gymnasium

gymnasium
In Greek cities, the gymnasium originated as a place of exercise for the citizens specifically to fit the epheboi, ‘ephebes’, for the rigours of service as hoplites i.e. heavy-armed infantrymen. (Ephebes were

    (i) at 4th-cent. Athens, boys aged 18–20 in paramilitary training;

    (ii) more generally, well-to-do boys passing through a voluntary one-year finishing school.) At first gymnasia were no more than an open space, with a water supply, often sited in conjunction with a sanctuary or shrine; and late as the 5th cent. bc gymnasia seem not to have needed architectural development, shade and shelter being provided rather by groves of trees. Descriptions of the Athenian gymnasia, the Lyceum, Cynosarges, and above all the Academy conform with this (see Athens (topography)).



Frequented also by older citizens, and particularly from the connection with the 4th-cent. philosophers,...

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