The education of women was very like that of the men. While the girls were allowed to live at home, they were given a similar physical training in the hope that they would become the mothers of sturdy sons. Thus the Spartan education was shaped entirely with reference to the welfare of the state. Their educational system served well its purpose of creating strong warriors and devoted citizens, but it failed to make for the highest manhood. Sparta developed practically no art, literature, or philosophy, and produced little that tended to promote civilization. She has left to the world little but examples of heroism and foolhardiness alike. [Sidenote: Two types of schools: (1) the _palaestra_, furnishing physical training; (2) the _didascaleum_, furnishing music, reading, and writing.] [Sidenote: The _paedagogus_.] =Old Athenian Education: Its Aim and Early Training.=--For many centuries the Athenian education was not unlike the Spartan in promoting the welfare of the state without much consideration of individual interests. But even in early days Athens felt that the state was best served when the individual secured the most complete personal development. Hence, the Athenian boys began to receive at seven years of age two kinds of training,--(1) the _pentathlum_ and other physical exercises in the palaestra (Fig. 3) or exercising ground, and (2) singing and playing upon the flute or lyre, and reading and writing at the _didascaleum_ (Fig. 4.) or music school. After the boy had learned his letters by tracing them in the sand, he was taught to copy verses and selections from well-known authors, at first upon wax-tablets with a stylus, and later upon parchment with pen and ink. It was, moreover, necessary for the pupils in singing to be taught the rhythm and melody, and to understand the poem so as to bring out its meaning. Hence the explanations and interpretations given by the teachers brought in all the learning of the times, and the moral and intellectual value of the studies must have been much greater than would be suggested by the meagerness of the course. Some moral training and discipline were also given the boy by a slave called the _paedagogus_, who conducted him to school and carried his lyre and other appurtenances. This functionary was often advanced in years or incapacitated for other duties by physical disability. [Illustration: Fig. 3.--The _palaestra_.] [Illustration: Fig. 4.--The _didascaleum_.] (Reproduced from illustrations taken from old vases by Freeman in his _Schools of Hellas_.) [Sidenote: Advanced physical training in _gymnasia_, and ephebic course in military duties.]