year, like that of the day, and therefore the length of the night hours
is continually decreasing and increasing, a very complicated network of
lines was required; four vertical lines denoted the length of the hours
at the two solstices and the two equinoxes, so that the exact ratio was
given for these days. At other times they had to make shift with a more
or less exact calculation, assisted by horizontal curves, which
connected together the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth hours (Compare
the scheme represented in Fig. 93, which shows the network of lines
engraved on the glass vessel.) The longest and shortest days are here
set down according to the latitude of Athens, the former as 14 hours, 36
minutes, 56 seconds, the latter as 9 hours, 14 minutes, 16 seconds. The
improvement of Ctesibius consisted in adding a table with horizontal
hour-lines to the water-vessel, on which a metal wire, fastened to a
cork that swam on the water, marked the time by its position, which rose
according to the increase of the water. These clocks could, of course,
be used in the daytime, when the weather made the sun-dial useless, but
a different scale was required from that of the night clocks. Still, as
the difference between the longest night and the longest day, and the
shortest night and the shortest day, is very slight, the same scale
could really be used for day and night, but in reverse order as
indicated by Fig. 93.
[Illustration:FIG. 94.]
Let us now consider the manner in which an Athenian citizen usually
divided his time. We cannot, of course, name any definite hour for
rising, still it seems probable that early rising was the rule at
Athens, and that not only the artisans began their work directly after
sunrise, but that the schools, too, often opened early. The morning
toilet does not seem to have occupied much time. In washing, a slave
poured water over his master from an ewer over a basin, and some
substitute for soap, such as fuller’s earth or lye, was used; men who
lived very simple lives, like Socrates, probably performed their
ablutions at one of the public wells. Breakfast was a scanty meal, and
generally consisted of unmixed wine and bread. After that, artisans or
others who had a definite trade went to their daily occupations; but the
citizens who had no regular profession, unless attracted by some other
occupation, such as hunting, generally spent the morning hours visiting
their friends, practising gymnastics, or, supposing they put off these
occupations to a later hour, visiting the barber to have their hair
arranged or their beards cut or shaved. As we have already discussed the
question of hair-dressing (p. 65), we will here only give a picture of
some ancient bronze razors (Fig. 94), which are of semi-circular shape,
and differ essentially from our modern ones. The pretty terra-cotta
group
[Illustration: FIG. 95.]
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