At the festival of the Oschophoria, the telling of old fables and tales to children was part of the ritual.[267] The style characteristic of modern nursery tales was in vogue in classical times, as we learn from Aristophanes where the first words of a tale correspond to our well-known “Once upon a time.” οὕτω ποτ’ ἦν μῦς καὶ γαλῆ.[268] The Scholiast commenting on this line says: πρὸς τὴν συνήθειαν, ὅτι τὸν μῦθον προέταττον οὕτως, οἷον, ἦν οὕτω γέρων καὶ γραῦς. καὶ Πλάτων ἐν Φαίδρῳ (237 B) ἦν οὕτω δὴ παῖς μᾶλλον δὲ μειρακίσκος· τούτῳ δ’ ἦσαν ἐράσται πάνυ πολλοί. There is another instance in Lysistrata, where the semi-choruses, telling each other a little nursery tale begin: οὕτως ἦν πότε ...... οὕτω ........[269] The purpose of all these tales is training to virtue, and is well expressed by the Scholiast on Hermogenes, Progymnasmata, i.e.: τὸν μῦθον ἀξιοῦσι προσάγειν τοῖς νεοῖς ὅτι τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ῥυθμίζειν δύναται. We conclude that there was at Athens a store of popular tales for the amusement of children, many of which were attributed to Aesop whom Herodotus calls λογοποιός.[270] The word λογοποιός seems to indicate that a prose version of his fables may have circulated in Athens in the time of Socrates.[271] What is certain, however, is that these tales were very much enjoyed and that Socrates himself versified some of them.[272] The so-called Aesopic tales began “Aesop said.”[273] Other tales were classified as Libyan, Cyprian and Sybaritic, distinguishable by the opening words: “A man (or a woman) of Sybaris (or of Libya or of Cypris) said.”[274] A further distinction between the fables of Aesop and those of Sybaris is that the latter were political and about men; the former, ethical and about animals.[275] A Λιβυκὸς μῦθος is mentioned by Dion Chrysostom employed to calm children after they had been chastised.[276] LULLABIES Allied to the nursery tales are the lullabies of the nurses “aussi vieux que le monde et qui dureront autant que lui,”[277] which Athenaeus calls καταβαυκαλήσεις: αἱ δὲ τῶν τιτθενουσῶν ᾠδαὶ καταβαυκαλήσεις ὀνομάζονται.[278] They are also called βαυκαλήματα[279] from βαυκαλάω “to lull to sleep” onomatopoetically formed from the nurse’s song. Plato refers to them in the Laws where he says that when mothers and nurses are desirous to put their children to sleep, they do not bring them to a state of quiet, but on the contrary of motion, καὶ οὐ σιγήν, ἀλλά τινα μελῳδίαν.[280] The following passage from Aristotle seems to indicate that they were simple melodies without words, sung to a certain rhythm: διὰ τί ῥυθμῷ καὶ μέλει καὶ ὅλως ταῖς συμφωνίαις χαίρουσι πάντες; ἢ ὅτι ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν κινήσεσι χαίρομεν κατὰ φύσιν; σημεῖον δὲ τὸ τὰ παιδία εὐθὺς γεγόμενα χαίρειν αὐτοῖς.[281]