaborate music with trills and quavers is in any case frowned upon.  It simply delights the trained ear, and has no reaction upon the character; and of what value is a musical presentation unless it leaves the hearers and performer better, worthier men?  Let the average Athenian possess the opportunity, and he will infallibly stamp with disapproval a great part of both the popular and the classical music of the later ages.[+]

[*]The “Phrygian mode” from which the “Ionic” was derived was still more demoralizing; it was counted “orgiastic,” and proper only in certain excited religious rhapsodies.

[+]We have extremely few Greek melodies preserved to us and these few are not attractive to the modern ear.  All that can fairly be said is that the Hellenes were obvious such esthetic, harmoniously minded people that it is impossible their music should have failed in nobility, beauty, and true melody.

60.  The Teaching of Gymnastics.—­The visits to the reading school and to the harp master have consumed a large part of the day; but towards afternoon the pedagogues will conduct their charges to the third of the schoolboys’ tyrants:  the gymnastic teacher.  Nor do his parents count this the least important of the three.  Must not their sons be as physically “beautiful” (to use the common phrase in Athens) as possible, and must they not some day, as good citizens, play their brave part in war?  The palestras (literally “wrestling grounds”) are near the outskirts of the city, where land is cheap and a good-sized open space can be secured.  Here the lads are given careful instruction under the constant eye of