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GYMNOPAEDIA.
chief remedies. As for the other more common exercises, they were daily practised, as is manifest from Celsus, Caelius Aurelianus, Theodoras Prisci-anus, and the rest of the Latin physicians. And we do not want instances of cures wrought by these means. Suetonius (Calig.. c. 3) tells us that Ger-manicus was cured of a " cruruni gracilitas," as he expresses it (by which he probably means anAtro-phy)i by riding ; and Plutarch, in his life of Cicero, gives us an account of his weakness, and that he recovered his health by travelling, and excessive diligence in rubbing and chafing his body. (Compare Cic. Brut. c. 91.) Pliny (H. N. xxxi. 33) tells us Annaeus Gailio, who had been consul, was cured of a consumption by a seavo}rage ; and Galen giv s us such accounts of the good effects of particular exercises, and they were practised so universally by all classes, that it cannot be supposed but they must have been able to produce great and good
-effects. However, from an attentive perusal of
-what we find on this subject in the classical authors, the reader can hardly fall of being convinced that the ancients esteemed gymnastics too highly, just as the moderns too much neglect them ; and that in this, as in many other matters, both in medicine and philosophy, truth lies between the
-two extremes. [W. A. G.]
GYMNASTES. [gymnasium, p. 581, b.]
GYMNESII or GYMNE’TES (yv^ffioi, or 7t>/ui//)Tes), were a class of bond-slaves at Argos, who may be compared with the Plelots at Sparta. (•Steph. Byz. s. v. Xios: Pollux, iii. 83.) Their name shows that they attended their masters on military service in the capacity of. light-armed troops. Muller (Dor. iii. 4. § 2) remarks that it is to these gymnesii that the account of Herodotus (vi. 83) refers, that 6000 of the citizens of Argos having been slain in battle by Cleomenes, king of Sparta (Id. vii. 148), the slaves got the govern ment into their own hands, and retained possession of it until the sons of those who had fallen had grown to manhood. Afterwards, when the young citizens had grown up, the slaves were compelled by them to retire to Tiryns, and then after a long- war, as it appears, were either driven from the territory, or again subdued.
GYMNOPAEDIA (yvp.voTrcuUa the festival of " naked youths," was celebrated at Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Pythaeus, Artemis, and Leto. The statues of these deities stood in a part of the Agora called xopos, and it was around these statues that, at the gymnopaedia, Spartan youths performed their choruses and dances in honour of Apollo. (Pans. iii. 11. § 7.) The festival lasted for several, perhaps for ten, days, and on the last day men also performed choruses and dances in the theatre ; and during these gymnastic exhibitions they sang the .songs of Thaletas and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotus. The leader of the chorus (Trpotrrar^s or x°P07r°LOS) wore a kind of chaplet, called crrefyavoi frvpeariKoi., in commemoration of the victory of the Spartans at Thyrea. This event seems to have been closely connected with the gymnopaedia, for those Spartans who had fallen on that, occasion were always praised in songs at this festival. (Athen. xv. p. 678 ; Plut. AgesU. 29 ; Xen. Helten. vi. 4. § 16 • Hesych. Suid. Etyrn. Mag. and Timaeus, Glossar. s. v. rUytwoTrcuSta.) The boys in their dances performed such rhythmical movements as resembled exercises of the palaestra and the pancration,
GY’NAECONOMI.
and also imitated the wild gestures of the .worship of Dionysus. (Athen. xiv. p. 631.) Muller (Hitf.ofGr. Lit. vol. i. p. 161) supposes, with great probability, that the dances of the .gymnopaedia partly consist ed of mimic representations, as the establishment of the dances and musical entertainments at this festival was ascribed to the musicians-, at the h ad of whom was Thaletas. (Pint, de Mus. c. 9.) The whole season of the gymnopaedia, during which Sparta was visited by great numbers of strangers, was one cf great merriment and rejoicings (Xen. Memor. i. 2. .§ 61 ; Plut. Agesil. 29 ; Pollux, iv. 14. 104), and old bachelors alone seem to have been excluded from the festivities. (Qsann, de Coelilmm apud Veteres Popu/os Condiiione Com- mental, p. 7, &c.) The introduction of the gymno paedia, which subsequent! }r became of such import ance as an institution for gymnastic and orchestic performances, and for the cultivation of the poetic and musical arts at Sparta, is general^ assigned to the year 665 b. c. (Compare Meursius, Orchestra^ p. 12, &c. ; Creuzer, Commented. Herod, i. p 230; Muller, Dor. vol. ii. p. 350, &c.) [L. S.]
GYNAECONFTIS. [domus, pp. 423— 425.1
GYNAECONOMI or GYNAECOCOSMI (yvvauiovoiJioi or ywcu/co/cocr/.toi), were magistrates at Athens, who superintended the conduct of Athenian women. (Pollux, viii. 112.) We know little of the duties of these officers, and even the time when they were instituted is not quite certain. Bockh (de PhilocJi. p. 24) has endeavoured to show that the}’- did not exist until the time of Demetrius Phalereus, whereas, according to others, they were instituted by Solon, whose regulations concerning the female sex certainly rendered some special officers necessary for their maintenance. (Plut. Sol. 21 ; comp. Thirl wall, Hist, of Greece, vol. ii. p. 51.) Their name is also mentioned by Aristotle (Pol. iv. 12. p. 144, and vi. 5. p. 214. ed. Gottling) as something which he supposes to be well known to his readers. These circumstances induce us to think that the yvvaiKoi>6!a,ot9 as the superintendents of the conduct of women, existed ever since the time of Solon, but that their power was afterwards extended in such a manner that they became a kind of police for the purpose of preventing any excesses or indecencies, whether committed by men or by women. (See the Fragm. of Timocles and Menander, ap. Athen. vi. p. 245, where a Kawbs vo^os is mentioned as the source from which they derived their increased power ; compare Plut. Sol. 21. in fin.} In their first and original capacity, therefore, they had to see that the regulations concerning the conduct of Athenian women were observed, and to punish any transgressions of them (Harpocrat. s. •y/’OrtxiA.ms : Hesych. s. v. TlAaravos} ; in the latter capacity they seem to have acted as ministers of the areo-pagus, and as such had to take ca.re that decency and moderation were observed in private as well as in public. Hence they superintended even the meetings of friends in their private houses, e. g. at weddings, and on other festive occasions. (Philoch. ap. Athen, vi. p. 245.) Meetings of this kind were not allowed to consist of more than thirty persons, and the yvj/aiicovd/noi had the right to enter any house and send away all the guests above that number ; and that they might be able, previous to entering a house, to form an estimate of the number of persons assembled in it, the cooks who were
