The Sophists

Sophists Members of a group of itinerant educators in ancient Greece during the period from 470 to 370 BCE who emphasized rhetoric, public speaking, and other practical skills. Their approach contrasts with that of the speculative philosophers Plato and Aristotle. to Sparta’s military hero, the Athenian ideal was the well-rounded, liberally educated individual who was active in politics, military defense, and the general community.27 Contrasting Athens with its rival Sparta, the great orator Pericles (490–429 BCE) stated that the Athenians’ pursuit of literature, art, and philosophy did not weaken their courage but rather educated them as free individuals for life in a free city.

Unlike Sparta’s singular military training, Athenian boys might attend three types of schools: that of grammatist who taught reading and writing; that of citharist who taught music, literature, and poetry; and that of the paedotribe who taught physical education, gymnastics, and athletics. For higher studies, men could choose the courses offered by the Sophists, rhetoricians, or philosophers.

The Athenian males did not extend their concept of democratic equality to women who lived in seclusion and were restricted to gender-determined household management and child-rearing. They could not vote, could not attend the Assembly, and did not have property rights. If girls learned to read and write, it was at home, not in schools.

The life and career of the poet Sappho (630–572 BCE) sharply contrasted with the sequestered education of the Athenian women. An early proponent of women’s liberation, Sappho believed women should be educated for their own personal selfdevelopment rather than for their traditionally ascribed roles as future wives and mothers. She founded a women’s school in Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, where she taught young aristocratic women the cult rituals related to worship of Aphrodite, as well as cultural and decorative arts and skills, such as singing, dancing, playing the lyre, writing poetry, and etiquette.28

3-5d the sophists

In the fifth century BCE, new wealth brought to Athens by colonial expansion generated social and educational change. The rising commercial class wanted a new kind of education that would give them social status and prepare them to exercise political power. The Sophists, a traveling group of teachers, designed a new kind of education to meet the needs of the rising economic class.

According to the Sophists, those who could speak persuasively and effectively would acquire prestige and power. In Athens, with its democratic institutions, those skilled in public speaking, or oratory, could persuade the assembly and courts in their favor.29

27Mogens Herman Hansen, Polis: An Introduction to the Greek City State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 33–37. Also, see David A. Teegarden, Death to Tyrants! Ancient Greek Democracy and the Struggle against Tyranny (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014); Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B.C. (Sophron Imprint, 2013). 28For a biographical sketch of Sappho and a reading of “The Songs of Sappho,” see Madonna M. Murphy, The History and Philosophy of Education: Voices of Educational Pioneers (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2006), pp. 17–23. Also, see Jim Powell, The Poetry of Sappho (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 29For “The Sophists,” access www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/30_p1.html; also, see Robin Waterfield, The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

586 BCE babylonian Captivity

63 BCE Roman Conquest