There was for example a school-master named Hippomachos, upon entering whose establishment boys were required to pay down a mina, after which they might remain as long and benefit by his instructions as much as they pleased. Didaskaloi were not however held in sufficient respect, though as their scholars were sometimes very numerous,[589] as many for example as a hundred and twenty, it must often have happened that they became wealthy. From the life of Homer, attributed to Herodotus,[590] we glean some few particulars respecting the condition of a schoolmaster in remoter ages. Footnote 589: Athen. xiii. 47. Footnote 590: Vit. Hom. §§ 5. seq. 25. seq. Phemios it is there related kept a school at Smyrna, where he taught boys their letters and all those other parts of education then comprehended under the term music. His slave Chritheis, the mother of the poet, spun and wove the wool which Phemios received in payment from his scholars. She likewise introduced into his house great elegance and frugality, which so pleased the school-master that it induced him to marry her. Under this man, according to the tradition received in Greece, Homer studied, and made so great a proficiency in knowledge that he was soon enabled to commence instructor himself. He therefore proceeded to Chios,[591] and opened a school where he initiated the youth in the beauties of epic poetry, and, performing his duties with great wisdom, obtained many admirers among the Chians, became wealthy, and took a wife, by whom he had two sons. Footnote 591: Speaking of the antiquities of this island Chandler remarks: “The most curious remain is that which has been named, without reason, _The School of Homer_. It is on the coast at some distance from the city, northward, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low rim or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity.” i. 61.